WWQP Bulletin Board Chat

Back on line...

I feel as if I've been out of touch forever ! We had a "blast from the south" last w/end which brought freezing temperatures and a huge dump of snow ! All very exciting for about five minutes but the novelty soon wore off ! It coincided with the return of our DD and her family from their skiing holiday down south. We had returned earlier in the week. We were all fortunate to have good driving conditions for the 8hr drive. That all changed on Saturday. Roads and mountains passes were closed and nobody in their right mind, left home.

DSIL left on Sunday morning and was lucky to get away. The rest of the family left on Wednesday. Monday and Tuesday were largely spent indoors, the children mostly plugged into electronic devices of one sort or another. ... We have never had this much snow here before. It looked very pretty but, despite our best attempts, several of our trees and shrubs have been damaged and the spouting on the garage was close to falling. DH fixed that yesterday. The spouting around the house was not a worry, we have it covered with a special netting, years ago, to prevent it filling with leaves etc...

The visit went very well , the family had good skiing down south and also did all the "extreme" and "adventure" activities, Bungee jumping, jet boating etc . All very expensive but this was the trip of a life time and they made the most of it. They all seem very settled here. We enjoyed our time with them all. It proved helpful that we had spent Christmas with them in HK. and have visited their schools in UK.. They loved looking at old videos of themselves. When they were pre-schoolers they lived in Australia for a few years, and we visited often.

The house is very quiet now that they have gone. I cleared the bd/rms yesterday, washed and ironed the pillow cases, today it's the turn of the towels ! I will leave the sheets until we get a good drying day. The winter wood has served us well but we may well have to restock before the end of winter, after this last week ! The pantry is still over flowing with food which neither DH or I will use. A good week for the Food Bank.

Yesterday it was announced that one out of every five homes, in our neighbouring small town , is on land that can no longer be regarded as "viable for rebuilding" There will be a lot of sad people there. The government will buy the properties at the last valuation. (2008) The problem is, where will these people go ? They all want to remain in the area , having family and friends and a lifetime of memories etc. There is pressure on land around here as Christchurch quake victims are also keen to move north too.. All this and the snow, must make for very difficult times for families affected.

So, that's me for now ! We were without the Internet for the days , I did miss you all !

Marion

posted by Marion in NZ. @ 5:11 PM