Busy busy busy...

I can't believe it has been over 3 weeks since my last post, the weeks are just flying by...Wellington has been buzzing lately with the International Arts Festival, & a couple of weekends ago I went to see 'Transport Exceptionale' which was one of the free shows. It features a Frenchman who does a 20 minute dance interacting with a digger, & it was absolutely brilliant. I've never seen a digger get a round of applause just by driving out of the tent at the beginning!

Last week dad had a Friday meeting in Wellington so he stayed Friday & Saturday night with us. It was lovely having him to stay. It was the first time he had visited our new house, & he liked what he saw. Will & I have an arrangement where I do most of the cooking, & he does most of the cleaning up. Dad is bit of a gun cleaner-upper as well, so Will thought it was fantastic as he hardly had to do anything all weekend!

Last weekend was an absolute cracker weather-wise. Unfortunately I had to spend most of it inside marking internal assessments! Will managed to get out in the garden & has done a great job trimming back some of our hedges. He also made a couple of wooden frames to frame a couple of our pictures we bought in Africa last year. It is very nice having a husband who can do lots of useful stuff!

Speaking of gardens, our 'Cleopatra' magnolia which we planted a few weeks ago now has its first bud. It is a stunning colour. Below you can see it in various stages of openness...

The bud is very lucky to still be there, as yesterday it survived a mini-tornado which blew in at around half-4 in the afternoon. It really was a freak storm, the sky turned an ominous shade of grey & the temperature dropped 10 degrees almost instantaneously. It started absolutely tipping it down, & then the wind followed the rain. The only damage to the magnolia was a bit of brown blemishing from the rain which you can see in the bottom photo.

Today was another fantastic day & Will & I spent it at the cricket. NZ were taking on the Aussies in the 5th & final one day international. There was nothing at stake except pride as Aussie were already leading the series 3-1. Never-the-less it was a very exciting game with NZ taking out the victory. Will left me part-way through to meet Brendon & Keryn at the town hall. They had tickets to hear Neil Gaimen speak as part of the Arts Festival 'Readers & Writers Week'. He did a couple of readings & took questions from the audience & Will was very impressed by him. He got back to the cricket in time for the last couple of hours of play.