Rosemary's Ramblings

October in Putaruru was a month of beautiful blossoms and lovely sunshine. I enjoyed it greatly.

One day there was an Open Home at the Rangiura rest home complex up the road. We went to have a look. Ray was quite taken with the house we saw, and its situation in a quiet little cul-de-sac. Not that we could afford to live there. If there was an LDS chapel here, Putaruru would not be a bad place to live out our days. It's taken me 30 years to come to that conclusion!

Chris visited us one Sunday, probably his last visit, as his job in Auckland is finished. He may now really have to retire, at 72.

As the window men were coming this month, I spent some time getting the windows ready. By this I mean dismantling the definitely 'home made' insulation I had put on the bathroom and toilet windows. Ray had to paint some of the frames, as I took off a little paint with my insulation. Then I gave those long-hidden windows a master clean. They needed it. I could not believe how dirty they had got. The day before the men came I started washing all the curtains, carefully at first, then with confidence. All went well until I came to the last of the velvet curtains, the ones in the living room. The lining was so near perished that it disintegrated in the washing machine and the brown velvet was covered with white thread and a fine white dust, presumably from the thermal treatment the lining had once had. It took hours to get them looking normal again. Minus the lining, which I cut off before giving the curtains a second wash.

We had one of our 'senior moments' when it came to putting the curtains back. It's all right to have 'senior moments' one at a time, but when we have them together – well, it was a laugh really. We could not find the curtain rods for the dining room, which was where I was about to begin the job. We searched the house, the garage, the old shed, wondering where in the world we had put the rods. Then Ray noticed that in the living room the rod was still in place. So it occurred to me that perhaps we had not taken the dining room rods down either. Sure enough, we had not!

I spent some time preparing my vegetable garden for planting. Meanwhile we are still eating last year's vegetables, some from the ground. I found the most enormous parsnip amongst the weeds. It was so big I could not get both hands around it at the top. I thought it would be woody and inedible, but it was just fine except for the core. By the end of the month I had this season's peas, beans and corn and potato plants beginning to grow.

We went on a general 'invitation' walk along part of a new section of the Waikato River Trail. Local dignitaries were present. Almost all those who took up the invitation were grey-haired. We did not do the whole walk, as we were not allowed to cross a bridge under construction, for political-safety reasons. It was a pleasant walk, but not as beautiful some of the other parts of the river trail.

Above is a photo of part of the new trail near Arapuni village. We had often admired that stand of trees, but beneath them used to be a jungle of undergrowth. The general manager of the Waikato River Trails, Glyn Wooller, is in the picture. [Or perhaps not, Ray is having trouble entering the photo!]

On the fourth Sunday at church we were shown the DVD about the new family search. I had not been able to get into the program recently, though I registered a long time ago. I found out the reason why I had not been able to do this, and that evening proceeded to work through the process. Then I found I had got on to LDS Forum by mistake, and did not know how to unsubscribe! (As I did not answer their email asking me to confirm membership, perhaps I am not on it anyway.) I finally got on to the new family search, only to be told our PC does not have an adequate screen from for program. So much for that. I tried!

I enjoy hearing about our missionaries, thanks to Nicola and Vernice for sending on their letters. It is much appreciated. I received a written letter from Dylan, who said it was the first one he had ever written, and he was finding the writing of it hard! I have received a couple of lovely letters from Ellen. I still find it amazing that they are actually on their missions. I am happy that William is doing well in Wairoa. He was transferred there because it was a quiet place. Now it is on the news because of gang shootings! William has been able to see his mission field from top to bottom.

That's it for the Rambler for October. Nan.