On April 1st there was an item at the
end of the news wherein a man was interviewed who planned on farming kiwis for
food. The next day it was declared an
April Fool's item! I remember years ago
an announcement on the news on April 1st that clocks were going metric. A young Mark groaned when he heard it! Although it was not on the first of the
month, Ray almost got made an April
fool. A policewoman beckoned him to stop
as we turned down Arapuni Street. He was
not wearing his seat belt. Ray hates wearing a seat belt. On the other hand I never feel even remotely
secure in the car without one. Ray
explained it was because he was only driving from the top of the street to the
bottom. It sounded a bit feeble, but she
must have liked him, because she let him off with a warning. $150 saved!
The first Saturday in April we got up early and went to the first
session at the temple. That is, I went
to the first session. I had an
appointment to meet Marion at 11am. Vernice arranged it, so that I could give
Marion a ring to give Vernice as a surprise gift for Nathan. Having come out of
the temple, that was where I waited, meanwhile Marion was waiting for me down
by the Visitors Centre. Vernice had not
specified to me where we should meet. Marion
was over for her friend's temple wedding.
Marion looked
stunning. While waiting for Marion I saw
Dave and Jill Hayward, who had returned from their mission the previous
afternoon.
One
evening we went to the Silva house for a cottage evening. The Bishopric had
planned these meetings to try to get the uninvolved church membership in
Putaruru interested. The meetings were to be held weekly for a month, then if
they were successful, a Sunday meeting would be tried, with the hope of
eventually setting up a dependant branch in Putaruru. Keith phoned Ray to invite him. From Tokoroa
came whole Bishopric, the four missionaries, and a Sister Rikihana, newly moved
to Tokoroa. They were there to support
the local attendees. The local attendees consisted of three young girls, one
just a child, Ray and me. I do not think
we will be getting a Branch any time soon.
The Elders taught the lesson, a presentation on the Atonement. Elder Williams' part was to do five push-ups
each time a lolly was offered to one of the group. His efforts represented the Atonement. Accept or refuse the lolly, he still did the
push-ups. When the other Elder, who was so ably giving the presentation, was about
the start a third round of lollies, all begged him to stop and spare poor Elder
Williams! I was impressed with the
presentation. One of the young girls,
named Angel, one of the next generation of the long-since inactive Whare family
sang How Great Thou Art
in Maori. She can sing! She could not have been more than twelve
years old, though she was large enough to be older. Ann provided a generous supper.
I did not partake, I really did not feel entitled.
Instead of going to Tokoroa to watch General Conference, I watched
it at home. While watching and listening
I was stripping dried lavender flowers from the stalks, and sewing little
sachets to put them in. I called this my
'Lavender Conference' and pleasant it was.
I thought most of the the talks were better than usual. Perhaps it was the influence of lavender on my
brain!
One day we went to Cambridge and had a different kind of
'adventure'. Ray got talking to a man
walking his dog. I wandered off to enjoy
the chrysanthemum garden. Ray beckoned
me over. The man, Mr Wrigley, had
invited us to his house, which he intends putting on the market in a couple
years when his wife retires. Ray had
inadvertently led Mr Wrigley to think we were actually thinking of buying a
house in Cambridge. So we got to see the
$700,000 house, inside and out. A very
nice house, two storey, with a completely private enclosed back garden, but we
did not covet.
Another day we both had a walk in Barnett's Bush. Often Ray stays in the car and lets me
wander. This time Ray kept up with no
complaint. We walked for an hour. As we crossed the open area back to the car, Ray stopped to talk to
some people at the big picnic table. I
should have gone for another hour's walk!
Not anticipating how long Ray would be talking, I returned to the car,
where I ate two muesli bars and read many poems by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Ray had picked up the beautifully bound
little book in the 'free box' outside an Op Shop. It has a soft green leather
cover with gold lettering. It is over
100 years old, so it is faded and a bit weary-looking. It is small enough to keep in our
much-too-small glove compartment for just such occasion as this. Some of the
poems are good. After an hour and a half
I was fed up, both with Ella and with Ray.
I went over to tell him I was going to start walking home. Which I did.
I hoped to get half an hour's walk out of it, but got barely 10
minutes. Ray was glad enough of an
excuse to leave his new Jehovah's Witness acquaintances!
At the end of the amazing frost-free month of April, we set about
to 'anti-frost' the garden. We made
covers for frost-tender plants from slabs of left-over underfloor insulating,
and I brought in all the capsicum, tomatoes etc. that were left, and picked the
rest of the pathetic grape harvest. Even
though the grapes had not had enough sun to ripen properly, growing as they
were in the shade. they still made a great drink. I extract the juice and mix it with ginger
ale. I even had enough to bottle some
juice for future occasions.
Mention
should perhaps be made here of the death on April 21st of Jonathan Ellis, son of
Laurie's brother David. Jonathan had for
a few years suffered from depression. He
was only seventeen. Our thoughts were much with the Ellis family at this time.
Periodically I get an urge to clean up a bit in the garage. I found old notebooks of mine, from when I
was reading to take a degree in Philosophy.
I brought them in to look through before throwing them out, curious as
to whether I would remember anything – or even understand anything. I came across a quote I found most apt:
“The learning of many things teacheth
not understanding.”!
On that note, I close my
contribution for April!
Love to all, Nan
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