Oops

Um - well, that's not good, is it - over 3 months since the last post. Yes. Well. I must do something about that. But not tonight, Josephine. Tiz time for bed!

MDF CROSSES

4 MDF crosses made for a fund-raising art exhibition. The orange one is my least favourite, the blue one with the leaf shapes the most favourite. All sold.

Driftwood Cross

How about this - beautiful! Debbi and I made this in about an hour for the Inspire Art Exhibition. Pieces of driftwood glued to timber, sprinkled with yellow sand from Golden Bay, and found bits and pieces of jewellery, beads, shells and pretties.

Of course, it would be nice if I could manage to take a photo that's in focus, lol.

We bought 3 paintings at the exhibition. When we receive them, I'll put them up.

Tooth Extraction is NOT fun!

It's been a long week - last Sunday I had a rear bottom molar removed. I'd had a late lunch of Crumpets and Boysenberry jam on Saturday, and bit down on a seed. The rear half of the tooth sheared off, and was left flapping. Every time it closed back up against the tooth, it touched the nerve - argh.

It took the dentist 45 minutes to remove two roots, and left the back of my mouth looking like mincemeat. Unfortunately the pain didn't diminish, and I managed to get an appointment with another dentist yesterday morning. I had tried to phone the original, emergency dental clinic, on Sunday, but they were closed!

Smile dental removed a fish-hook shaped piece of root - both ends had been poking into the soft tissue, aggravated by jaw movements. Two lots of antibiotics, pro-biotics, painkillers. Blasted tooth has cost nearly $400.

It still hurts like nobody's business, but hopefully, this time it's healing. The pain has been so bad, even a sleeping tablet hasn't been able to keep me asleep at night. I slept thru till 1100 this morning, which helped.

Becca and I picked up my girlfriend's daughter (Emily), and we went and played a round of black-light mini-golf - lots of fun, had lunch at the Mall Foodcourt, then returned Emily. Home to bed for me, and another 2 hours sleep.

For the first time in 8 days, I was able to eat without experiencing excruiciating pain - hooray!

SPRING IS SPRUNG!!!

My garden says it's official - Tuesday 21 September - Spring Equinox!

The first California Poppy has blossomed in my garden, along with some Freesia's which have been showing their pretty faces for the last two weeks. Tho we've had a spectacular week of southerly rain and wind, and the lawn feels like walking on a sodden sponge, the garden is starting to blossom.

Strawberry and tomato plants have gone into a special tall strawberry planter, but not into the actual boggy garden.

At 1830, the temperature is heading down to 10 deg, after another day of squally winds and showers.

It would be nice to think that the weather is going to improve soon, and I can do more than look at the garden.

A LARGE HOT MOCCACINO CURES MANY ILLS

Well, at least feeling tired and buggy and horrid. Of course, blowing my nose for the first time in a couple of hours helped too. I've been out in the warehouse at work for the last 3 hours shifting boxes off pallets and either onto the steel, or back onto pallets. It's too warm to wear a vest, but not quite warm enough not to. There's lots of dust, one of the guys stands in the roller door space and smokes, and my sinuses are dribbling.

I stayed home on Monday with this latest headcold (#3 since the flu I think), went home early and slept 2 hours yesterday, but I've worked a full day today. It's pathetic, but I actually drove the couple of hundred metres up to the coffee shop to get the mocca and a brioche.

The edict to handle every box, combined with the headcold, and a strained sacro-iliac joint means I'm not feeling an entirely happy pixie at the moment.

So ... happy things?

Um - the sky is blue, it's warm, the birds are singing (and randy). It's not that far to home time. It's JAM tonight - if I can stay awake. David is attending a Stress Management seminar. Becca is at Findlay Camp at Lake Karapiro (is this a happy thing????!!!) The mocca's really good!

A WEED IS A PLANT IN THE WRONG PLACE ...

I've always maintained that a weed is really just a plant that's in the wrong place (unless, of course, it has prickles, like Gorse or thistles).

So when I finally went to use the bathroom about 2 hours after I got home, and found a bunch (well, 3 stems) of beautiful blue flag iris and some pinky/apricot tulip blossoms in the vanity sink, my second reaction was "oooh, pretty weeds!" The first reaction was, "oops, darn, should have checked earlier!"

I went down to the other end of the house to find David in his study; "Pretty weeds." says I.

I must admit, the flag iris's are my favourite - I love the beautiful blue, with cream inside, and that they last for at least a week.

On the other hand, the 'real' weeds in my garden are running riot. It's been relatively warm (not less than about 12 deg) for the last couple of weeks, and a reasonable amount of sunshine, and LOTS of rain. There's a pretty purple flowered weed, and forgetmenots, california poppy, nasturtium's, fireweed and who knows what else. Every time I think about going outside to have a look, it rains again.

We did manage to weed the front flower beds a couple of weeks ago (they're only about 500cm wide and about 4 metres long - already there's 'weeds' poking their heads back out, but the begonias and stuff look very pretty.

I have two blueberry plants crying out to be planted, they have little pink buds on them! AWWWWWWW.

The massive 7.1 earthquake in Christchurch last Saturday, and then the continuing aftershocks haven't affected us. My son Alex lives in the Christchurch suburb of Riccarton, which sounds pretty safe. He was writing an assignment when the quake hit at 0434 in the morning - grabbed his monitor and computer and hung on for dear life. Only damage was a mirror. It sounds like the area that he lives is fairly stable, but the aftershocks are starting to affect his area too. There’s been more than 300, up to 5.4. An incredible amount of destruction, but no lives lost. I’m hoping he’s got involved with a student group that’s helping clean up the city, rather than the other bunch who are skateboarding the broken roads.

Makes me wonder when it will be Auckland's turn - but we'll be toast, not shaken and stirred. The city is built on a volcanic field, with more than 52 dormant and extinct volcanoes - the last to blow was only 600 years ago.

It seems to have been a really long month. Recurring stress-related migraines, lower back pain (now I've strained my sacro-iliac joint), hayfever, and not enough exercise. Serious blah-humbugs. I'm going to rejoin the gym, having quit a couple of months ago to try and save more money. I've tried 2 Zumba classes, but I really don't like latin American music, or the dance moves.

Church is good – a lifesaver really – or maybe a soul and sanity saver? It’s become a very important part of my life. I really enjoy the weekly Bible study too, JaM. It's interesting finding out the deeper meanings and background to the text, and the conversations afterwards are always stimulating.

It’s interesting to have confirmed the huge effect music has on my life/emotions/happiness. Now I listen almost exclusively to Christian worship music (the likes of Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Newsboys, Mark Harris, Kutless) – Christian Rock, I guess you would call it. There are some songs that make me just stop what I’m doing, close my eyes, and worship the Lord. Todd Agnew’s ‘Grace Like Rain’, Malcolm Gordon ‘Haere Mai’, Hillsong’s ‘Here I am to worship’. College helps too – having a community, a family, a group of people that really cares, that I can talk to. I had to stop doing Sunday School/Kidzchurch - I found it too isolating. Once I’d cleaned up the schoolroom, I’d get back into the hall to find everybody leaving, having missed the lesson, communion etc. So now I’m on hospitality – almost every Sunday, sigh – helping set everything up, serving cake/snacks after the service, and then cleaning up. So, depending on my mood, I can hide in the kitchen, or go out and talk to people.

I’ve been to a couple of women’s conferences, and on Friday night we have a ‘women’s night’ of massage, painting and chatting. Could be fun.