Eleven O'clock and All's Quiet

The dishwasher is quietly (well, rather noisily actually but it doesn't create the right ambience for the post) purring away in the background as I listen to Elgar's Sea Pictures (Just for a change I'm listening to Della Jones instead of the definitive Dame Janet Baker recording from, I think, 1965 or was it 1968?  It was a long time ago anyway.) and take stock of the week that's just passed.  One way and another the 44 days 19 hours and 50 mins that have gone by since I landed in Napier have been some of the busiest at a stretch in this country that I can recall since the first time I came here in 2005.  And the last week has seen the busiest of those 44 days.  It's been  wonderful but I'm now looking forward to a quiet week in the run up to the Christmas weekend.

Today I woke with a start rather late at 0722.  Within a few seconds I was up and the kettle was on.  I was due out at 8am with Wendy and Martin to the Farmers Market in Hastings.  The odd thing about getting up so rapidly was that I had absolutely no recollection whatsoever of the dream that I'd woken from except to know that it was deeply unpleasant.  Perhaps that's why in the past I remembered so very few dreams because at one time I always rose within a few seconds of waking.  Now I often turn over and doze for a while.

The weather for the Farmers Market was cold but the rain had stopped for which we were truly thankful.  Unfortunately a combination of time spent actually looking and buying and the miserable weather meant that I took only a handful of photos.

Superb smoked fish - that's a couple of meals catered for.

A huge selection of artisan breads.  I didn't need bread today.

There's nothing better than carrots with their tops on and organic carrots are one of the few organic foods where I can taste a difference.

Note the wheelbarrow on the extreme left of the picture.  The clever ones were shopping with a wheelbarrow.  We had to make four trips back to the car.

All in all it was a successful morning and I think it may well be the start of a trend.  What I had not realised, because I'm never in Napier on a Saturday morning 'cos I play croquet then, is that there is a Farmers Market in the centre of Napier on a Saturday morning.

We got home around midday and I set about preparing a buffet for friends from Napier who had visited me in Scotland last year and The Family - a total of 12 to be fed. 

After a really wonderful, relaxed evening catching up everyone left and I'm now writing this and musing on how lucky I am.  Not only have I had a fabulous day, week and month but, given my propensity to over-cater I will probably have nothing to cook for the next four days anyway.

So now it's time for an early night - I should make bed before 1230!   Life's pretty good.