The First BBQ of The Season

It's been late coming this year when many Kiwis will have been BBQing for several months (and that's not counting those who BBQ all year around) but this evening Martin cooked a BBQ.  It's been a fabulous day - I played two croquet matches: one this morning and one this afternoon.  After we'd eaten The Family and Misty went for a walk.  I came as far as The Cottage and then retired to watch an episode of Midsomer Murders and have a wee brandy.  Tomorrow is another day and I know it will be busy with a trip to the farmers market and then visitors in the late afternoon.

Today is the longest day.  Although at the solstice the sun actually stands still for a moment in astrological time before reversing to all intents and purposes our days will get shorter from now on (scary thought in that I've only been back here a short time) and if you are living in the Northern hemisphere your days will be getting longer.

Sunday Just Happened and I Nearly Missed It

That's not to say that I blinked and it was over it's just that it happened so quickly; dans un instant; im Augenblick; in het knipoogje van een oog.  I apologise but I know no Swedish.  

This morning I went to watch the finals of the Golf Croquet Silver Badges at Te Mata.  Our people, by that I mean members of the Marewa Croquet Club took the primary and middle grades but, unfortunately, as always our representative in the Championship grade was beaten by Te Mata's indestructable Tony Stephens - one of NZ's top players who has been at the top of his game for the last 50 years!  Says it all really.

I returned home and decided this afternoon to write my Christmas cards.  Having Christmas in the middle of the summer is hopeless for getting motivated.  Christmas does not come in the hot weather!  So I did some Christmas cards which will be posted in the morning but which stand little chance of arriving before Christmas.  I think that  for the remainder I will have to adopt a more imaginative approach.  That'll buy me a few more days.

Later in the afternoon I popped up to The House to see what was happening in their world.  A visit by friends and a BBQ just being cooked was a good excuse for a glass of wine.  Three exceptionally pleasant hours later I found myself back at The Cottage in time for the end of a programme on The River Nile with Joanna Lumley (sigh) and then a programme on how Coronation Street came into being.  

Now it's time for bed.

Christmas Dinner

Nothing UK traditional about the Christmas Dinner here.  The new BBQ was pressed into service and we had lovely steak, corn on the cob cooked in its leaves (corn is just coming into season here), asparagus (just on its way out of season), mushrooms and onions and salad (not done on the BBQ!).  Yumcious and no feeling of bloated fullness afterwards.  Although later after the coffee and cheesecake....

A Man and His BBQ

In New Zealand a man is judged by the size of his BBQ rather than by the size of , well, anything else really.  Martin now has a really big BBQ.  Wea ssembled it on Christmas Day morning on the deck of The Cottage at 32 deg in the shade.  How great was that?