I hope you all had a safe and blessed Easter and that you didn't over indulge on the chocolate and hot-cross buns. I enjoyed a couple of hot cross buns but there wasn't a single Easter egg to be seen at my place - not sure if I feel deprived or not.  'They' (yip them again) do say chocolate is a fruit so if that's the case it's got to be good for you and therefore should count towards your 5+ a day, or if the researches from Britain are to be believed your 10+ a day.  Hmmmm I feel like chocolate now!!!!

The last 2 weeks have been busy and yet when I look back I'm not exactly sure what with!!

I did give the lawns a haircut, not that it really needed it except to get rid of all the long yellow dandelion flowers. First though I had to collect up all the leaves - my little wheelie bin was full, but I did decide it really was a thankless task as the next day there were more. I must say I am most grateful to the storm that hit us last week Thursday as my front lawn was pretty quickly leaf free and they are now all collected (in a pile even) at the end of my carport - and I didn't have to lift a finger to make it happen.  

We sure did take a hammering last week Thursday - fortunately I didn't sustain to much damage.  Some of the trees look like they've been turned inside out due to the gale force wind but they will eventually bounce back.  A sheet of metal from my front fence came loose and I was very grateful to the neighbour for  rescuing it and storing it somewhere safe away from the wind.  My shade sails also worked themselves loose and I had to brave the wind and of course just at that exact moment the driving rain to get them down before one of the D-rings smashed a window by being flicked about by the wind.  The power was also out for a few hours but came on just in time for dinnertime.

When I look out my lounge window in the distance there is a huge Norfolk Pine tree, that thing was sure bending with the wind and even now it is on a slight lean.  We need a Westerlie to straighten it up again.  The prevailing wind for the Horowhenua is Westerlie so when we get a gale force Easterlie it does quite a bit of damage.  Quite a few fences, sheds and trees came down in the area. The next morning all you could hear was the sound of chainsaws as the clean-up began.  I hope everyone else survived blast of the storm without too much damage.

I take my hat off to the emergency people and the linesmen as they must have been flat out all day if the number of times the siren going off was any indication.

Isn't Autumn a beautiful time of the year??  I love the colours of the leaves on the trees at this time of year - the big tree in my front yard looks like it's on fire with it's red, yellow and orange leaves, so pretty.  Shame that we can't have the beauty of Autumn with the temperature of Summer.  I could do Summer all year round really. These cooler days are not so nice (more clothing layers!) and it means that winter is creeping closer and closer. Dark mornings and dark early at night is also creeping up, along with grey miserable days (maybe). :0(  In case you hadn't guessed yet I'm a sunshine person - love, love the sun!!  I recently did this test thing that is going round on Facebook called 'What flower are you?' and I'm a Sunflower - so there you go, now wonder I love the sun!

Noah came to stay for 3 days/nights last week - his Mama and Papa had some very early starts in the bakery for Easter so Noah came and hung out at Oma's place.  We had a great time and I really enjoyed having him, even if I got very little done.  I did make the most of his nap times to get the odd thing

done and he slept really well at night which meant I did too.  He loves climbing up and down the stairs, he has it all worked out and does it the right way - by the end he was sliding down them.  The cat flap was a great toy and then he discovered the dog door!!!!!  I'm just pleased it hadn't crossed his mind that he would actually be able to fit through it - he just liked putting his hand outside. Hmm note to self - check if he posted any toys out there!!  Noah chatters all the time and although he doesn't really say in words he does copy the sounds you make.  Needless to say taking Noah into Church on Good Friday didn't quite work out as I'd hoped.  I had kept him awake in the hope he'd sleep in Church but no that was definitely not his plan.  He did some singing and then decided it was much more fun to put his fingers in Oma's mouth to stop her from singing.  During the sermon he decided that if the man up the front could talk than so could Noah - he has no concept yet of being quiet.  For the sake of all present I took him out in the hope that a walk might put him to sleep, but that didn't work either.  He did however fall asleep within minutes of being in his car seat for the trip home.

On Saturday afternoon Aimee and Richard came to collect him and I admit I was a bit sad to see him go.  Noah had filled the 'hole' for a few days and when he left I felt a little bit empty. Thankfully the feeling didn't last too long - the therapy was probably putting my lounge back to order by tidying away all the toys and books that were scattered around.  The saying goes - it's nice when they come and it's nice when they go, even if it is just a wee bit sad to see them go.

My sewing machine has been busily working this last week as I received an order for 6 couch cushion covers.  Today I finished them by sewing on the button (30 in total) and tomorrow they will get sent to their new home.  I must say they look awesome.

Work is going really well and I am getting back into the swing of it.  I have applied for another part time position as an office administrator/receptionist.  Yesterday I was asked to come in for a 'chat' so that is sounding promising.  I'll keep you posted.

I am now at home after a pretty hairy trip from Palmy - I've never driven through a thunder storm before.  It was pouring with rain, there was almost as much water on the road as there was coming out of the sky.  To add to the 'party' there was flashes of lightening - like someone was flashing a camera.  Very distracting.  I got to Levin to find what looked like piles of snow (hail actually) on the side of the road and in the paddocks and heaps of flooding.  At home I found that I had water in my garage - a first in all the years I've lived in this house and a very upset dog.  The water in the garage isn't too bad - the rubber mat is pretty wet, but will dry out and some boxes with electrical 'stuff' were wet so I moved the stuff into new boxes and binned the wet ones.  I swept  as much of the water out of the garage as I could - I now have a wet but clean garage floor.  Every cloud.............!!  It sounds like the neighbour behind me has had much more flooding as I can hear a pumping machine running.  The water probably ran down my drive through my property and into his :0(  Oops!!

This photo was taken tonight of the street behind my place - the driver obviously didn't realise how deep it was as he came down the hill!!  He was unhurt thankfully - just very wet and cold.

Well I'm calling it a night and signing off.

Till next time.

Love and blessings
Jolanda