Wait till you see my....CAR

I BOUGHT MY FIRST CAR!! Maggie and I have never been more married as we are right now. Sharing a car, a family, a wwoof profile, a cell phone. It's hard for me to convince myself that we aren't. We found a lovely (ha) grey toyota corona that is nearly my age BUT only has 120,000 kms on it. It is automatic, which is a relief because we have more than enough to think about just keeping the blinkers and windshield wipers straight. It certainly has its share of problems, but it has a semi-working tape player AND reverse, which all cars aren't lucky enough to have. It is all very exciting. I've never had a car to call my own and I've definitely never bought such a serious toy for myself. Maggie and I can't quite believe it is actually OURS for a while. We've named it Shine, in honor of the Shine family that remain our kind hosts.

We are still with Gilly and Greg, Malcolm and Lindsay, and things are still great. The only problem is that is has poured rain every day for a week, leaving the farm a mud pit and leaving us with limited tasks. After completing the requisite inside chores, we've had two days of mostly pajamas and books, with a few errands in between. Unfortunately we started a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle a couple of days ago that consumed our minds until we finished it this evening. EXCEPT for ONE missing piece. Sucks. Maybe Tansy ate it. She would.

We did manage to go to a yoga class this morning, and in the afternoon the rain stopped long enough to let Maggie and I go to a hot mineral spring about half an hour a way. It wasn't quite what you'd imagine - more a swimming pool than rocky steaming mountain springs - but it felt great and was so hot at its vents that it could easily burn. The landscape is like a fairyland and the foggy rain has only made the hillsides more mystical.

We built a whole herb garden a couple of days ago and about an hour after filling it with herbs we noticed the chickens going to town on their convenient fresh greens. We had to chase them away and then scold Tansy for her utter failure as a watchdog. Thank you Katherine for noting my spelling of chicken "coup" in the last post. It would now seem a rather prophetic error.

I've learned a lot about baking bread and growing microgreens, which Gilly and Greg grow in old packing containers. You can plant tons of varieties (peas, radish greens, beet greens, flax greens, etc. ) and then you just trim them when they are long enough to eat, but small enough to be tender and add them to your nightly salad. Easy, fresh and delicious.

So we think we will be here another week or so, then head north for a couple of weeks, then down to the South Island after it has warmed up a little. We definitely need to stay here through the rain so that we can earn our keep in the nice weather. Right now a puzzle is all I have to show for the day's labor. How embarrassing.

Better work in better sun. Love and misses all around!

REF