17 February 2011

News from Nelson - February 2011

Hi everyone!

The weather has been hot & sunny, with an hour or so of light drizzle last week – just enough to wash the dust off the roof into the water tanks. We are doing well for water though; our tanks are still half full.

Waitangi weekend was the start of the Adam Chamber Music Festival, and we saw five concerts between us. The music was great, and the Hermitage String Trio from Russia was just fantastic. Last weekend Jan had a whole weekend of music as on the Sunday he also had a full day workshop for the NSO.

Despite having bought some wall-plugs, none of our heavier pictures have yet made it to the walls, nor have our bathroom mirrors. I am quite tempted to ask the builder if he can put them up, to take them off Jan’s list. We’ll see.

The Montrose Drive tenancy is going well so far. Fingers Xed for the long term.

My study stalled for a bit; I have got an extra paper to teach in Semester 1 this year, and have been getting it ready instead.

Jan has been going to Underwater Hockey, (twice this year now – the Adam Festival got it the way a bit). He is thinking about playing in the South Island Masters Games which will be held in Nelson in October this year, so is pretty keen to get to the pool every week.

He has also signed up for all the NSO concerts for the year, and I have signed up as a  “Friend” and booked my concert seat all the way through. My mother has done the same, and booked the seat next to mine, and Kathleen & Frits have also signed up.

The Sarau Fair was really nice; we bought an updated version of “The Road to Sarau”, a history of the area written by our architect’s wife. The fair started at 4, and carried on into the night, which is a great idea for high summer. It was very relaxed, and we found we knew a lot of people there.

Last Saturday night we had Gary Rae’s 50th birthday party at the Honest Lawyer, which was fun. It was a 60s fancy dress theme – Jan went as a hippie & I went in psychedelic gear (we raided a local fancy dress shop which had some great costumes). Nik was a Mary Quant dollybird and Gary was a mod! I think there was only one person there not in a costume, so everyone had really got into the spirit of the thing. Wendy & Wayne were there – and we had a good catch up with them – along with Hugh & Julie B. Jan had a long chat to Paul Dalzell from Nelson Pine – and only part of it was about work!


On Sunday while Jan was at the music workshop, Magda came out after church with some plums and cooking apples from Gea. We had a lovely afternoon having lunch and pottering about, and after she left, I got the Agee preserver out and spent three hours stoning and bottling the plums (only 5 jars for my trouble, and terribly stained fingers!). On Monday night Jan & I did 7 & 1/2 jars of apple puree from Gea’s cooking apple tree.

So this weekend we are swapping some Cox’ Orange seconds from our local friendly apple man for a bottle of wine, and we will be apple processing to the max. One day’s full on effort will keep us in bottled fruit for a year – and we know exactly where it came from and what it has in it. And very low air miles :-)

This Sunday Jan is off for a mbike ride with Derek Sherwood, which will be fun for both of them.

Fliss is at the vet today as she appears to have something stuck in her throat; Jan dropped her off this morning and we will hear through the day what the problem - and the solution - is. Coco, despite having Bonnie here, is quite lost. I took her for a walk this morning and she spent her whole time wanting to run down the road after the car (despite Jan having left half an hour before).

Happy birthdays in the next couple of weeks to Kathleen, Kenn B, Pat McL & Kent.

Right, I think that's it. All the very, very best for the next few weeks.

Until I write again - alles liebe!



Jan Kuwilsky & Sam Young

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