A spur of the moment idea

We have a number of DIY projects that we want to do around the house this summer, and others that we need to finish from last summer... and the summer before!  But instead of being practical and finishing off the old projects first, I had a spur of the moment idea late yesterday...which was that we should lift up all the old bricks on the pathway to our house, water blast them, level the earth, and then lay all the bricks back down again.

Hamish was all set to paint the garden shed today - a project that he started a few weeks ago, before the weather changed - but no, I had other ideas. Hmmmm, possibly not my best idea for our Christmas break.

After spending yesterday evening and many hours today using a crow bar to lift up some 260 bricks, move them to the driveway, water blast them, turn them over, water blast again, and then stack them, we are both knackered.

I think Hamish is wishing he had stuck to painting the shed, as it would have been an easier job, and much quicker than this brick path project, which I think will take about three times longer than I anticipated that it would, which always seems to be the way with our DIY projects.

Here are some pics of our huge efforts today.

Stage one of the path uplifted

Hamish water blasting the bricks



A work in progress



260 stacked and freshly water blasted bricks

Our temporary plank path to the house

We now have some 260 bricks water blasted and looking much better and cleaner. Each brick weighs 3.5kg - and needed to be handled three times each during the lifting, water blasting and stacking process - so between us we have moved around 2,730 kg.  And we also now have a very tired Hamish and very tired and very sore Kristine.  I wonder whether we will manage to see the New Year in...?!

Last day of 2010

It is New Year's Eve and we are having a very busy day at home - more about that in the next Blog. It's really hot today and I notice Hamish has cracked open a beer while assembling the rotisserie part of our BBQ. Tonight we are having a NYE dinner of BBQ rotisserie chicken, new potatoes with mint, fresh beans with lemon and salad. Followed by brandy snaps, cream and strawberries. Yum!

Before the New Year kicks in, I thought I'd post some pics from Christmas this year.

Here is our Christmas tree. This is the first year we've had a 'real' pine tree, which we purchased from the church down the road. Fortunately it has not made me sneeze too much...yet.

Here is a pic of  my nephew Zak, and niece Emma, being Santa and the reindeer at my Mum's pre Christmas family BBQ a couple of weeks ago.

Zak and Emma

And here are some pics of Christmas morning at my sister Cathy's.






Uncle Hamish and Emma

Zak showing Pam how to use an iPad



Mum opening her Bokashi compost bin



Sad news from Canada

Today Leanne emailed to say that Susannah's Mum, Pauline, who we met in Victoria in October, had passed away early this morning. It is hard to believe that Pauline became so unwell, so quickly, when only a couple of months ago we had enjoyed a wonderful thanksgiving dinner with Pauline and the rest of the Street family, and she seemed just fine.

It  was such a fun evening, with members of the Street, Scherp and Pryce families all enjoying a great Thanksgiving meal, some wine and lots of good humour together.  I am so pleased that we had the opportunity to meet Pauline and hear a little about her early years growing up in New Zealand.

Here are some pics from the Thanksgiving evening in Victoria.

Susannah and Pauline

The Street family

Pauline, it was a real pleasure to have met you. Rest in peace.

A fabulous farewell feast

Nicola heard through her Mum that Hamish was a good cook, and very very good at cooking curries, something he must have inherited from his Mum, Pam. I agree - both Pam and Hamish cook fabulous curries, which reflects the Pryce family's long and strong association with India, the place of Hamish's grandfather Ernest and father Peter's birth, Peter and Pam's wedding, and Hamish's birth.

Nicola wanted Hamish to show her how to cook a proper India curry from scratch using real spices, so Hamish drew on an old family favourite, Madhur Jaffrey's Rogan Josh, and he and Nicola spent a couple of hours in the kitchen when we got home preparing the curry feast. My contribution to the meal was my always popular lentil dahl.

Nicola studying Indian recipes, the night before the feast

Nicola's lovely apartment

Hamish searching for the infamous Rogan Josh recipe online

The chefs in action

All under control - time for a beer!

We had a great home cooked meal and a lovely last night in Seattle. Thank you Nicola for your wonderful hospitality and for planning our long weekend so well. We will be back one day, and will look forward to seeing you next year when you come to New Zealand at some stage over summer.

Sunday in Seattle

It was Sunday so we had a lazy start to the day before going to a suburb called Ballard, where we met Nicola's friend Solange (sp?), who is from Montreal originally, for brunch. We had the most enormous meals and it was interesting talking to Solange. She and her husband Eddie are about to move to Portland for Eddie's job, so Nicola was a little sad about that.

After brunch Nicola, Hamish and I went for a wander around the Ballard Farmers Market, which had lots of organic food and veges, and some really beautiful hand made jewellery. I bought Mum some pretty glass earings and Nicola bought a pair almost the same for herself. It was a good way to walk off some of our huge breakfast.

Ballard Farmers Market

Hamish and I  -  I am holding the flowers I bought for Nicola at the market

After the market we drove to the Chittenden Locks ship canal, where we watched the boats wait for their turn to be let up or down the lock. Quite fascinating to see how it all worked and there were some beautiful boats there.

Some cool sculptures at the Locks - they looked a bit like the New Zealand koru shape

Another attraction at the Locks was the salmon ladder. It was the time of year when the adult salmon were heading back to their breeding grounds to spawn, and they had to swim upstream against the current.

The salmon ladder

We saw these salmon jump up through the fish ladder, which was pretty cool to watch

Nicola and Hamish watching the activity at the Locks

On the way out of the Locks I spotted a (yet another!) squirrel. I quickly went into squirrel photo shoot mode - they are so damn fast it is difficult to get a good shot of one. Nicola called them 'rats with tails'! Hmmm.

Another great day in Seattle. We then headed back to Nicola's apartment, via Costco - what a massive store - to buy some supplies so that we could cook up a curry feast for dinner. We didn't bother about lunch today as were all still so full from our big brunch.

A lovely evening in Seattle

After the visit to the Space Needle Nicola took us to a restaurant that overlooked a lovely large bay. I think it was called Shilshole Bay, but I may have that wrong. The restaurant was called Rays and was famous for its seafood. We sat outside, despite the cool temperature, so we could watch the sun set. The waiter kindly bought us some blankets to keep us warm.

Nicola with her clam chowder (and blue blanket)

There was a wedding at the restaurant next door

After dinner Nicola took us to a suburb called Queen Anne Hill, where there was a lookout point at the top of the hill. We braved the cold and went and had a look at the great views of the Seattle city night lights. It was a very posh area and I am sure the locals didn't like all the people driving up and down the hill to look at the lights.

Nicola and I

The Space Needle at night

Hamish and Nicola