Are you ready for a walk round my garden. The rain has eased a bit its just drizzling. We start at the front door and go past the recycling centre disguised as an old sideboard. 
Past the red geraniums and a couple of plants left out ready to plant.
A quick check on the veggies, still there, the caterpillars are not winning yet. We did attempt to have some broccoli for tea. Peter thought I had washed it, and I thought he washed it. Neither of us could bring ourselves to eat it after it was cooked with the dozen juicy caterpillars that did not get washed out. We did not tell the kids and they seemed to enjoy it.
Past some beautiful roses in full bloom.
Then over to have a peer at the caster oil plant, I love to see the rain trapped in its leaves.
Another veggie check, this time to see if the tomatoes have turned red yet. One of them had something to nibble on as I wander about in the drizzle.
Down the lawn heading for the wild part of the garden.
The figs really needed all this rain to allow them to ripen into delicious juicy fruit.
When I bought the two fig trees I was told they were both brown turkey. You can clearly see they are different varieties, I am guessing the one below is the real brown turkey. More research is required to find the variety of the above one. Not that it really matters as long as they taste good.
The previous hours of heavy rain have weighed down the twisty willow from next door. You now have to duck to get down the path under it. I think it looks so magical above the path to the wild bit, I just don't want to trim those lower branches.
With some of the turf Peter cut out of the lawn, a few months ago, he has constructed a curved seat and planted the top with chamomile and low growing thyme. Eventually it will have some wooden duckboards to sit on. 
Back up and along the new border. It is really blending into the background now.
A peek down the bank to see how far the creek has risen. 
I love the scent of this geranium. It is so pleasant to brush past. 
Combined with the scent of the fennel, heavenly.
And more fennel at the side of the garage.
And back around to the front door again and more red geraniums, my favorite colour. I hope you have enjoyed the wet Sunday potter around my garden.
I did - even though I ended up a little soggy and disheveled as usual.
This year is mine and Peter's 50th birthday, which we had to celebrate - it is half way to a whole century. The planning has gone on for months. There has been manic gardening tidying by me, to no avail, because as soon as I finished one border I would notice another full of weeds. 
A quick garage makeover to tidy it up. I hated the yukky cream colour it was painted originally, and love the new black garage.
Since this was a significant birthday we thought it would be a good idea to celebrate the decades and asked everyone to dress in clothes from the decade they were born in. Peter decided to tie dye his own t-shirt.
Keriann lent me some of her beautiful red and white bunting for the marquee and I made some of my own, too tie to the mail box instead of balloons. 
We had it all planned for a lovely evening - hoping that we could leave the sides of the marquee and have the lights rigged up outside. The weather did not cooperate - it was cold and wet. We had to abandon the light and put the sides back on the Marquee.
By 6:30pm we were all ready to go. Peter I think is Shaggy from scobbie doo, I was attempting to be Sandy Shaw with my bare feet. Peter did suggest instead of going as Twiggy I would have to go as Trunky - he is still being punished for that suggestion.
Despite the rain, I think everyone had a good time. I did. A lot of hippies turned up for the event, along with Lulu and Cher, and a generic 80's girl.
More peace loving hippies.
Another bunch of celebs John Travolta from Grease, Sonny and Anchor Man. At least thats what they told me.
No party would be complete without Austin Powers and a groovy chic.
There was also a young lady from the French Resistance who would say things only once and managed to avoid getting her photo taken. This has given me an idea for our next party in 10 years time, it will have to be a spy party.
There was even a very young Jedi running around drinking Sith beer, I think he needs to brush up on his spelling. 
From the looks of the debris from the pary it was a great night. I hope all the guests enjoyed themselves as much as we did.
All the food disappeared - thank you to Justine for taking over and serving our guests.
Thank you again to Keriann for the use of the bunting.
Finaly the garden back to normal as if nothing at all had ever happened.
This Sunday afternoon I went for a stroll in the park, well not really a stroll more of a duathalon, with a team of my work collegues.
As this was meant to be a fun family event, we decided that it would be a good idea to dress up. I was very certain we would not be winning the race, infact I was pretty certain that we would be last. None of us had done any training, well hardly any training. So we decided to go very all out on our costumes.
Our team was made up of three software developers, it was suggested that we should be the bugs and dress as spiders! We thought for a while and came up with the Ladybugs, after we walked into the shop and the first wings we found were red spotty ones.
Don't you think we all look amazing. The duathalon was a 5km walk by Linda on the right, 23km bike ride by Vicki in the middle and another 5km walk by me.
Just thought you would like to see the reverse side so you could see the full costume. We made the tutu's ourselves from quite a few meters of tule, some buttons, ribbons and a feather boa. We were ready to strut our funky stuff.
Linda, first up, arriving back at the end of her lap at high speed, looking as fresh as a daisy.
Vicki looked amazing speeding along on her bike wings flapping in the breeze.
Linda and Vicki joined me for the big finish and we all walked over the finishing line together, 33 minutes faster than we had anticipated. Strangely enough we were not last, there was still another walker a minute behind me.
There was a bit of competition from some dodgy looking pirates for the best dressed prize.
They did not stand a chance, the Intersoft Ladybugs were the best dressed team. Our prize was a bottle of Hawkes Bay wine each, yummy. 
It must have been a lucky day for me I also won a mug tree with a set of six mugs. Excuse me while I go and check my lottery ticket, just in case.
Are you ready for a walk round my garden. The rain has eased a bit its just drizzling. We start at the front door and go past the recycling centre disguised as an old sideboard. 
Past the red geraniums and a couple of plants left out ready to plant.
A quick check on the veggies, still there, the caterpillars are not winning yet. We did attempt to have some broccoli for tea. Peter thought I had washed it, and I thought he washed it. Neither of us could bring ourselves to eat it after it was cooked with the dozen juicy caterpillars that did not get washed out. We did not tell the kids and they seemed to enjoy it.
Past some beautiful roses in full bloom.
Then over to have a peer at the caster oil plant, I love to see the rain trapped in its leaves.
Another veggie check, this time to see if the tomatoes have turned red yet. One of them had something to nibble on as I wander about in the drizzle.
Down the lawn heading for the wild part of the garden.
The figs really needed all this rain to allow them to ripen into delicious juicy fruit.
When I bought the two fig trees I was told they were both brown turkey. You can clearly see they are different varieties, I am guessing the one below is the real brown turkey. More research is required to find the variety of the above one. Not that it really matters as long as they taste good.
The previous hours of heavy rain have weighed down the twisty willow from next door. You now have to duck to get down the path under it. I think it looks so magical above the path to the wild bit, I just don't want to trim those lower branches.
With some of the turf Peter cut out of the lawn, a few months ago, he has constructed a curved seat and planted the top with chamomile and low growing thyme. Eventually it will have some wooden duckboards to sit on. 
Back up and along the new border. It is really blending into the background now.
A peek down the bank to see how far the creek has risen. 
I love the scent of this geranium. It is so pleasant to brush past. 
Combined with the scent of the fennel, heavenly.
And more fennel at the side of the garage.
And back around to the front door again and more red geraniums, my favorite colour. I hope you have enjoyed the wet Sunday potter around my garden.
I did - even though I ended up a little soggy and disheveled as usual.
