There's something about playing games with grandchildren that's a bit depressing! Little Jack, who'se four and a half stayed with us last night and most of today. We played a game called 'Matching pairs', where you each get a turn to lift two covers on an assortment of numbers, letters, animals and items depicted on the board below with the intention of remembering where duplicates were. Jack beat me at 5 straight games and it was only afterwards that I realised why. On the back of the box it said "Ages 4 to 8 years"!

Well, at least he went home tired! Fell asleep in the car going home. We also built a castle with lego kind of pieces.

Well, it's been three days on at the museum this week. Foul weather so not many people about, so got lots of work done with cataloging . We've got a new Mac computer with an enormous screen that's about as big as my flatscreen TV at home! Luckily it has wireless keyboard and mouse- otherwise my arms wouldn't be long enough to get far enough away. We're going to need a bigger office too!

A truckload of firewood delivered today! It's a bit odd, having to buy the stuff whereas we used to have a 'working bee' up at the old place. We had a macrocarpa tree( the Americans know it as a Monteray Cypress) up there which kept us in wood to burn for 10 years ! It was a biggie and had the advantage that the tree didn't rot like pine might have. Today's load needed stacking under cover , it's what is known locally as 'old man pine' and you can smell the pine resin in it. These are usually old, overmature trees , huge but not suitable for timber because of the number of unpruned branches and hence a profusion of knots. Fortunately these make for good burning. Two hours of barrowing logs around into the woodshed really required a half hour in the spa to get over it!

Well rain comes in the winter doesn't it? At least around this part of the world it does. Outside it's grey with constant rain, it's ironical that not long ago the local farmers were complaining of a drought, inability to provide feed for animals and having to have a big cull to get the numbers of stock down. This resulted in a busy year for the meat processors but now the reverse is true as farmers try to build up stock levels to pre-drought numbers, and the processors are having to cut back on staff. 174 lay offs in a small service town is a lot out of the workforce and a lot of money out of circulation. I suppose we are luckier than some countries as our particular skill is in growing food of one sort or another and everybody, world wide, has to eat.

Today was a garage sale day. Rolled over from the previous weekend because of bad weather. Today a brilliant day! A frosty start but once the sun was up it was warm. Mostly we were selling the two kids families stuff. Outgrown childrens clothes some never worn. Trikes and bikes outgrown and some furniture that didn't fit new homes. Why did nobody buy my breadmaker? I haven't used it for nearly 5 years after a great initial enthusiasm! Never mind! Met some nice people, I think half the reason for running these things is the social aspect. Some Maori, some Pakeha, some Philippino- all sorts. For some garage sales are a hobby. They don't buy but they make friendly conversation. Well, it could be worse!