Today is just a quiet day as we laze around and enjoy the hospitality of John and Barbara (Lynette’s mother and brother). John has a beautiful place that is landscaped with lots of flowers, gardens and fruit trees. As you walk around you notice ripening lemons, grapefruits and other types of citrus fruits. His garden is raised and provides them with their vegetables.
I really like how the house is so open with so many windows and doors leading out to patios on all sides of the house. Here in this area of New Zealand there seems to be very few insects and bugs and the doors and windows are open all day long giving the impression that as much living is done out of doors as inside. The temperature is moderate and in the afternoon a breeze came up maintaining a very comfortable temperature.
As I walked around the property I was interested in finding a mid 80’s MG roadster sitting in one of the garages. Apparently this is John’s brother’s car and it has a problem with the engine. What interested me is that I have never seen this model which is a mid-engine convertible.
Barbara recently bought a house for herself (she has been living with John for the past few years) and before she moves in she is having the place painted. As you can imagine, paint colors are always a challenge. The color of her kitchen cupboards are a light pastel aqua color which is not a favourite color of Barbara but not something that she is able to change at this time. So we discussed colors that might bring out the greener color and diminish the visual effect of the cupboards. She took us over to have a look at her house and it is a beautiful 3 bedroom place that will be very comfortable. I suggested that she consider painting the walls a darker green (which is a favourite color) and this would bring the greener tones out in the cupboards. To help Barbara visualize I took a picture of her kitchen/dining area and used the computer to change the wall colors to a variety of green colors. Now she has more things to think about and we will wait to see.
After looking at the house we drove up to the Hillfield winery which has a commanding view of the valley. I did not take my camera so was not able to take any pictures but it was amazing to discover how many vineyards are in the valley. The Hillfield Winery is where John used to sell his grapes when he owned the vineyard beside his house. This is a prime grape growing region of New Zealand and so tomorrow we are going to go on wine tour. I will tell more after the tour.
This afternoon Natasha (a friend staying with John and Barbara) offered to make dessert for us based on her family recipe from the Ukrainian. It was so good I have got the recipe and will be making it myself when I get home.
We have had a very relaxing day and are making plans to go out for dinner for New Year’s eve tomorrow at the restaurant that John’s daughter manages. It should be lots of fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment