Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Out Of Control At The Market

This weekend we travelled to a local market where great bargains are sometimes to be had in the perennial plant stalls.  I was sorely tempted as soon as I arrived but forced myself to hold off buying anything until a circuit of all the vendors had been made; but even so still managed to exceed my budget.  The man with the hostas was there and we managed not to have any disagreements this time.  In fact he was such a good salesman that I found myself under the sway of his persuasive patter and bought a selection of salvias plus miscellaneous other treasures.  At other stalls there were lovely pinks and pelargoniums on offer.  All in all it was just as well that there was no church shop sale this weekend or the budget would have suffered very badly.  But one disappointing thing I have to report is that one person sold me a plant which turned out to have no roots when I went to plant it!  It must have been snipped off as a cutting and passed off as a growing plant.  If only I could remember who sold it to me I would go back and take issue with them.  (It wasn't the hosta man though, his plants were all excellent specimens.)

Mr Shoestring has put in the "new" back door this weekend and it looks great.  We were held up for a while because we had to buy a new lock for it, and in the end located one on TradeMe for a comparatively modest amount.  It was hilarious to read the "Engrish" instructions which accompanied it.  They started of with: "This lock occupies the first at the same locks" and things only got better from there.  We were in fits of laughter as we tried to decipher what was meant by the convoluted and confusing instructions.  Mr Shoestring was given a "trick" Christmas present last year with this brilliant Engrish, we saved the packet so we could enjoy it whenever we wanted to - we are still not exactly sure what it means though!


The native wood pigeons were back again this weekend, scoffing themselves silly on the berries of the flowering cherry tree.  They are so large and cumbersome that they stamp all over the branches and twigs of the tree as if they are climbing ladders.  I shudder to think what would become of them if they ever missed their footing, they probably would plummet earthward like stones.  At least we got some good photos this week so you can get an idea of how attractive they are - in their own modest, unassuming, New Zealand bird kind of way that is!  No spectacular plumage or bright colours here, thank you very much.  



The last of the yellow roses were putting on a good display though - I am sure they must be the English rose "Graham Thomas" so hopefully there will be some more blooms later in the season.


They looked pretty under a couple of platters on the wall in the kitchen and the scent is very good.