ANOTHER GOOD WEEKENDWe had a roasting hot day forecast so I planned to get stuff done early on Saturday morning and get back to the house to crash out on the bed for the afternoon. After a few phone calls home I headed to the gym, then a few errands- got my specs tightened up to stop them slipping off my sweaty nose etc. The library was next. I collected, among others, a diary of a rose expert who resurrected an old house and garden in Tasmania and a book of short stories by Keri Hulme, the kiwi author of mixed Maori and Scottish ancestry who wrote the amazing book The Bone People. I had a good afternoon dozing and reading. I was invited to a night of games at Penny and Tony's house-a traditional gathering to beat the boys at games the night before they go back to school. There is only one son still at school, 14 year old Mickey. Sam is away in Auckland and Charlie has left school, he is still at home but due to go the UK in March. We also had 14 year old Angus, the younger son of Julie, the practice nurse, who has spent the summer with Mickey-the pair of them joined at the hip (Angus and Mickey, not Julie and Mickey)!! I wasn't sure what sort of games were expected but we ended up playing a card game, known by the Wytenbergs as 'Presidents and a*******s'. It is a bit like a giant game of rummy but with a pecking order. I am sure it has a polite name in better society and you can guess which end of the pecking order I ended up! The general rule is -the bigger the group, the more hilarious. We played with another two couples, friends and neighbours, making a headcount of ten. I was very impressed with the teenage boys happily spending a Saturday evening playing cards with a crazy group of grown-ups. Suddenly it was midnight and we all went home. The only downside of the evening was a crop of mosquito bites I acquired around my feet and ankles as I crossed the garden to get back to the car.Sunday was a cooler cloudy day. Donna and I had arranged to go to the farmers market. There was a 'gathering' (not sure what the collective noun is) of over a hundred Model-T Fords in the field alongside the market. The owners and many of the stall holders were dressed up in Victorian costume. The stall holders were grumping because nobody was buying- but the cars rolled out of the gate in a big line at 11.30 am and the market picked up thereafter. The photos are a little dull because the light was so poor. We picked up Peach and made lunch from stuff we bought at the market. Donna went home to pack- she is moving to Australia at the beginning of March and Peach and I went off on a jaunt. We headed to Havelock to see if Mary was home and popped into Nautilus winery to see Sarah. Sarah's dad was visiting from Auckland, a charming English gentleman in his late 70s. He was sitting in the sale room at the cellar door, with a cheese platter and a glass of Pinot Noir. Peach and I shared his platter with several 'samples' of wine and passed a very pleasant hour chatting to him. Mary was home having picked up her dad- a retired very fit farmer over 90 years old. Mary has a wonderful garden. The weather had picked up and we had to drag ourselves away, back to Blenheim for the start of another week.