Rainy Days on Fridays...

Always make for a long weekend!

The rain started last night at bedtime (9pm) and lasted about 12 hours. So Brian and I went to work for 10 minutes, filled out our time sheets--and what do you know, it was still raining. So we went to town. But it was still 7:40 am and not a lot was open. We had some coffee at a shop in a mini mall then walked around a bit.

The library opened at 9 so we spent an hour or so there before visiting the art gallery-- a photography exhibit of images of the South Island-- not all that impressive really. Brian aspires to do better--but perhaps that means he can one day be the featured artist at a gallery too! He probably could now. In fact, you should see his latest slideshow on his blog. A few self portraits and I took a few pictures as well.

About the time we got in the Hilux to head back home the skies cleared and the sun poked out. We drove past work but just kept on driving. To the Isabel Cellar Door! We tasted some delicious wines but as it was just barely noon and the glasses were really quite HUGE I had to use the spitoon! Not for spitting, just for dumping. Maybe someday I will be able to do wine before lunch!

It has turned out to be a lovely afternoon. We may go to work tomorrow for half a day to make up a little for today's "unfortunate" weather, but we will just have to wait until 6 am rolls around tomorrow to find out... the forecast tomorrow is rain.... fingers crossed.

In other news... Not a lot is new. We are still working, it has indeed been a cold week--thanks to the rain it warmed up a bit though.

Interesting animals: We drove around to several different vineyards this week as some of them are smallish and there are some really fast wrappers (we are barely fast wrappers I'd say). This gave us the opportunity to see lots more lambies! One paddock had sheep in tall grass, so you could see the adults' heads and you could see the little lambs when they bounced around. We also drove (on Jackson's Road) and were behind a flock being herded from one paddock to another via the road. There was a shepherd in blue coveralls walking with the sheep and another shepherd in a truck behind. On the bed of the truck and dog was tethered and barking. It was surely a pure Kiwi moment... or at least it will be for me. The udders on those sheep were enormous, some of them could barely walk. I couldn't tell if they were pregnant or not, but they were big sheep.

The other interesting animal is a strange pheasant that lives in a house behind the Wither Hills Winery. It looks sort of like a fancy rooster. It is white and black with a red gobbler thingy. It has a black fluffy-ish frond on top of its head, black undersides, white head, LONG white tail--we thought it was a peacock at first, and the really strange part is its back/wings which are white with black stripes. It is almost zebra stripes but much thinner. I think he looks like a concert pianist because the hairdo is very musicianesque and the long tail is like the fancy tux with tails and the black underside is like his pants. Oh and his feet are hot pink... probably more red, but they look pinkish. While we were eating our lunch he stood by us and chirped. When we drove away at the end of the day he flapped his wings really quickly and chirped crazily. Good old funny animals.

Now I am off to do a rain dance for tomorrow morning.

Cheers!