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It’s been all go around here over Easter and this latest weekend. Never a dull moment and all that.

Well, actually, there has been quite a lot of dull moment, and what better to fill them in than a few more puzzles!

One of us mentioned the “P” word one Easter hol day, so we decided it was worth going into town to find some to fill in the rest of the weekend. Finding a decent puzzle seemed like it was going the be an impossible task for a bit. It took us searching vainly in 5 big department stores before we gave in and went to Hamley’s toyshop. Not a pleasant experience on an Easter hol day. But at least they had a few decent puzzles to choose from. (Memo to self. Never go there again if there are any school holidays on!)

We ended up getting a box with eight 500/750pc Planet Earth puzzles in it, and one other of a Van Gogh picture. So far we’ve done five of the Planet Earth ones…

As I said, there’s been a few dull moments lately! And the challenge makes them somewhat addictive!

Wandering past the planter this morning on the way to get a cup of coffee I noticed something slightly green out of the corner of my eye. Had a closer look, and voilà!Some tiny plants had poked their heads up overnight. Well, I assume it was overnight, and they’ve had a few boxes sitting on top of them for the last few days so they’ve not been in plain sight, but I’m pretty sure they weren’t there yesterday.

13 out of 40 showing signs of life. A bit surprising really, as it’s been really, really, really cold here for the last few days, including two days with snow falling outside the window for a while (yes, I did finally get to see snow this year, even if it didn’t settle), and we still didn’t turn the heating on. Thought they might have sulked and refused to come out and play.

One of the things we’re most looking forward to when we finally move home and get ourselves sorted out is a big vegetable garden. Of course we could be putting out of our minds all the hard work of creating then maintaining the garden, but the thought of being able to grab nice fresh veges keeps us positive.

So far we’ve decided we want to grow at least the following veges:

• Aubergines
• Beans. But never broad beans. Yuck!
• Beetroot
• Broccoli
• Cabbage
• Capsicums
• Carrots
• Cauliflower
• Celeriac
• Celery
• Chicory
• Chillies (of course!)
• Corn
• Courgette
• Cucumber
• Garlic
• Kale
• Kohlrabi
• Leeks
• Lettuce of various types
• Onions of various types
• Pak Choi
• Parsnip
• Peas
• Potato
• Pumpkin
• Radish
• Red Onions
• Rocket
• Shallots
• Spinach
• Spring Onions
• Squash
• Sweet Potato
• Tomatillos
• Tomatoes
• Turnips
• Watermelon

There’s no doubt a few that we’ve forgotten too.

A spreadsheet has been created to keep track of when to plant things, how long they take to grow etc. Now we just have to work out how much space all of that is going to take up! I suspect it’ll be quite a bit. And some of it might require a bit of help from a greenhouse etc, but I’m sure we’ll be able to find space for one of them too.

If we overdo it and end up with too much produce, I’m sure our friends and families will be happy to take some off our hands… They might have to pay us back by doing some weeding though.

Next list is plants for the herb garden, but I suspect that will be easy. Absolutely all of them, unless they won’t cope with the weather…

Just when you thought you were going to escape the constant chilli updates for a year, I decided to plant some after all. Well, I was convinced to, really, but it would have been a strange year without them.

I’m really not convinced we’ve got the sunlight needed since we moved, but I guess it’s worth giving them a go and see what happens. And there’ll be plenty of plants to give away to others so they can give me their updates too. Not that I’ll be able to tell them what they are actually growing. Most of this year’s seeds are from mixed seed packs, so it all could be a bit of an adventure. But they can be fun.

So, check back for the stunning commentary on this year’s crop. I’m sure you’re all waiting with baited breath!

We took the plunge and joined the new gaming generation by purchasing a Wii.

I enjoyed playing when staying at Meg and Michael’s and decided it would be a fun thing to have. It arrived yesterday so I managed to get a few games in before having to entertain visitors. And I am sure I don’t have to mirror real life by dancing all over the place when playing things like tennis and golf,  but it does seem a lot more fun, and I guess it could be more prone to injuries (who’d of thought an electronic game could do that)! Mike is constantly reminding me to put the remote strap around my wrist as he is worried about it flying through the TV.

I’m convinced it will give me hours of fun and entertainment – now I just have to not get addicted!

For those of you that don’t know, I (Bec) fought my fear on Thursday night and walked on fire – twice! You might be asking why would you do something so crazy?! It was through work and was for charity and 11 of us managed to join in. All in all there were 90 people taking the plunge.

Firstly before you can walk you have to attend a two hour training session called ‘Learn or Burn’. Basically you learn that being able to fire-walk is based on physics – like the hot potato effect. You also learn to manage or take away your fear. About 1/2 an hour before the start of the walk you are taken out to watch the fire being lit – which I must say after being trained was not as scary as it would’ve been without training – but you still think F***! Then back inside for the last part of the training to practice. You walk on the carpet. (I know you’re all thinking this isn’t quite the same thing!)

The walk itself – it was bloody fantastic. You can feel the texture of what you are walking on and I guess to try and describe it it feels like warm underfloor heating. And Mike tells me I was taking big confident strides storming along. Everyone in the group is so hyped up – imagine a bunch of Americans at a political rally. The first time was so great that me and a few workmates managed to do it again.

Its a great adrenalin rush and a real buzz (on Friday I was so drained). If you ever get the opportunity to do it, I’d say take it! The next stage is apparently to walk on the shards of 1,000 broken wine bottles – not sure about that one as there ain’t no physics in that!

It now seems I have a bit of a personal tradition when I go to the States. Dump a pair of boots!

This pair were nowhere near as good as the last pair, but it’s still sad to see them go. But they were really getting past being comfortable. So they stayed Stateside with all the nappies.

For a bit of a break, as we didn’t go anywhere for Christmas last year, we took a quick visit to the States to visit Meg and Michael. We, with the help of Michael and his folks, managed to keep it a complete surprise for Megan. And I think she was surprised! She says pleasantly, so we’ll happily take her word on that.

The full story and pics are here, as I wanted to keep this front page loadable in a reasonable time for when you all check back for more news, but here’s a quick summary…

First stop was Tucson, Arizona, where we arrived late at night to falling snow, only to wake up to a much brighter day in the morning. Tucson saw us dining out for lunch in nice weather, visiting the desert museum – where we saw lots of animals and catic, taking a ‘hike’ in a canon (what kiwi’s would call a walk), drinking margarita’s in the sun, taking pics of lots of cati, and pretty much just plain relaxing.

Then off to Cowboy country – Houston, Texas, to hang out at Megan and Michael’s. Houston saw us doing lots of shopping, visits to the supermarket (lame you might say – but they have such different things to look at), Bec and Michael eating lots of Coldstone, playing Wii, and more mooching around.