September's here

Almost a month has flown by between blogging, and it's been a busy one, full of guests and whales and goings on! First of all we had the much-anticipated arrival of the Gauguin cruise ship, which turned into a fiasco as the guests were unable to get off the boat due to the rough seas and narrow pass in Avera......this was a huge disappointment to us all, particularly the tourist committee (of which I am the tresurer) as we'd spent months preparing a spectacular welcome, training guides, programming an activity-packed day and negotiating at great length with the cruise company. Fortunately, the day was saved to some extent, as some of the welcome committee were allowed to get on the boat (after much to-ing and fro-ing with the cruise staff), so thankfully we managed to get paid for the 325 flower leis that had been prepared by our craftswomen.......I was very grateful to have been absent, it happened to coincide with another tourism salon, and I don't regret it an instant, as we managed to fill the guesthouse for the next three months. The school term continues and Heimana is getting into the school rhythmn. Matotea is making leaps and bounds in the literacy race, she tells me she wants a desk and computer for her birthday, she'll be writing novels by next year!!! For my part the garden's coming on, though it's been a bit too dry lately so some of my seedlings suffered from my absence at the salon, but I'm stocked for fresh herbs, we've been eating my home-grown plum tomatoes, the odd cape gooseberry and are slowly gathering strawberries in the freezer, in the hopes of making some jam or a sauce for yogurt, before the end of the year......I also have been growing, there's a third and final bump, due in feburary......