What a ferocious night we had last night! Wind, rain, lightning and thunder. Once I woke up with lightning flashing and before it had finished the thunder boomed, seemingly above our bedroom. Man it was loud! It was nice to snuggle under the covers and go back to sleep.

By the time I got up this morning the rain had all but stopped. It must have rained a bit during the night though because the River was running high and dirty this morning.The dogs and I set of on our usual route. I could see that it was still raining in the back country. The hills and mountains were almost totally obscured by misty rain clouds. Towards the South-East big white thunder clouds were showing over the ridge line. High above me I spotted a small speck in the pale blue sky; a hawk was drifting on the thermal currents. It was barely moving its wings, but seemed to move pretty fast!

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The rain made the mud slushy and the foliage was very wet. All the small creeks and waterways were gurgling and running quickly to reach the lower waterways. I could hear the roar of the sea, it sounded powerful as the waves pounded onto the shore. Small fantails were flittering in the bush, giving chirpy calls as they passed. Higher above them a tui’s call sounded loud and clear over the track I was walking.

You would think that after walking up our hill for the last couple of weeks I would be beginning to feel fitter and the hill climb would get easier. Um … no! Not so. I still huff and puff walking up the steep part of the track and find that by the time I get quarter of the way, I am stripping off layers; beanie and jacket. Saying that I’m not in Lycra and wearing trainers: this is track pants, swandri and red bands country! No selfies of me to insert here!

We lost our Internet this morning. It’s a funny thing how in this new way of living we have become so dependent on technology to stay in touch with one and other. Up here we don’t have TV, radio is streamed through the Internet and neither do we have cell phone reception. We email, chat, video link, YouTube, message and phone. Our phone and Internet are linked together, so if one goes out – we lose the lot. So there we were, well and truly isolated with no-one to communicate with but our own bubble of three! Several times I found my self picking up one device or another to check if we were on or not. Due to no Internet we were unable to live stream church, so we had a small meeting at home. It was quite nice.

After lunch we headed outside to do some work. We have some ideas for landscaping an area out the front of our house. While Laurie has the digger up at the house it seemed like a good time to make a start on the next phase. I have also cleaned out the herb garden so that the soil level can be raised and I can prepare it for re-planting. It’s been sadly neglected. While outside I got the grubber and dug over and evened out the new soil in the planter boxes. They look so much tidier. I’ve also planted some daffodil bulbs that had been dug up and split. I’d quite like some more bulbs and perhaps a few tulips, I guess that depends on when the gardening shops can open.

Not long after we’d been outside, the sky darkened. Kayden said to me he thought it might rain. I went and covered Holly and Kayden bought the washing in and the heavens opened! We had torrential rain and then hail. Laurie was stuck in the digger while we waved to him from the dry of the deck. The squally front passed and we had sunshine, then another front came through! This evening when I walked the dogs the stars were out, but as I write this: it’s raining again.