Lovely neighbours

I have already mentioned here that I think we have lost something beautiful in New Zealand with the demise, to a great degree, of neighbourliness. Today, I borrowed one neighbour’s broom and another helped us to get our brazier going. I entertained two of the neighbour’s children, and held the baby for another while she prepared food.

Then, best of all, Atkins and I fell asleep this afternoon after a morning of housework, which is much more physical here. Hand washing and rinsing a load of washing, carrying buckets of water, sweeping the yard etc.  We woke to the sound of torrential rain and ran to the door screaming “the washing!” I HATE hand washing (it rips up the skin on my fragile white hands) and couldn’t bear to have it ruined by mud being splashed up by the rain. We got outside and it was gone! Our neighbour then yelled out her window “Rachel, I have your washing inside. Don’t worry!”

Life is good.

Babysitting