Nan is 84!

Nan flew in from Gisborne and we headed for the train to make our way over to Masterton. It is s a gorgeous evening and the sun streams into the carriage as we whizz by the luscious green rural scenes. By Featherston most of the commuters are off the train leaving us destination travellors. David met us at the staton in Masterton and we arrived at the farm by 6.30pm.

Next day the birthday treat is a pedicure at Che day spa. Ninety minutes later, Nan's toes are hot pink and sparking! We can't walk far after this as we can't put our shoes on - open toed sandles are needed!

Lunch is whitebait fritters and David has basil and sun dried tomato sausages and we sit out on the patio at the farm on this gorgeous warm day and remember waitbait catches from the Temuka and Rangitata rivers from long ago.

In the afternoon, I cut the lavendar and rosemary and teach Nan how to strip the stems. Nan sorts the lavendar by length of stems so we have 3 or 4 piles of different lengths, and then we tie them in big bunches. They smell gorgeous and will sit by the fire in their big willow basket to dry for the winter. We then graded the rosemary into bunches with 12 long straight branches and tied these with string to dry. these will go to friends to flavour their lamb dishes.

Its a great Wairarapa afternoon with the sun beating down and the air completely still. This autumn is more like summer than our summer was adn this weekend one of the best we have had for months.

Early evening we head out to Solway Park Grill for dinner. The sky was blue, and there was not a breath of wind as we sat by the windows of the dining room looking out onto the trees. It is an idyllic evening. We order our birthday meals. Nan chose corn fed chicken with roasted vegetables; Diana had the blue cod with new potatoes and beans, and David chose the sirloin steak which a heap of golden french fries, which he didn't want to share, although we managed to snaffle one or two.

After watching Master chef during the week and being intrigued by the banoffie pie, we spied homemade banoffie pie on the menu. David chose Banoffi pie, but it was a bit of a let down. The toffee mixture was too sweet, the chef had used a biscuit base instead of pastry, there was no taste of banana, and no cream in the mixture. aaagh. Nan chose the meringue filled with summer berries, which arrived filled with cream decorated with minimal berries and an inedible fern leaf! Ray McVinnie would have had a field day. Where were you Ray! Anyway, the evening was a great and a fun and memorable beginning to Nan's 84th year. Her birthday cake arrived and was a tiny carrot cake complete with icing, and a lit candle. The waiter arrived with a flourish at the table carrying a plate covered with a damask napkin and the knife lying graciously on top. Nan blew out the candle with a wish, and cut the cake into 6.