What's on this weekend?

Here's hoping that the ground won't be waterlogged this weekend. I'm sure I can feel spring in the air...

A Touch of Coast Quilt Show
Sat 30th and Sun 31st August, 10am to 4pm. Orewa Community Centre, 368 Hibiscus Coast Highway OrewaCoast Quilters are taking the opportunity to showcase their talents and skills. Come and see Quilting, Patchwork and Applique at its best.
Entry $3 Adult. Children free

Silverdale Market
Every Saturday morning the Silverdale Markets, Silverdale Street, Silverdale attracts many local people buying the freshest locally grown flowers, plants, eggs and vegetables from the street and hall stands set up on the main street. Other products for sale include chocolates, home made jams, pickles, preserves, organic produce, natural soaps, garden ornaments and art are also keenly sought after products. See you there! 7.30am till 12.30pm.

The Leisure Centre Open Day
159 Brightside Road, Stanmore Bay
The Leisure Centre will be holding its annual open day on Sunday 31st August between 10am and 3pm. Bring your friends and family along, learn something new, join in and then take up the opportunity to join the centre for a special offer of no joining fee, making a saving of $99. Throughout the day you'll have the chance to tour the facilities, have a go at the Circuit Express or a Les Mills Class. The kids have fun in the pool and there's also free swim school assessments carried out throughout the day.

Rodney Farmers Markets
Experience what Rodney District producers and growers have to offer, from farm fresh organic produce, flowers, plants and herbs . Don't miss out on the traditional community farmers market -Every Sunday - start 8am to 12.30am, (except first Sunday of every month closes at 11.30 am) at the Orewa Square, cnr HBC Highway & Florence Ave, Orewa Beach.

Daffodil day tomorrow, 29th August, 2008.

"Daffodil Day, the Cancer Society of New Zealand’s flagship annual event, is one of the most important fundraising and awareness campaigns in the country.
Daffodil Day is the culmination of a month of fundraising activities, and is a time when people support the Cancer Society’s essential work.
We use the daffodil as our symbol as it is one of the first flowers of spring, whose bright yellow blooms remind us of the joys the new season will bring. It represents the hope there is for all those affected by cancer.
The National Bank of New Zealand is the proud principal sponsor of the event, and the hard work of its employees helps focus the nation's attention on our cause every year.
Cancer affects 1 in 3 New Zealanders. With your help, we have the hope of reducing its incidence and impact. "
From the website

NZ Book Month events

'It never rains but it pours' as they say. After a great Library Week the Libraries have a week breather before NZ Book Month starts in September. The idea behind the month is to get more of us reading New Zealand books. Although this is only the third year for NZ Book Month it's already firmly ensconsed in the library calendar.

The website has a list of events on in Auckland. A couple in particular caught my eye...

A Word in his Ear
Friday 5th September – Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber 5.30pm–7.00pm Tickets: $10 (includes free beer on presentation of ID) Tickets through the edge www.the-edge.co.nz or 09 357 3355
In celebration of Father’s Day, and to promote reading as an activity to be shared between dads and sons, four celebrity sporting and literary heavyweights discuss the stories and words that have spurred them on to sporting, literary and life’s adventures. Peter Leitch, freewheeling ordinary bloke talks with Phil Gifford, national icon and award winning broadcaster, William Pike, survivor of the recent explosion on Mt Ruapehu, and with Otago Rugby CEO, Ron Palenski, who will provide the rules of the game to the conversation. Books may be purchased and the authors will be autographing.
“A Word in his Ear” is proudly supported by The Edge and all of NZ Book Month partners.

Ladies Litera-Tea
Sunday 28 September - St Columba Centre, 40 Vermont St, Ponsonby 1pm – 5.15pm Tickets: $45 (includes afternoon tea.) from The Women's Bookshop, 105 Ponsonby Road Auckland. Ph: (09) 376 4399.
Carole Beu and The Women’s Bookshop invite you to indulge in delicious food for the mind and body. Wear your best frock and make room for lamingtons!
The Women’s Bookshop is serving up Fiona Kidman, Emily Perkins, Tessa Duder, Joanna Drayton, Serie Barton, Rae McGregor & Valda Paddison, Bronwyn Tate and Sue Orr. A double helping of “foodie” women with “foodie” books: Helen Leach and Alexa Johnson. All dished up with lamingtons, melting moment, neenish tarts and cup cakes….
Book early. This event sells out.

A Big Welcome Home

tomorrow morning to all our Olympians. Haven't they all been absolutely fantastic. Just by making to the biggest sporting stage in the world, they have achieved far more than most of us can comprehend. Some of them sound as if they feel they let us down because they didn't achieve their own high standards. I say NO - you most certainly did not. You are all a success, achievers and winners.

And a special welcome home to our Rodney Olympians

Jo Aleh (Laser Mistral)

Barbara Kendall (Board Sailor)

Mark Herring, Corney Swanepoel and Melissa Ingram (Swimming)

Ian Hogg and Shaun Van Rooyen (OlyWhites football team)

Kristy Hall (Football Ferns)

James Dolphin (Sprinter)

Erin Taylor (Kayaker)

David Kosoof and Blair Hopping (Black Sticks hockey team)

For their time, effort, sacrifices and dreams, we thank them all. Pat yourself on the back for the journey you have just been on and continue to dream big.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, or, The Murder at Road Hill House

The suspicions of Mr. Whicher, or, The murder at Road Hill House by Kate Summerscale, winner of the BBC FOUR Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2008.

"The re-creation of a crime that reverberated far beyond the lanes and fields of the English village where the body of three-year-old Saville Kent was found at the bottom of an outdoor privy, his throat viciously cut. The suspicion that fell upon the grieving family and their servants horrified the public; the thought of what might go on behind the closed doors of respectable middle-class homes - scheming governesses, rebellious children, insanity, jealousy, loneliness, and loathing - aroused both fear and excitement across the country. Scotland Yard sent its best man - Detective-Inspector Jonathan Whicher - to investigate the murder at Road Hill. Whicher embodied the idea Victorian detective, a figure who could turn brutal crimes into intellectual puzzles and find order in chaos. But this case tested his powers. Although he was soon sure he had solved the mystery, he failed to find the evidence he needed, and by the time he returned to London he was the object of national scorn. At a time when issues of surveillance and state intrusion were of growing public concern, many found his methods an assault on privacy, a crime of a different kind. When the truth about the murder began to emerge five years later, Whicher had retired from the force. Yet his legacy lives on in fiction. His investigation at Road Hill marked the beginning of our fascination with murder mysteries, and he was an inspiration for the tough, quirky, all-knowing and all-seeing investigator, from the cryptic Sgt. Cuff in Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone to Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade."