Linda Hall is assistant editor at Hawke's Bay Today.
The diverse talent of Hawke's Bay people never fails to amaze me.
I knew we had top-class chefs, authors, businessmen and women and sports men and women, singers and actors in our midst.
What I didn't realise was how many talented artists we have.
I learned this when Mr Neat and I decided to have a day out on Saturday.
We started by visiting the Art-x National Exhibition and Sale in the Napier Municipal Theatre. I wish I had gone early so then I could have encouraged you all to go along. Yesterday was the last day of the exhibition.
We arrived about 11am and it was great to see so many people young and old walking around with their catalogues, looking, pointing and commenting on the paintings.
We found our way to No 1 and decided we each had to pick a favourite.
I was amazed at the number of local paintings, all of them fabulous in one way or another. I liked Dannevirke's Chris Bone's St John's Cathedral and Mavis Easton's Mark My Words.
Pukekohe's Toni Dolan's paintings were fantastic - so Kiwi, tui, a combo van, pohutukawa, and pukeko all on canvas.
Waipukurau's Susan Higginson's beautiful paintings of After The Rain at Tekapo, West Coast and Wanaka in Spring had me enthralled. I laughed when I came across Napier's Frankie James' The White Elephants. I wasn't the only one either. There were many giggles as I stood there looking at the painting of Barbara Arnott and Douglas Lloyd Jenkins sitting on top of a white elephant at the MTG. In the foreground there were two buses with elephant heads. Very clever.
Then I came across Bay View's Wendy Munro's nautical themed paintings. Wow, she managed to make something as simple as a coiled rope look stunning.
I stood for ages looking at Havelock North's John Spittle's painting of A Californian Dreamer. The face is just incredible.
Mr Neat was really taken with Napier's Don Wilkie's painting of World War II fighter planes.
So now we had to pick a favourite. It wasn't easy. I ummed and arred and finally went with Napier's Grant Hughes' painting Cornwall Park Hastings. It's a scene I recognise and love. I'm a frequent visitor to Cornwall Park and looking at the painting made me think of ducks, children, trees, birds, flowers and fun.
Mr Neat was torn, he really liked Wilkie's painting but in the end he went for Hasting artist Nicola Forster's Retired, a coastal scene of a cottage by the sea, just like the one that used to be at Haumoana.
Congratulations to all the wonderful artists who took part in the 2014 National Art Exhibition. You are inspirational.
We then went across the road and had a delicious lunch at the The Kitchen Table Cafe (Photographers' Gallery) where I ended up knitting (I'll tell you more about that next week).
Then we went for a walk up town where we saw an amazing sight. A young girl, I'm guessing about 12, was walking the streets with a sandwich board on her and guess what she was doing at the same time? No, not texting; no, not talking on a mobile, in fact there wasn't a phone in sight. She was reading a book - a real book - hallelujah. Good for her.
Our last "event" for the day was at Cinema Gold at Havelock North where we watched The Jersey Boys. The movie tells the story of how Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons rose to fame. It was great, I felt like singing out loud when Sherry, Walk Like a Man and Who Loves You belted out. I refrained from doing that though, I don't think Mr Neat would have approved.