Waho: Maori word meaning far out, far flung, far off. Here are bits and pieces from an obscure corner of the world called New Zealand.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Paradise at Okuti Garden Eco-stay
I stayed in a house-truck named Bronwyn and she was very warm and welcoming, as were my hosts, Jane and Jim. At Okuti Garden you can also stay in a tipi or a yurt, surrounded by beautiful organic gardens and native bush filled with birds. Very peaceful, this place has a lovely feel of beneficence and charm. Just the thing for renewing and re-energizing after the quakes on Friday. Felt like I'd gone back into childhood, with the little house truck, got my feet wet in a stream, talked to donkeys and dogs, and scanned the night sky on my way to the toilet. The toilet is novel too; a composting toilet that separates liquids and solids with the simple expedient of a small hole for wees and a big one for poos. This does mean one has to be more intentional with the process; as a woman, I tend to just sit down and let go!
This is a lovely place, and I came away wishing I'd booked longer. Highly recommended.
Inside the house truck - cosy. Poroporo grows over Bronwyn Tipi in the organic garden
New buildings, old buildings
Instead of looking at what we've lost, let's look at what remains. This is probably my favourite building in Chritchurch. I'd love it if we built more little characters like this. |
Amazing zombie zucchini
The gap between courgette and marrow,
Is narrow.
Bad news is that outdoor watering may be banned entirely from soon, owing to our fractured infrastructure. (Say that one fast when you've had a couple of glasses) But I'm not going to let my vegetables die! I'll fill up the watering can inside the house and carry it out to my babies. I hardly use any water anyway, compared to large families with lots of showers and washing, (and those who fill up their swimming pools), so surely if I forego a shower or two I can use this for my plants. I can go stinky, but for plants water is life-or-death. I want tomatoes too, I've got the best tomato plants I've ever had this year, so they'll get first priority for any water.
Picked about a cupful of blackcurrants last night, not really enough to do anything with, like jam, but very tasty eaten raw. No added sugar is a big challenge for the taste buds.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Looking back
Can't say there have been any really good books or films this year, it all seems a bit blah on the culture front.
Rediscovered "The Bachelor", the new series. This is the highlight of my TV week, so you can see how desperate things have become. The other night the viewing choice was between a documentary about a man who had hiccups for two years, and another documentary about Michael Jackson's relationship with his chimpanzee. Riveting, how can I choose when I want to watch both?
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Odd
Christmas draws nigh. Sigh! Today we have the Santa Parade, thank Gods nothing that I need to be involved with, except for the traffic jams on the way home. Cars full of crying, overstimulated kids and grumpy parents, but perhaps some of these will come to the Gardens afterward.
Not much to report. Seem to have a stomach bug, blurrp. Just in time for my days off. Typical.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Ewwww!
Lots of obsessive gardening lately, three lovely days at the weekend. Didn't turn on the TV once, just read a book about Tuscany, so this did wonders for my state of mind. Forget the elections, the bad news, the destruction of the city by demolishers, the (still!) discussions about the bloody rugby.
Guy Fawke's night this Saturday, now there's a "tradition" that we could get rid of. Why we celebrate this I'll never know. All it means to me is having terrified cats cowering all night under chairs, meowing sadly.
Friday, October 7, 2011
My Ooooby post
Typical. I just plant some warm season crops and we have days of overcast cold weather. Hopefully everything will not rot. But the positive thing is that we have had rain, which has helped the green crops, celery, lettuce, spinach. Everything is just growing, growing. This is what I love about gardening, there's always an upside to balance the downside, and always a downside to balance the up (so that we don't get too cocky about our successes). The good news is that the basil and eggplant have germinated. I started these inside in the conservatory, they have taken off fast. The fastest thing I have ever seen is cavolo nero, it germinates in about four days. Hopefully I'll have some to offer other Ooooby's soon. Trying Maori potatoes this year, put them in a basket in a dark place to chit them. I've just looked at them, they are sooo cute, little stalks all straining to grow. I've got the variety called Huakararo, they are supposed to be buttery in taste. Yum. I'm going to grow some of them in a big harakeke basket that I made. Its totally biodegradeable and I can make more if needed.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
I"m getting tired of...
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
In time of daffodils - e.e. cummings
Talking of undertakers
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
Roll on, Christmas
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Forecasts vs.predicitons
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Snow passages
more falls and more to come
they say.
Here's two snow pieces that I'd like to share:
What's up, Ratty?' asked the Mole.
`Snow is up,' replied the Rat briefly; `or rather, down. It's snowing hard.'
The Mole came and crouched beside him, and, looking out, saw the wood that had been so dreadful to him in quite a changed aspect. Holes, hollows, pools, pitfalls, and other black menaces to the wayfarer were vanishing fast, and a gleaming carpet of faery was springing up everywhere, that looked too delicate to be trodden upon by rough feet. A fine powder filled the air and caressed the cheek with a tingle in its touch, and the black boles of the trees showed up in a light that seemed to come from below. ( From The Wind in the willows by Kenneth Grahame)
A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward. Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over
Thursday, August 11, 2011
My kitchen floor
This is after the February earthquake. It doesn't normally look this bad. Took ages to clean up - a lovely melange of broken glass and crockery, honey and oil. My Bunnykins cup and saucer from my childhood and a blue and white Burslem chafing dish were the major losses.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Armchair pilgrim
Now I have to go and have a lie down. I've just circumnabulated Mt Kailas and I'm cold and hungry and have altitude sickness.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Sinny and Trusannah
T & S then talk to each other about the victim behind her back "Poor dear, she has no self esteem, blah blah. Let's change her life completely by tarting her up a bit".
If only changing someone's life were so simple.
And who are they to judge who has self-esteem issues or not? Is it not possible that I dress like a slob because my self-esteem is not rooted in how other people percieve me? If they don't like what they see, is that my problem or theirs?
I don't want to teeter on four inch heels - it's not good for my sciatica. I don't want to look like mutton dressed as lamb, as some pathetic old cougar waiting for someone to pick her up. Perhaps I think I have better things to do with my time than spend hours on my appearance. I have heaps of self-esteem - it's about being who I am, not what I look like.
And aren't T & S themselves looking just a bit haggard these days?
Take that, you bags.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Books I'm reading
Friday, July 29, 2011
Thursday, July 28, 2011
My little palazzo
Palazzo on the grand canal, Venice
This is the little palazzo that I would like to be given. It's just over the Grand Canal from the Guggenheim and has that Moorish look typical of Venetian architecture. Also a great view of Santa Maria della Salute and the Dogana. You wouldn't need to go out much it you lived here, just sit in the sun at the window and watch everything.
Fountain with waterhorses and cute frogs in Vicenza
I really liked this fountain. The waterhorses are a very Venetian symbol, indicating that Vicenza was once part of Venetian territory. i don't think the frogs have any symbolic function - they just spout in a very charming way.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Enjoy your ride
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
The onion-y bed
Here's the cosy little straw-covered bed for shallots, garlic and elephant garlic, surrounded by bricks rescued from the old bicycle shop site in Opawa.
Winter sowing success
Nothing else much to report, the weather has been fine but cold so I have been doing lots of gardening - pruning, weeding, etc.
Friday, July 15, 2011
The lovely Julian
Expect to find out some little known facts about the on-again, off-again relationship between gnomes and hedgehogs, and the dirty on those Dutch gnomes - “It’s not just their hats that are red and pointy, I’m telling you!”, he laughs.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Blugger
Saw a woman on TV last night called "the human Barbie". She has spent eight hundred thousand pounds on cosmetic procedures on herself. if she had donated this money to medical research we would probably have a cure for cancer by now. But death will get her in the end, HaHa, no one escapes the Grim Reaper and all she'll be is a beautiful corpse. Ever wonder what happens to breast implants when a body is cremated? Are the ashes and smoke toxic?
Feck, this is grim stuff. Change the subject.
My winter sowings are starting to germinate. As expected, cavolo nero is off first. It germinates in 4 days in warm weather, I don't know anything that goes so fast. Some poppy seed that I gathered at Freeth House when walking the Cape Campbell track (lovely, try it) several years ago is also looking promising. I don't know what colour the flowers are as I only saw the seed heads so this will be something to look forward to. This is what I love about gardening: always looking to the future, always striving to make this year better than last.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Marino Marini's sculpture at the Guggenheim in Venice
Love the strength and energy of this re-working of the equestrian statue genre
Seeds, seeds
When I was a child and a novice gardener, I noticed that seeds sown in autumn and established to the first two pairs of real leaves before the first frost made very strong plants that had a head start in the spring, but I've never tried sowing in winter. My other experiment overwintering peppers is going on OK, they are still alive anyway.
Also considering how to make a glasshouse or a cloche out of old window frames. My worry is that the old glass is a bit brittle and may be dangerous to cats and self.
Ordered some seed from Franchi Sementi,(www.italianseedspronto.co.nz) the Italian seed merchants, now available in New Zealand. Round zucchini ('Tondo di Piacenza')and a bush tomato ('Astro Ibrido').
I did buy these in Italy, but MAF confiscated some of them on my return. I bought six different kinds of seed - two cucurbits, two chicories and two other flowers. MAF confiscated one of the cucurbits, one of the chicories and one of the flowers, leaving me with the conclusion that 1) they don't really know what they're doing. (No doubt someone 'out the back' said "just take three off her") 2) next time I will not declare seeds, and 3) that round green zucchini and bright red chicory will start appearing at Auckland farmers markets next summer.
These were not wild gathered seed, but properly packaged and processed seed grown by, you guessed it, Franchi Sementi in Italy, and purchased at reliable retail shops (not under the counter, psst-wanna-buy-some-dodgy-seed type transactions). The only difference is that in Italy I paid the equivalent of $2.50 a packet and here they sell through the website at $7.50 plus GST and delivery! I was angry; "welcome back home, you scuzzball seed-smuggler you". Thanks very much, you really know how to make a Kiwi feel welcome in her own country.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Has-beens
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Aftersocks
Clever name, eh?
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
What the ????
We're all waiting for the Government to come to its decision as to what's to be done. Since its now 9 months since the first quake, you can say that They are not rushing to come to a decision; apparently this is to find "the best solution for the people of Christchurch". Could it be that They don't know what the ???? to do? They are compounding the natural disaster with a man-made bureaucratic one. We have four "leaders" who are being paid big money to say nothing. The situation is becoming more worrying by the day. Should we stay or go? Is this a Pompeii-type situation? Is there more going on seismologically than we are being told. Is our "extinct" volcano waking up? No one will say.
I've started looking at jobs in Australia, and will pressure my mother to get a current passport, in case we have to refugee to Australia. At the moment we can't leave the country because the ash-cloud from the volcano in Chile has grounded most aircraft. Its very cold here and we are all fed up. Those who aren't on the way to becoming alcoholics are having nervous breakdowns instead. We'll have to build a lovely new earthquake-proof insane asylum to house all of us driven witless by the current situation. I'm sure Christchurch prescription rates for anti-depressants are well up. Rescue Remedy is being imbibed like water; perhaps we should offer some to the Earthquake God to calm him down. Or perhaps we need a human sacrifice; finding a virgin in New Zealand could be tricky, though.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Again again already
But I just kept on gardening. Next summer I'm going to have a really great vegetable garden. I've got some seeds from Italy (striped red and white chicory, and a lumpy pumpkin called Marina di Chioggia, which I'm told is lovely and sweet for roasting) also scaloppini and a red and white stripy carnation. And Borlotti beans. (I like red and white stripes). The earth takes, and the earth gives.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
The Pope visits Venice
Here's the man himself. Pity I was standing out of range of the benediction though.
Venice revisited
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Back in Singapore
However, I did have one of those glorious "moments" of travel there. Stumbling into the Palazzo Chiericati, I was allowed to listen to a rehearsal of the Progetto Bach group, and they played one of my favourites. A small but perfect room filled with Bach's music, and the musicians enjoying themselves. Makes it all worth while.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Urrk
Im now in Vicenza, nearly at the end of my holiday, boy am I tired. Had a wonderful holiday, the walk around the Euganean Hills was lovely, fabulous weather. The only day it rained I was snug in a hotel in Galzignano, having a long lunch and an afternoon nap after spending the morning trying to read Italian Vogue.
Its been really hot in Vicenza, too hot for much sightseeing but its lovely anyway.
Venice was incredible, even got to see the Pope (he just popped up to see me since I was going to be there). He rode in a specially made white gondola with gondoliers dressed in white. Ive got a great picture of him in San Marco square, which Ill try to put on this when I get home.
Tomorrow to Verona, hopefully to see the Giardino Giusti. Public gardens here are a bit messy, nothing like the Christchurch Botanic Gardens. The rose garden at Este was beautiful though, set inside the walls of the old castle. Again, pics when I get home and work out how to put them on here.
Trying to contact my mother by phone, very difficult, the system tells me that my credit card number is invalid, but I know this isnt true. So anyone at home who has my mums number, give her a call and let her know I,m OK!
Arrivederci a tutti.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Singapore
I am never going to fly long distance again. I hate hate hate being cooped up with total strangers with annoying habits (yes I know I have habits too).
I got the worst seat in the row, right in the middle, with a bloody great bulkhead thing in the way of my feet. The guy next door amused himself till takeoff by clearing out the contents of his nose, and the woman on the other side was some kind of health food nut with her own flask of evil-smelling tea.
We had to circle for ages getting into Changi, and I seemed to be sat in the nursery section; every wailing kid in the plane was seated within earshot. Mind you, I did sympathise. I'd have been screaming my head off too if I wasn't one of those rational adult-type beings.
But it's the food and the boredom that really get to you. The food comes round and really you just don't want it, and how many movies can you watch?
Unfortunately I'm one of those that can't sleep on the plane, and can't read either. There's always someone coming round with food or drinks, or screaming, or blowing their nose, not to mention the constant noise. Oh, shuttup Lynners, you're just going on and on now.
Your right. I'll go into the rest lounge and try and get some sleep.
Hopefully I'll write again in Italia.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Soon,soon
Not trying to sharpen up my italian, because I'm bound to forget everything the first time someone speaks to me. I have Lonely Planet's phrase book, which has proved very handy in the past. "Scusi, che stazione questa?" came in useful on my last trip, or I might still be lost in Syracuse.
Looking forward to my first encounter with Venetian art. I've never been all that fond of Tintoretto et al. but perhaps they are best viewed in situ. I never relly liked the Siennese School either, until I saw lots of it in the gallery of religious art in Siena.
Not liking the idea of flying for so long, but at least the anxiety of that will take my mind off other stuff going on here, bad weather, wobbly earth. Coming to work on Wednesday, I had my first experience of being in the car during a quake. I was in a queue on the Moorhouse Avenue overbridge, which has one side propped up with bracing, when I thought I felt the car stall or that sort of chunking that happens when the automatic transmission is changing gear. Then I realized I was feeling an earthquake, hope to God the bridge is safe! Very scary, I hate that hollow legged, knockkneed feeling after the adrenaline surges through. Wanted to get out of the car and vomit, but held it together like the mistress of self-control I am. Perhaps one day soon I will lose it in a major way, hopefully not in a public place.
Want to go away NOW!
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Big titties (Well, well)
I am now getting my drinking water from the water site over the road from me. Some lovely people who have an artesian well on their property piped it out to the street so that all could use the water. It was a godsend in the days when we didn't have any water reticulation at all. The water comes from 87 feet down and pumps 130,000 litres a day so theres plenty of it,
and all unchlorinated. We're supposed to boil it, but a colleague of mine has been drinking it and is OK. When I first used the water it was just coming out of a pipe, but the owners have refined it and now there are taps. Good old Kiwi ingenuity and Kiwi generosity. Long may they reign.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Quickie
uuurgh! The Powers that be (just misspelt that "posers that be" - there's a Fruedian for you) have decided to chlorinate our water so we don't all get tummy bugs, owing to the ammount of free-flowing sewage that might be in the water. Such a pity - one of our great treasures was our wonderful drinking water, all artesian and one of the cleanest supplies in the world. We're going to have to buy bottled water now for tea and cooking (coffee hides the taste better) or just drink a lot of wine and beer.
Also been told not to have baths or do lots of washing, as the infrastructure is poorly. So we'll all be drunk, stinky and wearing dirty clothes from now on.
I've stayed home in my suburb mainly since the quake. I don't want to see what has happened to the city centre or Lyttelton or Sumner. I'll just put my head in the sand and pretend it hasn't happened as much as I can. Every day there is some new bad news so I'm avoiding newspapers, TV. internet sites as well.
Still going to Italy, although Singapore Airlines have cancelled my flights in and out of ChCH. Now I have to go via Auckland, which is a bit of a pain, as the more changes one has to make, the more can go wrong. Posso non cambio? Ma, no. I don't care if I can't get back on time, but going there needs to be smooth and as stress-free as possible.
Made some strawberry jam the other day. It didn't set, so now I have lots of strawberry syrup, which I can still use, but it's just not jam. I asked the Madonna if she would miraculously turn my syrup into jam, but I guess she has more important prayers to attend to at the moment. She told me I was frivolous and to stop being silly, and that she wil get around to it sometime when she's not so busy.
One of the churches in Venice is called Santa Maria Formosa. Formosa means curvy, womanly, and it results from a vision a man had of the Virgin on that spot - she was a sexy, curvy real woman. And why shouldn't she be?
Ave Maria, piena di gratia, santa formosa.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Aftershocks
Didn't go away as the weather has not been great, except for the day of the memorial service. Thankfully it was a fine day, or everyone would have been in tears all the time. Still can't get my head around the surreal situation, of people being killed by an earthquake in my home town. It's like seeing Godzilla or the Second Coming, just too weird.
And what about Gorgeous Gaddafi? He has such terrible taste in clothes. What's with the shit-coloured wrap-around? Doesn't he know that all self-respecting dictators get suits from Armani?
Spent yesterday replanning and clearing the piece of garden that will be the new expanded vege garden. It's goin to be more than a vege garden though, more of an edible garden, including herbs and fruit. One sleepless night I realised that the sunniest most sheltered part of the garden is only growing agapanthus - it could be growing tomatoes. My tomatoes have been poor this year, probaly because there is too much shade where they are. I also need to get plants started earlier in the season as our growing season seems to have shortened in recent years, with rainy damp autumns rather than sunny dry ones.
Now at the library, it's the almost the only one open, so its busy, busy. I'm going home to spend my afternoon with Rufus (Whoar) Sewell in Middlemarch. Nothing like a costume drama in times of stress.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
What next?
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
What can I say?
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Venice, Italy
Now I have to book the rest of my trip, although the middle section, a walk around the Euganean Hills is already booked and paid for. I'm not sure whether to stay in Padua for two days or go to a little place called Asolo, to see the Villa Barberigo, one of Palladio's masterpieces. It's a bit hard to get to by public transport, so... maybe maybe not.
Needless to say, I'm very excited. I want to go now!
Saw awful movie the other night. One of those insomniac sessions came over me, so I watched "Interview with a vampire", Brad Pitt and little Tom Cruise looking so daft in long hair and long teeth. Kirsten Dunst was great, but I think the movie should have been far more overtly homoerotic. Apparently though, Brad and Tommy despise each other so I guess that was out. Antonio Banderas was really hard to understand, not sure if it was his accent or his difficulty in speaking through false, sharp teeth. Glad I never paid good money to see this tomato.
Also watched "Vicky Christina Barcelona" again which I love. The menage'd trois are all so gorgeous, and I have a crush on all of them. Would I fly to Oviedo with Javier Bardem, oh yes.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
My gardens
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Another part of the wood
Just finished reading a life of Katherine Parr. ("Katherine the queen" by Someone-or-other). The question I'm always left with in these biographies of the long-dead is how we can claim to really know what their lives were like, or empathise with them. It was another world, full of extremist religious beliefs and great cruelty, where people's motivations seem quite inexplicable. Fear of eternal hellfire and damnation didn't seem to be a detterent for doing bad things, though. I suppose if you repented on your deathbed and gave your worldly goods to the Church you got out of punishment. This was only really an option for the aristocracy; ordinary people with no money or property just had to burn.
Henry VIII really was a shit. No tolerance for differences of opinion there.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
PS.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Thing-O-Matic
Now all I need is a transporter device, so that I can get to Italy instantly without paying any money or travelling for several days in a tin can to get there.
I'm writing this at the library. I never realized before how noisy the librarians are! Bang that trolley, slam those books down. Mind you, there is a numpty sitting beside me whose phone is vibrating and so is he. Jiggle, jiggle, jiggle. If we could wire him up to the national grid he'd power the city for days. Perhaps he's the source of all the after-shocks we have.
He stinks, too. Of sweat-rotten sneakers and old testoterone. Goodnight, sweet prince.
A winter on the Nile
Part of the fascination of this book is that our protagonists saw two very different Egypts. Nightingale visited temples and hospitals, discovered the roots of Christianity in ancient Egyptian religion and heard God calling her to commit to her destiny. Flaubert visited brothels, bathhouses and taverns, and came to grips with the reality of the "mysterious Orient" that he had fantasized about in provincial France. Knowing little of Nightingale and even less of Flaubert, this book has remedied some of my ignorance. Perhaps the moral of the story is that travel doesn't only broaden the mind, it focuses it on the true nature of the self. (Yes, I know how pompous this sounds).
The cover blurb says that Sattin is to Egypt what Dalrymple is to India, so I must try to find more of him.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Vado a Venezia
So I've gone off the idea of travelling. Should I stay or should I go? It would be less anxiety provoking if I didn't but...I kind of want to.