Paradise at Okuti Garden Eco-stay

I've just spent a few days at a wonderful place, Okuti Garden Ecostay in Okuti Valley on Banks Peninsula.
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.

The new container shops in Christchurch, part of the re:Start development. I went to see these just before Christmas, nice but too many clothes shops. Certainly feels a lot safer that being inside a mega-mall, and there is a good mix of open space and buildings. The fact that these are temporary structures adds a sort of holiday feel to the precinct, but I worry at how these shops will fare during the winter. 

Beautiful old B&B in Worcester Street.

Christmas decoration on the struts at the badly damaged Arts Centre

Amazing zombie zucchini

Yes, it's zucchini time. Anna gave me one zucchini plant (should that be zucchino?) and its producing well. Planted in the site where I had agapanthus, warm and sheltered, I'm getting a zucchini a day now. Now to start looking for recipes - there's a soup somewhere, sounds horrible, but I am assured its really nice.
                                                                              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.

Looking back

I've just been looking back over my blog, reading about the events of the past year or so. 18 months with two earthquakes, 8000 aftershocks,  2 snowfalls and 1 major bereavement. It's all been a bit of a time really, not to mention the Rugby World Cup and the 2011 Election, two disasters in a row. On the good side, I had an overseas trip, but all in all the bad has outweighed the good this year. There seems to be a general lack of enthusiasm for Christmas - its just another stressy thing for people to deal with.
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?

Odd

How odd. Looking at my statistics for this blog today, I see that It has been viewed 28 times in Germany. Is this 28 different people or 28 times by one person? Seems odd that someone(s) should find it so fascinating, or was this some kind of automatic blip/machine error. Probably.
     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.