A productive weekend

The weather has been really fine over the last three days, so I have grasped the opportunity and done lots of gardening. Planted the last of the spring annuals, and red cabbage, spinach and pak choy in the vegetable garden. I hope this will look good in spring, with pots of tulips, making it look like a Dutch seventeenth-century garden. I've interplanted the red cabbage with mahogany pansies, picking up each other's colours. Amazed how hardy the pansies are, they've had snow on them and frost and are still blooming and looking well. I'd never have thought to plant them for winter display, but they use them a lot in the winter/spring bedding designs at the Botanic Gardens and they should know.
    Started with the big makeover/clearing out as well, cutting off dead stuff and overgrown stuff so that the spring flowers will have a nice tidy canvas to bloom against. The bulbs are starting to show above ground now, and it's a good time to see where the gaps are in the flowering beds. Also planted some bargain camellias that I bought at Odering's sale ($10 each) and put home-made organic compost on my "primavera" bed, the bed opposite the conservatory that is a focus in early spring - helleborus, snowdrops, species narcissus, celandines and primroses.
 Also grappling with the Big Questions - should I remove my holly tree from the vegetable garden where it sucks up all the nutrients I put down for the veg? (and poisons the ground with its leaves I suspect). Although it is a nice variegated one and feeds the birds in wintertime. Should I get rid of the cabbage trees which shade the Golden Delicious apple? The Cabbage tree is a New Zealand icon, I know, but they're big and messy and out of scale for a small garden like mine. And yes I will get rid of the gigantic Black Doris plum which only seems to bear about a dozen fruit a year, and rockets up like a dark, ivy-bedecked skyscraper on the northern boundary of the property.
    And today I've put out a net bag of pork dripping for the waxeyes. Thomas looks up at them and meows with excitement. If only cats had wings!

Windows 7 rocks

Just discovered the magic of tabbed browsing.

Amy Winehouse - Love Is A Losing Game

Beautiful sad song.

Proof that UFOs exist

And what was so absorbing on the web that I surfed it for 2 whole days? Partly, the weird and wonderful on YouTube. Conspiracy theories, the Illuminati, giant skeletons, footage of a real alien captured in Brazil, strange creatures coming out of caves in Panama, dinosaurs leaping out of the sea in South Africa, and of course UFOs by the score, all over the world. And buildings and giant faces on Mars. And why NASA won't tell you the truth about the Moon Landings. And what the Pyramids were really for. These vids just make me laugh; as if filming a phenomenon proved anything in these days of photoshop and sophisticated animation. One vid purported to be a film of a UFO seen from a plane above the Nazca lines in Peru. If you blinked once you would have missed it. Of course the film was then slowed down, and laugh, laugh, digitally enhanced, i.e. someone has fiddled around filling in empty pixels to make a shape that looks like....a flying Mallowpuff! Or one of those desk top bells that hotels used to have at reception. It even had a little button-shaped thing on top, where the "dinger" was. My bet is someone filmed one of these flying through the air in a fog and inserted it into a legitimate film about the Nazca lines. (The really interesting things were the lines themselves; I had no idea they were so extensive).
      Other favourites of mine were the clips about giant skeletons. These have been discovered all over the world, apparently, but for some odd reason you won't be able to see any in museums. This is because something always happens to them.  Isn't it strange? They go missing, or are confiscated by the "Authorities" (probably the Illuminati or some Catholic or Kabbalist cult) or perhaps get spirited away by their alien brethren. Or raptured. The evidence for these is usually still photography; I sit in my chair, muttering the word "Photoshop!" over and over.
      One day someone is going to link all these wonders of the Twilight Zone together and discover that they are all manifestations of the same giant conspiracy/alien invasion/wormhole to another galaxy thang. The Illuminati are all aliens with giant skeletons who ride strange creatures that they have patched together from abducted animals and humans, and they like to do this in the more obscure parts of the world, which they reach by flying Mallowpuff.
     I'm glad that superstition is alive and well in the modern world, existing at levels that would do a medieval peasant proud. Take a walk on the Weird Wild Web and view the exhibits in the freak show. And read the earnest comments by the True Believers, who come up with some very imaginative scenarios to explain what's Really Happening.

Confession time

Confession is good for the soul, so They say. I've just spent about two whole days glued to my laptop, looking at various kinds of stuff, some wise, some not. I haven't done any housework, or had a bath, or cooked a meal. I am so BAD! Around me the towers of unwashed dishes soar towards the ceiling, the cats meow piteously because I take no notice of them, and the bed goes unmade - I just crawl into it with my clothes on when I feel tired. Am I depressed? Probably. Am I addicted? Certainly. But back to work tomorrow, so I'll have to bloody well straighten up and fly right. Mrrrp.

Vile bodies

Are you sick of your body?
No, not the size or shape of it, but the mere fact that you have one.
I'm sick of mine. It makes all sorts of stupid demands. It wants to be fed, slept, toiletted and bathed. It gets headaches and veruccas and fibroids and pimples. It has bad eyesight, arthritis and either diarrhoea or constipation, inexplicably and as the mood takes it. Its feet hurt at the end of the day. It wakes up crabby for no reason at all. It wants to drink then two hours later wants to pee. It rejects things that are for its own good, like exercise and meditation, and embraces what's bad for it, couch-potating and chocolate fudge pudding. It's a tyrant, it's like flatting with a whiny old lady, a mullet-headed slob and a demanding toddler. I have conversations with my body, thusly:

Body: I really need to get some sleep. I am going to sleep now!
Me: Oh come on! There's only ten minutes of the movie to go.
Body: ZZZZ

Me: You're hungry again? You only ate an hour ago.
Body: Yeah, well, that was only a snack, dude. I'm ready for three beers and a Big Mac now.

Me: Why didn't you go before we came out?
Body: I didn't need to go then.

Sigh. One day I will be pure spirit, and will float free of my body in sheer and utter bliss. Until then, I and my body are yoked together like the Odd Couple, two antagonists in an increasingly tetchy partnership.

King Kapisi - Screems from Da Old Plantation

"Come into my life, I've got coconuts to show you." Rude man. Great song, one of my favourites.

Groundhog Day

This is exactly what I feel like when I have to get up at 6.30 on a cold winter morning.

Cold and business as usual in Nuttown, NZ

Still very cold here. Guess it won't be really warm again till sometime in September. Not much to talk about either, everyone seems mainly concerned with staying warm and dry.
     Yet another controversy about the Council, the Mayor and his wife are taking a ratepayer-paid tour of Christchurch's sister cities around the globe. The Mayor says the Council asked him to go, of course he says he doesn't want to have a free holiday with all expenses paid at all, let alone get the missus a free holiday too, but hey, they have to go, it's part of his job. Whether it's part of her job is another interesting point. (Whether she is really a woman is also much discussed, but that's another story. I feel there is also a story about nepotism and corruption, but our "free" press is too scared to investigate in case they are sued for libel. NZ has some of the harshest libel laws in the world; practically anyone can sue if they feel even slighty miffed at their portrayal in print) The happy couple are slated to visit eight locations around the world, and this is being spun as a way for Christchurch to get publicity and overseas investment dollars. Yeah, right.
       Local businessmen are going to build a temporary accomodation "suburb" to house all the workers who will be coming for the rebuild (whenever it finally gets underway). Why they can't build temporary accomodation for the presently homeless is an interesting question, but then, life in Nuttown (or Dysfunctionville) is full of interesting questions at the moment.
      Personally experienced a bizarre moment last night. Our sewers are being remotely viewed for breakages caused by earth movement. For some reason, some of this work must be done at night, so last night was full of heavy machinery trundling up and down. The "bizarro" thing was that I received a flyer in the mail that apologised for the disturbance, and instructed me to wrap my toilet aperture in cling-film to minimize the effects of "blow-back". Yes, you can just imagine it, can't you? You can even smell it. So at 11.00 at night here I am, applying cling-film to the toilet, thinking "this is truly WEIRD". Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I would be doing this with my life - overseas travel, career success, great fame as an artist, yes, but cling-filming my toilet, no!  Just hope it wasn't some jerkoff's idea of a joke. Do I feel like a dolt? Yes, but the fear of having to clean up other people's faeces is stronger. Ewwwww.

Emma and Thomas - cold weather friends

The cats have finally realised that cuddling up can be better than fighting, especially when it's 7 degrees outside.

Charles and Sebastian eat strawberries and drink wine

Sunday

Cracking frost this morning, still thick on the ground when I surfaced at 9.30. Couldn't be bothered traipsing down to the market in the cold, even though it was sunny. Anyway, I'm always tempted to buy yummy stuff that I don't need but oh, so want. So I stayed home and wasted the morning on the Internet. What did I look at? I'm damned if I remember now! Pinterest, probably.
  Went into the garden in the arvo and yes! finished planting the tulips. They are Flaming Parrot. And some miniature narcissus which will probably not flower this year. Planted the last of the anemone bulbs, the first lot rotted in the soil, so I've put these in a drier spot, right on top of the body of a large rat that Thomas killed last week. This is the second rat that he's killed, and it was a huge one. And he's only eight months old! Mummy is so proud. What a good, brave boy.
  Repotted two box balls into larger pots. The really big ball that grows in the garden was flattened by the snow, but has now sprung back up again. And fertilized my beetroot and rainbow chard with a smelly homemade mix that is composed of seaweed, cow poo, comfrey leaves and blood and bone, so hopefully these will grow a bit more now, and provide something during the winter.
    Reading a biography of Henry VII at the moment, "Winter King" (sounds like a breed of cauliflower) by Thomas Penn (not to be confused with The winter king by Bernard Cornwell, about King Arthur).
Few biographies of Henry7 exist, probably because he was a secretive, tight-fisted monarch who lived in fear that he would be usurped in the same way that he usurped Richard III.  Considering what reams and reams have been written about the later Tudors, Henry has been somewhat ignored, so I am enjoying finding out a bit more of him, and the vanished world before parliamentary democracy, where monarchs had to be supremely wily politicians.
    Also been reading "Mad world; Evelyn Waugh and the secrets of Brideshead"  by Paula Byrne, uncovering the real models for the Marchmain family, the glamorous Lygons and the scandal of their father, Lord Beauchamp. "Brideshead revisited" is on my top ten novels of all time list, so this is essential reading for such fans as me.

Apres snow

Continuing cold today, but some sun is starting to thaw the snow and ice out. Perhaps if you're living in a colder country than this you'll be wondering why I'm making such a fuss about the snow, but it rarely happens to us here in Christchurch. Parking this morning was scary, the whole carpark was glazed over with black ice, where the snow had melted and re-frozen during the night. Thankfully, tomorrow is a day off so I can stay in bed until the ice has melted a bit.
  The garden of course is fair wrecked; too early for most of the winter pruning and cutting back that removes the excess weak growth of summer. I've still got some tulips to plant too, so must do that over the weekend. Not going to bother with winter vegetables this year. Last year was not a great success. Although the spinach and leeks did well, the broad beans were a waste of time and the garlic was very small. If we're to have a very cold winter, and it seems likely, the effort of coddling plants along is too much for me, really need a heated greenhouse and that costs money so is not an economic propostition.
  One of my colleagues at work is having a mid winter Christmas dinner this year. Here in the Southern Hemisphere our Christmas comes in summer, so for a really authentic feeling Christmas we have to wait till mid-June, our winter. She decided to decorate her house with holly, so of course that had me singing The Holly and the Ivy, and pretending to be Good King Wenceslas looking out at the deep, crisp and even snow.

Hagley Park, central Christchurch, morning after snow.

Cranmer Square

Cranmer Square, a photo by Christchurch City Libraries on Flickr.

Yesterday in Christchurch. From Christchurch City Libraries photostream, this reminds me of The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe, and sexy little James McAvoy in his faun suit.

Marilyn Manson - The Beautiful People

Dumb and dumber

Not a good day. Started snowing as I went to work and continued on for most of the day. Hair-raising drive in to work with the windscreen fogging up and the snow blotting out my vision. Finally made it, but work really boring, basically adding up long rows of numbers. I got out of bed for this?  Come to the conclusion that numbers make me mentally ill.
    The Gardens were closed about 11.00 because of the danger from breaking branches. Could hear branches cracking under the weight of snow all across the park, like rifle shots only deeper. So of course this is the time that Mr and Mrs Numbskull decide to go out for a walk to see the snow. Tried to stop two people, but they chose to disregard me. Of course, I'm just some female Nazi trying to destroy their enjoyment. Probably nothing is more annoying than the wanton stupidity of the general public - put up a sign saying this area is closed and half of Christchurch makes a bee-line for it, just to assert their individual rights and brave refusal to conform to authority. Unfortunately, falling trees don't conform to any authority but that of the snow weight on their branches. If I tell you that the park is closed and that you should piss off home, then, guess what, dipshit, I might just be saving your worthless life. It gives me no pleasure to do so, and the human race would be smarter with you gone, but this is my job and I've chosen to do it.
    Got pissed off yesterday too. There's been a piece of old carpet floating around the street, probably from the people over the road who seem to have a business that involves bringing in a truckload of rubbish and then carting it off again after it has sat round their garden for a coupla months. So the old piece of carpet ends up against my fence and I have to dispose of it because the people whose rubbish it is don't give a shit about the street looking like a dump. They probably like the lived-in look.  So it's no longer their problem; they've made it mine. Clever. So I took up the ratty piece of carpet, screamed Fuck! at the top of my voice several times and deposited it in my red bin. I hope I get a reputation as the street's weirdo, the one whom it is not advisable to cross.
  And this is the species hoping to colonize Mars by 2023. We can't even get our shit together here yet, poor old Mars, we're comin' at you with a spaceship full of manky carpet!

Snow!

It's snowing right now in Christchurch, NZ. These photos just taken in the Botanic Gardens. Shows how snowlight  leaches the colour out of a scene, leaving it sepia tones or black and white. If I'd taken these in the evening the light would be blue

Swing Time - Rogers and Astaire

Time for some fun. Ginger is lovely, and did everything backwards and in high heels. Amazing.

Nothing much

Bit of a quiet day today. A very cold wind discouraged me from going outside and continuing the autumn/winter cleanup, so I stayed inside and cleaned out my writing desk. It's one of those places that I tend to shove bits and pieces when I can't be bothered putting them away properly or don't know what else to do with them. I know it's time to clean it out when I can no longer get the door shut. Stuff that I don't want immediately but think I might need in the future goes in there too, like voting papers for local elections, warranties for electrical appliances, loyalty cards, business cards, birthday cards, competitions I've entered but am unlikely to win, old job application rejections, aborted short stories, design ideas for the house/garden if I had a million dollars, etc. I've found that if I leave stuff in my desk for long enough, it all becomes past its use by date and can be safely thrown out. It's a sort of a filing system.
       It's a bit different at work. There we have filing cabinets and boxes of old paperwork that everyone is too scared to throw out in case it's someone's precious hoard of useless information. No one wants to be the dumb sap who threw out the statistics on how many tea-bags we used in the staff room in the 1963 financial year. Throw anything out in a communal situation and you're bound to hear "You threw it OUT! But I NEEDED it!"

       A friend has just posted on her facebook page that she cleaned her oven today for the first time in eight years. Atta girl, I wish more people would own up to the fact that they are not Superwoman. I love all those pics in the "Home and Garden" type magazines of lovely tidy clean rooms; so unrealistic, I wish they would show us the same room after a wet weekend when the whole family has been stuck inside. I'm tidy, but not clean. My theory is that if it looks tidy, it looks clean as well. This is OK as long as no one looks too closely. Hopefully, as a person gets older, the need to be perfect becomes subsumed in the need to take it easy; keeping a clean house is a lot of work, and often I just don't give a damn. When you're old, domestic dirt can always be blamed on senility, eccentricity or physical frailty. Or all three.