blogs
Rhubarb Flowers and A Normal Day
I don’t know how this normal day happened in the midst of our personal turmoil over John’s declining health. But it did. We had perfect weather that was hot with a blue sky and hardly a cloud, but ........
A Month Later
My mate has had a surgery to figure out what these things are in his brain. We finally got the answer and it wasn’t the one we wanted. Instead, we were told that this is incurable and very aggressive ........
Limbo Land
John had a biopsy on Monday morning. We’d driven in at the crack to get to the hospital early enough for him to be the 2nd one in the queue for a surgery. What a champion he is. He sailed through the ........
Last Tuesday Morning
It all started like an ordinary day. I heard John get out of bed but kept on snoozing. When he got back, I didn’t know how long he’d been gone as by then I was just deciding to get up myself and had b ........
Synchronized Pecking
My chickens were out in full force during the first few sunny days of Spring. Then the cold came back with rain, frost, and muck everywhere I stepped. But today the sunshine reappeared with very l ........
Somehow Spring Showed Up
This has been a tough year. But just on schedule Spring decided to make an appearance and I feel so grateful about that. There is something so cheery in every daffodil, not that we have many that have ........
It Snowed on Sunday
In the afternoon of a really freezing day in the last throes of a long, dark, dreary, windy and rainy winter, we finally had a late snowstorm. As I worried about the tiny lambs on the hillside in fron ........
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Washing Day With Ginger Girl
Our somewhat wild but somewhat domesticated cat, Ginger, Is full of surprises. She came here as a tiny kitten that had somehow been separated from her mother. Perhaps she still looks for her long ........
The Last Few Days
There’s only another week left in my mini vacation. But the last few days have been awful because in my zeal to help my daughter outside with some garden chores, I strained my back badly. Since then, ........
A Few Weeks Away
I booked flights for a much-needed visit to travel from our home in the South Island to my daughter’s home in the North Island. This was done a few weeks in advance of my travel but it didn’t turn ........
Eggs Not Available
We pass this white house on our travels to and from the nearest town. There’s only one other route out of here and that back way is all mountain passes on a steep and curvy shingled road that goes for ........
Legacy
On the fourth of July just past, my folks would have been married for 91 years since they eloped in 1933, a couple of days after my mother’s sister, Mary, married Bob, the love of her life. In t ........
Our Pussycat Doll
Ginger challenged us from the day she arrived here as a shriveled, weak kitten with a dull fur coat, a fraidy-cat who had a particular dislike of people in general. I wasn’t even sure she’d survive wh ........
Driving Through Clouds
We drove through the low fog that veiled our view ahead. The clouds covered the hills and dales with swathes of cotton wool making every vista seem rather surreal. The scenes were diffused with this l ........
Inside Out and Back to Front
I’ve been sick for the last few days and totally uninterested in writing much of anything. But every day I start out thinking that today’s the day I will take a bath and wash my hair, which has be ........
Catching Some Rays
My flock has quietly gathered together to infuse some well-needed solar warmth into their bones, which should stave off the worst of the frigid nights they spend in the tall pines. Animals aren’t the ........
Egg Cetera
Hey there. Our hens have decided to resume laying. Must have had a big powwow. They’d stopped suddenly a couple of months ago even though there was much more daylight during the slightly longer da ........
Dueling Dish Detergents
My husband and I have our preferences of which dish soap we use. Lately I’ve asked him to help me with the dishes, so he trotted out a soap he bought from a giant chemical company that doesn’t even bo ........
The Tomato Wars
My husband, John, noticed many bird-sown tomato plants just outside of our back garden, near the fence we grew tomatoes on the year before. He saw them because the surrounding large trees had been ........
Fair Weather Days
We’ve had some cloudless French blue skies in the past few days following freezing nights. With sharp sunny days that are almost balmy; windless days when the air feels so still and hardly a bree ........
Autumn Came On Early
I’m not sure where summer went in those last few weeks that often turn really hot, but autumn came on early, like the clappers. There we were enjoying our summery days and now we make fires inside ........
Penny’s Passing
I haven’t been able to express much more than furtive pleas to God to explain this to me. Why it happened so fast at the end when her children finally told us what was going on with her, when it w ........
The Old Plum Tree
This lovely tree has seen better days. It's like my sister, who is fighting for her life. She too, withstood many storms and hardships. The tree has also and there’s a side branch that is only hel ........
A Southerly Storm
Whenever it rains on the west coast of our island, we get a rainstorm the following day, here, on the east coast. It even makes it into our inland valley and is much appreciated because the tenden ........
Lazy Days in the Country
The past few days have been mostly hot, dusty and very windy at times. So windy that I run into the house every few minutes even though the biggest trees have been cut down. But it still sounds p ........
A Little Birdie Came Inside Today
All I planned on doing today was a good catch up in the garden. Although I haven’t been well, today I felt terrific and rushed around early to lug on my black gumboots and old raggedy, loose jeans ........
Our First Irises This Spring
Here Is another example of plants that just ignore us and grow perfectly well on their own. I must mention however, that I too, did the ignoring, as this is John’s area where he moved my iris plants a ........
A Neighborly Visit
Sunday morning was sunny and sweet. We had a lovely time catching up with our nearest neighbor, Joyce, who walked over with her little princess, Jaycee, bringing us a surprise cream cake. We hadn’t ha ........
A Strange Communion
Our Sunday was quite full and I was chilling out last night, listening to Melody Gardot sing incredibly haunting songs about relationships gone wrong. I was feeling the music. Her lyrics and presentat ........
Weeds and Other Miscellany
I’ve never been particularly bothered by weeds. I’m much more inclined to be bothered by gardeners who insist on spraying pesticides on them to tidy up God’s canvas. Well, guess what? It really doesn’ ........
From Soup to Nuts and More
The following blog was written a couple of months ago, just before we left the US, but it was inadvertently lost on my desktop and never published until now.I am the nut in this scenario but the soup ........
Power Plays
The weather is out of control, our control. We just suffer along with a series of events…this time it was a significant windstorm in our region. Of course, as Murphy dictates so often, our little plot ........
Changing Landscapes
This has been a hard couple of weeks. We’ve had a logging crew arrive to cut down some of our most prized trees that had become dangerously tall. Mostly though, the landowners here didn’t want to cont ........
A Lazy Day
Having been very industrious yesterday as much as humanly possible, I thought today would be similar in output. John and I had deep cleaned half of our bedroom, leaving much more to be desired hanging ........
Back Home Again
I flew out on a Wednesday, one week ago today. John picked me up but was so weakened by being sick for 2 months that I drove our car home. Knowing how much my husband prefers to drive and knowing how ........
Leaving Here
In a couple of days my vacation odyssey here will end and I will fly back home to Christchurch to be with John. I have missed him in these last few weeks but have also inserted myself into life here w ........
Babysitting 101
Julie and Phil rarely get out together without Elijah. So, since I’m here I suggested I could certainly watch him so they could go out for a meal and a movie. Thrilled to hear that, they took me up on ........
Swimming, Coffee and Shopping
Early Thursday morning we all traipsed outside to get ourselves over to the swimming pool at the sports complex. Elijah has been slow to gain confidence in the water but his coach gave him 100% of her ........
Sunday
We celebrated our New Zealand Father’s Day today with much hilarity. The gag gifts and great chocolate blocks seemed to put smiles on our faces aside from the incredible brunch my daughter prepared fo ........
Saturday
With a gorgeous sunny day in front of us, we piled outside pretty early in our rough outfits and gumboots to work on the land. I mostly watched until the afternoon when I helped Julie weed some awfull ........
Back Home in New Zealand
A few days after landing in Christchurch and sorting out the house and garden well enough to leave John there to get over the last part of his illness, I flew to the middle of the north island to visi ........
My Sister’s Closet
Coming from my New Zealand farm cottage built well over a hundred years ago that’s lacking storage space, of any variety, my sister’s roomy closet is a beacon of love and family memories amidst the ha ........
Pansy, the Wonder Cat
Penny and I went to the pound sometime around 2014. We were there for at least a couple of hours spent looking for one perfect purring pussycat. Pansy hardly purrs but she is quite perfect. We chose h ........
Leaving on a Jet Plane/NOT
We had to cancel our flights home to New Zealand. That was not exactly fun but after many convoluted discussions with our airlines I saved several thousand dollars in fees and rescheduled at the same ........
Life With Penny
Our trip took an unexpected detour when John got sick. Actually, he didn’t feel exactly right since deplaning from our overseas jumbo jet. Although we managed to enjoy our first two plus weeks as we s ........
Matey
My husband seems to be on the road to recovery and has even come out of our sleeping chamber, where he was holed up all day and night yesterday, to sit outside near the pool. He’s even getting the sli ........
Evolution
I seem to be the most relaxed around my sister in her gorgeous house in Manhattan Beach. With everything at our disposal inside and the serenity of the back garden pool that resembles a pond outside, ........
California Natives
Some trails are just ideal for discoveries. Others, not so much. The other afternoon after several wrong turns my husband and I and my sister, our local chauffeur, found just the spots to meander on t ........
Sanctuary
Visiting my sisters is my favorite pastime. Penny’s house has been home base for years. But next week we’ll be going to Laguna to stay with Joanie. And that too will be wonderful. They’ve moved from o ........
A Week of Limbo in Manhattan Beach
John and I have struggled somewhat after our long international journey from our freezing winter in the Southern Hemisphere to their moderate summer in the Northern Hemisphere, most notably in sunny C ........
Leaving Home
Some of us have to be pushed out of the nest. Others can’t wait to fly the coop. I did it to get married at 19. My mother never got over it since I was her last baby, born on her birthday. I finally u ........
New Life/New Loss
Joy seems to be quickly followed by despair in our lives. Maybe they are sisters.We were elated again to see a second brood of chicks hatch in front of our small front patio. They were comfortably ens ........
The Baking Soda Mystery
My schedule is crammed with endless chores to feed and water animals and plants and us. Doing just that is something that takes me most of the day, leaving little time to just sit and think. Or stand ........
Life in a Postcard
There’s a lot to be said about rural living. Being amongst the wild and domesticated animals isn’t for everyone though. We certainly have suffered from loneliness at times being so isolated from socie ........
Timing Is Everything
The last few days have been a bit hectic in our country bolt hole. I thought I heard the sweet little sound of baby chicks a few days ago and I was right. The next morning John saw some babies trying ........
Word Stew
I love words. They seem to say exactly what I want to say if I can find just the right ones to express the nuanced things I think about. I don’t believe that most people take that much time or care wh ........
Inspiration
My writing expresses the random events of inspiration that I pick up from daily occurrences here in the back of beyond. This inspiration is organic in nature and happens quite often in nature. When I ........
Winter This Year
The rain is returning tomorrow and for several days afterwards. I should be out on this sunny but very chilly day to finish off my pruning of the excessive lemon balm branches that have frozen and die ........
Cowgirls and Cows
My daddy used to take photographs of his three daughters but mostly of me. By the time he had all the equipment he used, the lights and camera and developing area, in what would later become a bathroo ........
Tomatoes Ripening
The tomato season officially ended about a month ago but the bushes in front of the house had grown so huge they protected the growing fruit from the nasty cold nights, until two days ago. The night b ........
A Quiet Evening
A couple of weeks ago during a very windy afternoon, our power went out, just as it was getting dark. Unlike a total outage, it flickered on and off first, giving John the impression that something bi ........
Velveteen Paddocks
One day, about a week ago, I happened to be outside in the late afternoon.It was a surprisingly sunny day and glancing at the paddock in the distance I was taken in by the quality of the light on the ........
Cabbages, Leeks and Garden Magic
Last spring, I planted way too many cabbages in my front garden. But they thrived despite being left on their own under wire structures that kept the chickens out. I photographed them as they got too ........
Faded Autumn
Returning home again after another full day out running around on too many silly errands, I notice with the darkness close how faded the fall leaves look. Everything seems to have lost its essence. Th ........
Autumn’s Last Gasps
What a strange year of mixed-up weather patterns and too much rain. I finally got a few things planted outside in pots that need to be repainted and/or repaired and or/tossed out. But once I put them ........
Positively Charged
I am an optimistic person. I see beauty and meaning in the smallest things, and I enjoy the silence of my alone time. But weather patterns caused by weather manipulations have destroyed many a sunny d ........
Feathered Followers
Wherever I go in the garden, I’m rarely alone. My birds follow me hither and thither, without skipping a beat. They think I’m going to open my big bag of tricks that has gardening supplies in it and f ........
Chicken Bonding
My chooks gravitate around me whenever I’m working in the garden. Being a sunny and warm day today, I definitely made progress on the planting front. Looking up from my intense concentration about whi ........
The Mystery of the Jade Plant
After a full day running errands in town and driving back in separate cars, John got a haircut and I went to visit his sister. We hadn’t caught up in a while so were busy chatting away and within a fe ........
Slipping Standards
I wasn’t always this disorganized. I didn’t always live on a paddock in the country. In fact, it was only when I moved lock, stock and barrel to New Zealand that my life changed irrevocably. I was hap ........
Bunnies At Bunnings
The world has gone mad. Chaos and crazy events seem to be happening at lightning speed almost everywhere. But in spite of that or maybe because of that, I’m happy to be in the slow lane rather than in ........
A Favorite Fantail
Whenever I go into the garden, I often hear the distinctive fluttering of a group of fantails hovering nearby. Their unusual frolicking as they dip and soar around the trees, makes me feel so very hap ........
Chicken Babies Just Before Nightfall
Everything gets very quiet around the place as night falls. It’s my favorite time of day. The frenetic pace of the day is replaced with calmness. There’s no apparent need to rush around. The dishes ca ........
Part Two/Getting the Golf Back Home
My driving is slightly off. I haven’t had much practice lately. With three Citroens and one VW, I should have honed my skills like a racing pro. ButI haven’t. I’ve really gotten used to having a drive ........
A Stunning Day Out
It’s late autumn. The countryside is losing a million leaves every few seconds. Slight exaggeration, I know, but that’s what it seems like. Every time I glance outside it’s raining leaves floating by ........
A Motley Collection of Walnuts
It’s that time again this year to retrieve the best walnuts from several trees on the property. John has pretty much cleaned up the majority of them near the house from the tree overhanging the rustic ........
Naked Ladies at the Mill
I really wasn’t expecting to walk inside the retail shop of the mill and encounter so many naked ladies. I was quite taken aback at first until my memory jogged into function and I vaguely remembered ........
A Frosty Morning and a Sunny Afternoon in the Garden
After yesterday’s miserable weather and bleak, dark chill, it was pleasurable to wake up to teeny icicles on the graceful red blooms of my pineapple sage. But I’m not sure it wanted to be frozen or if ........
Welcoming Party
We went out the other day and invariably whenever we get home in the late afternoon, around the chicken’s dinner time, there they are comfortably ensconced on my pricey wire table and chairs and other ........
Birthdays, Graveyards and Private Jets
My husband turned a year older on Saturday and our son came down to join in our celebration. After a long drive into Christchurch we ended up eating at a very lively little spot near the wharf at Lytt ........
Pumpkins and Old American Trucks
John took me to our annual A and P Show in our little township at the domain. We were only there a short time but long enough to drool over the coolest Ford and Chevy trucks I’ve ever seen, some of wh ........
Pals
There’s a strange dynamic going on between our three pussycat boarders. The old guy, who is definitely the king of the castle, is turning into a bit of a fruit loop at the ripe age of 17. So, he’s a b ........
Twilight Bloomers
No, I’m not referring to old ladies’ underpants. I’m talking about the flowers I admire around the garden that appear more dramatic as the light fades. Usually this is most apparent on gray days, mood ........
Spring Cleaning on the First Day of Autumn
I can never do things like most normal people. Not only am I six months late to do this horrid task, everything that I remove from one place and put in another place also is placed very carefully. Wha ........
Sheepish
Invariably, when John and I are on our way somewhere and are running late, a flock of sheep, 900 or so at last count, are blocking our way. On this last occasion we were headed home after a grueling d ........
Decay and Harvest
Many plants are dying back now. Most are finding these chilly nights way too hard to endure. I understand. My toes still haven’t thawed out from the snowy display on the hillsides nearby in our unseas ........
Stillness At Dusk
I’ve actually managed to rein in some of the many gardens around our cottage. But the further away I tread away from the house, the messier It gets. There is work to do in every corner. Countless grue ........
Car Crazy
My husband told me that there was another vintage car event at a local restaurant in the country. He goes along to these when they come up with religious fervor, usually for a beer and a hot dog at th ........
A Pony In Our Garden
Our neighbor stopped at our place for a quick visit while taking her little girl, Jaycee, for a walk, right past our house, on Miley, the pony. Her son accompanied them too, on his bike, with some ........
Daffodil Dreamer
We never had daffodils in our public spaces at Park La Brea in Los Angeles. Although we lived in the first group of garden apartments, townhomes really, a lowly weed would never have the nerve to po ........
Baby Chickens Roosting in the Front Rose Bush
I knew that this was happening on dry nights and so after three days and nights of constant rain, these particular youngins’ rediscovered that hacked out rose bush John mangled last month. I’ve seen t ........
Slim Pickins
This year, after relentless rain, our fruit and vegetable harvest has only yielded slim pickins’ despite countless attempts to tend to our plants with every known benefit for their enhanced growth. So ........
Seating Arrangements
My husband has been a driving force for me in the area of where to rest my laurels and Laurelees (my real middle name that I went by in school) in our many garden settings. He was instrumental in help ........
Green Tomatoes on the Vine/Red Tomatoes on the Windowsill
The wild birds are eating anything that starts turning orange. Vegetables are disappearing that I so lovingly planted and cared for and so I had to get ruthless. I now pick the fruit the moment it b ........
Obsessions
I actually believed that all the slightly odd things I did growing up, demonstrated my strengths rather than my differences. When I made up a game I played against the wall outside of our house, I ........
Thyme on My Hands
This springy plant has been thriving in my vegetable garden in the back-back for years. I have to get close to it and touch it, even when I’m not using it in any recipe. I think it just calls to me ........
Topsy Turvy Gardens
Our northwesterly winds kicked in again a few days ago causing much havoc and a headache from the howling that kept me up most of the long night. As windows and doors rattled and crashing noises cou ........
Fever
I happened to get some sort of tummy bug during our first real heat wave of this strange summer. And silly old me still persisted in the garden at the onset, foolishly thinking that it was just the ........
The End of Summer Garden at Dusk
We went into town today and didn’t come home until late afternoon. After all the putting away and cleaning up and eating dinner was all done, I went outside. My aim was to sweep the pathways that I’ ........
A Misty Morning
When I first opened my eyes today, the view from every window and French door was surreal. Clouded in fog, the front paddock was hiding from me dramatically but I was too tired to snap any perfect ........
Reflections
My garden and I communicate quite well. As I muddle around in my gumboots ever so carefully spraying water at the soil level of my thousands of plants, I have plenty of time to ruminate about my lif ........
Garden Jobs
On a sweltering summer day, the first in a long while, John dug up part of our back vegetable plot that had strawberry plants embedded in it. For this particular area he literally had to lie on the ........
Leek Seeds and Rose Cuttings
I harvested most of my leeks I grew in our antique clawfoot tub outside a couple of months ago but saved some of the woody stalks. They looked like pompoms on green poles to me so I placed lots of t ........
Timing IS Everything
We went out today for our last cat’s appointment for flea and worm treatment. She was an angel. Too bad she isn’t that docile at home. But after that we had to get some hardware items for some ........
Cabbage Patch Chaos
Our three groups of mother hens and their chirping broods take walks all around our various gardens. And when they do and I’m outside I have the mothering instinct to count my chickens. The largest ........
Life and Death A Week Out From Christmas
On a day when one chick hatched under a mother hen around the nectarine tree that was split in half years ago by a falling pine, I also discovered a dead chick in a bucket with a small amount o ........
Housekeeping and Other Anomalies
I’ve slowed down. Our pussycats have slowed down. Life has slowed down. I used to have my house cleaned by the time I got dressed in the morning. My first assignment would always be to make the ........
A Moody Afternoon
Although our weather has improved slightly with less rain and more warm days, it is often quite dark and rarely really hot but then it’s only the first couple of weeks of summer. Somehow, despite ........
A Reprieve
My dear old mate let the imprisoned chicks and mother hen out of the chalet mobile hen house. Every time we passed them in that small, contained area the babies were hiding under her and she looked ........
Small Surprises
This morning my observant husband brought me a self sown sapling of a walnut tree that had grown in an area covered with hay bales our neighbor gave us last season. So in that protected and som ........
Eggplant Parmigiana and Broccoli Heads Appearing
The eggplant Parmigiana appeared in my kitchen after slaving over a hot stove making slow cooked spaghetti sauce, using up some hamburger mince that I had in the fridge and whatever else I could scr ........
Living in the Middle of Nowhere Means
Any trip to town takes all day, no matter when we start.The weather at our destination is always different than at home. So, unless we bring a full wardrobe we’re usually boiling or freezing, or wi ........
Another Missed Thanksgiving Day
The last visit we made to my home state of California was finished before Thanksgiving in early November of 2019. After that it wasn’t possible to get back there for many obvious reasons, namely a w ........
Flowers Everywhere
Despite the sketchy weather with so much rain and some very cold winds, my flowerbeds are filling up with blossoms of all varieties. When I hear the howling wind during the night I worry that all w ........
Chicks and More Chicks
I guess we should have figured out by now that with all these roosters around there were bound to be more baby chickens than usual. It’s a catch 22 really. Last season’s babies had at least half mal ........
Roses Are Red and Yellow
After months of cold weather with excessive rain, our roses around the place are coming into their own. I’d almost forgotten how unusual some of them are, but they’re reminding me again with their ........
Gardening Days
I seem to be in the garden whenever the weather permits. Perhaps more so lately since I started but never finished tearing two rooms apart inside. It’s easier for me to procrastinate about those jo ........
Giant Cabbages and Favorite Blooms
Whenever life gets too complicated I walk around my different gardens to find my balance. I do a lot of walking lately. Here’s some of what I saw just today to bring me back to that sturdy litt ........
The Chicken, Duck and Unknown Bird Chronicles
Life’s been a bit harsh for our birdie population lately. Baby chicks primarily have been stepped on, but one has unluckily fallen through a wire chair that caused it to strangle itself and anot ........
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I Made Vichyssoise (All Day)
One might think making leek and potato soup is easy. I sure did before I started with the fiddly job of finding more leeks than the ones I’d picked a few days ago. Then of course I had to clean them ........
Our Irises This Year
With so much rain all year our irises have come in like gangbusters. I really hadn’t looked at them for a couple of weeks when they seemed to be close, very close to opening but never did. I had a b ........
Just Peony Roses
I love flowers, as you might have guessed by now. But there are certain ones that resonate with me and hypnotize me with their beauty and peonies might head that list. I personally have never grown ........
Pockets of Irises
In our travels around the various gardens at our kids’ property, I discovered a few of the hidden irises that had just opened to reveal their dramatic essence. Just over two decades ago, when we ow ........
Elijah, Rainbows and Peony Roses
Our trip up north went all too fast. We were picked up on Wednesday and dropped off on Tuesday at the airport in Palmerston North. Coming in was so much more enjoyable than going out, back to the s ........
A Happy Reunion
I really tried hard to pack a few days ahead of our impending flight on Wednesday. That was the plan anyway. But the weather only allowed for a smattering of hard slog in the garden and I must stre ........
Paradise
John has accompanied me today on this trip to the retreat my daughter and her family have discovered in the center of Hawkes Bay. The unique property they’ve chosen with this odd terrain of paddocks ........
The Dog, the Cat and the Chickens
Mochi decided early this morning that he was all tuckered out. So while I wrote one of my blogs about being in paradise here, he had a good sleep on the window seat with a spectacular view of the ga ........
Forget-Me-Nots and Little Chicks
The last couple of days are a blur of backbreaking gardening chores and little else. The inside looks like a depository for disparate items all on their way somewhere else. I’ve started projects her ........
A Mostly Beautiful Day Out
We’d been notified that our power was going to be turned off from 9 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon on Monday for line maintenance. So rather than dealing with that from home we decided to run ........
A Cat in the Catnip
John has made good use of my office baskets that I’ve purchased over the years from 2nd hand stores. They suit my files stuffed with important or not so important papers that I’m keeping for some un ........
Well Seasoned
When I first laid eyes on New Zealand in June of 1990 it was winter. I was so struck by the visual differences between this place and where I’d lived my entire life in Southern California. Mold form ........
Dandelions in Distress
Wouldn’t you just know it? After telling my husband how beautiful the dandelions were in the lawn, mister garden gnome himself started mowing them down. And this was after my mini lecture on the ben ........
My Salvation Garden
This past week we’ve had mostly miserable weather and we’re getting a doozy of a storm as today turns into tomorrow. 100% chance of heavy rain and very cold temperatures are coming sometime overnigh ........
South Pole Snow Flurries
Well this weather pattern just doesn’t quit easily. So for the last few days it’s been noticeably colder and yesterday’s rainstorm seemed to be a combination of raindrops and snowflakes. In some are ........
Sprucing Up the Garden
Some of us are slow on the take. I guess I fit into that category when it comes to my garden. It just dawned on me that we’re behind in our garden clean up because of two mitigating factors. One is ........
Leeks in the Bathtub
Several years ago John, the esteemed handy man living with me here in the middle of nowhere, took an old wreck of a tin bathtub home from a neighbor’s property. Apparently it’d seen many a hard yea ........
Our Animal Farm
John and I decided to have a day off from the endless gardening projects we’ve been stuck into on fine days. We had errands to run as per usual but this time we decided to treat ourselves again to a ........
Ten More Chickadees
There’s been an explosion of life around the place. From the flowers bursting open with their unexpected brightness on the darker days to the new growth on the lawns again. And in between the fecun ........
Nectarines Blossoming
I think we’re going to have a banner year for fruiting trees. At least I hope we do. We should have something to show for that last year of endless rain. And looking at the buds that have opened on ........
Another Cold Spell
It really seemed like we were done with winter. I sure am. But good old Mother Nature had other plans. So our last few days have been less than inspiring, leading me to find solace in the few stand ........
Crazy Chickens/Crazy Me
Many pets seem to match their owners and I usually can pick out which doggy belongs to which owner quite easily. Cats are a little different but chickens are impossible to synchronize with their hum ........
Plum Blossoms Appear
Springtime has always saved me from the darkest wintry moods. There’s something awakening in some form or another wherever I look and the plum blossoms that appear are like a salve for my soul. They ........
My Helpers
My husband has constructed a timber planter box. Unfortunately he took out some of my favorite plants to put this rather large thing right behind the front of our patio for maximum sunlight. At the ........
Elusive Lambs
The lambing season is still going great and luckily we’ve had mostly fine weather with only a couple of snowy days. One of the tricks of the farmers is to shear the ewes towards the end of winter, ........
Belted Galloway Cattle
I don’t know about you but I’m thrilled every time I find some of these cattle-beasts around. That’s what a friend of mine called them years ago, and it stuck with me. These belted Galloway bulls ........
Alpaca Lunch and You Bring the Dessert
The other day while out for a drive I made John turn the car around to see these creatures up close at a local farm. So I braved the cold and the soggy ground and the freezing wind coming off the ........
A Winter Day in Spring
I guess it’s Murphy’s Law that after a few gloriously sunny days we’dhave to suffer through another cold snap. Yesterday was that day. So John and I took off to run some errands in a nearby town r ........
Spring Forth
It is the first day of Spring Down Under and the first day of September. Our soggy ground however doesn’t know this news yet. There are still places on our lawn where we sink down into the mud as w ........
Venturing Forth
The husband person of this quirky household decided he needed to buy a battery for his newest toy, his VW Golf GTI. Although it already had a battery in it, he questioned its strength to provide a ........
Newborn Blues
A little just born triplet lamb was our surprise early morning visitor.One of the farm owners, Jan, cradled it in her arms because it was doingvery poorly indeed, having been the third lamb of the ........
Winter Wonderland
My husband drove us out of our snowy driveway and into the great beyond for some necessities of life. But before he did, he captured the view from the top of our hill, where we usually look toward ........
Snow Flurries Falling
I woke up this morning and the room was very still. The house was quiet and felt warm somehow. That was because we had an icy covering insulating us on the roof. A white hat of snow covered the cor ........
Lakes R Us
Our ponds that form every rainy winter and usually dry out by every normal summer, have turned into lakes. The largest one is behind our back garden where we grow artichokes and tomatoes an ........
Fond Memories
I really thought by now that we’d be off to America with many suitcases and high hopes to reconnect with family. My 3-week visit to see my daughter and family where they’ve relocated was a quic ........
My Last Weekend Away
I’ve been away for exactly 3 weeks. In that time I hardly did anything very constructive. Oh I wandered around their land and talked to my dear little grandson and laughed until I held my sides ........
Homemade Pizzas
My daughter was the executive chef at our vineyard restaurant and function center. She cooked her extraordinary delights of rustic French dishes for massive crowds at innumerable weddings we he ........
Being Away From Home
I’ve just completed my first week away from home and I’m taking it all in. I want these images to be seared into my memory. I want to savor them all over when I get home. I’ve longed to be here ........
Winter Cleaning Jag
I’m on a roll. I have dug up four vintage utensils that I stowed in my old Sparky gas range, that’s in our entry hall, and didn’t remember where I put them. I can’t remember if they were on the ........
Driving Through the Weka Pass
There are two main ways of getting into town. One leads just off our road on a winding and steep 32 kilometers of narrow shingled roadway that eventually ends up at the main south road into ........
Renovations and Reflections
The mountains behind the hills all around our neighborhood are now topped with snow. Winter started with high drama and very cold temperatures that rudely curtailed any more of my smallest gree ........
Three Weeks Away
On Wednesday I flew from the South Island to the North Island to visit my daughter and family at their new rural property. They moved from being only 5 hours by car from our cottage, to being ab ........
Our Outing on My First Monday Here
In New Zealand we’re enjoying a school break for these next two weeks. Thus many children, including my grandson, like to get together with friends for play dates. So I was happy to accompany my ........
Brrrr…….
It’s been a weird week. Weather kept us inside shivering most days. When there was a break in that stormy pattern, we made considerable progress outside but that only lasted a day. So our garde ........
Sunshine and Lollypop
This is the first real sunshine we’ve had since last Wednesday. Our grounds are saturated and new ponds cover the lower lawns, not to mention how our chickens are surviving the combination of f ........
Furry and Feathered Friends
Our lives revolve around our animals. Inside it’s our three pussycats and I’m the chef for their various meals. They eat at different times so I’m pretty busy all day with service. I run a cat ........
Winter Has Arrived
Our seasons start on the first day of the month in New Zealand and true to form, the day turned into a mini maelstrom. Although it started out calmly enough and with some sun, the forecast was ........
Home, Sweet Home
These photos were taken a few years ago with my 35 mm camera. I happened to find them in my fruitless search for another image for a recent blog I wrote a few days ago, and there are so many mor ........
Closet Calamity
Houses built a hundred years ago did not have an abundance of storage. People had fewer belongings than yours truly, who has single-handedly managed to collect a wardrobe that could dress an ........
Suitcases and Other Miscellaneous Demons
We arrive in Los Angeles with high hopes and a lot of luggage. And inevitably as the trip progresses we seem to accumulate a vast variety of items in direct proportion to our impending departu ........
QR Codes?
My husband was the first computer science graduate from his country.That’s something I learned about him years and years after we met, got married and immigrated here to New Zealand. That’s probabl ........
Deep Cleaning Blues
We are both trying to get the house into shape for winter, which seems to already be here, banging on the door. So my husband has a slew of awful jobs to conquer in horrid places like our attic or t ........
An Early Winter Storm
Winter, which officially starts down here in a week and a half, came early. This has happened with all of the last few seasons but I’m never prepared for the sudden onslaught in freezing temperatur ........
Farm Animals and House Pets
Until I was twelve years old we lived in a townhome complex with lots of regulations about pet ownership. So nobody there had a puppy or grown dog or a kitten, etc. I felt very deprived about that a ........
Full Lunar Eclipse in Scorpio
Aries male and Scorpio female trekked up the hill outside their cozy cottage to wait for the view of a lifetime. We went a few minutes early because we were informed that in New Zealand, part of th ........
A Late Autumn Afternoon
The air was surprisingly bracing today unless I was in the sunlight. I had some laundry to hang out and noticed some of the bright flowers along the way that were still, like good troopers, blo ........
A Spider in the Bath and Mice in the Cupboard
I really had another subject In mind for my blog today. But nature prevailed again and there was no getting around it. We couldn’t put this off. But again the cavalry rode in to save the day in ........
Washerwoman Revisited
Ah. Emergency solved. Out with the old and in with the new, almost new. Slightly pre-loved isn’t new but it’s new to us. Here at the House of Cluck-Cluck there is a lot of dirty dirt to wash out of ........
Mother’s Day Down Under
It was a quiet and dark autumn day today. My memories enveloped me.Eventually the sun did shine, on and off for the last hours of the afternoon. My dearest mother died in May of 1988, but she was lo ........
Washing Woes
All I can tell you is that my washing machine is having a very bad day.It actually started yesterday afternoon when I kept hearing a distant beeping like a truck backing up on the road. John had co ........
Uncommon Sense
Common sense and I hardly ever crossed paths. Although both sides of my brain do work pretty darn well, there are some things I just don’t get easily. In fact I often just improvise a la Lucille B ........
Shaq
There’s a special old guy that has been doing a lot of staring into the ether lately and it reminds me of how old we’ve both gotten. I probably do the same thing without even realizing it. I used t ........
On A Walk With John
Whenever I take the time to walk around this property, I actually accomplish more than if I’d stayed inside. There’s something so fresh and inspirational about the meandering pathways here and the ........
A Few More Late Bloomers
We had a cracker of a sunny day here today. Many of the almost dead flowers seemed to perk up suddenly, for some intensity of last minute blooms, sort of like a baby boomer bloomer. The sun was s ........
Cabbage Tree Down
With everything in the world turned upside down and inside out, I don’t know why losing this cabbage tree that was already dead, was such a big deal to me. Perhaps because John had a sculpture on ........
Autumn Days
We’ve had the strangest year of weather ever, that I can remember. Spring was disappointing but summer was worse, with so much rain and cold days, not to mention dark ones. So autumn moseyed on in ........
Ginger Girl Revisited
Our spicy little kitty cat has many different sides to her. I didn’t have the time or space to elaborate any further in my last blog, so here are some of her other traits. As she gets comfortable w ........
Ginger Girl
I’ve had so many animals since I grew up and moved out of my family home. I was making up for a childhood devoid of cats and dogs, kittens and puppies, since they weren’t allowed in our townhome d ........
Sanctuary
After owning houses of all descriptions, small, large, modern, traditional, even an historic home from the mid 1800s, and a couple of estates, one with an orchard and no house and the other with a ........
Invaders from the Nursery
Letter to my most aggressive plants:Please be advised that there will be a few changes around the garden coming up. A removal operation will occur sporadically on my whim, when the weather is cond ........
Family Matters
I’ve always felt lucky to have my particular family to love. That feeling of good fortune has gotten me through some tough times throughout my life, even though I haven’t seen most of my famil ........
Picking Wildflowers
My many vases inside need constant topping up with fresh water and a few new plants. I pick and choose the ones that look the worst and then scrub out the container and salvage any cut gre ........
Cosmos and Other Wonders
There is something about the lacy tracery of the foliage of cosmos that is so appealing to me at the end of summer going into fall. It’s as if there is hope after all for a smack of beauty when ........
Oh Honeybee
Yesterday, as I went out the French door of our family room to attend to some kind of garden job, I saw out of the corner of my eye that a honeybee was caught in the long silks from the grasses ........
A Flock of Fantails
When we moved from Southern California to the middle of the south island of New Zealand, I had no idea of the extent of the differences in the animal life here. Not only were there no squirrels, ........
A Cat and a Cockerel
There’s an old guy that follows me around and he isn’t my husband. There’s a young guy that follows me around and he isn’t my son but both creatures have that special quality to attract a ........
Chicken to Go
Now I’ll bet you thought I was advertising some takeouts or takeaway foods as they’re referred to here in New Zealand. But you’d be wrong about that title above. It’s just more about my little ........
A Special Houseguest
Our boy is home for his longest visit yet since he moved away.He left our nest right after high school for Massey University in Wellington and has never moved back to the south island. Although we’ ........
Plum Pie Number Two and Jailtime
First off I want to say that my kitchen cupboard cleaning job took its toll on me. Ten hours total time was spent bending down and picking up and washing thoroughly and putting away in a newly ........
Roses to the Rescue
I had one of those busy mornings from the time I got up until we left to go into town to run errands. Town in this case is over an hour from home when there’s no traffic or roadwork stoppag ........