BACK IN THE SADDLE…

…and trying to stay on the bucking horse.

Well, let’s start with my header image. About ten years ago several of us were posting daily sketches to each other and this is one of mine. Just water colour on a scrap of paper; I was trying to catch the drama of an approaching storm.

No storm today. But it is windy. [insert as many expletives as you like…I’m too busy planting things]

Mostly, herbs and cuttings that have languished since summer! I don’t want to go overboard as the plan, now very much long-term, is still to go back to NZ. But that’s going to be dictated by the pandemic.

In the meantime…I am sifting through photos and looking at the garden centre offerings because The Great Garden Photo Show and Tell is fast approaching. Yesterday, I popped across to The Inexplicable One’s place, as he’s now hosting this jolly flower fest. I think the expression, “lift your game”, applies particularly to me. le sigh…

Here’s a cat-herb combo, just to get us in the mood…

I’ve been faffing around with this “new” format and it’s doing my head in! I expect I’ll get used to things and will eventually figure out how to write a simple post without inadvertently including weird instructions…

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HOME AGAIN!

Yes, I’m back in balmy tropics. Or am I just barmy?

It was a short trip home to celebrate a birthday (not mine-I’ve stopped having them!) and to see some old friends. There was wine-tasting, wine drinking, wine buying. And food. And a new game involving some very old people trying to identify themselves in some very old photographs. Fabulous weather and trees still wearing their autumn finery.Did I mention the wine?

It was still very much “hot summer nights” when I left https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kji0iO4bwMw&feature=kp.

A scant week-and-a-bit…I returned to teeth-chattering chill. Wha’appen?

And it was a sad home-coming,too. Blue Eyes is gone. Just a spider. And a common one at that, but I felt tears welling when The Man told me. There is a huge tear in the web so we are guessing a bird got her.But, damn! I’m upset. sniff…UPDATE! The Man called me, a few minutes ago, to see something…a new Nephila web!Complete with owner.Perhaps not Blue Eyes, but, still…Insert mental image of two old gits doing happy dance down the driveway!

And I missed some herpetological drama, too. Mr. Next Door looked out his kitchen window and saw this…

 

So he rang The Man and The Man rang The Snake Man. And lo!The Snake Man did hurry forth, with his snake equipment *

And here is a picture of the Three Brave Men trying to determine what the snake had eaten.**

 

Perhaps it was the snake I saw on our roof a few weeks ago? Nobody knows, as they say on QI.

Do I have photographic evidence of my having been absent from my post? Maybe. The camera is still in its case. There is a more pressing matter to be addressed.Lu-ceeeee….!

 

 

*old pillow case

** probably a plover

OLD MEMORIES COME TUMBLING OUT…

It’s been a strange few weeks Chez Dinahmow…  I’m still processing photos and memories from my recent trips. And trying to catch up with all the things I just left un-done.

And then… The Man had a week in Auckland to celebrate his mother’s 90th birthday.

I would have liked to be there, too, but we couldn’t get a house/cat sitter.*

And while he was there, all manner of family memorabilia came to the top. There’s nothing like moving house  to have a really productive chucking-out of junk, right? And one of his brothers has done just that.Some old photos made their way into the portmanteau.

From our former home,1989. This flood closed roads for several days, though it doesn’t seem much in this picture. But certainly enough for me to do my Gene Kelly act! (In great big gumboots, yet!)

No, he was NOT wearing a wig! Can’t remember the occasion, but possibly a party!

This I do remember. The year we both notched up the half-century. 

And I took this in 1981, a few weeks before we moved to live in Australia. The gate on the left leads to his family farm.That mountain in the background is Titiraupenga. 

And back to 2013…Among the many things that need to be done is arranging to have six  trees removed. Do you have any idea how sad that makes me feel? Six trees! All now far too tall for our small garden and two of them a threat to fences. So I’ve had some quotes and the job is slated for October 23. 

Ringing any bells? No? Well, it’s the blogiversary.  Perhaps I could offer some murdered trees…Well, I’d better think of something, hadn’t I?

Here’s a picture of the one I think I’ll miss the most. A lovely Casuarina. I’m going to miss the sound of soughing. And the opportunity to use the word “sough.”

* Geiger was diagnosed with diabetes while I was in Europe, so we didn’t want to put them in a cattery and our neighbour who usually feeds them was away. The cats have something to say about it, of course!