A Hebridean in New Zealand

On Rain, Poetry and The Law.

2012-02-13T22:58:00.000+13:00

This has, by common agreement, been the most miserable summer here in Hawkes Bay that most people seem to be able to recall. Of course these statements are often made when the weather is miserable but there is absolutely no doubt that this is the most miserable summer since I first came here to New Zealand in 2005.

It has always been one of our family sayings that:

“The rain it raineth on the just
And also on the unjust fella;
But chiefly on the just, because
The unjust steals the just’s umbrella.”

I wondered this evening whether that saying was just a family one or whether it had wider provenance. Lo and behold I discovered that it was attributed to the English Judge, Lord Bowen (Charles Synge Christopher Bowen, Baron Bowen QC, PC (1 January 1835 – 10 April 1894)).

Now I wouldn't expect any of my readers to have heard of this august member of the judiciary however, as it so happens, the name was known to me. Why? Well when I read law one of the most famous and basic tests was that of the "man on the back of the Clapham omnibus". (The man on the Clapham omnibus is a hypothetical reasonable person, used by the courts in English law where it is necessary to decide whether a party has acted in the way that a reasonable person should.)

Who had originated this test? You guessed it: Charles Bowen as he then was as Counsel in the famous Tichborne Case.

As an aside Lord Bowen was no literary slouch either and amongst many other things translated Virgil's Eclogues, and Aeneid, books i.-vi.

More interestingly, for me at least, was another of his quotes: “When I hear of an 'equity' in a case like this, I am reminded of a blind man in a dark room - looking for a black hat - which isn't there” I just love that.

Having said all that, despite the dreary day and the rain, I played a game of Association Croquet this afternoon and played much to my personal satisfaction. Then I played a hugely enjoyable game of one-ball with my original AC mentor and at the end he won by the narrowest margin possible. We finished, wet and very happy.

I had originally intended to quote Longfellow's poem The Rainy Day but felt that it's tenor, though very apt in some ways, in no way reflected the joy and lightness of my mood. Nevertheless as I'd looked the words up to remind myself of them I shall quote them anyway:

The day is cold, and dark, and dreary
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.

My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the mouldering Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
And the days are dark and dreary.

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.

Tomorrow the forecast is for showers; Wednesday it's rain; Thursday and Friday showers. In fact the weather map is almost totally devoid of sun this week. The vignerons are getting worried.

Me? Tonight I couldn't be happier.

One Follower Less

2012-02-12T23:24:00.001+13:00

Although I have blocked quite a few followers on my blog (mainly potential spammers) I've never found a way to un-follow someone else on Blogger so I was a bit puzzled today when one of my followers disappeared. In itself it's not important but curiosity means that I'd like to know! It's not the first time it's happened either as I realised when I read my post from January last year.

Now That's a Hedge

2012-02-12T23:02:00.000+13:00

There are two quotes from modern films which come into my mind fairly frequently:

The moment in Pretty Woman as Vivian gets her own back on the rude shop assistant:

1. Shop assistant: “Hello, can I help you?”
Vivian: “I was in here yesterday, you wouldn’t wait on me.”
Shop assistant: “Oh.”
Vivian: “You people work on commission, right?”
Shop assistant: “Yeah.”
Vivian: “Big mistake. Big. Huge. I have to go shopping now.”

The second was from Crocodile Dundee when Mick Dundee and Sue are accosted by a knife wielding mugger and Mick says "That's not a knife. That's a knife." in this sketch.

Well when I was driving back from Tauranga a few weeks ago I stopped in the Te Puke area and realised I was enclosed by hedges around the Kiwi fruit orchards. In fact hedges like this are common in the fruit growing areas of New Zealand which includes, of course, Hawkes Bay where I live. Anyway it occurred to me that when in the UK we talk about our hedges an appropriate reply would be: They're not hedges. These are hedges:

How To Spend Saturday

2012-02-11T15:50:00.000+13:00

After my irritating episode yesterday when I deleted a couple of posts, I received a message from Fiona to say that she had rescued the Myna Bird post from her Google Reader because it had not at that time refreshed and deleted it. However the 'Legs' one had gone. In fact it had gone from Facebook's Networked Blogs too and had, effectively, disappeared never to return.

However my saviour for that post came from Mark, my Nepthew-in-law, who wrote the blog search program Postvorta and who knows about the dark arts behind computers that most of us can only wonder about. Apparently my Postvorta had not re-indexed since the deletion (if I understand it correctly) and Mark was able to rescue all the text from it.

So today I am an exceedingly happy bunny and have re-constructed the two posts and the comments made on them.

Some people today will have done great things: finished their magnum opus, discovered a cure for an illness, re-invented the wheel or saved a life or, perhaps, just achieved a personal best on the athletics field. I've re-constructed my blog. I am easily pleased!

I should have been out on the croquet lawn this afternoon playing a match in the hot summer sun. As it is it's rained solidly all day and the match has been postponed until tomorrow.

So for the second day running I've been catching up round The Cottage, in Blogland and Computerland. The children, on the other hand are not on their play-stations or whatever - they are in the pool despite the rain - the water temperature yesterday was an almost bath-like 30℃.

I've also started using Blogbackupr.com to back up my blogs constantly instead of my supposedly monthly back-up to my own computer. For someone who is a fanatical backer-upper and who keeps on and off-site backups I certainly failed when it came to the blog backup.

Well, That's a Bummer!

2012-02-10T17:59:00.001+13:00

I have a habit of starting posts and then leaving them in the Drafts folder for a rainy day. I have one such post on which I decided to do some work today - it's quite a detailed post and I wanted to get the information correct and then shorten it. I discovered that I had 71 posts in the draft folder. So I started looking to see what was there. Some went back almost to the start of the blog. I had a look at a few and they had all already been published. Then I got to one that hadn't. I read it and went back to the drafts, or so I thought. In fact it defaulted to the 'All'. I saw what I thought were duplicated posts still in draft and deleted them. Bye bye. They are gone for ever. And they were not drafts. So 'The Myna Bird' and 'I'm A Leg's Man' are no more. I can easily re-do the Myna Bird but the Legs post is more difficult because I can't really recall all that I said and I really really don't like re-doing things I've already worked on.

The family are coming for dinner. I shall go an sort things out - the Beef Stroganoff is in the slow cooker. I think I shall just pour myself a wine....or two.

Thankful Thursday

2012-02-09T21:16:00.001+13:00

I try and do a Thankful Thursday post every week for two reasons: to remind myself of the fortitude of Jaz (who started Thankful Thursday) and Mark Treacy as they live with the affects of Jaz's brain tumour and to remind myself of just how fortunate I am compared with the vast majority of the world's population. I think that we often forget that if we are reading this blog we are are likely to be within the to0 5% in terms of world wealth. If we own a computer and are on the internet we have food, drink and a roof over our head (or should it be heads?).

As I have said before (though some of you mightn't have heard it) I often feel like Liz Taylor's seventh husband on their wedding night. I know what I have to do but I have no idea how to make it interesting.

This afternoon, after almost a week of very indifferent weather (this is Hawkes Bay and nearly the sunshine capital of New Zealand), the sun shone. With the sunshine came the call of the Tui from the huge Poplar Trees in the paddock, the Bellbird from some unidentifiable source and a myriad of birds whose calls always fill the bowl in which I live. And with the coming of the sunshine my heart gave a huge leap and I was happy.

For that I am thankful.

I hope that, today, you too have something as simple which makes you thankful.

Myna Bird

2012-02-09T06:30:00.000+13:00

In Hawkes Bay and north ofhere in The North Island lives a non-native passerine from Asiacalled a Myna Bird. It's not to be confused with theCommon HillMyna (often spelt Mynah in the UK) although they are, I think,both members of the Starling family. The Myna to which I amreferring is very common in the neighbourhood and for someinexplicable reason spends a lot of time feeding on the roadsides init's habitat areas. It struts around the croquet lawnsand the paddock in front of The Cottage. From the photo you getno idea of its size which is about 24cm or just under 10inches long.