All's Quiet at HeeBeeGeeBeEs

When I came home late this morning after being knocked out of the Croquet Club's Handicap Singles, Marsha and Callum had left for Palmerston North and Wellington. The Cottage is quiet and empty. I shall miss them, their company, Marsha's cooking, Scrabble and films.

I can, of course, watch films on my own it's just that I would probably watch different films and fewer of them. My way of watching a film is to sit at my computer and do what I am doing and just pay attention when something interests me or I need to watch to keep up with the plot. I concentrate on the computer when something upsets me or irritates me or bores me. I am the worst person in the world with whom to watch most films - as Steve (an avid film fan and buff) will tell you.

I can, of course, cook for myself and I do. It is easier, though, to cook interesting things for three than for one. One thing is certain: I shall eat less! No more pancakes with ice cream and chocolate sauce all evening! I have a waistline to consider.

I decided after putting two loads of washing on the line to have a lazy afternoon. A wash cycle takes 35 minutes and by the time the second wash was complete the first wash of sheets and shirts etc had dried! The second wash of towels took very little longer. The wind is strong and warm - more efficient (and a lot cheaper!) than a tumble drier.

I finished reading McCall Smith's The Right Attitude to Rain. The key to contentment in the Scottish climate is the right attitude to rain - just as the key to happiness lies in making the best of what you have.

I should take the bike and go and get some exercise but, to be honest, I'd rather stay and read John Mortimore's Titmus Regained (sorry CJ but my reading at the moment is decidedly easy on what passes for my brain) with a gin and tonic in the sun and then, when the news comes on at 6pm, do the mountain of ironing that now awaits me.

And, yes, I do realise just how lucky I am.

The Cottage: A Different Perspective

I have lived here for over three months and had not, until a few days ago, been into the paddock in front of the house or over to look at the orchard. Everything looks quite different from down there. Oddly the apple trees look much smaller than they do when viewed from the house.

It's Installed!

I arrived home yesterday afternoon and the first thing I noticed as I drove up the drive was the absence of a coil of black wire. Telecom had, true to their word, connected the phone. So my phone is now working!

Today's task is to get an internet provider.

Phone Update

Well I am one step nearer having a phone. Today (Tuesday) Doug the Digger Man sent a digger with the appropriate attachment and when I got home this evening the cable had been laid. Telecom have said that the line will be connected on Thursday afternoon. I'll then have to set up an internet account to get on line but it's all looking very helpful. Watch this space.

Solar Heating

The Cottage has a solar water heating system and very efficient it is too. When I came the system had only just been commissioned and the water temperature was 24 deg. It went up to 29 deg on the first day (which was dull and overcast). I used the electric boost to get it to 45 deg. It now stays between 65 and 75 deg without using any electricity.

Until one day that is when it blew it's top. When I'd left in the morning, despite a very long shower, the water temperature was at 85 deg. Well the system soon gets alarmed at that and apparently - I wasn't here but the digger driver saw it all - it suddenly vented and the Cottage looked as though it was steam driven. I'm told the venting was quite spectacular.

It must have got rid of a lot of water because the temperature was down in the low 50s when I got home and dropped to 45 by late evening and then dropped more over night. It subsequently increased again and now seems to keep between 60 and 80 deg. How often it vents though I don't know.

Wet, Wet, Wet

No. It has nothing to do with a pop group or rock band (whatever Wet, Wet, Wet is). I had decided that this weekend would be a good time to give an update on the landscaping around the Cottage. However I hadn't imagined that the rain would have been so persistent. In fact it's the first real rain I've experienced since I arrived (I have seen the odd showerlet before but that's all).

Anyway, undeterred, I have photographed the front of the Cottage and the Paddock all of which have been seeded and (although it's not immediately obvious) had hundreds of plants planted. It will be interesting to see what it looks like in another couple of weeks.

My Bedroom

The Landscaping Begins

When I think of the years and years it took me and a barrow and rake to move tens (how many tens I have no idea) of earth to landscape the garden at Tigh na Mara it makes one wonder why one did it that way and only used a small digger to move stuff towards the end of the project. A few days ago a Big Boys Toy came and moved many tens of tons of clay and topsoil and landscaped the area round the Cottage. It took a day.

Yesterday and today Wendy and Martin have been raking, sewing seeds, planting plants, putting in irrigation, putting back the paddock fence and working so hard to finish the area off. The change compared with the area as it was four days ago is almost unbelievable.

Hopefully by the end of the summer it will be unrecognisable.

What's in a Name?

The Cottage has a name. It was named before I arrived here but the plate has just been varnished and I put it up last evening.

So why HeeBeeGeeBeE's? Well apart from the very obvious GBE and the terrible pun the H B is for Hawkes Bay hence Hawkes Bay GBE's.

So the car has been named The Handbag, the Cottage has been named HeeBeeGeeBeE's. What next?

The Cottage: Living Room and Kitchen

I thought it was about time I started introducing you to my living quarters. So here is the first instalment. The central room in the Cottage off which all others open is the integral lounge, dining area and kitchen.

A Life More Natural

When I arose this morning I felt cold. The temperature outside was 14 deg. I'm not sure what it would be inside but as it was dull and overcast so I don't suppose it was much more. There didn't feel much difference when I stepped onto the deck. Since I caught 'The Bug' I've tended to feel cold most of the time anyway. At Petanque yesterday a Scot by birth but a New Zealander for much of her life remarked that I was letting the side down showing that I was cold (I was wearing a sleeved fleece on top of my body warmer) and that, coming from such a cold place (she was an East Coaster), I should be finding this weather very mild. The odd thing is that she should be correct but she isn't. And I think that I have now worked out the reason.
New Zealanders are much more in tune with their environment. Few houses have double glazing. Few houses have central heating as we know it in the UK (I've not come across a single one). The Cottage has double glazing and air conditioning. It was the first ever made by the Company to that specification. At the Hawkes Bay Show it was a source of considerable interest.
It is not as if New Zealanders are not conscious of insulation and saving the planet. In many ways they appear far more aware than we are in the UK. But it's not that that makes me think they are more in tune with their environment. It is the fact that they live nearer to it. I will try and explain.

In Lewis my house is well insulated, has double glazing as a matter of course and central heating and the inside is generally kept at around 20 degrees in the living areas during the daytime and warmer in the living room in the evening when I am relaxing. That is almost always warmer than it is outside. I would consider my house far too cold if the temperature were to be 14 deg during the day.

Here, if the outside temperature is 14 deg (ignoring the wind-chill factor) then generally speaking it appears to me that the inside temperature will be 14 deg or perhaps a little warmer. If it gets much colder then people put more clothes on. If it gets hotter then they take clothes off or use different clothes (shorts rather than long trousers for example). Obviously in the UK we do the same to a certain degree but to nowhere near the same degree.

We don't adjust to the environment. We adjust the environment to suit us.

Last year I had absolutely no problem becoming a 'New Zealander'. I'm finding it harder this time but now that I think I've found the reason adjusting should be easier!

A Roof over my Head: Part 6: The Cottage

When European settlers came to New Zealand they built houses with verandas. Sometimes they went right round the house and sometimes they just covered the front. Houses were, following the European tradition, usually built facing South where possible. They were usually built of wood. However, because they were built facing South the front of the house rarely got any sun. This is very noticeable with houses in Auckland which have survived from that period.

Wendy's idea for this Cottage was that it should look like the original homestead on the land with their house being the later addition as the family fortunes increased. This is not an uncommon pattern. The colour of the Cottage was likewise chosen to replicate the early rural houses.

In this case there is one big difference: the Cottage faces due North and therefore gets the sun all day. This, of course, is predicated on the Sun actually being visible - which it certainly was not yesterday morning! It gets the sun on the East end (which is my bedroom) in the morning and it sets on the West end (spare bedroom and study). The deck (veranda) is covered by the roof and in midsummer when the sun is hottest it is also at its highest and the deck is largely in shade for most of the day.

The land is due to be landscaped over the next week or so and a lot of the soil mounds which are visible will be moved around and the drive will be levelled. At the moment a vehicle with high ground clearance is needed. Whatever assets The Handbag does have ground clearance is not one of them.

So that's the outside. Soon I'll give you a tour of the inside.

A Roof over my Head: Part 5

I am hoping that tomorrow I will manage to post some photos of the Cottage. In the meantime here is a taster looking up Wendy and Martin's drive to their house (top left) with the cottage nestling below it to the right:

My first night

At night the Cottage feels very isolated. There are no lights visible from any window and no light pollution. To stand on the deck (the verandah) is to invite molestation from the myriad of beasties attracted either by outside lights of the Cottage or the lights through the windows. There are no vehicles and the Magpies which bounce around on the roof by day have gone to bed. Wendy and Martin's house is no more than 50 metres away but it is totally invisible. All is still. All is peace.

My head hits the pillow and I am instantly transported into 5 hours of deep, deep sleep.
Whether it is my personal call of nature or the call of the blackbird singing outside my window that wakes me at 0520 I'm not sure. But I return to bed and listen (despite the double glazing) to the incredible cacophony outside. The countryside can be a very noisy place. I fall asleep again to wake at 0645. I have to be up because the Council Building Inspector is calling at 0715 to do an inspection. Yes 0715, really. And he was a few minutes early!

He goes and I sit on the deck with my Muesli and contemplate my world and the day to come. There is so much to do, so many people to see, so many calls to make. I count my blessings.

Je suis arrivé

As I write this it's nearly midnight on Thursday which means that it's nearly eleven o'clock in the morning for those of you in the Uk who are reading this. Well it was when I wrote it. Unfortunately it will be a while before it's actually posted to the Blog. Why? On Tuesday Wendy left for the Practice in the sure and sound knowledge that the NZ Telecom engineer who had come to join the Cottage to the cable that had been previously laid (by NZT) would have the job finished and she'd come home to a cottage with a phone line. He did after all give her the new number. Suffice to say sometimes things appear to go just too smoothlyand the Cottage still has no phone and no internet.

Unfortunately mobile phone coverage around the Cottage is also sparse to say the least because of the hilly nature of the land. So sitting here in the Cottage I'm pretty cut of from the world at the moment. Many would count that a blessing. I'm afraid I'm not one of those people. So my intention is to write the Blog and download it tomorrow.

It was a wonderful feeling as the Dash 8 circled the whole of Napier before touching down at the Airport. There is something about flying into a place and recognising everything which makes me feel very much part of it.

I must have slept on the plane during the two nights I've been on it. The advantage is that I arrived without any trace of tiredness. The disadvantage is that I didn't read much of my book. In previous journeys I have read the whole 700 pages of books like Wild Swans.

I took Frazer to the Gym and went into Napier. It was as if I'd never been away.

A few minutes ago I was wide awake despite all the travel. Whilst I've been writing this Blog I've had a glass of Pinot Grigios (the first since fizz at dinner at Wendy and Martin's to celebrate) and am feeling quite tired. Bed beckons.

A Roof Over My Head: Part 3

The Cottage has arrived. It is on site. Just to keep the appetite whetted here is a photo of the back of the roof from the drive to Martin and Wendy's house (off to the left) . The view of the orchards visible over the top of the Cottage is the view from its veranda and main windows.

A Roof Over My Head: Part 2

I had a text from Wendy this morning. "Looked like trench warfare yesterday in ur driveway. But electric cable and phone cable in today and trench back filled. Water and sewage in progress. Weather awful. On holiday until Tuesday. R u packed?"

This weekend is the Hawkes Bay A & P Show http://www.hawkesbayshow.co.nz/. Last year I took the children. I shall miss that this year. The Cottage is going to the Show as a showhouse for the manufacturers. After the show it will be brought to its new home.

A Roof Over My Head: Part 1

Last year I lived in a cottage on the outskirts of the centre of Napier. It was one of the cottages at Riverbend Family Lodge http://www.holidayhouses.co.nz/properties/3169.asp and had much to commend it: not least of which was Greg and Kendall's friendship and help. It was very handy for Petanque and just a short step from the Croquet Club.

This year Wendy and Martin are having a cottage put in their 'garden' and I shall live there. Mind you their 'garden' runs to 5 acres and is what is known in New Zealand as a 'lifestyle plot'.

The Cottage (the name of my new home will be revealed in due course) is to be built below the house and where the avenue up to the house joins The Paddock:

The Cottage is not built on site but in a factory and brought to the site on a lo-loader and craned into position. The Cottage has been built and will be brought to the site in a week or so. In the meantime the founds have been dug, the piles set and the services brought to the site.