Thankful Thursday: Home

The subject of 'home' has raised its head a number of times recently but it was SP's post Home Sweet Home which made me think about it more earnestly than usual.  Where is 'home'?  For me home is where I am comfortable with myself in my surroundings.  That's easy for me to say because I've only lived in six places in my life and three of those were fairly transitory in the early '70s when I married and before we moved to the Outer Hebrides.  Except that it's actually seven because now I live in two places: Scotland and New Zealand or, more specifically, Lewis and Napier.  

People often ask me which place I'd rather make my permanent home.  The answer is that as I don't have to make a choice I don't think about it and as I don't have residency in New Zealand the longest I can stay is 9 months at a time anyway.  However I choose to stay 6 months here and 6 months in Scotland (and France and....).  I used to say that if someone pulled up the drawbridge I could live happily in either place but most of my closest friends (excepting my NZ 'family') are in the UK (and those in Canada and elsewhere are in neither home country anyway).

Choosing Lewis is not as simple as that of course: old friends have retired away from Lewis; I have made new friends who don't live on Lewis; very important friends still live on Lewis; and my son Gaz is building a house on Lewis.  The list of considerations is endless.  And there will come a time when I can't gallivant and stay where I wish and see whom I wish and Lewis is a long way from anywhere else.

Some people talk of going back to their roots but I do not know a single person who lives in the city of my birth.

I love Lewis.  I love New Zealand.  I love Glasgow (Well that's pushing it.  I could never live in a city but I enjoy it when I'm there.).  I love France.  I love Canada.  I am happy in the skin that I'm in and I love being wherever I have the privilege to be.  I'm lucky because for the moment I can choose.

For that I am thankful....very thankful indeed.

Home in New Zealand: The First Day Back

Standing on the deck of The Cottage when I arrived was like I'd never been away. 

Lewis might have been another world, another life.  Oh yes.  Lewis is another world, another life.  Physically and mentally this life is completely different from my Lewis life.  My life in New Zealand is, ironically, much more ordered and I'm tied to the routine of commitments which I don't have in Scotland.  For a start there is the routine of croquet which occupies at least four mornings and three afternoons a week assuming that I play on every occasion.  Then there's all the tournaments to be fitted in which usually involve travelling and staying away from Napier with 'The Girls'.

I used also to play pétanque on three afternoons but in those days I didn't play afternoon croquet to the same extent.  Now my pétanque has been abandoned.

A friend, Mike, had been staying at The Cottage for the weekend playing at a tournament at the croquet club so Sunday night was spent catching up over the odd glass of red or two.  

0514 Monday morning and I was wide awake.  Why?  The dawn chorus: definitely not a Lewis phenomenon.  Started emptying The Cupboard and getting The Cottage back to my normality.  Played croquet on a perfect afternoon.  It's a shame the croquet wasn't quite so perfect but then I haven't played for 6 months so I will give that excuse for my rustiness.

I tried to do this post but Blogger wasn't cooperating.  In fact it's not cooperated until this morning - Tuesday - when I not only was woken by the dawn chorus but decided to get up and get on.  After all it's croquet at 0930.

I Live in a Bowl

I live in a bowl.  Not a goldfish type of bowl you understand.  A geological bowl or basin resulting from hills forming a circle with a depression inside.  I share the bowl with lots of native and introduced trees and a large quantity of apple orchard trees and all the assorted animals, birds and bugs that inhabit them.  Amongst those is a family of Australasian Harriers who appear to live in one of the large conifers where they regularly return after a foray but the books say that they build their nest on the ground or in bushes like toitoi (pampas grass).

Anyway around 9 am there was a terrible animal scream very close by.  I went to the ranch sliders and looked out into the paddock and orchard.  There 20 to 30 metres in front of me were three Australasian Harriers (presumably hen, cock and offspring) obviously just having caught something.  My camera was a metre away and was in my hand before a second had passed.  As I switched on and adjusted the lens the heavens opened and the light disappeared and the autofocus wouldn’t.  The hawks took to the air with their kill.  Result no photos of one of the best opportunities I’ve had here in five years to get them in flight.

A short while later two Fantails were cavorting in front of The Cottage.  Again my camera was no more than a metre from my hand.  Fantails are happy creatures with no real fear of humans but on this occasion the second I started filming they flitted off to pastures new.

I always keep the camera on my car passenger seat so on the way back from lunch (no croquet, the weather saw to that) when I came across a hawk on a post at the side of the road all I had to do was stare him out and click.  But no.  On this occasion I’d stopped at a shop and put the camera in the boot of the car and not retrieved it afterwards.  The hawk and I stared at each other.  He knew! 

Home again I opened the ranch sliders and there on the clothesline was one of the most magnificent Kingfishers I’ve ever seen.  I walked slowly inside.   The camera was at hand.  I poked my nose out and was just about to click the shutter when off he darted.

Home again I opened the ranch sliders and there on the clothesline was one of the most magnificent Kingfishers I’ve ever seen.  I walked slowly inside.   The camera was at hand.  I poked my nose out and was just about to click the shutter when off he darted.

The Fantails were back this evening and one actually came within a foot of my face.  That's not the first time that's happened.  It's magical but not a photo op!

It’s definitely been one of those days.  The sort where everything should go right because there’s nothing to go wrong but somehow it doesn’t quite turn out that way.  The best picture I managed today was of one of the harriers over the orchard so I thought I'd show you that anyway.

Australasian Harrier (Kahu) Circus Approximans

Home Again, Again.

I arrived home late this afternoon and decided to make a list of that which I had to do before renewing my acquaintance with my friends in Blogland.  I settled down to a coffee with pen and paper in hand.  Leastways that's what I intended to do.  First, I thought, I'd just put the washing in the machine and unpack and....  Well you know how it is.  Before I knew it it was nearly 9pm and time to pop up and see Wendy and catch up with all the news.  Then I returned and had a long chat with a friend who's off to Oz.  And during all this time the hard drive on which all my photos are stored threw a hissy fit (sorry CJ but you won't be reading this anyway!) and decided not to allow the computer to read it.  There is a back-up of course but I decided a further spare copy would be a good idea.  That's still a work in progress.  Then Picassa updated itself, corrupted and stalled bringing the backup and computer to a full stop.  What is it with computers today?

Friends of The Family from the UK are coming to stay  in my spare bedroom tomorrow.  They are on a tour of NZ.  Why, oh why, did one of the furry creatures decide to cover the heavy quilted duvet cover on the spare bed with muddy footprints?  It must have happened before I went away but I hadn't noticed.  It's now washed and after 10 days of solid sun rain is forecast for tomorrow!  I'm hoping there will be enough sun and wind in the morning to dry it before it rains.

 

And now it's on it's way to 35 minutes past midnight and I've not even read a blog.  Ah well there's always tomorrow.  Leastways I hope there will be!

Flowers To Welcome Me Home

I've said this many times before: I love flowers.   Often when I come home Wendy has been down and there are flowers on the table.  They are all from the garden.  After all you can grow a lot of flowers in 5 acres!  Anyway when I came home yesterday the first thing I noticed was the flowers.  The second thing I noticed was that the flooring people had been and removed the kitchen flooring.  It had been laid after a seepage of water and had obviously not dried properly before the flooring was laid and it had bubbled.  It has to be left for a couple of months.  Ah well. Glad Game.  I may have no kitchen floor covering but I do have lovely flowers on the table.

 Agapanthus and lillies from last week

Agapanthus and roses from yesterday

Back From The Wilds

It's 1pm and I'm back in Napier again and, despite myself, I'm ensconsed in The Cottage safe and sound.  I've had a great weekend and there is lots to blog about.  However after having no internet access at all since I left here on Friday and no Telecom cellphone coverage where I was staying I have arrived back to a broadband outage in much of this area South of Taupo (2 hours drive North).  Apparently it went down around 3am and Telecom are treating it as a major priority but have no idea when it may be repaired.  In the meantime thousands must be without broadband.  One would like to think that it'll be a short time before we are re-connected but Telecom's record on outages is not particularly good.  On occasion huge numbers of people and businesse are without telephone connections for weeks.  In the meantime I've managed to hook up via a dial-up link.  I've tried my emails but haven't had much success so far.  Oh well.  I'll be back as soon as I can. 

In the meantime having managed to get all the washing done I just went out to put it on the line and large spots of rain fell out of what had been a beautiful blue sky an hour ago.  Oh.  I forgot the hood's not on the car.  Oops.

I said 'despite myself' because I forgot to take my car keys with me.  So Wendy and Martin put the car down to the Airport last night for me this morning because Wendy had to be at the School this morning to ferry children on a trip.  Anyway Wendy managed to get keys to the airport.  Another oops.

I wonder what else will happen today.  If I'm able I'll let you know.  In the meantime......

Where Is Home?

Many people in this world are unfortunate enough not to have a home.  I cannot envisage how absolutely terrible that must be.  I have not only never been homeless but I have never lived in an unhappy home - albeit my life like most others has had some unhappy moments.

A few days ago I made the comment "I arrived home (yes, it is home - I can have more than one home can't I?) yesterday morning."   Spesh commented that  "A thought to ponder on - Can you have two homes? I don't think so. In my life home is not just where the heart (which we only have one of),is but where we pay our income tax!! N.Z. is a wonderful "abode" to enjoy for 6 months of the year."

This got me thinking.  I have only one heart.  But on many things (perhaps because I am a geminian) my heart is split.  My heart is in the Hebrides were I have lived the larger part of my life and in New Zealand where I have lived partially since 2005.  So on that criteria I have two homes.  It's rather a minor point but I have paid New Zealand income tax on my bank interest here.  An even more minor point is that the term 'Second home' is a common one.

For some people 'home' is not where they live anyway.  Many, perhaps most, Scots living away from Scotland still refer to Scotland as their home even if they may never intend (other than in dreams) to visit Scotland ever again.  I, on the other hand, have absolutely no affinity with the place where I was born and brought up.

In my experience (and it will be interesting to see what my American fellow bloggers say) Americans when asked the question invariably say the name of the State in which they are living at that moment.  That's OK up to a point for me but I live each year equally in two places.

So where is home?  I don't know.  I don't really need home to be defined.  I have one.  I have two.   The fact that I don't have no home [double negative intended for emphasis] means that I am blessed. For that I am grateful.

I've Arrived: What Now?

I arrived home (yes, it is home - I can have more than one home can't I?) yesterday morning.  (Gosh.  Where has that 23 hours gone).  Coffee and catch-up up at The House was first.  Then I tackled The Cupboard and re-inhabited The Cottage with it's contents. That took a few hours and, of course, is not yet finished.  But at least everything is roughly where it should be and I have found everything I need.  Well almost everything.  What I did with the electric toothbrush is a mystery.  I'd say that it was bound to turn up but, given that I've emptied all the boxes, it may remain one of life's mysteries.

The lavender's doing really well already and is covered in bees.

The honeysuckle has recovered well and this may be it's year for a big spurt.

I seem to have a new visitor

Fraser's not altered

and Catriona's still Catriona

In the afternoon I took a ride into town.  It was wonderful not having the roof on the car.  It was a bit chilly but the sun was glorious.  I went to see a friend for coffee and say 'hello' and came home to dinner with the family.  An excellent lasagne - too many helpings (it couldn't have been to many glasses of wine.  Er well...) that made me tired.  Very tired.  I was in bed and fast asleep by 9pm.  And up with the dawn chorus before 0600 this morning.  I feel absolutely great.  It's almost as if I've never been away.

So this morning I had some decisions to take.  What to do first was the first one.  So I downloaded my emails and decided to deal with them first.  Which is why I'm writing this and the emails haven't yet been done.  I seem to be finding keeping to decisions hard these days!  And, of course, I've done a thousand and one other things along the road.  But, hey, it's only 9am and the day is young.  Well, sort of.

It's good to be home.  Wherever home is.  It's good to have friends.  It's good that the sun is shining.  It's good to be alive.  For all that, and more, I give thanks. 

Home Again

I'm home. We finished on the lawns at 1730 last night (Sunday) and drove straight home. I was home by 2045 just after the light had faded from the sky and darkness reigned before the full effect of the brilliant moon took over from the sun. After unloading all my gear

(This is what I took away: the wine had been consumed but there were bags of odds things bought whilst we were away.)

from Lucy into The Cottage I popped up to see Wendy and Martin in The House. We caught up with each others' news. They had had a very busy weekend so, at 2200 Martin was just popping into Town to get some essentials for the family (including cat and puppy). I popped in with him to catch up on more news and get the fridge essentials until I do a proper shop today. So it was 2300 before I finally got around to re-occupying my living space. Whilst doing some emails I had some of my favourite blue cheese and a glass of red and then it was time for bed.

It's now 0900 Monday and the first (of three) loads of washing is on the line blowing in the beautiful Hawkes Bay breeze in a non-humid (it was so humid in Wanganui and Palmerston this time) 22 degrees. I am about to make some phone calls and then some cornflake crunch and restore order unto my living space.

All this with the ranch sliders wide open and Sarasate to bring even more cheer to the world.

Life is good.

Thoughts on Seventeen Days

I've been here for seventeen days and it's as if I've never been away. I feel so at home here, so welcome.

There are, of course, similarities and contrasts to life in Scotland. I'll concentrate on one aspect: the weather. Why? Because it is something that anyone who lives on a Scottish island is constantly thinking about and it is also a constant topic in New Zealand; in conversation and in the media.

I left two weeks of gales and really horrible weather. People's moods were reflecting that already even though we had had a better summer than anywhere else in the UK. I arrived here just over two weeks ago and we have had sunshine most of the time (I have not yet driven The Handbag with the roof up) and the last two days have been in the high 20s. And that, too, is reflected in people's moods and attitudes. And you can guess which is the easier environment in which to live.

So many other things have just slipped back into my Now: the nights where the full moon is so bright I don't have to use a torch when returning from the House to The Cottage and my bedroom is bathed in light; the eerie call of the Australasian Magpies; the crickets, and there is so much more.

The Sun's Going The Wrong Way Again

Where do I start? Coming back again to Napier has been an odd experience. I've been welcomed back by some as if I am a long-lost friend but at the same time, in some shops for example, its as though I haven't been away. Today I called into a café I used to use very frequently (I did my emails from there before the phone was installed) and was asked where I'd been 'cos they'd missed me. That's gives one a warm feeling.

In fact I have started this entry so many times it is getting silly. Why? Because each time I haven't finished it and the next time I've started the feelings that I had and what I had wanted to say have changed and the moment has been lost.

I am exceptionally lucky in that (touch wood) I don't suffer from jet-lag. For whatever reason I don't know because I don't do or take anything for it. As the first day back was a day after I'd had no real sleep the previous night, I did at least expect to get to bed early. But things didn't quite work out like that and Wendy, arriving home having just appointed a new Principal to the school of which she is a member of the board of trustees, saw my light on and popped in. It was midnight. Four hours later I got to bed. Four and a half hours after that I woke to a sunny morning. And it's been like that ever since.

It is now one hundred hours since I arrived and it's as if I'd never been away.

However today was a very important landmark in that I decided that I was only playing Golf Croquet this morning and not staying on for an afternoon of Association as well. After catching up in Town I went with Wendy to collect the children from school and we went and had ice cream from the village shop, wandered around a new set of blocks (I'll explain that one in another blog) and came home en famille. I've just been making stuffed mushrooms and I'm taking them up to The House to have with steaks for dinner.

OK this posting has been a bit of a diary and a self-indulgence. I'll try and get into the swing of a daily posting and include some photos and make it interesting. I'm just hoping that I haven't used up all my ideas on the last visit.

Home: The Other One

Following on from the last paragraph of The Journey Home, Fiona reminded me that it is the sign of the true Geminian that he (the masculine includes the feminine - Interpretation Act 1978) can have two lives. And so it seems to be. I was trying to decide whether the lives were simultaneous or parallel or separate or whether some other description better fitted the situation. In fact they all fit in part and yet none of them fit absolutely. So I think I will just stick with having two lives.

There will be a few occasional postings on this Blog over the next few months and then I will start A Hebridean in New Zealand: Notes on my time in New Zealand 2008/2009. One of the things I want to do is a short review of some of the things that I found most interesting on the Blog and see what you enjoyed most. After all, although this is part diary for my benefit, I would like you to be entertained and informed as well.

In the meantime I shall try and continue to post some items of interest on Eagleton Notes. I have decided (I think) just to use Eagleton Notes for everything that I do over the next six months regardless of whether it takes place in Eagleton or the Wirral or France.