The Homestead

Those of you who followed my Blog last year will, of course, have seen similar pictures to these but this is a reminder of where my body rests at the moment.

The Cottage.  The lavender is  growing and everything is settling in.

The Cottage to the right and the main house is up the drive to the left.  The little 'garden shed' is the pumping station for the water supply which comes from underground springs.

Looking down the drive from the main house with the lavender and jacoranda trees.  The agapanthus are just coming into bud. 

Gaz

One for Gaz

(The advantage of always having a camera to hand)

Tranquility

I pass this scene every day as I drive along Rotowhenua Road where I live. It seems unchanging. There is a constancy about the rural landscape here in that it changes slowly from week to week, month to month, season to season but not, as the view from my house on Lewis, from minute to minute.

Medicine Packaging

One of the bugbears of those of us who take medication every day is the packaging. Modern packaging is all blister packs. They play absolute havoc with the thumbs and particularly the thumb nails. I do have a pill puncher and it's a great help but it tends to break the aspirin in half and they are the worst for the thumbs. Imagine, therefore, my delight when I went to the Pharmacy in Taradale (where my New Zealand Doctor's surgery is) I received my pills loose in a screw top container. I imagine, too, that it is more environmentally friendly.

Immoral Waste

Here you see my new printer/copier/scanner. Behind it you can see my 'old' grey printer. On the floor you can't see my old scanner. The old scanner is in perfect working order. However it cannot be used with Vista because the software has not been upgraded by Canon and the scanner is regarded as obsolete.

So I reluctantly decided I would buy another scanner. The basic model is about $150 (approx £57). I was debating what to do when I noticed that for $79.95 (less than £20) I could buy a printer/copier/scanner all in one. Eh? Then it dawned on me: there are no ink cartridges to be bought at vastly inflated prices when you buy a stand-alone scanner.

So my scanner will go to an op shop (charity shop) for someone who is pre-Vista) and the 'old' printer will go into storage. The black cartridge is allegedly empty (it's not because it's quite new) and the software will not allow it to be used until I renew the cartridge.

The only Good Thing is that my Study is now less cluttered.

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.

What Is That Noise?

I was quietly having breakfast yesterday when I heard a banging outside. On looking up I realised that there was a thrush breaking open a snail for his breakfast. Yum. Snail or muesli and yoghurt? I've seen many snail shells on the path flagstones but this is the first opportunity I've had to photograph the act. It also explains the knocking which I have so often on the roof which can be really jump-inducing.

Piggyback

A few evenings ago we all went for a walk. Leastways Wendy and Martin and I walked and the children cycled. Leastways.... Ah well, you get the message I'm sure. It wasn't actually that dark either but the light was too poor for non-flash photography.

And One For Pat

Now even I'd concede that that's cute!

Broadband

Perhaps the only irritation to living in New Zealand and at The Cottage is the lack of availability of terrestrial Broadband. So if that's the greatest irritation what on earth am I complaining about? Well I suppose that that's a very valid point. However when one lives in the current environment of instant communication, blogs, internet, computer programmes continually updating, people sending large picture files and so on it's actually quite important to those who are involved in that environment. It's a question of time as well. Ironically now that I am in New Zealand my time is more regimented and taken up than ever it is in Scotland. So if I am to blog and get emails before I go out in the morning dial-up is dire. It has also been one of the first questions by people considering renting The Cottage during the winter.

Vodafone promised last year that by March 'everyone in New Zealand' would be able to have mobile Broadband for $40 a month. Leastways that's what the posters said. What they meant was 'everyone who can get a Vodafone 3G signal can get Vodafone Mobile'. but that's not quite as catchy. At The Cottage I can only just get a Vodafone phone signal never mind 3G so, 7 km from the centre of Napier I (and all the people round here) cannot get Vodafone Broadband. And that, I have discovered, goes for about 20% of the population - perhaps more.

By a quirk of luck I discovered that Telecom mobile phones (mine, Wendy and Martins are Vodafone) work at The Cottage and we can get Telecom 3G. So I now have Broadband - at a rather steep $60 per month for 1Gb. But I do have Broadband. And what a difference it has made. It's still not very fast Broadband but it is like lightning compared with dial-up. And I can take it with me with my laptop. And my phone line is not tied up for hours on end. Great.

What is really amazing, though, is the fact that all the hardware that I need to achieve this is a tiny dongle stuck into a USB port: