Sometimes I Watches The Waves

Sometimes I Just Sits

The Princess and the Pea

If you are going to spill rice pray that there is an open drawer just below. It is quite astonishing how a small quantity of rice turns into a huge quantity when it hits the kitchen floor.

Fortunately only a tiny amount actually reached the floor. Of course I was in the middle of cooking a meal. That's just the time one is using rice after all. Anyway it didn't take that long to clear it off the floor. The rice in the drawer waited until after dinner. However I discovered something. The chances of getting every grain of rice up first time is small. In New Zealand most of my friends do not wear shoes in the house. Have you ever trodden on a grain of rice in bare feet? You wouldn't feel it would you? Wrong. I now understand the significance of the story of the Princess and the Pea.

A Beautiful Tree

My initial reaction when I saw this was that it was a Willow Tree. I'm sure that it's not a native New Zealand variety. Unfortunately I couldn't get across the ditch in front of the fence so I couldn't get a better photo and the entrance to the field was not on the main road. However I thought it was a beautiful tree and worth sharing with you.

More Painted Walls

This building forms part of the complex near Hastings of the RNZSPCA (Royal New Zealand Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). When I blogged recently about wall paintings SS asked in his comment if there was a tradition of such art in New Zealand. I didn't (and still don't) have a definitive answer to the question but I will keep on searching. There are plenty of them around and this will certainly not be the last this year. I can't recall how many I blogged about during my 2007/2008 stay here.

I Woke Up

I always feel good when I wake up first thing in the morning. I always think that it's a lot better than the alternative. Not that I'm particularly afraid of the alternative it's just that I can't be sure that there are croquet lawns there and I'd find it a real bummer if I were to be separated from all my friends and family just now. As I opened my eyes this morning this was the scene that greeted me. In fact this is the scene that usually greets me. From this you can tell a number of things. Firstly that I sleep with the curtains open (they've not been drawn since the first week I ever lived in HeeBeeGeeBeE's (The Cottage's proper name - Hawkes Bay GBE's, see?); that I have a lovely peaceful view over orchards, that it's a beautiful sunny morning; that a camera was at hand; and that I woke on my right side. You really wanted to know that didn't you.

McCauley's Store & Café, Otane.

The main street of Otane - wider than the State Highway off which it runs

McCauley's Store & Cafe with The Handbag outside

One of the many things (in addition to public loos) that New Zealand does very well is cafés. Yesterday I went to Otane to a maker of croquet mallets (of which more in a later posting). In the main street (Higginson Street - to me a seemingly unlikely name for a one street town in rural New Zealand) is McCauley's Store & Café. I had the best Americano coffee that I can recall having. I also finished the crossword whilst I was having it but I'm sure that didn't influence my view. There were actually quite a few other customers although I managed to avoid them when taking photos. I do, however, wish that my Brother had been there to do the crossword with me and enjoy the ambience.

The Princess and the Cherries

Even a beautiful impish princess can look slightly every so, what's the word, not so royal when eating cherries.

Oops. Hot Water Kills Grass.

When I commented on the 11 December 2007 about the solar water heater which The Cottage has I mentioned that the water vented when it got too hot. Subsequently we discovered that the near-boiling water venting onto the roof so forcibly found it's way into places it shouln't have gone. Because it was so hot it also melted the plastic downpipes. They were subsequently replaced by steel ones. This summer the weather has been very hot and the sun fierce and I've been using as much hot water as I possibly can. It doesn't vent now until about 93 deg c which is pretty near boiling point. The problem? It overflows onto the grass: a huge cascade of near-boiling water straigtt onto the grass - presumably because it vents too quickly for the drainage system. It's a good job no-one was underneath at the time.

Christmas Decorations

This was my concession to decorating for Christmas. Not that, to be honest, they were very effective because this is midsummer and the evenings are light and I live in one of the sunniest spots in New Zealand. Unlike my dear Brother I have never been a lover of Christmas decorations. A very dear friend once suggested that when she brought the children round at Christmas it would be a good idea if I had a tree. I always take a mere suggestion from this particular friend to be something that I really should do. So I scrambled around in the loft and found the tree and the decorations and the lights and set the whole thing up. I even used two sets of lights. Half an hour before they were due the first set failed and just before the arrival the second one went too. I did have a photo as proof but it wasn't quite the same. The tree has since been consigned to the great cemetery for dead Christmas Trees and I really can't see me ever getting another one.