Happy Holidays!

A walk along highway 35, then back home in the rain

Note the beginning of Christmas lights....more to come!

Thanksgiving at Susanna and Steve's

What a feast we had!

The pictures say it all

Hosts Steve, Susanna, Chloe on the left

Susanna and Chloe

pumpkin pie---with REAL pumpkin

lemon meringue pie, kudos to Chloe!

the aftermath

What am I thankful for? My family.  Mom, Dad, Nancy, Sarah, Kristen, Erika, PJ, Phil, Robert, Brandon---and extended beyond.  Good friends far and near.  

The Maori have a word for the whole lot---the people you hold close to your heart, family whether related by blood or marriage or love---whanau.  

I'm glad we chose each other.

the back porch

Getting ready for the holiday season!

It's not everybody can eat their mistakes

Over the weekend my friends Steve and Suzanna got themselves a new outdoor grill, and as a result needed to get rid of the old one.  And so I find myself the proud owner of a well broken in outdoor barbecue!  I'm new to this style of cookery, imagine it will be trial and error but I'm with Cora---we all make mistakes.  Looking forward to it.

Down to earth

It's spring here, which means longer days, warmer weather, and planting stuff.  I've never had the green thumb of the family--- here's hoping New Zealand's amazing weather and rich soil will help me along.  Things grow here without trying, and they overgrow even faster.  Steve says you do your gardening with a chainsaw.  No really--it's true.
My herb (as in Alpert and the Tijuana Brass) garden includes basil, basil, basil (as in Fawlty), chives, marjoram, rosemary, parsley (curly and flat), and mint---separately housed but close by so he doesn't get lonely.
Veggies I'm trying are: lettuce, peas, peppers (jalapeno, banana, and hot), tomatoes, cucumber, eggplant.  Did I mention the baby olive tree?  I've repotted her in hopes she'll produce more than 3 olives this year.  And flowers---not so many, as there are flowers growing wild everywhere already! I have 2 small tubs with portulaca and some other flower that I think is white.

All the kids are up on my porch for now, where I can keep an eye on them and water them when it's too dry.  The cucumber is being allotted a space in a nearby garden-ish area, it's possible the eggplant will move nearby too.

living below the line

I've done my shopping.  Here is all the food I'll be living off of for the next 5 days.

Yep, $11.25 gets more than you'd think, eh? 6 eggs, 1 litre milk, 500gm rice, 100gm cornmeal, a bunch of oats, 3 onions, 3 potatoes, 6 kiwifruit, 2 bananas, 5 green tea bags, a scant handful of lentils, 4 tablespoons oil, and some salt and pepper.

So $2.25 a day. Hmmm.

The saga continues

August 28th, 2012 began innocently enough as a friend and I drove up into the Waimata Valley to go horseback riding....but we never got on the horses

look closely---that lump to the left of my knee is the kneecap

the evil trailer

paramedic Phil relocating the dislocation as I breathe nitrous oxide

the cast

In the brace

It's been a slow recovery---Now 8 weeks after it happened I'm still on disability---going to work part time but only doing 'light office' duties, paperwork and records' audits. Tomorrow I'll start with a few clinical hours and see how it feels.  Tentatively looking forward to it.

Next installment---the A&P Show!

Catch up

It's been a few months since I blogged. Much activity.

A brief photo essay to describe how I've spent my time....

In August I flew back to the States, visited Mom & Dad

with sister Sarah

the boys---Dad, PJ, Phil

Opening night of Mom's solo show-- "Retrospect", and a few of the over 70 pieces in the show!

The show was a huge success.  I'm proud to call you my mum! 

Then to NYC

Back to Gisborne

business class...the way to fly
when you're in the air for 12 hours

where even the view from a fish & chips stand is beautiful

(continued on next page...)

morning greeting

Daing, he's cheerful!

Wet and windy Welly

The annual New Zealand Tango Festival was held in Wellington a few weeks ago.  I haven't danced in way too long, thought this would be a nice way to segue back into it----take a few workshops, meet like-minded folks, listen to the music, dance til my feet hurt and I limped home.
Yeah, right.  I was a fool to think the tango scene here would be any less snobbish and clique-y than anywhere else---especially for someone who hasn't danced in ages and is a stranger to this town. I was also a fool to think that I would remember how to dance.  Sad to think the tango days are over for now, but I'm not up for teaching and creating a dance scene here in Gizzy---and if I had been, my experience in Wellington stomped it out.  Keeping to the positive---many thanks to Sanjay for his welcoming kindness and dances. To the lady lead from Nelson, thank you for asking me to dance each night.  Very brief thx to Damien and Laurence.  Big shout out to the dentist from some quarry in Aussie---total beginner and all around nice guy who reminded me of the more important stuff.
Must say, I had a friendlier (and of course warmer) welcome at the Bikram yoga studio, where I took 3 classes over the long weekend.
 
There are no photos of tango dancers.  But here are some shots of Wellington.

Windy and wet, those clouds are racing past as I tried to walk along the harbor

Above: views of Welly from the botanical gardens

Below: a walk in the gardens

More interesting in person, this is part of a living sundial---can't remember exactly how it works but it was cool when I was there.  It's part of Carter Observatory, a sweet little planetarium where I learned something about the southern cross and other constellations in this hemisphere.

Sunrise as I walk to early morning hot yoga

But really, Wellington is a nice city---small enough to get around without too much hassle, semi-big city feel---gritty, dirty, not so nice.  My kind of town.  I'll go back for a non-tango weekend in the spring, hopefully can give a more glowing report of the place, plus remember the name of the restaurant where I had that delicious jerk chicken.