I was lucky enough to dog sit Gemma over the weekend. A 3 yr old Labringer – Lab/springer mix. The perfect size puppy and the calmest most well trained dog I have ever had the delight to spend time with.
Gemma
It is my stepmothers 100th birthday in a few days. It’s does make me stop and wonder if I will make it to a healthy mind intact 100. I have decided to do a class on how to make your own shroud out of harakeke paper. I am sure it’s going to be an entertaining class. Thought I might get onto it now as you never know… September is a busy month with two of my brothers birthdays and some very special friends being September babies, although they are certainly no longer babies.
No one in their right mind wants a weekend in Palmerston North, especially at the cold wet end of spring. But here I was wandering around wondering what one does in this place. An Art Gallery looked like a promising refuge from the rain and what a delightful surprise it was. One of the best experiences of contemporary Maori art combining paintings, carving and music. Even better I was alone and able to capture a little of the ambiance.
Zebo has left the building… some devastation in his wake but most of it is being mended. Going to be a long slow process but every step forward will be treasured. Just knowing that things will improve already makes it feel better. Everything has upsides and downsides, small hiatus hernia is now a very large one, downside is it’s not as easy or comfortable to bend, upside is I can now justify getting some help with heavy work in the garden 🪴
A different Sunday walk this weekend. The first lovely sunny day in such a long time meant it was time to get out of the house. Turn into the pine forest at Kawerau – with a permit of course, drive over pitted muddy forestry roads, through bare hills covered in stumps and debris, bleak and unwelcoming. Then as it looks like the road is about to end in a cliff, it does. The river goes underground from the lake behind the cliffs and bursts out this side into an awesome waterfall. I gave climbing the cliff to reach the lake a miss and walked to the falls. The colour of the crystal clear water was mesmerising and massive random boulders made the whole walk quite an experience. I think I will be back with my camera a few more times.
Well we are still waiting for Zebo results but feeling a bit better so fingers crossed things are headed in the right direction. End of month they tell me, I just have to keep my fingers crossed as my specialist has just emigrated to Christchurch.
But I have been totally distracted with preparing and giving a talk at the local Reiki conference. It’s been a while and I was stepping in for my business partner and the topic was Rongoa. Two delightful and well qualified friends helped me out and we managed to fill the 90 min slot and then run the totally over run trade table afterwards. The balms had a field day. After the last two years of things getting quieter and quieter it was so good to talk to interested and enthusiastic people and since the conference I have had such amazing testimonials and feedback it’s given the balms a whole new lease of life. It’s been a difficult balance between producing the balms which many have told us is life changing for them and never making more than enough to just keep making them. Working for free for last few years has been hard. This weekend has given me a glimmer of hope that maybe things could change and volume could possibly pickup. I now have gigantic lists of to do items that seem to grow daily.
A walk along the waterfront is always a gentle way for me to slow down and enjoy the lake, on days it’s not trying to create a lake in the backyard that is. I love to watch the mums and dads and grandparents enjoying time with the kids in the huge playground along the boardwalk, people walking their dogs and just hanging around enjoying the view.
Next week I get to swallow a camera capsule and go on a photographic expedition to a place no camera has been before. If Zebo is hiding out anywhere in the in between he will get captured 🐲 on camera at least.
Finally a few days of sun after the fog burns off and it’s like spring is already here. Daffodils are up, blossom is out and the tui’s are already getting drunk on the nectar with raucous fighting breaking out. Magnolia’s just starting to unfurl and the garden crying out for attention. So hard to believe when for me august alway seemed to be the coldest month of winter with hard frosts and late snowstorms. But nothing like a bit of sun to brighten up and lighten up.
Well I would like to report that Zebo has been defeated. However that is not the case. The little bu*ger laid low for only a few days before creating havoc once again. I get totally worn out coping with his shenanigans I am going to have to attack from another direction. Does anyone know what the gestation period is for alien parasites. Don’t know what next steps are yet but I am looking for a nuclear option.
The weather has been crazy though and we are due for another lot tomorrow. At least I can watch it from up on the hill and just listen to the howling wind and rain, I feel for the south islanders who are bearing the brunt of the weather bombs. Races were cancelled yesterday with problems on the track from the non-stop rain. I was actually planning to go as it was the first nice fine Saturday we have had in forever. I like to have a Barney bet on his favourite jockeys $2 max – he trained me well.
So instead I went fungi hunting today at Lake Tikitapu to see what I could discover. Surprisingly little, beyond the usual bracket fungi on dead trees. Apparently it’s been too wet and cold for the tiny fragile ones. There was a weird purple jelly one though. Looked like an escaped brain or what I imagine Zebo looks like.
They didn’t find Zebo at stage 1, another colonoscopy in 5 years so pretty happy with that. Now 10 days of antibiotics to see if he can be chased out, only problem is that I had a bad reaction to penicillin after being over prescribed as a kid. Fingers crossed reactions stay mild this time. Funny really when all the drugs and the strange high blood test readings all have the the side effect of causing fatigue and gut pain when that’s what the problem is. Who knows which one is the culprit. At least I am still COVID free and I feel for everyone who has had to go through it and now the new variant which is happy to visit again and again. After the antibiotics we are still on plan to swallow the camera. (capsule endoscopy) Quite fascinating really, the camera sends thousands of photos to the recorder you wear – it’s the only way to look inside the small intestine and see what’s going on. I am hoping the antibiotics are going to work so well that it’s not necessary because I am not keen to go to Waikato hospital for the procedure. They have more than a few wards closed with COVID and are probably the easiest place to go to get it.
It’s dark grey out and raining again with a forecast of more rain so walking is curtailed as it everything else really. Good time to be tucked up warm and read in between naps. It feels like winter has really set in. The last of the camellia are trying to give a bit of colour to the grey on grey palette – this was last week when it was a little brighter. I have used a filter on it to make it more like a painting
It’s like a treasure hunt, each time I take a walk, I am looking for something new and different. I walked in the Whakawerawera Redwoods on Sunday and this is the new crop. I may be getting addicted…
Calvartia CraniiformisYellow waxgillStill trying to find out what this one isHygrocybe ViridianCortinariusDelicatelyYellow Coral Fungi Dianthus Striatus – birds nest fungi
The worst thing about this alien is it’s taste in wine, or lack of it really. I love my wine, sparkling sav or a full bodied Shiraz, it’s been so hard to look at wine now and have no desire at all to have a glass, not that I have given up alcohol of course – I have just decided for now gin martini’s taste better.
The Traveling Kiwi 