Have a Happy Festive Occasion!*

Light blogging for a month or so, while I swan around my orchard getting bronzed** & toned***

* Non denominational season's greetings.
** & *** Festive code for pissed & fat.

Govt wants feedback on new dog controls

Go to it!

Govt wants feedback on new dog controls - Stuff.co.nz

Armoured Bears

Since I read & loved the Hotel New Hampshire, I've often said that everyone needs a bear... I guess if underneath the hair & stuff they looked like Nastassja Kinski, it'd be a bonus.

The movie version of Phillip Pullman's Northern Lights (filmed as The Golden Compass) is getting mixed reviews. But I'm keen to see how Iorek Byrneson is portrayed.

Because really, if you have to travel a dangerous wilderness, what better and safer company than a talking, armoured polar bear.

Rock on.



Update: "If I were you... I'd hire myself an aeronaut & an armoured bear."

Trailers here. The "teaser" one is best.

"I have a contract with the child!"

The film isn't doing so crash hot at the box office, Berardinelli reckons sequels aren't on the cards. Pity. It looks quite good.

Ancestry

My mum sent me some old photos of her family, that someone sent on to her. Remember I mentioned my mum's grandparents a while back? They lived up the mountain & they'd take the donkey a few hours up into the hills & get water from a spring?

Well here they all are:



These are my great grandparents on my mum's side, they're her mother's parents.



And this is them with their family - I believe I would have known some of these when they were very old. In fact, I think I visited the youngest sister when I was last in Wales, she was a spry ninety something. One of the reasons they lived up out of the polluted valley, was because she had TB as a child.

The hottie 4th from the left at the back is my grandmother :)



Now we're getting obscure - this might be the kids from above a little older - I daresay an email will swing my way soon with loads more details.... My grandmother is not in this photo however.



This is Great grandfather Levi on the left.



And here he is with his faithful donkey, Jinny, whose bones were unearthed on the mountainside not that long ago. Some animals, especially I guess, beasts of burden, live hard lives. I bet though, with that many kids at hand it had some good times too.

Notice the early Nike 'swoosh" on his pants? We're filing retrospective trademark suits as we speak.



And one more - purely because these dresses are remarkable.

Rainy Day

In an effort to make this visitor from the Hawkes Bay's day, someone clever photoshopped him into this picture of American actor Giovanni Ribisi kicking back at the Mighty Mighty last week. Damian was only recently saying that there should be more celebs in Wellington.

Meanwhile, off topic completely, this year's nut harvest at SunnyO is all over. Bar the drying. We stripped 6 trees (and have a slight suspicion there should have been another one ready to go somewhere), and harvested less than 20kg! This is a lot less than I expected, but they are biennial & this is the light year. That makes around 70 kg for the year.

I expect 5 times that next year.

And we rejoiced! For yesterday afternoon it rained for the first time in ages! And it rained all night! Our massive rainwater tank was half empty & I was slightly worried. Within two hours of rain falling theough, the tank was full again, as was every plastic bin & bucket I could lay my hands on.

It's gonna be a long hot & dry one folks. But we're ready.

I should have known it was going to rain, because I organised it by spending the day prior installing a simple irrigation hose in the berry house - of course it always rains when irrigation gets installed. At least we have the water to run through it.

In beast news... there was a rat in our barbecue when I uncovered it. Not on the cooking surfaces, down in the guts of the thing. And later, while I was watching buckets fill with rain, a rat darted past me & up one of the phoenix palms. Just where is our large predator when we need her?

I seeded the place with rat bait. That'll learn him.

Reconsidering getting a big air gun too.

Oh - and here's the real photo with Hadyn.

2nd Annual Wellingtonista Awards

Fantastic night - I think I may have met Bret McKenzie. Should my memory of the night return, I'll tell you all about it.

I spent a lot of the weekend mowing lawns

Well... some of it anyway. Spent Saturday night drinking, eating & making merry with friends. We were supposed to be greeting the 15 year old at around 7pm when she was to be dropped off from her Wanganui rowing regatta earlier in the day. We got a text at 6.30 saying they were just leaving...

No-one was keen to stay sober to go pick her up from the drop off point, so at around 10pm, 6 middle aged drunks & a labrador staggered 600 metres down the road & around the corner.

Mission accomplished.

For the next two days I struggled to get the mower to start twice in a row without having to recharge the battery. I got the lawns done, and the orchard, in the end.

While doing the orchard, something interesting happened. A large rat sauntered through the grass. I charged it, it moved away (the mower isn't very fast). I screamed at it! And wondered where my faithful hunting hound was.

Then the hound turned up - Mrs Llew had heard me scream & came over in case I'd just mowed my leg off or something. The brave dog knew a rat had been there, but she ignored Mrs Llew's shouts to "Look this way" at the calmly retreating rat carrying a big macadamia nut.

Finally, when the rodent was nearly through the fence into a neighbouring paddock, Wilma spotted it. Man she moved fast. But too late. Too late.

I might get have to get a gun after all. I can ride shotgun on the mower.

Photos from November

That little white spot between the coast & Kapiti isn't a speck of dust! It's a whale!!



Meanwhile, here are some unposed pics of part of the garden. These were taken last week & if anything, the laburnum is even more impressive. But I couldn't be bothered taking more pics...











Chestnut tree in flower











And... the pumphouse, with an old bedhead secured to the wall.

It was the snowball

How do I delete my Facebook entry? I pretty much turned off all notifications, the snowball was the last straw - not that it was a problem or anything, I suddenly wondered "Why?"

So I turned all notifications off, severely limited what would appear on my page, then I came across "deactivate".

However, anyone know how to delete me from it completely? It says my account is deactivated, but will reactivate if I ever log in again. Hmm.

Complete. Waste. Of. Time.

And I should know, I'm gifted in this respect.