Of cyclones, taniwhas, sunflowers and such like

A section of Mackay

Earlier in the week we were tracking cyclone Debbie off the north Queensland coast of Australia. She was due to make land just north of where my sisters and their families live in Mackay. Once she landed she became a slow moving category 4 storm bordering on category 5. Luckily none of our families were in the evacuation zone and had no damage to their homes either. So fortunate. One sister had a tree fall in the yard, missing the house by a few feet and the other only has water lying around. The nurse managed to get to work and did some long shifts while the other was too far out and stayed over with her son for the duration and had cuddles with the little grandkids and the four legged, furry family members. Now it is the people further south who are dealing with floods after the rain in the aftermath of the storm.

I went down the back of my yard a few days ago and saw a lovely bright yellow sunflower in full bloom. Unfortunately it was lying flat on the ground and as my GKB was about to start mowing the lawns I thought it might be wise to cut it and bring it inside. It's amazing how things get accidentally pruned by the lawn mower when you're not looking. Anyway I am enjoying it in my sitting room now :)

What you come across when you are sorting through old photos. This is a picture of my GKB and our best man in the days before I met him. They toured the country as a comedy mime act, The Teen Tones, performing such songs as My boomerang won't come back and Come outside. After we were all married it was a good way of supplementing the wages, doing evening and weekend gigs as well as weddings and 21st's. Eventually we moved towns and as families we lost touch with each other, sadly.

A new mural on a wall in town. A taniwha*. (A water monster of Maori legend).

This is a picture of the taniwha from local legend and I have taken an excerpt from Wikipedia to tell the story.

W.R. Kirk** repeated the later story of a taniwha (water-monster), the "familiar spirit or guardian of Te Rakitaounere (also given as Te Rakitauneke) a famous chief and warrior" who lost his master about the Dunedin hills, slithered down the Silverstream, 'Whaka-ehu', and 'lay down and left a hollow Te Konika o te Matamata' on the site of Mosgiel. The taniwha (named Matamata) wriggled down the Taieri, making its tortuous course, and when he died became the seaboard hills, including Saddle Hill. 

*taniwha

ˈtanɪwɑː,ˈtanɪfa/

noun

noun: taniwha; plural noun: taniwha; plural noun: taniwhas

1. a water monster of Maori legend.

**W.R. Kirk is a local author who wrote a book about the Taieri area - Pulse of the Plain, A History of Mosgiel.

And what am I reading at the moment? To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. Why do I do it? The prose is so tedious, so hard to read and enjoy but with just enough of a hook to keep you reading. It was the same last year when I was reading Portrait of a Lady. Same style of writing, nearly one hundred years since these books were written and writing has changed so much. This is supposedly her best book so I don't think I'll be looking for another one. 

Still I have just finished reading Child of the Covenant by Michele Guinness. So interesting, her story of growing up in a traditional Jewish household to her becoming the wife of an Anglican clergyman. I found it quite a fascinating read.

And that is my five 

this week for 

Five on Friday

Taking five

Five totally unconnected paragraphs but I hope you'll enjoy them.
Joining Amy at Five on Friday

1). Daylight saving finished at the weekend and with it the good weather. Almost overnight. I can't believe it. Even so the temps are still in double figures but 24 C. one day and then talk of snow the next - not my idea of fun. But I am not going to complain as we have been having unseasonably warm weather for this time of the year. It couldn't go on for ever :) It has been a very dry summer and not good for the gardens, even the weeds didn't grow much - but my little mother's sunflowers alongside her garage did. I love this photo of her looking at them looking back at her. It almost looks like they're having a conversation.

2). We've been taking ourselves out for coffee about once a week, my GKB and me. We are not very adventurous when it comes to what we eat and it is usually a case of cheese rolls or scones. I decided to try hot pancakes and maple syrup a few weeks ago, I have wanted to for a while, but I was very disappointed. I won't be ordering them again. These date scones below were very nice though, heated and butter spread on them. I always drink tea or hot chocolate (in winter) and my GKB has discovered that he quite enjoys a flat white, even though they are never hot enough. It was still warm enough to sit outside when this was taken.

 

3). Just over a year ago we were at a family funeral and someone mentioned that it was a shame that we only got together these days at funerals. There are five sets of cousins and some of us haven't seen each other for over forty years. And so because I was retired and on the spot I was elected(?) to organise a reunion of some sort.  So this year I am starting to get into it. We have decided to have a dinner in the town where our grandparents and parents lived and where most of us grew up as well. Greymouth on the West Coast of New Zealand. It will all take place at Easter 2017  and we are having it in a hotel just around the corner from where I grew up and not far from where some of our cousins lived as well. So far quite a few have shown interest (from Japan, Indonesia and Australia) which is good, as it's a bit daunting in a way to be given the task of bringing it together.

Greymouth CBD

4). My GKB enjoys taking photos and quite often the ones I put up here are his. I love the one below that he took one day while sis and I were walking and he was wandering and waiting. It is very moody I think and the clouds look like the beginning of the Taieri Pet, a cloud formation that appears over the Middlemarch area when certain conditions occur. We never saw the 'Pet' though as it didn't form fully. Anyway I like the starkness of the tree against the cloud and sky.

5). I've been feeling a bit tired lately, I think it's the start of year activity beginning to catch up with me. We have been really busy since Christmas with visits from two of my sisters and two of my nieces and their little ones. We have walked quite a bit on the rail trail and there have been one or two other functions happening as well. And I have thoroughly enjoyed it all. But...I think I need a bit of a rest because my brain doesn't seem to be functioning as it should. Blow it. So if I don't post quite so often in the next little while you'll know why. 



Maybe I'll just be away a few days or a week or two but I will check in occasionally to see what everyone is up to. 
Life is very busy at the moment :)

joining Martha at:

Martha's Favorites

and Amy at:

Five on Friday

with love, 

Diana

Kittens, sunflowers and other stuff...

This week I've got some bits and pieces

 to share with you and not a lot of any substance. 

First of all let me show you four of the five kittens 

the next door wee stray cat has produced, only about 

a fortnight after the first litter of the season 

went to the SPCA - the little bisom.

But they are cute!

And on the other side of the house - 

 remember the hedge that was coming down a few weeks ago?

Well here it is now, or I should say, here it isn't now.

Ready to have a fence put up along the drive.

We're looking forward to that.

 Now all this chopping down of the green stuff

 must be catching because this is what has

 happened at our place in the last week.

Before

This part of the yard was getting all overgrown 

and the bushes were taking up more room than we were.

After

Now it looks like this, we took out a

bush that had died in the middle, 

and had all the others cut right back.

A lot more room.

 There's still some work to do, 

like getting the rubbish to the dump, 

and fixing up the furniture again before next summer, but all's good.

Actually my youngest and her  husband 

paid for it to be done for my birthday.

Nice one.

Sunny the sunflower

I sprouted Sunny before Christmas and gave it

 to my girlfriend as a 'pay it forward' gift.

She is producing beautiful blooms 

and when I took this I think she had 11 blooms

 and about 20 more to come out.

She is just glorious and a real talking point 

in the community my friend lives in.

'She' being Sunny, not my friend!

And guess what, I never got my own seeds in! 

Ah well, there's always next year.

And just because I can I will show you another one of my teacups.

I tried to find a green one for St Patrick's Day

 but this was the nearest I had.

It looks Celtic but isn't.

It has Phoenix China, ?F&S Ltd on the bottom and is made in England.

It's not quite a full size cup but it's not a demitasse either...

May the saint protect ye-
An' sorrow neglect ye,
An' bad luck to the one
That doesn't respect ye
t' all that belong to ye,
An long life t' yer honor-
That's the end of my song t' ye!

(an Irish blessing)

joining in with:

Martha's favourites

I'd like to wish you all

a Happy St Patrick's Day,

Diana

letting off some steam

Sorry folks, I just have to let off a little steam!

I sat down to write something quite different but

that will keep till later.

Last night I was working (I work in a rest home)

and went to answer one of our residents call bell.

She was in quite a frantic state, had just answered her phone

and couldn't make head or tail of what was going on.

I could hear someone talking to her in a really persistent manner,

in a foreign accent and alarm bells started ringing.

It was one of those ratbag computer hackers trying to

get her to turn on her computer.

Being 99 and in a rest home and not owning a computer

she couldn't work out what was going on and getting in a real tizz.

I'm afraid I saw red and took the phone and let rip.

I sent him packing with a flea in his ear!

(And I didn't swear).

Now the poor old soul is scared to answer her phone in the evening.

These people have got no idea of the damage they do,

not just to peoples computers or finances but emotionally

  - I guess they don't care either, unfortunately.

On a happier note, in February I planted a couple of

sunflower seeds,

far too late for them to do anything major,

I really thought it might already be too cool for them to

germinate but was hopeful.

Well they did germinate and they grew and reached toward the sun. Then we had a week or so of cold weather.

I thought that was the end of them, but no.

Autumn turned out to be beautiful and warm.

The sunflowers grew and grew,

one outdoing the efforts of the other.

The photo above is the one which opened and bloomed,

and even though we have now had a dusting

of snow on the hills it is still standing tall.

Its mate is about 8 inches shorter and the day before the snow it was just starting to open - I haven't been down the yard to have a look at it since, but I must soon.

They haven't reached their full height, but just to have made it to the height they are has really amazed me.

Isn't life grand on the whole.