NEWS FROM THE ISLAND

IT IS EASY to get into habits, both good and not so good, living on an Island.






One good habit is walking and I try to make sure I fit in a walk sometime during the day, even if it is winter and knowing there is a gale blowing outside of the shelter of my section.

On Thursday while lower New Zealand was under severe weather conditions, further north it was more like a decent winter gale instead. To take the video clip shown here I had one arm wrapped around a sign to try and steady both myself and the phone while I was pointing toward Auckland. I was hoping to record the huge roaring of the wind in the trees around me that was so loud it was making it hard to think - but the wind blowing over the microphone has drowned it out

Still talking of walking - the, not so good habit, is always wearing bare feet, sneakers or gumboots and when there is an invitation due from the Mainland and you wish to dress up for it, you realise your feet are not used to shoes. So now to each day is being added more and more time learning to walk in shoes again. It's taking a bit longer than I thought.

NEWS FROM THE ISLAND

IT IS NOT ALWAYS EASY living on the Island in winter. Though, this is the time I reserve for doing a lot of my poetry writing when the bay is empty and the weekenders won't be back for two or three months, some days I can feel very shut in. It's the old story of one being quite comfortable in a room with the door shut, but as soon as its locked, feeling trapped.



Usually its problems with the car not going, but since I barged it over to the mechanic to fix, it's been great. This time its the road confining me - our local councillor has now come back to me with assurances it will be fixed in the near future, so I am still walking the hill - which seems to get steeper as the days get more wintry.

These are the days that I bless my reliable granny-trolley to bring up my groceries.  Sometimes I am tempted to hang brightly coloured ribbons and bells off it, like some people do with bicycles, to show how much I value its work. But then, I wouldn't want to appear eccentric would I?

MEANDERINGS free copy result

This is to advise all those who entered into the draw for a free copy of my poetry book MEANDERINGS, that the winner was Liz of Christchurch, New Zealand Thank you for your entries.

NEWS FROM THE ISLAND

THERE IS NO ESCAPING THE FACT IT IS NOW WINTER and one has to look hard to find any colour other than variations of green or mud in my daily bush walks.

The  toadstools and the arum lilies are yet to arrive but the bright red-orange fungi are starting to appear on the felled pine trees. 

It is still a while to go also for the bulbs to start their orchestrated display but the green is brightened in the meanwhile with the bromeliads   

And the occasional chilled looking flower which hasn't caught on that it is winter yet.