Home: The Other One

Following on from the last paragraph of The Journey Home, Fiona reminded me that it is the sign of the true Geminian that he (the masculine includes the feminine - Interpretation Act 1978) can have two lives. And so it seems to be. I was trying to decide whether the lives were simultaneous or parallel or separate or whether some other description better fitted the situation. In fact they all fit in part and yet none of them fit absolutely. So I think I will just stick with having two lives.

There will be a few occasional postings on this Blog over the next few months and then I will start A Hebridean in New Zealand: Notes on my time in New Zealand 2008/2009. One of the things I want to do is a short review of some of the things that I found most interesting on the Blog and see what you enjoyed most. After all, although this is part diary for my benefit, I would like you to be entertained and informed as well.

In the meantime I shall try and continue to post some items of interest on Eagleton Notes. I have decided (I think) just to use Eagleton Notes for everything that I do over the next six months regardless of whether it takes place in Eagleton or the Wirral or France.

Days v Nights: Napier v Lewis

I was considering the weather today. "No" I hear you say "surely not". Well actually yes. Why? Because for the first time for a long time the weather recently in Napier and on Lewis seemed to be similar although it has been rather warmer in Hawkes Bay which has been the warmest place in New Zealand.

But what I was really thinking about was the relationship between the length of the days in the two places. Today in Napier the sun rises at 0651 and sets at 1729 and on Lewis the sun rises at 0548 and sets at 2058. So Napier has 10 hrs and 40 mins of daylight and Lewis has 15 hrs and 10 mins giving Lewis 4 1/2 hours more daylight than Napier.

The Journey Home

This will not be the last posting on this Blog - there are a few more things I want to say before I start on my Eagleton Notes.

This posting is being started in Glasgow Airport where I have a couple of hours to wait for the Stornoway flight and the last flight sector of the journey home. It won't quite be the last leg of the journey because Pat will be there to meet me and drive me home from the Airport. I am so looking forward to that as I write this.

The journey started rather hurriedly. I had all day to finish packing and getting The Cupboard packed. However I was making such good progress cleaning the Cottage that I had managed to get all the bedding washed and dried including the big thick duvet cover - it was the perfect drying weather - 28 deg and breezy. I popped into town and had a coffee with Jayne from Croquet. When I got home I had several hours to finish off and somehow everything got a bit behind. Partly it has to be said because I couldn't access the British Airways website to validate my Stornoway flight.

Martin and the children hadn't arrived back from Gisborne so June took me to the Airport. We arrived and I realised that I'd left my mobile in its place on the window frame which is the only place in the Cottage that I can get a signal. So June set off to get it and was back in good time. The flight was, however, delayed over an hour which meant that Martin and the children did get to see me off and I had only 1 1/2 hours to get from Domestic to International (a decent walk or a possible 20 minute wait for the courtesy bus), pay my departure tax (which usually takes ages), and get though security. As it happens all that took me less than half an hour so I was airside and ready to board well before time for take-off at 2130.

The first International sector to Los Angeles was on a Boeing 747-400 carrying nearly 400 passengers and weighing about 369 tons and flying at a cruising height of 11000 metres at nearly 1000 kph. The 10000 k journey took about 11 hours.

We arrived in LAX (Los Angeles International Airport). Always a joy - not. The occupants of the plane who are transiting through the airport to get back on the plane after it's been refuelled and re-provisioned (why did I not use a hyphen in refuelled?) simply have to wait in the (exceptionally uninviting) cattle - sorry, transit - holding area. BUT first you have to get into that area and you have only two hours before the flight takes off again. This means that the majority of the 400 people on board line up in a corridor whilst ONE Border and Homelands Security Immigration Officer considers your visa waiver application, fingerprints both your index fingers and photographs your iris's. Needless to say this cannot be done in two hours by one person. So after a while they marched the rest of the waiting masses down stairs and along corridors and through the 'proper' immigration control area.

The reason that, until now, I have flown through the USA is to get my 2 x 23k baggage allowance. Other flights only allow 1 x 20k. I have to say that I am glad that I will never have to go through the USA again because I no longer need the larger baggage allowance as I have almost everything that I need duplicated in New Zealand.

I shall probably continue to use Air New Zealand because I can book my luggage from Glasgow to Napier (just taking it through bio-security and customs in Auckland) and vice versa without any need to see it in London. But other opportunities are at least open to the traveller who eschews the US of A. Air New Zealand fly more and more flights through Hong Kong Airport which is a lovely spacious airport with showers and a friendly, fast throughput of transit visitors. That is appealing.

The rest of this is being written on Friday morning (UK time) at home.

The second sector to LHR (London Heathrow) was flown by the same plane and the 8919 ks took about 10 hours.

Heathrow is an Airport which most people seek to avoid if they can but I have to say that I don't really mind it and after 1 June this year Air New Zealand will be using Terminal 1 so there will be no need to transfer terminals between the Glasgow to LHR BMI flight and the Air New Zealand onward flight. The only problem I had in Heathrow (apart from a snag with my BMI electronic ticket which had been 'locked' by Air New Zealand who could not be contacted for nearly 30 minutes) yesterday was Immigration - I didn't go through it! Of course you can't avoid immigration can you? Answer 'Yes, very easily. And you don't even have to try'. I managed to bypass the immigration controls and got as far as the boarding gate for the Glasgow flight. I was asked for my passport. It didn't have a biometric confirmation in it ie a digitised photograph so that they could check I was who I was. So I had to go all the way back to the Immigration Control that I'd bypassed (it's so obvious that I couldn't even find it when I went back!) to be processed. If I'd had a new passport with a digitised image presumably I would have got onto the plane without even passing through Immigration Control. Amazing. As it was I arrived back at the gate just as it was closing. However the plane was over an hour late so it wouldn't have mattered on this occasion.

The Glasgow to Stornoway sector was uneventful and only took 40 minutes with a strong tailwind. The sight of the Shiants and the South Lochs and then Stornoway was remarkably emotional. I felt that I was home. Rather the same as I felt when the plane circled Hawkes Bay on the first day of November last year.

The Cupboard

The Cupboard as featured in the exciting posting on 19 April!

The Cupboard was bare

Filled with my goods and chattels

ANZAC Day: 25 April

The 25th April is ANZAC Day (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps). It commemorates all New Zealanders killed in war and also honours returned servicemen and women. Perhaps more effectively than any other date in the National calendar Anzac Day promotes a sense of unity amongst the people of New Zealand. People whose politics, beliefs and aspirations are widely different can nevertheless share a genuine sorrow at the loss of so many lives in war.

The date itself marks the anniversary of the landing of New Zealand and Australian soldiers – the Anzacs – on the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915. The aim was to capture the Dardanelles, the gateway to the Bosphorus and the Black Sea. At the end of the campaign, Gallipoli was still held by its Turkish defenders.

The Gallipoli campaign was, however, a costly failure for the Allies, who after nine months abandoned it and evacuated their surviving troops. Almost a third of the New Zealanders taking part had been killed; the communities they came from had counted the cost in the lengthy casualty lists that appeared in their newspapers. And the sacrifice seemed to have been in vain, for the under-resourced and poorly-conducted campaign did not have any significant influence on the outcome of the war.

After Gallipoli, New Zealand had a greater confidence in its distinct identity, and a greater pride in the international contribution it could make. The mutual respect earned during the fighting formed the basis of the close ties with Australia that continue today.

In New Zealand Anzac Day is also Poppy Day in place of Remembrance Day. This Country's equivilent to the British Legion is the RSA or Returned Services Association which organises Poppy Day.

Anzac Day is a public holiday and compulsory half-day for the shops.


Gallipoli Statistics:

260 - days of the Gallipoli Campaign

8556 - NZ forces landed: 4852 NZ forces wounded, 2721 NZ forces fatalities

8709 - Australian forces fatalities

33,072 - fatalities from all British forces

10,000* - French fatalities

87,000* - Turkish fatalities

20,000* - total number attending 2005 Anzac Day commemorations at Gallipoli

*Estimated number

The Ode
A veteran on Anzac Day.

This is the verse of the ode that is said during the minutes of silence on Anzac Day:

They shall grow not old,
As we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them,
Nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun,
And in the morning
We will remember them.

Laurence Binyon (1869-1943), For the Fallen (1914), stanza 4

The verse is traditionally concluded with the words "Lest We Forget"

Life

On 20 January I wrote a piece which I intended to put on this Blog but never did:

It's now 0120 and the moon has slipped over the horizon and the air on the deck feels almost tangibly clammy. Which seems a bit odd because it's such a beautiful and clear night. I went onto the deck to think. That in itself is quite an achievement for me. I had a thought once before and look where it got me. Anyway I was having this thought when I realised that in 2005 when I came to New Zealand for the 'holiday of a lifetime' I not only never dreamed of spending so much of my life here I'm not sure that in my heart of hearts I really believed that I had that much more of a life to spend. No, I'm not being negative. I never have been that. I'm being realistic about how I felt when I was told that my cancer had returned and that, although it was not really measureable enough to locate, it was likely to be only a matter of time before something happened.

Of course time is strange. 'A matter of time' could be a month, a year or a decade. In fact a bus could get me first.

What I was really thinking about as I stood on the deck under the vast blackness that is the Universe, was how fortunate I am. How fortunate I have been all my life. I had wonderful, loving parents. I went to (but didn't make the most of) schools which were amongst the best Liverpool had to offer. Liverpool City Council subsidised my higher education and paid me hansomely whilst I undertook it. I've always had a good job and I retired early on a final salary pension.

But most of all I am fortunate above all other things to be rich. No. I don't mean that I have money. As Sue Marshall so rightly said, if we have food on the table, wine in our glass and, above all things, friends to share them with, then we are rich. I have all of those things.

And the greatest of these is friends.

Aircraft: Bombardier Dash 8 v Saab 340

The first time that I came to New Zealand I started and finished my journey on a plane ostensibly run by the national carrier of the Country concerned, operated by a wholly owned 'franchise' operator and running identical Saab 340 aircraft.

The last time that I left the UK I travelled from Stornoway to Glasgow on an identical - it may even have been the same - Saab 340 aircraft operated by Loganair on behalf of British Airways. From Auckland to Napier I travelled on a Bombardier Dash 8: the Saab 340s in the Air Nelson fleet having all been replaced.

An amusing aside is that the operator with the largest number of Saab 340s after Mesaba Airlines (an American Indian name for "soaring eagle") with 49 aircraft is Colgan Air which operates 42 of them out of Logan Airport.

So why is all this of interest? I suppose only really because the Dash 8 is a far more comfortable and quieter plane.

Originally designated as the SF340, the aircraft first flew on 25 January 1983. After Fairchild exited the aircraft manufacturing business in 1985 after about 40 units, Saab continued aircraft production under the designation 340A. An improved version, the 340B, introduced more powerful engines and wider horizontal stabilizers in 1989 and all the later standard 340B's also had the active soundproofing system. The final version, the 340B Plus, was delivered for service in 1994. Loganair operates 2 A series and 13 B series.

The de Havilland Canada Dash 8 is a series of twin-engined, medium range, turboprop airliners introduced by de Havilland Canada (DHC) in 1984. They are now produced by Bombardier Aerospace, which purchased DHC from Boeing in 1992. Since 1996, the aircraft have been known as the Q Series, for "quiet" due to installation of the Active Noise and Vibration Suppression (ANVS) system designed to reduce cabin noise and vibration levels to less than those of jet airliners. Over 700 Dash 8s of all models have been built. Bombardier forecasts a total production run of 1,192 units of all -8 variants through the year 2016

However the really big difference between them from the passengers' point of view is that in the Dash 8 the wings are mounted above the windows and therefore the passenger has a view of the spectacular country over which he or she is flying.

Loganair Saab 340 in British Airways livery

Air Nelson Dash 8 in Air New Zealand livery over Napier

V8 Supercars

The Australian V8 Supercar series is big in the antipodes - much bigger than the GP. It is powerful, fast and furious and above all very exciting. Well, exciting anyway. I don't usually follow it although I watch the occasional race. There are some names from the European circuit of whom I have heard although I don't recognise any in the current team lists. Because today's races were from Hamilton - the only N Z event in the calendar - I watched the third race. The following images were photographed from the TV.

Farewell

Wendy went away yesterday to China. Martin took the children to Gisborne today for a while. I may not see them again before I fly off so they said their farewells as they drove off down the drive:

Wildlife

This was a yawn not a cry - at least there was no sound. I didn't know that birds yawned.

Mr Hedgehog was in the paddock in front of The Cottage. I've never seen one there before but what was unusual was not that he (she?) was there but the size. At first I thought it was some other sort of animal because it was by far the largest hedgehog I have ever seen - the size of a small dog!

A Night not so Dark

When I went to bed last night it was amazingly light and I decided to see if I could take some photos. There was a distinct déja vu about all this. Light nights are common when the moon is high but this was one of the exceptional nights. Not a night of a 'big moon' as appeared in midsummer but a bright one nevertheless. The photo at around midnight came out pretty well I thought.

At somewhere around 0200 I was woken by a text message that had been sent to me 9 hours previously: that seems to happen here rather a lot. I was struck by the fact that, when I woke, I thought it was morning until I woke sufficiently to realise it was the 'wrong' sort of light for morning. It was, however, as bright as daylight on a Lewis morning! So I took more photos. I'm sure I've done a post like this before but, hey, I'm doing one again.

The view from my bed

Hawkes Bay Airport: Napier

The Airport at Napier is billed as Hawkes Bay Airport. Despite the fact that it's in Napier I suppose that's because it's the only one in the area capable of taking anything bigger than a 4-seater aeroplane. It's a very pleasant airport rather in the way that Stornoway Airport is. A bit like home from home. Except for one HUGE difference. Here there are no security checks and no x-ray machines: just like Stornoway was 30 years ago. Mind you in the last few weeks they have actually started checking the tickets before you board. Is this the pre-cursor to more rigorous checks I wonder.

Wendy went off to China from here early this evening. I shall be leaving from here on Wednesday evening.

Never Heard of One

Have you ever heard of a choko (also known as chayote, vegetable pear or mango squash)? I hadn't until today when one of the ladies at croquet brought some in.

Apparantly they are a native of Central America and were taken back to Europe by the Spanish explorers and from there were introduced to parts of Asia. They grow on a climbing plant. Some varieties have spines, others are spineless. Colours range from green to ivory white. They have a very mild flavour, often likened to that of marrow, so are usually cooked with other stronger tasting foods like pesto, ginger, garlic and tomatoes. Choko shoots are sometimes eaten in Asian cooking.

Perhaps you knew all that but, if you didn't, then you do now.

The Cupboard

I have woken to my last Saturday on this stay in New Zealand. Before I know it the last few days will have disappeared and I'll be wondering where they went. So I'd better think about storing and packing. At least I don't have to worry about where everything is going. All the things in daily use such as the DVD player and kitchen equipment will stay in situ. The same will probably be true for most of the books and games. Everything else will disappear into two cases for return to Lewis with me or into The Cupboard to be locked away until my return.
Now that I have most things here that I need I will not be taking things back and forth and will not require the 2 x 23 kilos of luggage that I can get with Air New Zealand if I fly one of the sectors through Los Angeles. Which means I can give a huge cheer and travel with any carrier and avoid the USA. I'll probably stick with Air New Zealand because they are good but I'll travel via Hong Kong. I like Hong Kong airport and I can put my luggage in at Glasgow, collect it for clearance in Auckland then give it back to them for the Napier sector. Going home it goes straight from Napier to Glasgow with no footling around with luggage in Heathrow. In fact from 1 June Air N Z will fly from Terminal 1 so I wouldn't even have to change terminals.

Fountain

At the end of Hastings Street by the Cathedral is a fountain. "So what" I hear you say. Well the what is that I've walked past it many many times but, until today, I've never been conscious of its existence. How strange is that?

I Thought Summer Was Over

After the horrible weather of the last five or so days I woke to full sun this morning and threw open all the doors to let some air in. By 1015 the temperature was:

By the time I was thinking of going out I had the roof off the car and set of in shirt sleeves leaving behind the following temperature on the deck:

It didn't get much hotter during the day (see Max below) and at 1630 it was still warm enough to have coffee on the deck:

And as the sun went down:

So Far but Yet So Near

The rain has cleared leaving a clear night sky. The moon is almost full. We may be apart but when I look at the sky and remember that we are standing on the same earth, looking at the same moon, somehow you don't seem so far away after all.

Morris Eight Tourer

I just love this little car although putting the hood up would be a fairly major operation I imagine.

Kite Surfing

Kite Surfing is popular in the area in the river estuary by Clive.

Croquet Season 2007/2008: Results Summary

My Croquet handicap 'passports'.

Events Won: Golf Croquet:

28 November 2007: Marewa C C Open Singles: Intermediate
(Lost just 1 match - to Jayne)

28 March 2008: Hawkes Bay Croquet Assn Handicap Doubles
(with Mike Crashley)

15 April: Dorothea Sweetapple Memorial Trophy
(Against Gaynor Robertson)


Events Won: Association Croquet:

Hawkes Bay Croquet Association Silver Badge 'C' Grade

Marewa CC Handicap Doubles Championship
(with Frank Wharton).


Runner-up: Golf Croquet

26 January 2008 Wanganui 7th Annual Tournament
Level Singles (to Colleen Stevens - Marewa CC)

29 March 2008: Hawkes Bay Handicap Singles:
(to Carol Piercy - Katikati)

Hawkes Bay Croquet Association Silver Badge:
(to Don Hambro - Te Mata)

Thoughts on my Croquet Season

I am a member of and play both Association and Golf Croquet at and for the Marewa Croquet Club (MCC !) in Napier.

I'll try not to go on too much and be boring but croquet has become such a huge part of my life and enjoyment in New Zealand that I have decided to write a summary of the season and put down a few of my thoughts on the subject. This posting is as much for me as for you, dear reader. At some time in the future I hope that I will be able to look back at this as though it were a diary summary of entries in a wonderful year.

During the season I have learned a lot about myself in relation to sport.

I have never been very competitive in sports because they have never mattered to me. In any case, apart from my sojourn into fencing (which I loved) and golf (which I really wanted to love but couldn't), my feelings when participating in sport have ranged from hatred (of long distance running) to complete indifference (to almost everything else). In other words I have never enjoyed sports very much. [PS I'm sorry Dad, I know you told me that I should never hate anything in life and perhaps I should have copied Jenni and just said, with a mock stamp of my foot, that I didn't like it a very lot.].

I have discovered, however, not only that I enjoy croquet enormously but also that when I play competitively I want to win. This has rather taken me by surprise because I never had that feeling even with fencing. Having said that I've also discovered that it's not a desire to win at all costs and that I can also lose a match and truly enjoy the game. I've come second in two finals this year: at Wanganui and in the Hawkes Bay Golf Croquet Handicap Singles which was played at Marewa.

The first was against a lady from my own Club who was, for many years, Hawkes Bay's top woman Association Croquet Player but this was a Golf Croquet match and she had the same handicap at the time as I had ie 6. She was a lady in whom I was of considerable awe. When I played in the final all I wanted was for me not to disgrace myself. In fact I lost the match 6:7. It was a superb game and a fair result: I had not disgraced myself but the better player had won.

The second and more recent match was against Carol Piercey, a lovely lady whom I have met on quite a few occasions at various tournaments. It was a handicap match and although we had both started the season on a 6 handicap she had dropped to an 8 and I had risen to a 4 and therefore I had to give her 4 free shots. She beat me by one hoop. She used her shots well and played better than I did on the day when it mattered. However we both played very well and it was neither a disgrace for me nor a walkover for her. It was a good match.

So I would not agree that it is always better to have played and lost than never to have played at all. I would modify the statement to say that it is better to have played a good and enjoyable game and lost than to have won and not to have enjoyed the game. However by far the best is to have won an enjoyable game!

Kiwi Caravans

It is, unless I have had my eyes closed when I've been on holiday in Europe and even in Australia, a peculiarly Kiwi thing to decorate caravans. On my last visit Steve and I went on holiday to South Island. Motor caravans seem to be more popular and plentiful there even than they are in North Island. I hope that in my Blog next visit I'll be able to expand on this but for the time being here are a couple of vans that Mo and I saw at Mt Ruapehu.

Severe Weather and Lightning Strikes

I'm watching the late evening news because I was up at Wendy and Martin's when the 6 O'Clock News was on. One man and his horse were killed today by a lightning strike near Auckland and 6 others were injured - 4 seriously. Without being flippant that must play havoc with the statistics. It has been described as an unusual and freak occurrence. An understatement I would have thought.

At least 5 teenagers have lost their lives in a swollen river this evening.

A severe weather warning has also been issued for Napier and Gisborne. We've had constant and heavy rain for many hours now and the Police are advising people not to make journeys unless they are really necessary.

I think it's time to go home!

Dancing With The Stars

The Kiwi equivalent of Strictly Come Dancing has taken the Country by storm and the final is tonight.

If anyone had asked me whether I would have been a Strictly watcher I would have laughed in rather the same way that I would have laughed if someone had suggested I might watch Eastenders. Imagine my surprise, therefore, when after Pat had had her way with me and I'd stayed with CJ, I became not only a watcher but an avid one at that. I came here before the final and, unlike Eastenders and Corrie it's not shown in New Zealand. However it is franchised here and Dancing with the Stars is the show's name.

As I write this the final is taking place between Temepara George, a Silver Fern (the Country's Netball Team) and therefore on a par with a Man United footballer here and Monty Betham who is a rugby league player (and therefore only a Chelsea player equivalent - sorry Liverpool fans). Both are amazing although Temepara has been consistently so and Monty Betham has really only come to the fore over the last few programmes. Apart from the fact that Temepara is, in my opinion, by far the better of the two she has much lovelier legs (ok so it's a sexist remark but wotthehellarchiewoitthehell) and therefore deserves to win.

The judges have just decided by a difference of 4 that Temepara and her partner were better over tonight's three dances. We are awaiting the public's vote.

Monty and Nerida (she's the one in flame)

Monty and Nerida

Temepara and Stefano

Temepara

The public agreed with the judges!!!!!

A Less Colourful House

In February I showed you a colourful house on Napier's West Shore. It was colourful rather than spectacular by the City's standards. However when I was in Taupo with Mo and Fiona we saw a lived in house which was rather a contrast:

Monkey Puzzle Tree Revisited

At the end of February I posted an article on the Monkey Puzzle Tree in Nelson Park. Since then the cone featured in it has sat on the deck and slowly gone brown and fallen apart.

Association Croquet Doubles: Club Championship

The rain kept off until we finished.

Today Frank and I won our match 19:12. The couple we were playing against have one more match to play and if they win that they will have the same number of wins as Frank and I. By our calculations, however, they will have to win it by a margin of 18 to beat us on countback of score differences. That's a very big margin by which to win a doubles match but not an impossible one. In the event that they lose or win by less than that margin then Frank and I would seem to have won the Club's Association Doubles Championship. I have my fingers crossed.

Morgan Three-Wheeler Cars

When I was a small child a green Morgan Three-Wheeler Sports car used to live somewhere near us and occasionally appear in our road. I've always had a soft spot for them ever since. These were in Napier at Art Deco Weekend. I believe the aluminium vehicle to be a 1934 Morgan Super Sports. Although I am less sure I think that the red one is a 1939 Morgan Super Sports JAP 2-Seater Sports Barrelback 1939.

Para-Gliding at Te Mata

Te Mata Peak near Havelock North south of Napier provides an opportunity for par-gliding. Personally I found the experience absolutely awesome. I 'jumped' off the top of a hill by running along the top and being lifted off by the wind. At Te Mata you jump off the top of the hill. Get it wrong and......

In the air above the Peak

Above Craggy Range Winery

Landing

Registration Plates

In this country you can have any available registration plate with up to eight alphanumerics. There are lots of interesting plates around but some are more interesting than others. These are a few of the ones that I have been able to photograph round Napier.

A Get Together

Wendy's off to China next Saturday and Martin's taking the children camping up North so today was the last opportunity that I had to get together with the various families who are part of the Geddes circle of friends who have accepted me into their bosoms.

So at this afternoon 11 adults and 14 children gathered at the Geddes residence for soup, pizza and lasagne followed by cheesecake, ice cream and cornflake crunch. There were fruit drinks - some of fermented grape varieties.

Having food on the table, wine in the glass and friends to share them with makes one very aware of having life's riches.

A Juxtaposition

Walking along Marine Parade is always an enjoyable experience. There is so much to see. The other day the juxtaposition of the old and the new caught my eye more than usual. The Backpackers Hostel and the splendid Pacifica Restaurant sandwiching a modern block of very desirable apartments.

A Drive Home

Yesterday (Saturday) I spent a most enjoyable day on the croquet lawn. Afterwards I went to a friend's to collect a lasagne dish and have a cup of tea before driving home. It was about 1820 as I drove along Prebensen Drive and as I turned to face roughly south towards Te Mata peak the sky was fading with a special light reserved for Autumn evenings. Night was closing in. As I turned into the Cottage drive it was almost dark. I suddenly realised how privileged I was to be looking forward to long drawn out summer evenings and the fact that, in two months, there would be no complete darkness on Lewis because the sun will dip momentarily behind the horizon to emerge soon afterwards as if the day had never ended.

So on the few remaining nights that I am here and not going out I shall savour the opportunity to curl up and read or listen to music or watch TV with the darkness of the night staring at me through the large windows.

Spider

I think that this is the first time I've mentioned a spider in this Blog (or any other Blog come to that). I probably wouldn't have mentioned this one if it hadn't been for the fact that firstly I can positively identify it as a Supunna picta (Corinnidae) and secondly the fact that despite it only having 5 of its 8 legs it can still live up to being a Fleet Footed Spider. How can you run fast with only 5 of your 8 legs and I can't even run quickly with one dicky knee!

Actually another interesting thing is that it's only within the last 30 years (perhaps less) that the family Corinnidae has existed. The new family, mainly those of which that mimic ants, was separated from Clubionidae. In its native Australia this spider is a wasp mimic.

Actually there's a lot more some would find of interest I could tell you but I'm conscious of the fact that others could find it less than interesting.

What is significant is that this spider which is an Australian native which was first identified in New Zealand on Cuvier Island in the Hauraki Gulf just off the coast of Auckland in 1943 was not identified as an Australian spider until about 1958 when it was realised that it was an addition to New Zealand's immigrant Australian fauna.

Temperature

I know that I said during the last few days that summer seemed to be over. And it did! But at 1100 today this was the temperature registering on the deck. It's been a wonderful, warm day with the sun beaming down from a flawless sky. I just wish that I hadn't had terrible toothache until Martin anaesthetised me and did some root canal cleaning to get rid of some infection. I just have to hope that the infection subsides before I have to travel! But then play the Glad Game: I could have had terrible toothache and not travelled to Hastings with the roof down and enjoyed the fabulous weather.

Mixed Feelings

I filled the pill box today for the last time this visit. It seems so very long ago since I arrived and yet it feels no time at all. How very odd.

Buick Roadster Convertible

There is a Buick following in New Zealand. Interestingly a lot of the older cars are right-hand drive despite being American. What I love is the detail. The chap who own this one also owns a similar black Roadster that is not a convertible. Every now and then people just 'exhibit' their vintage cars in a prominent place in the town for no other reason than to let people see them It's a curious phenomenon that I can't imagine happening in the UK.

Buick Roadster

The other Buick:

During the war Dad was an Auxiliary Fireman when he was not working in his 'day job' and he drove a Buick Roadster on the Liverpool Docks pulling a fire tender. It was very probably similar to this one.

Eucalip in Autumn

This is a eucalip next to the Cottage. It's autumn and it's just started flowering.

The Rock Wall in the Sunken Garden

In 1969 the Sunken Garden on Marine Parade was built after a visit by the then Mayor, Peter Tait, to Durban in South Africa. Though I'm not quite sure what the relevance of that is! It's a splendid garden. The rockwork and rock wall was carried out by Len Crompton, a stonemason from the Cotswolds in England, who was then on the staff of the Parks and Reserves. The wall contains examples of rock from all over New Zealand.

Street Furniture: Second Instalment

Whatever the peculiarities of Emerson Street and its 'pedestrianisation' peculiarities the situation certainly has given rise to a lovely street with lovely street furniture. A comment on the last posting on this subject was to the effect that the bollards obviously didn't work. In actual fact they do the job they are put there to do because, despite the fact that this is a 'pedestrianised' street with cars it also has free 10 minute parking bays down most of its length!! It just means that not only do people constantly walk in front of cars because they either don't realise or forget that there is a road down the middle even though it has the same paviored surface but the children can run out from in between parked cars in what they perceive to be a pedestrian area. OK so that's really daft but I suppose like local authorities everywhere Napier City Council had its reasons when it did what it did. Anyway here's some details of the splendid street furniture that adorns the street.

Autumn?

It's hard to believe that it's autumn!

Street Furniture

A while ago CJ did a blog posting on street furniture and bollards in particular. Whilst I was having my town centre wander on Sunday morning I re-awakened my awareness of the large amount of street furniture in Emerson Street and the superb quality of that furniture. The problem with Emerson Street is that it is a 'pedestrianised' street with a through road for cars. Bizarre? Yes it is. The whole street has been paved with the small decorative and practical interlocking bricks. The problem is that they don't differentiate between the part reserved for pedestrians and the part on which cars can drive. There are, therefore, a lots of bollards to stop the cars actually encroaching on the pedestrian area. Unfortunately the bollards don't actually stop people walking in front of cars. But that's a different issue which is not for this Blog.

Lady With a Parrot

One of the more photogenic and interesting people at the flea market on Sunday was the Lady With a Parrot.

A Pillar Box That Wasn't There

I'm sure that it wasn't there last time I walked down Emerson Street. However it was there on Sunday morning and it does seem unlikely that it has only just arrived there.

Pheasants

The orchard in front of the Cottage is home to at least one family of pheasants and perhaps more. A cock pheasant roosts somewhere above the cottage and every morning he flies down from the roost and over the car and down into the paddock and orchard. That in itself is fine. However he also makes a din when he flies which is enough to waken the dead and certainly enough to waken me if I happen to be asleep. As it happens I'm usually awake anyway but this morning I was just coming to when he performed a matter of a few metres from my head (albeit there was a cottage wall in between). As I scraped myself off the ceiling I could cheerfully have strangled him.

A Privileged Life

It has been a beautiful day. This morning I decided to pay another visit to the flea market on the Marine Parade and have a bike ride and generally soak up the warmth and remind myself how privileged I am to be able to be here before going to the airport at noon to see the Newbery family off back to Scotland.

I never did have the bike ride and I never went to the airport. I'd been in Napier at about 0900 and, having taken lots of photos and had a lovely walk looking at things in the town that I usually don't notice, I decided to have a coffee at about 1040. I was just settling into the coffee and a crossword when, much to the amusement of my fellow street café sitters, a gaggle of children's voices called out from across Emerson Street 'Hi Graham. The Oldies are all along the road'. It was quite warming actually - it made me feel that I belonged. So I finished my coffee and joined the 'oldies' ie those above 30, who were having coffee in the sun prior to going to the airport. Having said my goodbyes after coffee I came home. I have spent the remainder of the afternoon quietly in the warmth of the sun on the deck and mooching around the Cottage.

Feijoas by the Bucket

As I have mentioned in previous Blogs food in this Country tends to have a greater emphasis on that which is in season than in the UK. At the moment apples are plentiful and cheap and feijoas are also coming into season. Until I came to New Zealand in 2005 I'd never heard of a feijoa. Until a few days ago I'd never tasted one. Feijoas come into season quite late and until now I'd never been here when they were ready. Another odd thing about feijoas, so I'm told, is that you don't pick them. They are not ready to eat until they fall from the tree. I'm sure that commercial growers must do something because I can't see that being practical commercially.

What is a feijoa? Well you eat it like a Kiwi Fruit ie you cut it in half and scoop out the centre. Taste? Well there's a thing. Everyone will tell you that it tastes like a.....feijoa! And, guess what, that's exactly what it tastes like. I have now added myself to the long list of people who can't describe the taste.

A Spectacular Hedge: Revisited

Every day I pass the Spectacular Hedge about which I blogged on 31 March. The fact that I couldn't find out what it was was beginning to rankle. So I did the obvious and cut a piece off and asked at a Garden Centre. The answer is Cape Honeysuckle ( Tecomaria capensis). As the name suggests it's a native of South Africa. It is, potentially, a weed in New Zealand because it very vigorous and produces a dense mass, smothering or replacing native vegetation.

Views from Bluff Hill

One day in February I made one of my frequent trips with visitors up Napier or Bluff Hill to the Bluff Hill Lookout from which one has views over most of Napier except the main city centre which is hidden behind the Hill. These are a few:

Looking South to Havelock North and Te Mata Peak

A closer view of Marine Parade and Hastings Street to its left

Given the fact that we live in an earthquake zone I'm not sure I'd be happy with this!

Napier Centennial Gardens

For three years I have passed the Napier Centennial Gardens many times a week but have never stopped to have a look at them. When Mo and Fiona were here they did and said that there was a lovely waterfall in the Garden. Given its location I assumed that the waterfall was a small man made one. However it appears to be anything but man made and it is certainly not small falling almost the full height of Bluff Hill at that point.

Trying to be Interesting

When I used to give the talk and demonstration to all the coach passengers I used to have considerable difficulty trying to say the same thing day after day and still make it sound as though this was the first time - especially as people would come back time and again and hear the same spiel. I didn't find altering it easy because I'd then lose the link between the demonstration and the narrative. One of the introductions I used to use was to liken myself to Elizabeth Taylor's seventh husband on their wedding night. I knew what was expected of me but I had no idea how to make it interesting. Well I'm feeling a bit like that this evening. I'm also wondering whether there will be anything left to blog about next visit.

I'm also getting to the stage when I can't remember all the postings and either am in danger of repeating something or of finding something potentially interesting and then leaving it out because I think I've already done it. One of the disadvantages of not being on Broadband is that a quick search isn't that easy.

But wotthehellarchiewotthehell if that's the worst thing I have to worry about I'm doing ok.

Inside a Small Hill

I have often wondered what it looked like inside some of the little hillocks that there are round here.

Jimmy Johnson

One of the television adverts here is brilliant and has been going since I came here and perhaps even before that. One thing about New Zealand adverts is that they can have incredibly long runs. Bad ones can make you cringe for ever. Good ones are so welcome. How effective this one is I'm not sure because I can't remember what it is that is being advertised.

A chap picks up his young son from school. (I'm telling it as a joke and jokes always sound better in the active simple present tense).

The son asks where he came from.

Dad responds with a story about the birds and the bees (hidden by appropriate music, of course).

His son's response is a classic: "That's so cool Dad. Jimmy Johnson just came from Scotland.".

Time for Another Summer?

I played Association Croquet this afternoon. I say 'played' advisedly and with care. Fortunately there are no sueable implications in making such a statement although if my opponent was likely to read this Blog I might be a tad more cautious. To be frank neither my head no my body seemed able to realise why I was on the lawn. I've no idea even whether I won or not. If I did it was definietely not because I deserved to win. My opponent is one of the best players in the Club. Watching her was like watching poetry. What she must have felt like watching me I can't imagine. What she was gracious enough to say was that I wasn't my usual self.

The relevance of this is that if today had been my last game before my six month break from croquet then I would have left the game feeling all the dissappointing negative things instead of all the positive things I was thinking before I went onto the lawn.

That led me to thinking about the fact that my last game of this season is not too far away.

I came here for 25 weeks. I leave 3 weeks today. So I still have nearly one eighth of my total time still to enjoy. One eighth is quite a reasonable proportion generally speaking. Why, therefore, does it feel as though it is no time at all? Tricks of the mind.

The season is changing though. Yesterday evening the temperature on the deck was 23 deg until the sun had disappeared behind the hills. We had our starters and drinks on the deck. This morning I cleared the deck of dozens of dead black beetles which were swarming in the warmth of last night and were attracted by the light. The birds clear up all the dead moths and insects but won't touch the beetles. I don't blame them.

Tonight it's a chilly 17 degrees and it's dull. But then it is Autumn.

Time for a change. Time for summer.

Toxic Honey

Last week there was a bit of a kerfuffle about the fact that people were getting very seriously ill after eating honeycomb honey. Seventeen cases of tutin poisoning have already been confirmed after the victims ate comb honey bought on the Coromandel from a small boutique beekeeper.

Until this outbreak the official record says that a number of people have been killed, incapacitated and hospitalised over the years from eating toxic honey. The last recorded case from commercial honey was in 1974 involving 13 patients. There have been 9 cases since 1974 with the last known poisoning occurring in 1991 in the Eastern Bay of Plenty area. Two poisonings have been caused by comb honey produced by hobby beekeepers in the Marlborough Sounds in 1982 and 1983 and the highest levels of tutin ever measured in honey were produced in this area.

Toxic honey is produced as a result of bees feeding on tutu (Coriaria arborea) bushes. Tutu is a widely distributed native species found throughout New Zealand, particularly along stream banks and in regenerating native bush. The poison comes from the native tutu bush but Toxic honey is not produced by bees visiting the flowers of tutu to gather nectar or pollen, but rather when bees gather honeydew produced by the sap sucking vine hopper insect (Scolypopa sp) feeding on tutu plants.

The honeydew (a sweet exudate) produced from the tutu plant contains tutin, a member of the picrotoxin group. The toxin has no effect on bees and honeydew honey is chemically very similar to floral honey and cannot be distinguished by taste, sight or smell from other non-toxic honeys. The toxin cannot be degraded by any heating or processing of honey. The toxins are believed to be very stable, and poisoning cases have resulted from people eating honey that was several years old.

Both comb honey and extracted honey can be poisonous. Comb honey poses a greater risk because it is eaten directly off the comb, increasing the chance of consuming honey with a high concentration of tutin. Extracted honey is often bulked or blended with other honey thereby reducing the concentration of toxin.

While tutin, and its derivative, hyenanchin are extremely toxic to humans, only a few areas in New Zealand regularly produce toxic honey. These areas include the Coromandel Peninsula and Eastern Bay of Plenty and the Marlborough Sounds. To produce toxic honey, all of the following conditions are required:

• concentrations of numerous tutu bushes

• high numbers of vine hoppers

• hot dry weather to allow the honeydew to build up on the tutu (rain can wash it off)

• an absence of more attractive food sources for bees, usually caused by drought

• presence of honey bees (Apis mellifera) being managed for honey production.

Studebaker

Hail Mary

I was invited out for lunch today by friends who are returning to Scotland after a six month holiday here. We went to The Old Church Restaurant. They use the image on the right on the napkins they use for the plates.

A Spectacular Hedge

On the way into Napier there is a stretch of road with hundreds of metres of fabulous red-flowered hedging and shrub covered bank. Unfortunately I can't identify it. Perhaps CJ will be able to identify the family and then, hopefully it can be identified either on the New Zealand Native Plants website (which I have searched without success) or somewhere else - I know not where - if it's not a native plant.

In amongst the shrubbery is another plant

Magical Moments

Every now and then we are privileged to experience something magical.

Early evening yesterday as it was getting dark there was a chattering twittering outside the Cottage. I went to investigate. Two Fantails were using the washing whirligig as a base from which to catch insects and having a very lively conversation. Fantails can be quite friendly birds so I'm not sure whether they were so intent on their food or just didn't care that I was standing on the deck watching. Either way it was a masterful performance as they would espy an insect and then indulge in some rapid aerobatics to catch it. The most magical moment was when an insect visible to me flew in front of me on the deck. One of the Fantails flew to it and snatched it in its beak about a yard from my eyes.

Happiness is Dancing Naked in the Warm Rain

I have returned from Wendy and Martin's. It is nearly 0140. Late.

It has been a wonderful evening. Wendy came down at around 0830 just as Boston Legal was finishing and I was about to go up and see them. She had come to collect me because they were going to go in the spa and catch up with the week's news. We chatted for an hour and then went up to the house.

We all chatted about the week's events and enjoyed a glass of wine in the warmth of the spa on a beautiful warm evening in the open air. For a while we sat on the edge of the spa as a warm shower passed by and we tried to work out how to tell the world just how unlucky it was not to be sitting with us. To be honest we couldn't think of the words. But if heaven is like this then I would be well satisfied.

Cheese and biscuits - and perhaps a little more wine - followed with more chat.

And now for bed.

A Croquet Week

Well I know that I've been a bit occupied over the last week but it's all over now. The event was the Hawkes Bay Croquet Association 74th Annual Tournament. It was supposed to take up the whole week. For those who haven't already sussed out the vagueries of croquet there are two sorts of croquet generally played in the UK and New Zealand (as usual the USA has an entirely different croquet format): Association and Golf.

Association Croquet is what would have been played by the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland. It is a game for the purist who is not interested in the sociableness of the game but in the game itself. A game is generally timed out at 3 hours. The loser can sit out and watch for all but a few minutes of those 3 hours whilst the winner makes his or her 24 hoops and then pegs out the two winning balls. It is a game of strategy and execution largely against oneself.

Golf Croquet is a sociable game. It requires skill and it requires strategy. The players are always on the lawn and each shot counts and every hoop is a new game.

Way and by far the majority of the players now play Golf Croquet but the sport is and many clubs are still largely controlled by the old guard of Association players. I am fortunate in that the Marewa Club to which I belong and the Te Mata Club at which I often play are both largely Golf Croquet clubs. Having said that, although I am essentially a Golf Croquet player I am enjoying playing Association too.

Anyway the Handicap Singles for Association that I was due to play in was cancelled because of the sparcity of entries. Quite the converse for the Golf Croquet Doubles and Singles.

My partner for the Doubles was Mike from Gisborne. We played and enjoyed ourselves and won the event.

I played in the Handicap Singles yesterday and today and managed to come second.

All in all a very satisfactory tournament.

Daylight Saving

The clocks went forward in the UK at 0100 today, Sunday 30 March for daylight saving (British Summer Time) so the UK is now at GMT + 1 hour. In France and Spain the clocks also went forward 1 hour. Both Countries are usually 1 hours ahead of the UK and now they are on Central European Summer Time (CEST) which is GMT + 2 hours.

In New Zealand we are still on Daylight Saving Time (DST) until Sunday, 6 April 2008 at 03:00 and are on GMT + 13 hours. When we come off summer time next weekend we will be on GMT + 12 hours.

All summer we have been 13 hours ahead of the UK. Now we are 12 hours ahead. After next Sunday we will be 11 hours ahead.

All summer we have been 12 hours ahead of Central Europe. Now we are 11 hours ahead. After next Sunday we will be 10 hours ahead.

Until it starts all over again next September when 'winter' starts in the UK and Europe and 'summer' starts here.

Isn't life complicated.

See The World Clock

Still Here

I'm sorry that there hasn't been a posting for a day or two. I've been out all day from 0745 until late for the last two days and it's another early start tomorrow. It's been a good couple of days so far with plenty for me to bore you with. In the meantime I'll make do with a cloud formation over Napier from the Croquet Club this lunchtime.

A Very Satisfactory Day

Thursday 0800:
Various things keep making me realise that I'll soon be back in Lewis. Usually it's people asking me when I'm leaving/arriving depending on the location of the asker. This morning it was the re-filling of the fortnightly pill organiser (see I Feel Sad). I realised that the supply of pills left to take was very small indeed. One less thing to carry in the luggage - they are soooo heavy!

As I write the sun is streaming into the Cottage. As the sun gets lower in the firmament (whatever that is) the deck gets the full sun for quite a lot of the morning and possibly the day (but I've not been here to witness it). It's good because the body gets it whilst sitting at the table doing the crossword but the top of the head is shielded.

Becaise I and the few others from our Croquet Club who go away to Tournaments are often offered accommodation I offerred to billet someone for the present Tournament. I was allocated a chap called Mike from Gisborne who is an excellent Association and Golf Croquet player..

1015:
Since Mike left this morning I have managed to get lots done: washing out, some more of the car polished, blog, kitchen cleared up and I'm about to do some more cornflake crunch and possibly start the cheesecake - that's a bit of a poser actually because I have to have it done for Saturday but am out all day tomorrow playing in the Doubles at Te Mata. I don't have a regular partner for doubles and all the people who do partner me are playing with their usual partners. So Mike has been allocated to me (or me to him) by the Tournament Director.

2230:
I went to watch the final part of the Association Championship this afternoon. Mike won.

Then we had a couple of hours of games with Jayne and Colleen to famialiarise ourselves with each other's play for the Doubles Golf Croquet Tournament tomorrow.

Mike took me out to a Laos/Thai restaurant this evening. Very enjoyable.

All in all a very satisfactory day.

Wall Art

One of the big stores in the centre of Hastings has a large blank wall facing a public area. So they have painted two large murals on it.

Vintage Cars - Second Instalment - Chryslers

One of the beautiful things about these vehicles is the detail. The bonnet emblems are quite fascinating too. But what is most wonderful is that so many of these vehicles spend quite a lot of time going round New Zealand to shows and events and don't just (or even in most cases) live in museums.

Old Tractors Never Die: Revisited

A few days ago I did a posting about tractors. CJ wondered why front wheels on one of the tractors were under the nose and so close together.

Having consulted the Antique Tractor Bible and an acquaintance who was a farmer and one who has an orchard. The opinion is unanimous: they are row tractors ie ones which made it easier to go over the rows of whatever had been planted.

They are known as tricycle tractors (even though they may actually have four wheels!).

What's in a Name: Tutaekuri River

One of the rivers near here is the Tutaekuri River. When I first went over it in 2005 the children were very excited to be able to tell me that the name meant "dog shit river" and know that they could not be told off because that's what the name, taken literally, does mean. Tutae is Maori for excrement and kuri is dog.

The river flows down from the Kaweka Ranges out to sea near Napier and is a fairly long and substantial river. So how did the river come apparantly to be called dog poo river?

Well about 400 years ago the people of Ngati Kahungunu from Wairoa heard that there was heaps of food to be had near Porangahau. They set off on the trek to the coast but when they got there they found that there wasn't much food to be had at all so they had to turn round and go back again. They were starving by the time they Hikawera's pa which lies between Waiohiki and Omahu. Hikawera decided to have a feast and make sure that his visitors didn't leave for home hungry. He ordered his people to kill 70 dogs in order to feed the travellers.

There's a spot on the river that's now called Te Umukuri whic denotes the ovens where the dogs were cooked. Once they had been eaten the Ngati Kahungunu set off for home and the offal from the dogs was thrown into the river. Hence the name Tutaekuri - the offal of the dogs.

Hmmm.

I acknowledge the fact that the information for this posting was obtained from the book Whykickamoocow by Nicola McCloy

Fantail - Piwakawaka (Rhipidura fuliginosa)

The Fantail is a beautiful little bird (16 cm of which half is tail) but rather a hard one to photograph with a digital camera. Why? Because it never sits still. It is very restless twisting and jerking on a perch, usually with its tail fanned, flying out to seize flying insects. Sometimes it hawks erratically over trees or scrub or flies into insect swarms. I have photographed them on many occasions but with little real success so the latest attempt yesterday counted as a happy moment.

Steam Engines

Art Deco Weekend is such a splendid occasion for so many things. One of the events which goes on for the week is trailer rides round town drawn by various steam engines. Here are two of them.

Erewhon

Situated in the high country north west of Ashburton is one of New Zealand's best known sheep farms - Erewhon Station. The story behind the name begins in England in 1835 with the birth of Samuel Butler.

Many people have heard of the novel Erewhon. Many people know that Samuel Butler wrote it. I suspect that few people who have not read it know that its alternative title is Over the Range. It was published anonymously in 1872 and was a satirical work based on a fictional country named Erewhon or nowhere written as an anagram. The first few chapters of the book were in fact based upon Butler's experience of exploring Canterbury in South Island.

Butler emigrated to New Zealand after going to Cambridge and deciding not to follow his father into the Church. Just ten months after his arrival Butler had traversed Canterbury in search of good sheep country and bought several land leases near the upper reaches of the Rangitika River and set up the 55,000 acre Mesopotamia Station. There he established himself as a writer. He returned to England after four years having made enough money from those four years to support him for the rest of his life.

The owners of Stonechrubie Station, one of the runs that bordered Mesopotamia, decided to commemorate Butler's novel by renaming some of the land that had inspired him to write the book.

Vintage Cars - First Instalment - Local

There are many many vintage cars in New Zealand. There were over 250 in the Art Deco Weekend Rally. These are a few of the ones that were part of the Rally but which are in daily use round the town. There are lots more to come.

One for Gaz

When I was in Taupo this was a common site. I can't remember what you call the sport of being suspended from a kite and being towed by a speedboat.

The Rotary Cycleway

Yesterday I did something that I did almost daily on my last visit but have done only occasionally this time: I cycled the Marine Parade Rotary Cycleway. I parked the car at the port end (North end) and cycled to the factory and back. It was the perfect day for cycling, walking, rollerblading, child buggy pushing and anything else really. This is a selection of the views taken whilst I was actually cycling so perhaps lacking somewhat in composition.

Night

I said earlier this evening that today had been nearly the perfect day. Well tonight is nearly the perfect night. I say 'nearly' because nothing can be quite perfect. I learned this in 1961 when I worked in the Establishment Office of Liverpool Corporation's Town Clerk's Department. The Boss was Harold Dottie the grandly named Establishment and Organisation Officer and one of the most powerful men in the running of the Corporation. His secretary was Ivy Moreton, Spinster and, as his Secretary, one of the most powerful women in the Corporation. I was unwittingly in the right place to hear an exchange between them one day when Miss Moreton called Mr Dottie "A perfect sod" (pretty strong language for 1961 I would have thought) to which his response was simply "Ivy, nobody's perfect". But I, as usual, digress. Tonight is nearly the perfect night.

As I walked down from the house to the Cottage the moon lit the world almost as if it were day although it does make one realise the difference in colour temperature between the sun and the moon.

Here are two photos. The first is from the deck and the second is from my bed.

It's really as good as it gets.