21 January 2014: A bit of firewood

We were preparing dinner last Wednesday when Nienke said she heard some kids playing outside. No visitors, so it must be trespassers then. Couldn't find kids or any other strangers for that matter. A few minutes later Nienke thought she heard animals in the garage. Again detective Hans went on a mission, but again I could not find and any culprits. Next day we discovered that Nienke had not lost her marbles. She had heard a sound all right, the sound of a big branch of one of our pines coming down.

So I grabbed my 'man-tools' and went out for a clean up session. Took me a full day to cut and chop the branch into convenient bits. I love the smell of the fresh cut pine. Couldn't get the 'Lumberjack'-song (Monty Phyton) out of my head.

Meanwhile my lovely wife supported me by bringing lunch, guarding the fire and giving advise (see her finger). We contributed to the global warming for 2 whole days.

Our woodshed is 'bursting at the seams', completely stuffed with wood. Fuel for the hot tub, fire pit and fire place. We're ready for the next ice age.

Meanwhile Nienke picked the fruit of her long hours working in the veggie garden and got some record size beans out.

I removed the last firewood and bags of pine cones out of the paddock which looked pristine again, except for the gaping wound of the tree.

The good old Ferguson is still running smoothly. When we were finally enjoying a beer around the fire we heard a loud crack and a second branch had started to split from the tree. So the next day I cut up that one as well, after all, you can't have a big splinter like that fall onto our calves heads.
On Saturday night we took of to Paekakeriki for a dinner with friends and their family in Paekakeriki. Afterwards we saw Tami Neilson in concert. She is pretty good, country style. I'm not a great fan of her father (a bit of a feeble-minded southerner) who almost took over the show. 't Was a great evening though which of course ended around the fire pit with a nice glass of pinot noir. Here is her song 'One thing':
We watched a shocking documentary this week about child abuse by priests and the way the Catholic church dealt with that. As you may remember I had my doubts about the Roman Catholic church after visiting Italy and seeing all the gold and glamour, but this is the final drop. The documentary is called 'Mea maxima culpa; Silence in the house of God'. Really worth to watch if you have the time: Remember, it's not the religion that's rotten, it's ground personnel! And now for something completely different. A bit of humour in the end and how could that not be the 'Lumberjack song':

15 january 2014: Klepto cat

Time flies when you're having fun. It's summertime, so lot's of BBQ's, birthday parties and dinners with friends and their family. Jane's party on Sunday was a memorable one in Italian style (with Spanish music?).
In between we're outside, trying to tick the boxes on the endless 'things to do list'. Somehow the lid of our mailbox got separated. Vandals? The wind? Postie (she had managed to drive her van into our mailbox once before). Or was it just a design fault (what? Me?). Anyway, got the generator out, the sand machine, a tube of 'liquid nails', some steel nails and a bucket of paint. In the fierce sun the paint dried in not time, hence this beautiful design in green again. Some of my friends mock be by saying that this is where I am lecturing the cows in the paddock on the opposite side of the street. I'm not of course, they way too stupid!

Also on the list was finishing my oamaru sculpture from last year before the new carving weekend would start. Since that weekend is approaching very quickly now I finally got myself to doing it. It was pretty good already but I had convinced myself it needed another hole although I knew it was going to be very tricky.

Thanks to the nice weather, a cold beer and Santana very loud over the speakers I succeeded and I'm pretty content with the result.
I was running out of luck today when extending the automatic water spray system for our fruit trees. I was wearing my cloaks as that makes digging quite a bit easier. Unfortunately it makes it less accurate as well. So I did not feel a bit of resistance when I dug one of the last trenches. Suddenly I was taking an involuntary shower (which wasn't too bad in the sun). I had cut right through a deeper water pipe. So a small trench and a small job became a big hole and quite some work. In the end everything worked, but there a still quite some boxes to tick.
On top of all the concerts, dinners and parties we're planning some extra activities. Since Annemiek (Nienkes fraternity friend) comes over in March we're planning some things we haven't done before. A 2 day walk in Waitomo and kayaking in Kawhia harbour. For Nienkes birthday we of to Stewart Island to do the famous Rakiura track, one of the great walks (which brings us to 3). We're really looking forward to both of them. Often there is hardly any interesting news in New Zealand. That's when they fill the papers with odd stories like these.

Klik op de foto om hem te vergroten en het artikel te lezen.

We finish this week with the beautiful 'While my guitar gently weeps', performed by guitar master Santana with Yo-Yo-Ma on the cello and India Arie on vocals, what a combination.

3 januari 2014: Happy New Year to you all.

Oud en nieuw! 't Oudejaarsavond feest in onze tuin leek een goede reden de wat armzalige vlaggen aan onze masten weer eens te vervangen. Heb me ooit eens laten vertellen dat het rood in de Nederlandse vlag vroeger oranje was (oranje boven) maar later rood werd omdat de kleur oranje te snel vervaagde. Blauw heeft echter ook flink te lijden onder de Nieuw Zeelandse zon. De kwaliteits vergelijking van beide dun doeken valt uit in het voordeel van Nederland. Waar na enige slijtage de Nederlandse vlag nog te herkennen is (moet een typische Hollander met visie zijn geweest die zei dat de strepen maar horizontal moesten, dan gaat hij langer mee en is dus goedkoper), is het Kiwi doek gereduceerd tot iets wat ook het restant van de vlag van Tuvulu, Fiji, Cook Islands of nog erger, Australie zou kunnen zijn. Om dat misverstand uit de lucht te halen hebben we maar wat nieuws opgehangen. Kleurt ook beter.

Een Oudjaarsfeest is natuurlijk niets als er geen oliebollen (op zijn Engels 'ollibollies) zijn en dus was onze OBB (oliebollenbakker) al vroeg in de weer.

We hebben ons weer door alle 'Merry Christmas' en 'Gelukkig Kerstfeest' heen geslagen. Zoals altijd heb ik dienst tijdens de kerst terwijl mijn collega's hun jaarlijkse kerkbezoek afleggen beman ik het fort. Daarom heb ik met Oudjaar altijd vrij.

Vanwege de zon en de verwachte hoeveelheid voedsel hadden we maar een tentje opgezet, ons eigen 'Kwalitaria'.

OBB had echter zoveel oliebollen gemaakt dat de magen bij het begin van de BBQ al behoorlijk gevuld waren. Ook feest voor de piggies en de kippen dus die een dag later gefetteerd werden op de overgebleven resten van het bachenaal.

We hadden begrepen dat er in Holland een oproep was om een oud Oudejaars gebruik af te schaffen. 't Was niet helemaal goed doorgekomen en daarom hadden we wel vuurwerk (Ruben bedankt voor die fraaie brandplek op ons huis) maar geen champagne. Volgend jaar beter.

Had echt niet teveel op, maar zag opeens toch tijgers.

Na Oudjaar is er natuurlijk weer de nieuwjaarsduik. Komen we op het strand...., natuurlijk geen Unox stal te zien. Zelfs geen TV-camera's of journalisten

Grote teleurstelling voor enkele van onze dames die hadden gehoopt dit jaar het Unox meisje te mogen zijn.

Speciaal voor hen dan toch hun droomfoto!

Waarom ik nu binnen zit te typen in de zomer?