Tag Archives: New Zealand

Cat is Out of the Bag

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TulipsNow that the cat is out of the bag and Zoze knows I will be in New Zealand at the end of the year, I can be open about my plans! I was so afraid she would see my grannytravels posts and our cover would be blown!  I think we all did damn well, keeping our lips zipped for almost three months.

It was fun… We had Skype on video (gotta love technology) and were chatting away and I could see Jenni in the background doing stuff, bringing out an enormous gift-wrapped box and coming over to hand it to her Mum. Zoze gets busy carefully taking the paper off, no doubt to reuse – just tear it, Zoze! – and inside are piles of packing papers and she laughs and starts digging through it until she comes across what looks like a card, which she opens. With prompting, she opens up the sheet of paper inside, still not recognizing what it was.

When she “gets” that it is my ticket, she comes unglued! Starts crying :) and then can’t believe it and that everyone except her knew about it! What fun! So now she really has something to look forward to, as do I!

Let the planning REALLY begin!

Summer

IMG_1205I think I planted too many tomato seeds! I have had 100 percent germination, so today spent a couple of hours re-potting the Heirlooms into 4-6 inch pots. I am definitely going to have to find people to give them to as I have three dozen seedling – and I still have the other seeds I planted – another dozen or so!

I also set out a variety of lettuce in pots – some is ready for eating already; others have a way to go. But it looks like there will be no shortage of veges this summer.

Planning

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Planning is a great way to keep the dream alive and moving forward.

My funky painting I did years ago

Years ago, I painted a picture of the house I want to live it. It has been stashed away in a box and I had forgotten all about it. Then the other day, I was browsing rentals in Bocas Town, actually the local newspaper, and my jaw dropped. My house was staring back at me. Other than the cupola on top, my painting is the same style, with the railing etc, but has a thatch, or palm frond roof!

 

The ad I saw

So visualization works!

Deciding what to do about my camera is a major issue for me. I love the 30D I have. The lens is amazing and I have had really good results with it. But it is SO heavy! When we went to New Zealand, I got tennis elbow from all the hefting around! So I end up not using it as much as I think I should. It’s also very “in your face,” being as big as it is. So I am thinking of downsizing. But I need all the features.

With technology advancing as fast as it is, and accelerating, I think what I am going to do is go with the Leica V-LUX 30 which comes out this month. At least that is what I am thinking at the moment. It is an amazing little camera, with a great lens and optical zoom from 24mm to 384mm. It does HD video as well, which is something I want to get into so I can do podcasts. And it only weighs 7.7 oz (219g) including batteries. I may still keep my Canon. It would be difficult to let that go.

I am finally over those hellish weeks at the nut house, and things have settled down to where it looks like 2-3 days a week again. So I can get back into the editing which I tried to do this weekend, but their site was down. Very annoying as I had budgeted the time. Oh well, perhaps I was supposed to take the time off and relax, after all, it was a long weekend.

How my garden doth grow

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It’s two months since I planted the garden and I have never seen anything grow and produce so fast!
First we had the kale and lettuce, then everything else started coming in. Now th brussels sprouts are waist high with little buds forming, but the plants are so big they have shaded some of the other plants which struggle. So next time I plant, I will have to give them more room.
We had our first batch of green peas the other night and I’ve picked all the cauliflower, including the beautiful purple ones. Last night I made the most delicious cauliflower au gratin. One thing about having a lot of one type of veggie is that I have to get creative with the recipes, which for me, is all part of the fun. The trick now is to start planting for the second part of the summer, and hope things have enough time to mature before the cold hits.
The red cabbage and some cauliflower are already in and I have some scarlet runner beans climbing madly. A New Zealand spinach is doing well, too and it looks like the onions will be ready to pull soon. My tomatoes are finally setting. They were doing nothingfor a while and one of the growers at the farmers market told me the soil is probably too rich and that I must be the bees! So I have been ‘tickling my tomatoes” and the are starting to form en masse and by harvest time, I will probably be wishing I hadn’t bothered!

Getting ready for the Big Trip to New Zealand

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It never fails to amaze me how things pile up just before you leave on a trip. For weeks, things have been slow and boring, and I thought this is going to be a snap. Time to get the house and cats sorted out, gather documents needed, finish the articles I committed to do, etc etc. But all of a sudden things seem to escalate.

Along with the crummy weather that caused problems all over the area, and kept us inside (not that I want to go out much in the cold anyway.) But even the weather ate into my time when the Leader wanted storm pictures. So diehard that I am, donned my foulies and headed out. Fortunately for us, there wasn’t a lot of damage in the area, just a lot of trees down and of course, the Hood Canal Bridge was closed to traffic because of the high winds. It opens to relieve the pressure caused by the wind and waves.

And another Leader article that had been hanging in the background needed to be completed so got that done yesterday. Actually, was quite proud of myself, listed a house in the morning and wrtoe the article in the afternoon. Now if only the newspaper paid decently, it would have been a VERY productive day.

With just a week before we leave for New Zealand, I am getting excited now! I started a New Zealand blog but think maybe I should just post to this one, as my “fans” as Betsy says, know this site. I will let everyone know that I will be posting regularly, along with photos on shutterly.com and for those who have trouble viewing the internet (Biff and Jules) I will email them.