Month: September 2023

The Groke

The Groke is a character from Tove Jansson’s Moomin books which evoke characters and landscapes of Finland. As she glides across the land, the ground freezes. She is drawn to light but lives in perpetual disappointment as her cold presence extinguishes the flames. She is an embodiment of the long Scandinavian winters.

Today there was sunshine, but a chill wind; too cold to sit out on the egg chair. There was no point in removing its cover. It sat on the deck like the Groke.

The Groke was sitting there. Her round little eyes reflected the glow, but otherwise she was just a large shapeless greyness…She went straight to the fire. And without saying a word she sat down on it. There was a sharp hissing sound, and the hilltop was wrapped in mist. When it passed away, no embers were to be seen. Only a big grey Groke blowing snow-fog about her.

Moominland Midwinter

Set for summer

Here’s Mum testing the hanging egg chair which I bought and assembled today. I opted for a smaller, fold-away model which, with a bit of a squeeze, fitted into my Suzuki Swift. It doesn’t overwhelm the deck as a larger chair would. Assembling it was not difficult. Ironically, now we don’t have chooks taking over the outdoor furniture, it is possible to have an ‘egg’ chair. Felix is giving it a wide berth, so far…

It is very comfortable, particularly with the addition of two cheerful outdoor cushions which have been languishing in a storage box in the garage all the time we’ve had chickens.

I sat in it for a while, enjoying the gentle movement, but today the temperature has dropped and I would need a woolly jumper and a knee rug to be comfortable for more than ten minutes. Otherwise, it’s the perfect reading chair for sunny mornings, and for hot afternoons in the shade.

Light and shade

There was a long list of trees and shrubs to be trimmed by the arborist today. It was such a relief to have it all done that I was practically ecstatic. It’s always difficult to decide what needs doing, particularly at this time of year when everything is sprouting and flowering and birds are building nests. I have cut the odd thing back myself now and again, but arborists know what they’re doing and can be relied on to do a great job. And they have the tools, like the little chain saw on a pole. And they can climb.

Safety first: holding the ladder steady
Thinning the beech tree

There were four arborists with, not only tools, but all the safety gear and procedures to make the whole operation go smoothly for the three hours they were here. They could thin out a tree to let light in but still allow dappled shade. One of them told me we will need shade for the coming hot summer.

The abutilon has been a concern, sprawling and almost falling over, and continuously flowering so I didn’t know when to prune it, let alone figure out how to make some sort of shape. Somehow, they managed it, and I rescued some of the flowers before they were fed into the mulcher.

What went in the mulcher
What was left of the abutilon
Rescued abutilon/Chinese lantern flowers

Felix came home some time after the arborists had left. The blackbirds were soon back too.

Energy to burn

I intended to tidy up the back lawn a bit this afternoon, but after a morning battling the wind on the beach, clambering up and down sand dunes, and dodging reckless cyclists who never ring their bells to tell you they’re behind you…I felt a bit tired. But, after lunch and reading a couple of chapters of my book, I headed into the garden.

Rather than just mowing the lawn, I somehow found the energy to re-shape the brick mowing strip, do the edges of the paving stones, and weed the path. While I sat on the deck admiring my work, the blackbirds came down to throw the newly exposed dirt about as they hunted for worms.

Although it was a warm day, I lit the fire in the evening. Elderly bones need to be warm and I like the ambience. We’re down to the big logs at the bottom of the wood pile which can make starting the fire a little tricky, so I tried the ‘upside down’ technique: big logs first, then smaller logs, kindling, and paper. The theory is that it burns down to the big logs to establish the fire. I’ve tried it unsuccessfully before, but this time it was more urgent that it worked, and it did. Cabbage tree leaves helped. It was two hours before we needed to add any more logs.

Political placard pollution

It’s that time in the election cycle when our city is littered with political billboards. Cheesy, fake grins of politicians in suits are pasted up along our city streets. It’s a mystery to me how such blatant insincerity and spin win any votes at all. Inevitably, many billboards are defaced. I saw some being removed and replaced this morning – on a site owned by a property developer.

Someone had gone to a lot of trouble on a billboard next to these. It is beside a busy road and I wonder if they worked in the dead of night, or in daylight with impunity and a Sharpie. I was reminded of Virginia Fallon’s column in The Press this week about the more creative defacing of billboards.

I feel sorry for the people living next door to this field of sprouting billboards, with their river views impeded by the visual pollution. At least they see only the backs of them.

Some parties choose a more modest sign.

The simplicity of this sign seems to fit what ‘being green’ is about – as does the backdrop.