Month: December 2024

Presentable Press

Despite bans on single-use plastics in supermarkets, The Press has insisted on packaging the daily paper in plastic so that it arrives in a ‘presentable’ state. Occasionally, rain seeps through into the paper, but never more so, in my experience, than this morning. I peeled the pages apart cautiously and dried them on the clothes airer in front of the heat pump. With no butler to iron it flat, I ended up with a crisp and crinkly newspaper to read over breakfast.

Henrietta, Hester and Harriet react appropriately.

The garden, however, is appreciative of real rain – much more than of my watering.

It’s a seeping sort of rain, seeping up the base of the birdbath
Water butts and buckets are full and the stacked dry-it-yourself (!) wood is damp

The temperature is down, so we’re in our winter woollies. Inside, it’s cheering to put on the Christmas tree lights. Felix comes in to be towelled dry and to eat.

Outside under the bay tree
Today I can see this was suited to a winter Xmas
Angled photo to fit Felix’s long tail

Mum’s absorbed in the paper now (not in a damp way) – probably reading the new year honours list, or about former President Carter’s active life, or the articles about the struggles of other world leaders. Later, I will finish the code cracker.

Keep marching

I have read over a hundred books this year and I review each one on goodreads. Books which particularly impress me sometimes get a mention in my blog. This is one of them.

I have often wondered what Hillary Clinton is doing these days. I know she has written books and I saw her with her daughter Chelsea on the Graham Norton show talking about The Book of Gutsy Women which they co-wrote. I enjoyed the novel State of Terror which she wrote with Canadian author Louise Penny. Her latest book, published this year, answers my question and I can tell you she is not letting the grass grow. Here is the review I wrote for goodreads:

Well written and highly readable, this collection of 17 essays on contemporary events and issues backgrounded with fascinating history lessons is by turns heart warming and heart breaking. It is an absolute treasure – a book to revisit time and time again.

Always positive about individual agency, the book finished with ‘Keep Marching’ a theme from the musical Suffs about the US women’s suffrage movement. This led me to an internet search and a video of Shaina Taub and some of the cast discussing and demonstrating the creative process in making the award winning musical. The production is a perfect demonstration of a repeated message in the essays that, even when we seem to find ourselves on the brink of The Handmaid’s Tale made real, there is always something we can do, particularly if we work together whether creating a musical or fighting for the vote or reminding those who would remove them that ‘women’s rights are human rights’ as Hillary Rodham Clinton advocates.

Post Script: I know that some of my blog readers will make the connection between ‘Keep Marching’ and the song which became an anthem: ‘Keep on Moving Forward’ (also known as ‘Never Turning Back’) from the UN Fourth Conference on Women in 1995 and of Sonja Davies’ second memoir Marching On. Perhaps also of the rock musical production we saw at the Court Theatre: That Bloody Woman, about Kate Sheppard and the women who worked successfully to gain the vote for women in New Zealand.

All lit up

The city after dark is a delight of lights. From the Carols by Candlelight in Victoria Square and the passing restaurant tram, to Te Pae, Cathedral Square, Ballantynes Christmas window displays and the bustling Terrace, we were charmed and uplifted by the sights and lights. Two cones placed over uplights by the Town Hall glowed luminous red-orange.

Knox Church, lit up for the Christmas Eve midnight service, looked wonderful.

Merry Christmas

Cauliflower cloud

Contrasting with the hard surfaces of metal, concrete and glass, this beautiful fluffy cloud against cerulean sky stopped me in my tracks today.

At the end of New Regent Street looking toward the Port Hills

From where my bike was parked, a street over, I could see the flat base of the cloud – as you might draw a fluffy cloud – but you would have to be expert to capture its shapes and shadows.

From Armagh Street

Cumulus – known as fair-weather clouds because they usually indicate fair, dry conditions. If there is precipitation, it is light. The clouds have a flattish base with rounded stacks or puffs on top. When the puffs look like cauliflower heads they’re called cumulus congestus or towering cumulus. They can get very high.

Source

Pavlova perfection

Mum’s always been the maestro pavlova maker in the family. This year, she struggled to find the recipe and to remember how she made it. She eventually tracked down the old recipe book with the recipe written in careful capitals. There was no complete method however, but I remembered my sister saying that our brother, who makes an excellent pavlova, adds the sugar at one minute intervals. And so it fell to a rather nervous me to make the pavlova for a family early Christmas dinner today.

Plenty of time for a selfie during the one-minute intervals
Fresh out of the oven

The secret of a good pavlova is to beat it for so long it has no choice but to stand up. It collapses a bit as it cools, but that is easily covered with whipped cream and strawberries. I forgot to take a photo of the end result, but it passed the test at the dinner, thankfully.

A real in-the-garden Xmas tree

The Sunday sky beyond is about to turn pink with a dramatic sunset and, to the east, a rainbow appeared.

The feijoa tree is covered in flowers this year. As we put the Christmas tree (exotic pine) inside the house on Sunday, we looked out and said, ‘There’s a real one!’* It is native to South America and is of the myrtle species, so related to the pōhutukawa aka the Aotearoa/New Zealand Christmas tree (beautiful pictures and the full story on this link).

I have a New Zealand myrtle in the garden. It is covered with fluffy white flowers at Christmas time, which prompted me to post about it last year (Christmas Trees, 8 Dec 2023 – also A White Christmas 14 Dec 2021). The Southern rata, another myrtle, was in flower when I was in the Botanic Gardens the Sunday before last.

Feijoas are very popular in New Zealand, and Kate Evans has written a book about them.

Here’s a close up of the pretty flowers which make the feijoa a self-decorating Xmas tree.

Myrtle rust is a problem for myrtles, so let’s hope it doesn’t become the grinch for future Christmases.

*My sister and brother-in-law, who gave us the inside Christmas tree also gave us the feijoa tree.

A sweet wee twee

My sister and brother-in-law kindly delivered a Christmas tree for us this afternoon. ‘Just a wee one,’ was my request, which turned out well as it seems to suit our tiny decorations. The tough little tree is able to hold heavier ones too, such as the angel on top.

Mum gets the decorations out of the bag

There are dangling decorations at the bottom to interest Felix, and plenty at eye level for little folk to see.

We’ll enjoy it even more as it gets dark. And it smells wonderful.

Hello, aloe vera

Some people talk to their plants. Greeting my aloe vera has become a habit.

I was given the plant three Christmases ago when it was very small. A visiting puppy dragged it out of its pot and chewed it, but it seemed to recover well when repotted. Since then, it has grown so tall that it was disappearing under the lamp shade beside it. It needs stakes to stop it from keeling over. I found out that aloes can grow tall searching for light (even a light bulb?!).

Post puppy attack July 2022
August 2023
November 2024

This week I found a suitable outdoor pot for it (50% off, thank you, Mitre 10). I had planned to put it beside the yucca on the driveway, but having read that aloes are frost tender, I opted to put it under the glass roof. There, it will get full sun most of the day and shelter in winter.

After planting yesterday
This morning, in the sun.

The root ball is tiny, so this larger pot will give it room to grow, I hope*. It still needs support, but perhaps it will bulk out before long, otherwise the solution may be to cut it shorter and repot the cut piece. However, I don’t want to end up with a forest of aloe veras – then it’ll be, “‘Allo, ‘allo, ‘allo”.

*A synonym for a gardener: an optimist.