In the cool morning before the onslaught of the day’s heat, I headed to the gate for the paper and looked up. I realised I was forest bathing in my own driveway. A revelation – a canopy of native trees: pittosporum, kōwhai, beech, hebe and NZ myrtle. They tower over the exotics below. Lovely.
New batteries in the frother made an impressive topping on my morning coffee. It will be the last hot drink for the day; the temperature was already at 23C when I returned from my walk and two hours later it is 29C heading for 31C. It’ll be a day for keeping cool, hydrated and conserving energy - while the solar panels soak it up.
We’re listening to cool summer music to enhance the summer vibe. Currently it’s Santana. Before that, The Fairer Sax ‘Blowing hot and cool’. What next?
The tap snapped on one of the water butts which collects rain water from the roof and which was full to the brim. There followed a frantic bucketing of water onto the garden before it was all lost and became a boggy swamp. When the level got down to about a third, I figured the pressure was eased and tried a running repair with silicone. This involved a funny-as-a-fight (in retrospect) struggle to get the caulking gun into action (thank you YouTube) and to unplug the silicone stuck in the nozzle (no, YouTube, my caulking gun does not have that handy piercing device on the side). And it was getting dark. I resorted to hammer and nail, and then it was all on…everything. I emptied the rest of the water butt and left it for another day.
Daylight (two days later – leaving one to recover my equilibrium) revealed a sticky-looking tap, which broke apart as I removed it (a tricky task which really needed two people, one to hold the tap firm while the other unscrewed the thingummy aka slip joint – thank you, YouTube – and gasket inside the deep water butt). I took the pieces to the hardware store where I achieved some calmness walking along the towering aisles of all kinds of plumbing and tools – almost as good as forest-bathing or book-bathing. I chose a sturdy-looking replacement and was relieved that it was easy to install. The next test will be when the water butt fills (rain is forecast next week) – will the slip joint, gasket and tap stand the pressure?
While the butt was empty, I took the opportunity to clean out the area under it and found a nest of snails. Feeling a little guilty, I put them in the bird feeder. But it looks as if they all escaped into the garden where the busy blackbirds and hedgehogs will eventually find them, I suspect.
Caption, anyone?
It was great to take a morning walk today. I had breakfast to look forward to when I got home as a reward: porridge and frothy coffee and the morning paper. I was surprised to find that the walk in itself was a reward, especially the cool shade of large trees in the park and on two tree-lined streets. Other rewards I hope for from regular walking are better circulation, improved mobility and improved health generally. I zip about quite quickly on the whole, but when I get up from a chair or sofa I can find my muscles have seized up a bit.
Yesterday, I nearly signed up to another few weeks of the Better Me app with its plan of exercise and diet, but I stopped myself, realising that it would take away my self-efficacy. I had to do it for myself, rather than fall into the psychological trap of paying for something and then waiting for a miracle. A morning walk and a smaller portion of porridge is a start.
Later, when I took Mum to the doctor, the waiting room had this picture on the wall. Even the inevitable screen found in waiting rooms had a ‘nature break’ with images of natural scenes. Those scenes were from around the world, but the one on the wall facing me was a local park in Spring.
Just looking at it was calming and I felt the restorative power of trees.
A bit like wondering what sort of year we have to look forward to, I scanned the sky this morning to see if rain seemed imminent and if it would be safe to do some washing. The clouds to the north looked impressive. So did the clouds to the south.
I risked it. And now it’s a beautiful, warm, sunny day.
P.S. I noticed Mum doing ankle and leg exercises this morning, a promising start.
A strong wind flattened my runner beans this afternoon. My carefully constructed bean frame with a crossbar, simply gave way, and some of the bamboo stakes snapped. When the wind had died down, I extracted some stronger stakes from the garden shed and began a repair. I incorporated the old hen run gate (itself a repurposed trellis) and pieces of twine. I’m not entirely confident that it will stand up to another strong wind.
I watered the beans to help them recover from their ordeal. They were looking limp – as are the lettuces in the greenhouse (also a makeshift structure), and the lettuces in the vertical garden which are attracting ants for some reason.
I suspect Mum is okay with a haphazard repair to her broken hip. She is ignoring the physiotherapist’s advice to exercise to get her circulation going and to improve her strength. My brother suggests I withhold her porridge until she’s done her exercises – porridge being her favourite thing. No wonder her siblings called her ‘The Biz’!
An imperfect note on which to end the year, perhaps, with more makeshift repairs to come – no doubt about it. Happy new year!
I will eat healthily after Christmas, I thought. But no, it’ll take a few days to eat all these gifts.
Already, I’ve had a fruit mince pie with my morning coffee. A wee while later I couldn’t resist a lolly cake ball. Then, when struggling over the code cracker in this morning’s paper, I had a belgium biscuit to give me strength.
Here’s hoping for hungry visitors!
PS: And I haven’t even mentioned our impressive chocolate stash.
A small painted stone beside the track to the beach put a focus on the time of year.
Further along our walk, was another way of celebrating Christmas.
Both show (putting aside religious and commercial spin) the love of family, the innocence of childhood, and parents’ wish to preserve and protect that innocence.
A lone figure was contemplating the wide sea and sky and perhaps the meaning of life. Standing on the end of a storm-water pathway obscured by high tide, he seemed to be walking on water.
Later that day, at a pre-Christmas family gathering, my brother-in-law (with help from the internet) created a culinary miracle.
Due to the miracles of modern medical science (in this case, a partial hip replacement), my mother was able to join us. She is home now, and able to get out to enjoy familiar places and people – and pets.
It was not my intention to have three haircuts in almost as many days. The first was ‘just a tidy up please’. The hairdresser was afflicted with industrial strength lethargy as if he was bored with life entirely. It wasn’t long before I realised he’d made a mess of it and I ended up at another hairdresser’s for a repair job. The second guy worked hard, layering and texturing – I’m learning the jargon.
At least it was even and looked controllable, but by the next day it had become rounded looking and ‘boofy’ which reminded me of the coiffure of Wendolene Ramsbottom in Wallace and Gromit.
I took my mother to the hairdresser at the hospital today and got talking to the hairdresser about my ‘repair job’. She told me to come back after I’d delivered Mum to the ward. Then she set to, fixing what she described as ‘that clown look’ in no time at all.
It feels much better.
A fall of snow may be a sign of Christmas in the Northern Hemisphere. Here in the antipodes, the white flowers on the myrtle are one sure sign that Christmas is near. Another is the vigorous Iceberg (haha) rose.
Despite being pruned in July to the height of the trellis, the rose has just about doubled its size to form an arch over the drive.
Balm for the troubled soul, as I worry about Mum and how we will manage when she comes home, and hope she will be fit enough to enjoy our Christmas and summer family events.
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