On holiday
January 8th 2010 23:17
At present I'm on holiday - have been since the day before Christmas, and will be until I go back on the 25th of this month. At this time of the year in New Zealand, it's (supposed to be) summer, and so most of the country gets into holiday mood.
This year my wife and I aren't going away anywhere - we've already had a week off in the North Island last October (the main event was the wedding of a good friend), and so we're saving our money a little and staying at home doing things like working in the garden (very satisfying), writing music (equally satisfying), catching up on odd jobs (sort of satisfying), debating getting a new PC (a little nerve-wracking), entertaining an old friend who's on holiday from England, offering hospitality to a group of people from church for lunch: we were all supposed to be going to the beach or on a picnic, but it was raining, so we had an indoor picnic instead! And then, of course, the sun came out brilliantly, so a number of us went for a walk at St Clair beach.
The weather has been atrocious some days - as it has been in other parts of the world - and the last couple of days have been particularly heavy with rain, and even hail. One of our wheelbarrows has a good couple of inches of rainwater in it.
Perhaps it's time to try something different. Our friend was here for dinner last night, along with the person she's staying with. The latter was talking about snorkeling, which is something my wife would love to try. (I'm not such a great fan of water - I enjoy aquajogging, but only because I have something to hold me up all the time.) This other person has snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef, and says it's extraordinary, though because you're not protected from the waves, yo
u need to have a cool head, and to be a reasonable swimmer.
Perhaps we could try horse-riding! I don't think I've ever been on a horse - except perhaps for a few minutes when I was a child, and sitting up there was so far off the ground I was not happy...! Whether we'd need lots of
equestrian apparel or not, I don't know. Whether we would just need a good-tempered horse...
Talking of horses - and gardens - we've been buying horse manure mixed with sawdust and some other material from a stables out on the Taieri Plains. It's the most superb composting mix, and by the time we get it, there's no smell, and the manure is already starting to break down. The worms just love it, and when we turned some of the compost over the other day, there were worms galore.
Maybe I'll forget riding a horse, or snorkeling, and just stand contentedly by my compost bins, observing nature doing its most exciting work!
Photo of worms in fairly new compost by Tom Arthur on Flickr.com
This year my wife and I aren't going away anywhere - we've already had a week off in the North Island last October (the main event was the wedding of a good friend), and so we're saving our money a little and staying at home doing things like working in the garden (very satisfying), writing music (equally satisfying), catching up on odd jobs (sort of satisfying), debating getting a new PC (a little nerve-wracking), entertaining an old friend who's on holiday from England, offering hospitality to a group of people from church for lunch: we were all supposed to be going to the beach or on a picnic, but it was raining, so we had an indoor picnic instead! And then, of course, the sun came out brilliantly, so a number of us went for a walk at St Clair beach.
The weather has been atrocious some days - as it has been in other parts of the world - and the last couple of days have been particularly heavy with rain, and even hail. One of our wheelbarrows has a good couple of inches of rainwater in it.
Perhaps it's time to try something different. Our friend was here for dinner last night, along with the person she's staying with. The latter was talking about snorkeling, which is something my wife would love to try. (I'm not such a great fan of water - I enjoy aquajogging, but only because I have something to hold me up all the time.) This other person has snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef, and says it's extraordinary, though because you're not protected from the waves, yo
Perhaps we could try horse-riding! I don't think I've ever been on a horse - except perhaps for a few minutes when I was a child, and sitting up there was so far off the ground I was not happy...! Whether we'd need lots of
equestrian apparel or not, I don't know. Whether we would just need a good-tempered horse...
Talking of horses - and gardens - we've been buying horse manure mixed with sawdust and some other material from a stables out on the Taieri Plains. It's the most superb composting mix, and by the time we get it, there's no smell, and the manure is already starting to break down. The worms just love it, and when we turned some of the compost over the other day, there were worms galore.
Maybe I'll forget riding a horse, or snorkeling, and just stand contentedly by my compost bins, observing nature doing its most exciting work!
Photo of worms in fairly new compost by Tom Arthur on Flickr.com
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