This feijoa is only one of the young trees I have growing in our steep back section. She has survived some brutal winds and I’m glad to see she is fruiting, but I do hope the possums don’t go for her.
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Living in New Zealand: Things to do on Waitangi Day: Weaving Māori Baskets
Waitangi Day (6th February) celebrates the day when Māori and Pakeha signed the treaty of Waitangi. The agreement was flawed, but at least here there was motivation from white (mainly British) settlers to treat the local caretakers of the land more equitably than they had in other places of the world (notably our neighbour, Australia). Normally, like other public holidays, I work, but today I did something different.
I made a basket for potatoes from harakeke (flax). I met up with a great bunch of other women in Lyttelton and we learned from Jackie, Trixi and Catherine, who have been learning themselves. I’m inspired to try more, as we have whakariki (mountain flax) growing in the garden.
The finished basket needs to dry and is weighted with bricks
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Reasons to Be Cheerful - The Benefits of a Social Media-Free February
I confess that I have been reading The Luminaries (a book about 19th-century New Zealand written in the language of the same) since Christmas, but until now I have only been able to handle a chapter a day. It's a very dense book and at 830 pages long, I was worried that I would never finish it. Or understand it if I did. I'll be glad to finish it and get on to something lighter for a while.
But yes, spending less time on Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram means that I have more time to focus on my Deep Work and I have more time in the evenings to read. It also means that I don't have the anxiety that comes with not posting to Facebook and not checking for any posts I may have missed. I know I'm missing everything, but strangely I feel a lot calmer about it than when I was checking it every day. If you don't know what you're missing you have a lot less FOMO.
Living in New Zealand: Why Having Cats is Different to Owning Dogs
When I was a kid, I had a cat, Tac. I loved that cat and I was very upset when she died in my first year of university. But I grew up in England and having a cat in New Zealand is very different. The bird life has not evolved with this predator (or any mammalian predator) and cats kill native birds in countless numbers.
Yes , dogs can kill native birds too. But there are a lot more bylaws here regarding dogs than there are for cats. Dogs have to be registered and are expected to be kept in at night. In most places in New Zealand they are not allowed to roam free and have to be kept under the control of the owners. When we had a dog, he always walked close to us, But he used to be terrorised by a local cat was allowed to walk wherever she wanted.
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That was pretty funny. It's not funny what cats do to the native birds when they're allowed to roam free and kill at will. So when I saw this book on a recent trip to the library, I felt I had to leave a note.
Passive aggressiveness at its best.
Arctic Circle Cartoon - Selfies
The art gallery shown in the first panel is based on the lovely Christchurch Art Gallery, near where I live in New Zealand.
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Reasons to Be Cheerful - Fish and Chips on the Beach
The beach at Kaikoura is grey and pebbly, but still beautiful. It’s a great place to eat fish and chips, as long as you can keep the seagulls away.
Living in New Zealand: The Dairy
What Britscall a newsagent and the Americans call a convenience store, New Zealanders called a dairy. It is where you going to get the paper, a loaf of bread, a pint of milk and in New Zealand’s case, ice cream. We used to have a fantastic dairy in London Street, Lyttelton, called the Empire (it was also a pub/hotel and had excellent drinks deals at happy hour, which was a good time to meet up with people.).
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In 2011, like many old buildings in London Street, the Empire Hotel was badly affected by the earthquake. It had to be demolished and it was sad to see it go, though the owners at the time of the massive ice creams had moved on. Now there is empty lot where's the Empire Hotel used to be. It is called Collett’s Corner and they are crowdfunding to try to finance a community building. They need is nearly $10 million dollars, so it will be a hard ask.
The owners in the Empire’s heyday.
One month after the February 2011 earthquake, the poor Empire was being held up by some serious steel scaffolding.