Clearing skies and drying eyes now I see your smile, darkness goes and softness shows a changing style (The Beach Boys)

Mum and Ross explore the Grmman Avenger

Wie geht's?

Recently, I sorted through our photo albums to find some pictures for my brother of a long-ago family trip to Rotorua. I thought I'd include them here as well.

We stayed in Rotorua a couple of times growing up in the sixties, and we always went to the local attractions as were then - hot pools, trout hatcheries and the playground at Kuirau Park, which included the Toot N Whistle miniature steam train, were a few.

In the playground they had also positioned a tank and a WW2 plane for kids to play on - Ross tells me that the tank was most likely a US M26 Pershing and the plane a Grumman Avenger.   

Ross and Wozza hang out in Kuirau Park - mid sixties -
before traumatic run in with some angry swans.

Looking back, I guess it would strike people (like my children) as a bit odd to have left over WW2 relics as a playground, but we used to love crawling around inside these things and it didn't strike us as unusual at the time.

Admittedly, entertainment for children has got a lot more sophisticated over the years. I get it - taste and attention spans have changed, but it's a bit sad we can't take Asher to the model train experience that his mum enjoyed when and if we visit Taupo - because, like the tank and the plane, it's not there anymore! 

During one of these Rotorua holidays mum and dad took us to feed some ducks at Sulphur Point - it was a dark and broody night - windy with a palpable threat of storm in the air. Lo and behold as we went to the water's edge a bevy of ravenous and aggro black swans came rushing towards us out of the water flapping their wings with their necks craning forward to attack us and grab the bread. Clearly their swan leader had instructed them to unleash hell. We scrambled back to the safety of the car throwing the duck's bread over our heads as we went.

I don't remember us indulging in any high-pitched screeching and wailing like banshees. But we might have.

It was all extremely exciting. And scary!  

Love and peace - Wozza

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow (Albert Einstein)

Wie geht's?

Back to school and I slept like a baby last night! Woke up 5 minutes before my alarm at 4.25am like Dicky Fox!!

This is going to be a great day!

Love and peace - Wozza

It seems to be the fashion to say you're right and they are wrong (John Mayall)

Wie geht's?

And so, after two months, the physical labour at Maple Grove comes to an end with the last of the windows sanded and varnished. 

We've travelled clockwise around the house, starting out east with the kitchen dinner. Moving south to hallways, and bathrooms, west to two bedrooms, and finishing back east with our master bedroom.

In some ways I'm sad it's ending. After the initial shock, my body has adjusted and got fitter, losing a few kg in the process.

Painting is exercising mindfulness to a high degree, as it involves balancing on ladders, thinking about hazards and body movements, as well as focusing on the act of painting - loading the brush or roller carefully and applying the right amount of paint.

Now I'm gearing up for school starting back again on Monday with some travel to Auckland for meetings before Wednesday's teacher only day. Students are back on Thursday.

Very quickly, I'll be tired from the switch to mental activities.

Something that unites that transition will be my reading pile. It's grown over the break even though I've had time to read a couple of books. That's been very therapeutic!

I'm looking forward to getting back into more reading as part of my daily school routines.

Love and peace - Wozza

The sound of the doorbell pulled her away.

Wie geht's?

Last week of the holidays and the frenzied painting is dwindling at Maple Grove as a consequence. I have two more sash windows to sand and varnish before I'm done and dusted - should be doable - it takes 2 days for each window - because each coat needs 24 hours drying time.

Aside from that I'm enjoying another one of Anne Tyler's novels - Digging To America (pictured above). It has an interesting premise - two different but loosely connected Iranian families in Baltimore (where she sets her stories) adopt South Korean babies. Fun ensues!

Tyler's writing style is easy as. Here's an excerpt that sums it up nicely (Maryam is one of the grandmothers in this drama):

Maryam excused herself and went off to check on dinner. She lowered one flame, raised another, and then allowed herself a little spell of gazing out the kitchen window before the sound of the doorbell pulled her away.

I should get it finished before school starts up next week.

Love and peace - Wozza

Seems to me I've been a long time on this road (The Moody Blues)

Kitchen diner after shot!

Wie geht's? 

The redecoration continues apace at Maple Grove. We've now completed over half the house: kitchen diner; lounge; dining room; two bathrooms; back entrance hallways, inside music lounge - all done. That means ceilings painted, walls painted, windows sanded and re-stained with all the catches cleaned by Jacky (top tip - Barman Keepers Friend products and elbow grease).

That means we have three bedrooms inside the main house, as well as the front entrance hallway and the out building's three rooms (workshop/laundry/music vault) to go.

Of those we'll only realistically get to the windows in the three bedrooms and the laundry during these holidays. But that's still way more than I'd thought we'd get done. Go us!

The bonus is that I feel pretty knackered/fit. Physical exercise like this and disruption to the house is not possible during the weeks at school to come in 2022, so it feels good to complete improvements at Maple Grove that otherwise we won't ever get around to in the year ahead.

Love and peace - Wozza

The world you see is different from the one I see, and it's mpossible to share your world with anyone else (Ichiro kishimi)

Photo by Andrew Charney on Unsplash

Wie geht's?

Wabi Sabi is a phrase that Jacky is getting a tad tired of hearing as we repaint and decorate half of Maple Grove (we've now moved on to the bathrooms and back entrance hallways).

Wabi Sabi (subtitled - the wisdom in imperfection) by Nobuo Suzuki was a Christmas gift from Jade and it has provided some wisdom as we sand and paint.

Wabi Sabi is a phrase that encompasses the idea that everything is impermanent - everything is in a continual state of flux and if we go against the flow, we will suffer. So we need to accept it.

I am quite happy to enjoy the imperfections in the walls and windows - some of which date back 120 years. For me, they provide character and are a very visual reminder of wabi sabi.

Jacky, it's fair to say, does not embrace that attitude. At all. For her - only dead fish go with the flow.

Imperfect is not something she can bring herself to live with (although she does keep hanging out with me!). So, a lot of the time, she points out the shoddy job that others have done before us and she chaffs against the idea that she can't fix those imperfections. She suffers.

And she suffers even more when I say...wabi sabi.

Love and peace - Wozza

Baby baby baby you're out of time (Chris Farlowe)

You have to break some eggs to make an omlet. The after pic to follow!

Wie geht's?

Epic few days at Maple Grove! 

We initially wanted to fix up all the interior windows at Maple Grove and remove the carpet - remember. Well the carpet job went onto the back burner and we decided to concentrate on interior windows.

As we proceeded though, it became obvious we also needed to paint the walls. And that in turn meant doing the ceilings before we did the walls.

Sheesh.

Day 1 - remove all the furniture, wall paintings, and containers from the rooms - sanding meant we needed to empty out the rooms as much as possible; prep windows in kitchen/diner for staining - remove window catches; sand.

Day 2 - stain all windows (1 and a half coats)

Day 3 - finish second coat of some windows; prep walls and ceiling in the kitchen/diner/entrance way for painting - sanding/ washing walls and ceilings; first coat on the ceilings (Jacky worked a duty)

Day 4 - second coat on ceilings; first coat of walls part 1 - all those fiddly bits the roller won't get to (Jacky worked a duty)

Day 5 (today) - first coat of the walls part 2 - roller action; second coat part 1 and 2 (Jacky was home and able to do the lower level fiddly bits); wash up; return the rooms to normal.

Day 6 (tomorrow) - collapse in a heap!

Love and peace - Wozza