Keep calm and carry on

Photo by Wolfgang Rottmann
on Unsplash

Wie geht's?

Living in a 120 year old villa has its fair share of joys and frustrations. 

On ANZAC weekend I found myself locked out of my bathroom. Conveniently, we have two bathrooms - a 'his' and a 'hers'. Somehow the catch had fused into the locked position in the 'his' bathroom door and everything we (visitors joined in the attempt) attempted failed to open the door.

Problem solving suggestions were plentiful: shoulder barge the door (ha ha - yeah right) ; cut a hole in the door (yikes); remove the lock (we tried that without success); break the window (drastic); remove the whole window from outside. Okay.

Removing the window proved harder to do than anticipated but we got there with help from a crowbar after taking off the hinges. Luckily they were on the outside of the window.

Phew. what a mish.

Keeping calm and carrying on was the ticket to success in this case (and in so many others). That slogan from 1939 is a beauty.

Love and peace - Wozza

Whispering grass, don't tell the trees 'cause the trees don't need to know (The Ink Spots)

Wie geht's?

Thanks to strike action (Thursday), Hawke's Bay Anniversary (Friday), and Labour Day (the coming Monday) - you find me in the middle of a five-day weekend! Weird.

The recent stormy weather and high winds have left plenty of branches and even a couple of trees down at Maple Grove. Consequently, we've spent a few of those days cleaning up. 

The most dramatic example was a large pine, centimeters from our boundary, that crashed down onto the road, wiping out power lines on its way down.

Again, I'm wondering about the decisions made long ago and far away to carry power to people overhead via poles and strands of wire, where they're vulnerable to damage from mother nature. That seems absurd, but what do I know.

After the local council workers cleared the road and the power people restored the lines, our neighbours cleaned up all of the damage the next day (big tractors help). We did our bit by picking up three bags of pinecones that had embedded themselves in our lawn. It's an ill wind...

Love and peace - Wozza

The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men gang aft agley, An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain, For promis’d joy! (Robert Burns)

 

Wie geht's?

Recently, we almost sold Maple Grove, and almost bought another house. 'Almost' is a tricky word. It's not quite, very nearly.

It's a state of being where things don't quite work out the way you'd planned. That feeling has generated a large number of idiomatic phrases. Robert Burns captures that idea well.

• Don't count your chickens, until they are hatched.
• It's not over until the fat lady sings.
• It's not over till it's over.
• Don't get your hopes up too soon.

Those idiomatic phrases all express that vague warning but still, they don't quite prevent that empty feeling when plans don't quite work out.

But, as I have said many times: 

• You have to take the crunchy with the smooth.
• Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you.
• You can't always get what you want, but sometimes...you get what you need.

Recent events mean that the maple leaf has landed, and Jacky's cute nose is feeling warmer.

Love and peace - Wozza

They all asked about you down on the farm (Little Feat)

Heading around the corners of the garden shed now - had to add more wire and trellis.

Wie geht's?

So, what's the go at Maple Grove? I think I hear you ask...

Having polished off the rest of Jacky's trifle, the Christmas tree and the rest of the trappings have been packed away for another year and we are in that lull between December 25 and the new year.

All the wet weather we've had in Takapau has been brilliant - you can read the repercussions of that on my Jewels For The Thirsty post for last week.

Maple Grove is currently playing host to Jade's pooch. Tango is having a lovely holiday at his second home - following me around and going for a daily saunter around the paddocks as I harrow.

The WTWMC amigos are wrapping up the Loved Ones playlist in the coming week, so I've been happily immersed in listening out for some Kiwi gems to celebrate Barbara of the Auckland Simmses (Kevy's mum).

And finally, with all the humidity and rain, the passionfruit vine has gone ballistic!

Mmmm...passionfruit!

Love and peace - Woz

Stay under the tree line, and you might be alright, I'm a treetop flyer (Stephen Stills)

Wie geht's?

We had a great excuse to get outside and fix up the Tree House on Maple Grove. That translated to: get rid of the blackberry around it; chop off dead tree branches; have a big burn up, and it wasn't just because of the sunny hot days on this recent Labour Weekend. 

The main reason was around Asher and Jade coming to stay for a few days and us looking after Asher for a day while Jade was working.

Nothing like a young child's perspective of things to change your own. It was Asher who commented on the blackberry tendrils outside his tree house window. I wouldn't have bothered but having seen it I couldn't unsee it.

After watching him lean out, Jacky's concern for Asher falling out of his windows meant I added a wooden rail to preclude that eventuality.

Asher then negotiated his way up and down the ladder with aplomb, finding toys for his new toy box and suggesting to Mema (Jacky) that a rug would be a good idea.

He's only three and a half but he knows what he's about.

Love and peace - Papa (me)

I take my chances every chance I get (Mary Chapin Carpenter)

Wie geht's?

Maple Grove is well named. This might just be my favourite tree on the property. Especially dressed in its autumn cloak.

By the way, I normally like the maple leaves to drop naturally, as you know, but Jacky got a leaf blower recently and I couldn't resist a play yesterday.

This is the view from where I eat breakfast every morning (habit). I can't see outside Monday to Friday, but when the weekend comes...

Love and peace - Wozza

Just the trees, Johnny. Just the trees (Seinfeld reference)

Wie geht's?

There are a few hands-on jobs on the list for this weekend - dealing with that tree for one thing. Which is good. After five weeks of school, I'm out of practice with physical labour and unfit for yard work (as the Americans call it).

Trigger was nosy,

Strikes me that I write about trees quite a bit on this blog. I love trees. Plenty of times we have written off a prospective property because of the lack of trees, or else it has been a clincher when buying a property (like at Maungaturoto).

We have a lot of them here but they also feature on quite a lot of art work around Maple Grove*. So this post is devoted to all that stuff around the place relating to trees (lovely misty morning provided a nice backdrop today).

Love and peace - Wozza

*BTW - the property wasn't named by us, not sure the provenance on that, but it fits!

Through violent storms and peaceful dawns we find ourselves in balance.

Wie geht's?

We (as in New Zealanders) have been battered by a storm over the last week or so. Loads of rain and wind which means flooding and power outages.

We (as in Jacky and I) live on the east coast of the North Island so we have a buffer from the worst weather thanks to the Ruahine mountain range. Still - at Maple Grove, we have had enough rain to overflow the rain gauge and enough wind to blow over a sizeable tree in the back yard in a row of macrocarpa trees. They are pretty hardy trees!

On closer inspection last night after work, I saw that the tree was quite rotten where it broke off and when viewed away from the trees that were on either side of it, quite spindly and without much foliage.

In other words, nature decided enough was enough, so it blew the tree over - providing us with some firewood in the process. All good.

Balance. 

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

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

You move like water sweet baby (Lana Del Rey)

Wie geht's?

Apologies to all my fellow non-farmer Hawke's Bay-ites. It's my fault!

Roughly two months ago - in and around Labour weekend, I repaired all of the irrigation lines around Maple Grove (two years of summer droughts being my inspiration), put out the outdoor furniture and the two sails over the zen garden outside my music room.

And it's rained pretty much ever since.

Sorry.

Love and peace - Wozza

Headline news, headline news! Everybody say Extra, extra, read all about it (Edwin Starr)

Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

Wie geht's?

Welcome to the Maple Grove news broadcast. Here are your headlines:

• Television removed from music lounge in record time!
• Mystery continues as dead rat stinks up Wozza's music vault!
• Laney, the Cat, climbs Christmas tree!
• Contacts pose pupil problems for Mrs P!

Stay tuned hepcats - pictures at 11.00.

Love and peace - WNP 

I'll find the constant flow of all the harmony. Everybody needs a helpin' hand (Santana)

Wie geht's?

Back in the bib and tucker this week, with two days in Gisborne and two in Hastings. Travelling early in the week tends to zap my brain cells a bit and my routines get all out of whack.

The blog regimes definitely get disrupted, and so I haven't found the space to eek out anything for a few days.

Oh me oh my.

The drive to Gisborne from Takapau takes me about 4 hours. I usually stop off in Wairoa but the cafe I like isn't open on Mondays so this time I drove straight through on both days. That means roughly three and a half hours of driving the testing up and down and twisting road to Wairoa and then onwards to Gisborne. Not a lot of fun.

Gisborne is lovely when you actually get there, but like many places in Nu Zild you need a compelling reason to go (I'm thinking of places like New Plymouth, northland, and the whole of the east coast of the North Island).

When you think about it, vast tracts of both islands are very isolated - makes covid-19 inoculations extremely challenging because the vaccination needs to go to the people, not the people to the vaccination for a large percentage of Kiwis.

Anyway. I'm back at Maple Grove. Ready for an extra long weekend (Hawke's Bay anniversary and Labour Day) and more vegetable garden planting. 

Keep it real (and please - get the jab).

Love and peace - Wozza

Baby will you call me the moment you get there, baby? (Aretha Franklin)

Wie geht's?

Time for a project update with the study break coming to a conclusion this weekend.

Window sills: not quite zero, we did buy a mouse sander to get into the little nooks and crannies around window frames but that's it - no, like, actual work, like.

Irrigation system: good news here, as I managed to repair broken lines to the vegetable patches and create three new lines through different parts of the Maple Grove gardens. That even includes a line to two new flower baskets on the western deck.

This took up most of the week as it meant multiple trips to Mitre 10 Waipukurau for various pieces of irrigation and having to project manage fiddly bits as I went. 

Mundane jobs like this are good for the soul. They certainly keep you humble.

Working with water is endlessly frustrating but paradoxically it creates a great calming experience within the stress. Water finds its way and when you add a pressured situation - then leaks are a fact of life. That's this post's very deep bit.

Still, the garden jobs are pretty much done. Just have to build a wire netting cover for one of the vegetable beds before I head off to Gisborne on Monday morning for what should be my last visit this year. 

Love and peace - Wozza

Look through any window, yeah. What do you see? (The Hollies)

Wie geht's?

Okay, so here we are in week two of my term break from school. I didn't have much ompf last week for anything major but this week I'm feeling the need for some projects.

The irrigation system to the various gardens has been in a state of disrepair since we moved into Maple Grove three years ago, so I've started on a proper rebuild. It's been interesting so far - all seems okay until I actually turn the tap on from the well and various leaks in the alkathene rear their ugly heads. But the warm sunny days mean it's okay to fool around with the watering.

The villa we live in at Maple Grove is 120 years old so there are always maintenance and repairs with which to occupy our time during breaks from school. This week Jacky and I plan to sand down and re-stain the various interior window sills that we noticed needing doing when we bought the property. That's why there are pictures of three of the rooms attached to this post - there are a few of them!

These projects have come to the top of the list because we are wary of travelling to other provinces and getting stuck there. We were planning on going across the island to Taranaki but the Delta variant is on the move north and south from Auckland - swallowing up Northland and Waikato provinces in the process.

The government reacts quickly to outbreaks and there is always the possibility of escalation to a higher alert level. 

On the family zoom, we were detailing the incidents that lead to the covid-19 virus affecting KatiKati (one person who moved there after 5 negative tests) and Northland (a sex worker it appears faked documents and spent 4 days touring around the province); Adam (living in Melbourne) expressed amazement that we knew details of individual cases.

That gave me some perspective. Nu Zild is a small town.

So- we have decided that discretion is the better part of valour and we will stay safe at Maple Grove. That means ordering more records from Vinyl Countdown, Real Groovy Records and Marbecks while listeing to album club selections Mild Orange and Sufjan Stevens as we sand the sills.

Stay safe, wear a mask, please get the jab (I know readers of Wozza's Place are a responsible, considerate bunch, but you never know - an undecided may stray onto this page by mistake).

Love and peace - Wozza

Here comes the sun, and I say it's all right (The Beatles)

View from the music lounge after I do my first zoom of the day

Wie geht's?

Ongoing extentions to Nu Zild's Level 4 lockdown mean that we're all continuing to work from home and because of some internet issues in the outer rim of Maple Grove's vast complex of out buildings, I've moved my base of operations into the main house.

Specifically, the formal music lounge at the front of the house.

It has the advantage of being where the modem is located, has my UK turntable/CD player/amp/speakers, gets the morning sun streaming in the windows (great on frosty mornings like today), and has a lovely view of the front garden (pictured above).

The only downside is the sun streaming in the windows onto my screen for early morning zoom calls.

When we moved in to Maple Grove, I redecorated the room and Jacky removed all the curtains.

Since then I've not minded especially as I'm normally at school during the week and weekends don't find me in the music lounge (mainly because Jacky insists on closing its door because there are no curtains to keep the warmth in and it's f f f frrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrezzing!!! Chur JFP).

Anyway, because of the needs must situation with the zooms I ordered some roller blinds from Briscoes (taking advantage of their 50% off sale). Unfortunately we'll need to go down an alert level before they deliver them (no click and collect option sadly).

In the meantime, I'll be enjoying the sunrises in all their glory and greeting zoom participants during this part of the day with a squint.

Love and peace - Wozza.

A gentle rain falls softly on my weary eyes as if to hide a lonely tear. My life will be forever autumn, 'cause you're not here (Justin Hayward)

Wie geht's?

More autumn thoughts for you:

We've had some great autumn days at Maple Grove lately - grey skies, rain, leaves falling, trees turning beautiful colours - you know the drill.

Yesterday, I had to drive to Gisborne for work and by mid afternoon I was stuck behind a cattle truck coming into Wairoa. Never great right?

Except this time it was!

The draft caused by the truck kicked up all the fallen leaves on the side of the road, and so I drove through a kind of snowstorm of autumn leaves for a couple of kilometres. It was so cool!

While doing this I thought about my deep seated and long established love of autumn.

Two things came immediately to mind: 

• That book I read as a child about an overgrown garden that Maple Grove's overgrown driveway continually reminds me of (I've written about this book a lot over the years in this blog - I wish I could find another copy)
• Driving home in Leigh-on-sea with Jade and Samantha from school in autumnal darkness. Cosy and safe, return to the womb style, I guess.

Both memories have really super impressed themselves in some fundamental part of my brain and they are triggered on weekends like we've just had - as I very contentedly gaze out of rain splattered windows at leaves on our huge maple trees changing colour under a dark broody sky, while a fire warms up the villa's kitchen.

Hard not to be in pensive and wistful mood on those occasions.

Love and peace - Wozza

Maple leaf, falling down, showing front, showing back (Ryokan, Soto Zen monk)

Wie geht's?

Autumn in Maple Grove is pretty cool. As regular readers know, I love autumn - dark, misty days, beautiful colours et al. Why wouldn't you love autumn?

Maple Grove is well named - we have quite a few maple trees on our 3 acres! As regular readers know, I love maple trees and maple leaves.

So here's a selection starring Gracie (playing the horse), and Jerry (as the dog):

Shade sails are stored away until summer

And it's goodbye from Jerry...

...and goodbye from Grace.

Love and peace - Wozza (as himself)