People say I'm cool, Ya - I'm a cool, chick baby

Highlights of the week that was - Jesse and Samantha stayed during the week and were mugged by the animals at every turn.


Jade had a mufti day at school. The theme for the day was the letter S. I dressed as a soccer star (wore my Rochdale shirt very proudly) and Jade went as Samantha. her friends thought it WAS Samantha so I guess she did well.


Apart from that it's been trying to keep warm! Jade and her boyfriend helped me put away the wood last weekend that we had delivered and we've been steadily working through it with 24/7 fires. Apparently it's the shortest day tomorrow.

Don't go jumping waterfalls, please keep to the lake, people who jump waterfalls, sometimes can make mistakes

Jacky and I went for a walk in the woods yesterday after I'd spent time chopping up a tree that had fallen in a recent storm. It was a reasonably big tree and pretty much fell outside our bedroom window (taking a load of branches with it), yet we heard nothing!! We think it must have fallen a week or so ago when we had a massive blast of southerly air come through. Jacky discovered it snapped off about three metres up the trunk and so I got to with my trusty axe. It was tricky being so far up and Jacky was worried I'd endanger myself. But it's the Henry David Thoreau in me - I love this sort of stuff. Anyway, after comprehensively bloodying my hands against the tree-bark we ventured up the mountain. During the summer I enjoy taking some students for a two hour walk from Dawson Falls to the plateau carpark. Along the way there are some great scenic views of waterfalls and a view across to the central plateau mountains - Tongariro (pronounced Ton-gar-rear-row), Ngauruhoe (Nar-rue-hoe-ee) and Ruapehu (Rue-ar-pay-who). If you want to learn more - try http://www.visitruapehu.com/ for details. There's a good map on that site so that you can see we (Stratford) live in a more-or-less direct line between those three mountains and Mount Taranaki.

We had a lovely walk to a waterfall about 20 mins from the plateau carpark. Here are those views:

This is from the plateau carpark looking east towards Mount Ruapehu (top left). Stratford is the settlement to the right and our place is in between the treeline and the township.

The views as we walked along the track to the waterfall.


Said waterfall. As you can see it's pretty cold in the shadows - ice and snow feed the little streams coming down from the mountain.
When we returned to our little farm cottage the animals had beaten us to the fireplace to warm up.

Love and peace - W

I got a Nikon camera, I love to take a photograph so mama don't take my kodachrome away

I'm not sure if you've ever bothered to dip into the link I have to the Guardian's '24 hours in pictures' yet but these two from yesterday are stunning. First - Sultanwas, Pakistan: Sarmil Khan and his daughter Faryal sit next to the rubble of their house destroyed in an air strike

And - South Korean school children practising for a nuclear attack from North Korea

Sobering images!

So I'm packing my bags for the Misty Mountains where the spirits go now, over the hills where the spirits fly

A quick post to welcome back Jesse to Aotearoa (seen here in his favourite kiwifruit shirt)...


...and share another evening shot of the misty mountain - over the hills where the spirits fly...


Love and peace - W

Born a poor young country boy, mother nature's son

I have returned home from this morning's football (1-0 loss to New Plymouth Boys' High School's Under 15s) and leap into the tractor saddle for some harrowing. It's a beautiful crisp morning. A southerly is pushing clouds up against the mountain. They push past and head up the coast towards Mokau. The southerly brings the frigid air straight from Antarctica. It dumps snow on the Remarkables in the South Island before heading our way. I wear a beanie, scarf and old clothes to harrow. I have my camera with me. The tractor is out of petrol so I need to return to the house. Along the way I am distracted by the leaves that have fallen from a tree near the garage. I take pictures, thinking about the journey of the maple leaf from the Buddhist poet, thinking about the film Jacky and I saw last night - Defiance. It's about four brothers who lead a growing group of Jews to safety during World War 2. It has haunted me since last night. Jacky is out with the horses trying out saddles and the leaves are still falling. I try to get a picture of a fantail that plops onto a branch above my head - maybe the photo will come out. I return to the tractor and enjoy my session of cleaning horse paddocks. I finish just as the cold grey southerlies bunch up and threaten snow. It is cold. The southerly is beginning to bite. I load up some wood for the fire and head inside. A hot cup of tea and a plan to read more of my latest Guardian Weekly is interrupted by the need to write. I put on the second side (yes vinyl) of Pink Floyd's album 'More'. It is the perfect soundtrack. When the side finishes I repeat it. I sit down at the computer and download my photos from this morning. I start writing...











Time for another cuppa. Love and peace - W
P.S Try http://googoogarjoob.blogspot.com for a companion Nature piece.

And then a hero comes along

Found a groovy superhero site where you can create your own idealised superhero. Here I am as Wozza-Won Veridi the mighty (jedi) gifted knight. Note the grey hair and handsome chiselled features, those rugged good looks and bulging biceps! The likeness is uncanny!!! If you want to have a play go to http://www.cpbintegrated.com/theherofactory/(hey it was wet and freezing and I had to 10 minutes in the library to kill while on duty...really)


Love and peace - W-W V

Oh the weather outside is frightful but the fire is so delightful, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

The little weather pixie for today is saying it's sunny, and he's right, but it's brrrrrrr cold. Last night we had snow down to Stratford (312m above sea level according to Wikipedia) so we definitely got snow too (we're about another 50m up). Of course Jacky and Jade had to go out and dance around in the flurries. Yes - that's them in their pjs and dressing gowns. The white speck bits are the snowflakes and as you can see - a fair amount had fallen to accumulate on the ground.

This morning I took a few snaps of the mountain (Opie is rugged up warmly in the foreground) - yes it's that time of the year when you get snow on the mountain scenes. We never get sick of seeing the mountain in all of its various moods so I hope that holds for you too. I loved the cloud that hovered and shaded some of the snow fields in these pictures.


Apart from that not much has been happening - Samantha had her 20th birthday a weekend ago (16 May), Jacky has begun work at Hawera hospital on a casual basis, and a new horse (aforementioned Opie) has arrived and one gone (Midas) - are you keeping up? Apart from that it's been fairly quiet.

Dad sent us a care package recently with a DVD of cartoons and the kiwi movie "Second Hand Wedding'. I must admit I wouldn't have seen this unless dad had sent it. I'm always a bit wary of the wedding movie. Let's see - off the top of my head/no goggling involved I can think of The Wedding Singer, The Wedding Planner, the Father of the Bride franchise, Greek weddings, Aussie weddings, Samoan weddings and now NZ weddings. The format is fine I guess, but it's a bit of a cliche - the trials and tribulations of the bride, family tensions etc etc etc. But Second Hand Wedding is good. It rang try in a real kiwiana way (as much as 'The Castle' rings true for Australiana). It's certainly no masterpiece but the ending (of course it's the actual wedding that climaxes the film) blindsided me and I felt myself getting involved emotionally with the characters. Quite a neat feat that for a filmmaker. Worth a peek, especially if you want a looksee at what makes us kiwis kiwis.