It’s the Way Winter Rolls

Taken on the playing fields by the Andy Bay inlet, their safe place I guess. (Shame I missed off the male’s cute tail feathers).

Paradise ducks, like the mallards, always get about in pairs. Some people call them ‘parries’, for short. Known as shelducks overseas.

Continuing on from last post … still seeing signs confirming that despite the mild temperatures and conditions, it is indeed winter.

Stark lines show up more in winter.

 I’ve always admired these lines along the outside wall of the local high school, all the more noticeable in winter.

Red-hot pokers have added some welcome eye candy for our driveway.

Winter’s design …

If I was a fashion designer on the look out for inspiration I’d look no farther than nature. For example, the winter shades and patterns of flax / harakeke.

And although majestic, purple and spire-like in summer, I find the echnia just as attractive when all bare and feathery; winter-wiry and loopy.

There is a little sunny corner here with seats – perfect for taking time out on a stroll. Amuses me that I go for strolls now rather than ‘brisk walks’.

Even the more rumpty has its place. Like this abandoned small business in Waverly. More appeal as a winter study than a summer one, perhaps.

I took my granddaughter to feed the horses both in their thick, furry, winter coats. We only had one carrot to share among them, so they were a mite disappointed in us. The larger, white one is a bully and bites the smaller one on the rump to make sure it gets most of the food.

It’s curling season again. Our third season of playing for Gordy’s and the A-Team, respectively, setting the stones off down the lane, heading for the skipper’s broom; clockwise for left, anti-clockwise for right; not too wide, not too narrow, letting them curl to hopefully land over the hob and end up somewhere in the circle.

The blue ‘kettles’ are my favourites.

We set the grandchildren to work scraping wallpaper off the walls in readiness for painting. (In actual fact my lovely daughter in law has done most of the work). I am looking forward to having my study back all painted and looking smart … but it’s a long road until we get there. I’m soooo very thankful for Kate’s persistence, perseverance and just plain, bloody hard work.

And that’s just the first room in the house – more renos. to go yet. Carpets. Curtains. Sigh. It’s really NOT my thing.

Happy to be included (in a small way) in this anthology of New Zealand women’s poetry.

Rather than renovating, I’d far sooner be at my desk writing. Editing my novel’s manuscript or stacking, trimming and shaping my fourth collection of poetry. All the while, ideas for my second novel and even more poems, bleat like bairns waiting to be gathered up and settled. There now. There now.