Preparing for the olive harvest

May 29, 2009

The other afternoon I walked through the grove to look at the olives. I wanted to see how close they are to being ready to harvest.

Distracted by the beauty of sunlight on grass

Distracted by the beauty of sunlight on grass

The late autumn light was sloping through the sky and throwing long shadows across the vibrant green grass. The olive trees were literally soaking up all the sun, leaving patches of darkness in their wakes.

The light was so beautiful that I for a moment I forgot why I was in the grove.

Then I turned back to the trees. I walked down their rows, reached out and touched the branches, looked closely at the olives.

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11 Comments | New Zealand, Olives & olive oil | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Moon Over Martinborough

The gay Americans meet the neighbors

May 23, 2009

Podcast available.

House and the footbridge to the top paddock

House and the footbridge to the top paddock

A group of six of our city friends helped us move out to the country. That was back in October 2006. It was a beautiful day, and it felt like a party.

Nobody wanted to drive a rented truck over the treacherous Rimutaka Hill Road, so Rick and I hired movers to move our big things like the bed, sofa, washer and dryer. The rest of our stuff we piled into everyone’s cars and drove over the Hill together, convoy style.

Our city friends were all people we’d met since arriving in New Zealand two years before. They were an odd mix perhaps, but went together well – Kiwis and Brits, straight and gay, Quakers and not religious at all. To them we were the gay Americans from Tokyo, city boys through and through. What were we doing, they wondered, moving out to 20 acres in the country?

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12 Comments | Country dinner parties, Neighbors, New Zealand, Paddocks, Podcasts, Sheep & cattle | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Moon Over Martinborough

The quest for blue eggs

May 13, 2009

I just wanted blue eggs. That’s the reason I’m out here in the dark this morning, as a bone-chilling autumn rain pelts me furiously on all sides. I’m carrying a red bucket in one hand and a flashlight in the other.

The girls in a line-up

The girls in a line-up

I trudge forward. Already it’s 6:15am. I have to be in the shower by 6:30 to get ready for work. I have to be quick.

Six months before, I decided I wanted chickens. But not just any chickens. I’d read about a breed called Araucana – an old South American breed that lays pale blue eggs.

Blue eggs! How fantastic! I imagined a bowl of farm-fresh, blue eggs on the kitchen counter as I chopped veggies for omelettes on a Sunday morning.

I never thought about the dark, cold mornings of fall and winter, or the icy rains.

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Posted by Moon Over Martinborough

Stacking wood for winter

May 8, 2009

Last weekend Rick and I began stacking wood. Since our house is heated with a woodburner, we’ve come to associate a nicely stacked wood pile with security and comfort. So it’s satisfying work.

What keeps us warm

The woodburner that keeps us warm

We’re like two bears, hunkering down at the end of autumn.

John, our neighbor, once told me, “Wood makes you warm three times. Once when you cut it, once when you stack it, and once when you burn it.”

Winters here are nowhere near as cold as the winters I grew up with in Michigan and Minnesota. There’s no snow in Martinborough.

Even so, these winters are damp and wet and at night the temperatures plummet. Mornings can be frosty. It’s not unusual that we make a fire in the evening and again first thing in the morning, but by noon we’re often opening the doors and windows and eating lunch out on the deck. It’s not a bad winter life, really.

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5 Comments | New Zealand, Woodburner | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Moon Over Martinborough