The folks over at the New Zealand Food and Wine TV blog have picked up the short ONYA video about ‘Moon over Martinborough’ and featured it in their blog. Nice!
Featured on NZ Food and Wine TV
March 24, 2010
2 Comments | 
Guest posts & media, New Zealand | Tagged: blogs | 
Permalink
Posted by Moon Over Martinborough
Winery tour: Escarpment Vineyard
March 13, 2010
The Escarpment gate
“Turn up Te Muna Road,” I tell Russ. “It’s up there.”
I’m in the front passenger seat, and Russ is driving. Joel, Louise and Lucy are squished together in the back seat. They’re friends of ours visiting from Chicago, and we’re headed to one of my favorite Martinborough wineries, Escarpment Vineyard, for a private tour.
Rick couldn’t join us today because he has to work, but that isn’t going to stop us from visiting a vineyard. And this isn’t just any vineyard.
12 Comments | New Zealand, Wine & vineyards | Tagged: Escarpment, pinot noir, vineyard, winemaker, winery, winery tour | Permalink
Posted by Moon Over Martinborough
Moon’s in a video
March 6, 2010
ONYA awards
I was sitting in an internet cafe at Bondi beach in Sydney. Just outside the waves curled blue into the sand. Surfers had left their boards leaning on the railings of outdoor cafes to have breakfast. The sun was bright and warm.
But I was in a dimly lit room full of computers, trying to find out if I had won an award back in New Zealand.
11 Comments | Guest posts & media, New Zealand | Tagged: ONYA awards, video | Permalink
Posted by Moon Over Martinborough
My first radio interview
February 27, 2010
Kapiti Island at dawn
Back in January, I was interviewed for a Kapiti Coast community access radio show. It ain’t Oprah, but it’s somethin’!
Thank goodness Rick offered to drive to the Kapiti Coast for the interview, because I hate mountain roads. After nearly two hours of twisting and turning through two difficult mountain passes, we finally found ourselves looking straight out across the Tasman Sea from on high. The long, lovely shape of the Kapiti Island bird sanctuary lay the foreground.
You can listen to the radio interview at the end of this post.
8 Comments | Guest posts & media, New Zealand | Tagged: kapiti coast, radio | Permalink
Posted by Moon Over Martinborough
Shovel and axe
February 20, 2010
Light on the far hills
I had just hopped back over the fence after visiting Kiwi Bronwyn and Jim when I saw Rick walking towards the chicken coop. He had a shovel in one hand and an axe in the other.
The evening light was bright on the far hills, but the paddock we were in was drenched in shadows.
I knew what Rick wanted to do. In fact, I’d agreed to it a couple of weeks earlier, but all of a sudden I had reservations. I certainly hadn’t expected to be doing it now, on a peaceful Monday evening after visiting the neighbors. I wasn’t prepared.
16 Comments | Chickens, Death, New Zealand | Tagged: blue-green eggs, chicken coop, Chickens, chook house, scaly leg mites | Permalink
Posted by Moon Over Martinborough
The sweet taste of chicken feed
February 13, 2010
Petting newly shorn Sweetie
Podcast available.
We have a new sheep at our place. We call her Sweetie because she really is sweet. But she has a little problem.
She arrived about three months ago when Hamish, the stock agent, brought about 20 new sheep to graze in our paddocks. “One’s a pet sheep,” he said. “Belongs to my sister. That one’s never going to the butcher.”
At first the new sheep were down in the paddock beyond the driveway and the row of gum trees. I didn’t see them much. But after a while Hamish moved them into the paddock where the chicken run is. That’s when I got to know them.
10 Comments | New Zealand, Paddocks, Podcasts, Sheep & cattle | Tagged: animals, chicken coop, chicken feed, olive grove, sheep, Wairarapa Lifestyle Magazine | Permalink
Posted by Moon Over Martinborough
Not in Lake Michigan anymore
February 6, 2010
Stingray (image from Wikipedia)
Holly and Mia put their feet in the water and screamed. “Freeeeezing!”
It was hot in the Wairarapa that summer, and we were at a tiny beach along Palliser Bay, not far from Ngawi.
Unlike my most recent drive to the coast, this was a gorgeous day. The sky was perfectly blue, and the heat intense. It didn’t seem like danger could be that close.
11 Comments | Family, New Zealand, River & sea | Tagged: abel tasman, coast, stingray | Permalink
Posted by Moon Over Martinborough
Interview with a Martinborough runner
February 3, 2010
Running down Te Muna Road (click to enlarge)
When the folks over at RunAbroad.com read my recent post, Running up Te Muna Road, they asked me if I wouldn’t mind being interviewed for their monthly ‘Interview with a runner’ feature.
I said, “Huh?”
I’m no serious runner. I mean, I love running but I’m a wimpy hobby runner.
4 Comments | Guest posts & media, New Zealand | Tagged: running | Permalink
Posted by Moon Over Martinborough
The U.N. Committee on Home Decorating
January 30, 2010
The wall
We were at John and Aussie Bronwyn’s for dinner with the rest of the neighbors when Rick first announced our intentions.
“We’re going to tear down the wall,” he said.
Suddenly the room fell silent. Forks were held frozen in mid-air. Mouths full of food had stopped chewing.
This was less than a year after we’d arrived here in Martinborough, and we didn’t yet understand that our house had come with an advisory committee.
43 Comments | Country dinner parties, Neighbors, New Zealand | Tagged: gluten free, home, kind neighbors | Permalink
Posted by Moon Over Martinborough
Storm at Palliser Bay
January 23, 2010
Palliser Bay before a storm
Rain had been falling all night and throughout the morning when we climbed into the trusty little Nissan Pulsar.
I threw four pairs of gumboots into the hatchback, started the engine, and headed for the coast.
I crossed my fingers that the road wouldn’t be washed out.
22 Comments | Family, New Zealand, River & sea, Roads | Tagged: seals bay sea rain storm Nissan | Permalink
Posted by Moon Over Martinborough
New podcast library
January 19, 2010
Well, I’ve done it now. I created a podcast page, with the startings of a podcast library.
The podcasts are readings of various posts. I’m having heaps of fun with it, and I’m learning heaps too.
My friend the Wolf told me, “What next? Moon over Martinborough: the book? The movie?”
6 Comments | New Zealand | Tagged: podcast | Permalink
Posted by Moon Over Martinborough
Running up Te Muna Road
January 16, 2010
Huangarua river valley (click to enlarge)
It’s early on a Sunday morning as I put on my running shoes. It’s been a very, very long time, so the shoes feel a little unfamiliar. I stretch, then open the front door and go.
I head in the direction of Te Muna Road. The name is Maori for ‘secret place’.
When I get there, the blacktop surface angles up. This is the place where my body always starts saying it’s had enough, it wants to turn around and go home. The bed was so nice. The slope is too steep.
But a gentle breeze rushes though the pine trees on either side, and I keep running.
12 Comments | New Zealand, Paddocks, Roads, Wine & vineyards | Tagged: running, vineyards | Permalink
Posted by Moon Over Martinborough
The triumph of Evil Cow
January 9, 2010
Podcast available.
Because we lease our paddocks to a stock agent, we’ve seen a variety of cattle and sheep come and go on our property.
Being city boys, one animal has always seemed the same as another to us. One cow, however, has been a standout. She not only made an indelible impression on us, but she left Rick with an ongoing remembrance in the form of a dull ache in his side when it rains.
We named her Evil Cow.
Local farmers say cattle are smart. One farmer once told me he’d actually seen a cow push another cow into an electric fence just to see if it was on. Before I’d met Evil Cow, I didn’t believe that such calculated bovine treachery was possible.
Let’s just say that I believe it now.
18 Comments | New Zealand, Paddocks, Podcasts, Sheep & cattle | Tagged: cattle, olive grove, pruning, stock agent | Permalink
Posted by Moon Over Martinborough
Inaugural podcast available
January 7, 2010I blame it on my 20-something cousin in Michigan, Meryn, who said to me via Facebook…
This is my million dollar suggestion to you: Moon over Martinborough the podcast. This way we can all listen to the stories while we do our chores… or homework.
12 Comments | New Zealand | Tagged: podcast | Permalink
Posted by Moon Over Martinborough
The gingerbread men
January 2, 2010
Our gingerbread persons (click to enlarge)
No matter where I’ve lived in the world, if I couldn’t get back to Michigan for Christmas, then a little bit of my boyhood Michigan Christmas has always come to me – in the form of a box of gingerbread men.
Whether we’ve been living in provincial Japan or crowded Tokyo, central Wellington or out here in our rural paradise of Martinborough, the gingerbread men have always come.
That is, until this year.
32 Comments | Death, Family, Food, New Zealand | Tagged: Christmas, gingerbread men, gluten free, gratitude, molasses, recipe | Permalink
Posted by Moon Over Martinborough
