Tag Archives: olive grove

Will the real ‘Rick’ please stand up?

Olive grove and the far hillsMy publisher was coming to lunch, and I was nervous. She wanted to see the property and meet CJ and me, but she wanted something else as well. She wanted to talk to CJ about changing his name.

What if it all went horribly wrong?

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Photo shoot in the olive grove

Olive Grove April 2010The man on my front deck looked like he had teleported through a time machine, straight out of the 1960s. He was wearing dark sunglasses with octagonal, gold wire frames. His sideburns were long.

“You must be Jared,” he said, shaking my hand. In his other hand, he held a camera.

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Kiwi country Thanksgiving 2009

Roast turkeyCJ called me at work on Thursday morning in a panic. “It’s going to rain all day Saturday!” he said. “We need to cancel Thanksgiving!”

Some might think canceling Thanksgiving due to a little rain is a bit extreme. Those people have never been to one of our Thanksgiving parties.

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Olive harvest on a misty day

Mist on the hills beyond the bottom paddockThe first of the city friends arrived on Friday night, driving over the Rimutaka Hill Road after work in the dark, ready to settle in for a three-day weekend full of food, friends, olives, and a lot of hard work. There were big hello hugs all around and bags deposited in guest rooms.

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