Thursday, October 30, 2008
Standing to on the edge of darkness
Here are some photos taken at what I think is a special time of day. About 20 minutes after the sun sets behind the hill, if the sky is clear you can catch sight of the 'edge of darkness'. It is actually the earths shadow (the terminator) cutting through the atmosphere as night approaches. Since we have had Guy I have rediscovered the magic of this moment. At this time of year it comes just as Guy is going to bed and I am putting the evening's vegie scraps on the compost heap.
When the sky is clear like this I like to look out at the terminator and then picture it arcing up north across the globe. If you could fly along the terminator you would find it was the same time of day across a vast swath of the globe. We are used to thinking of different time zones, running east to west, but try to picture the evening falling simultaneously. From a chilly sea breeze in Wellington, to a mild night in Kaitaia in northern NZ, across the gently ruffled waves of the North Tasman sea, to a warm evening under the coconut palms of Noumea and the Soloman Islands and up to the coastal villages of Hokkaido in Japan. If you could do that flight, and pause at each settlement, what would it sound like? what would it smell like? Dogs barking, dinners cooking, or just the wind on water and trees? 
It is hard thing to picture, thinking as we usually do in terms of east-west, so I found that Google Earth is helpful. This image from Google Earth is accurate for 7:48pm NZDT Oct 24. Note the angle of the terminator changes with the seasons so sometimes at this time of year we share dinner with Japan , and in our winter with Alsaka.
The military forces of many civilisations recognised this time as time of danger, of potential attack when the enemy could make use of the rapidly changing light, and the preoccupation with the end of day routines to make an attack. Accordingly they countered this threat in various ways, in ancient western armies it was by playing 'Last Post' on the bugle, the signal for all on duty to 'stand to'. This meant to stop what they were doing and look outwards for signs of movement. I like this idea, amidst the evening routine, to stop, and mark this time by directing my gaze from the cracked pavement at my feet, across the roof tops, out to the rising moon. Think about the scale of distance your eyes have just taken in. Look to windward at the weather, is it changing? What can I hear, smell? Where am I tonight as this night falls? Where will I be tomorrow night? Where are the people I love?
Instead of a time of insecurity, this time becomes a moment of inspiration. It is somehow good to know that from Invercargill to Sapporo, millions of people are cooking their dinners, be it lamb chops or miso soup and watching silly TV shows about much the same thing with different casts. And I am in the middle of it, one man by his rubbish heap. Try it one night, but just remember to turn the potatoes off first.
Bike Riding
The local plunket group run toy library from which we borrowed a little 2 wheel bike for Guy. One fine spring afternoon he decided he wanted to ride it outside, so we went onto the almost flat area at the end of our cul-de-sac, (instead of the steep 1:10 slope outside our house.) The girls from across the road came out to play too and they had a lovely time, "lets have a race" said Guy optimistically as he can really only make progress on flat ground. Guy took a tumble and hurt his knee. Tears were shooting out of his eyes until I said I'd take him into see his Mummy, he stopped crying, looked at the girls on their bikes and with a big sniff climbed back onto his bike. That was so much fun that we put my bike and Katrina's on the back of the car and Guys in the boot and drove to a local school, which was the closest flat area. Here we are about to set off but it was so full of children whizzing about on their bikes that Guy got a bit shy. We had to give the bike back to the library last week but we are keeping an eye out at garage sales.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Waitakere Winter
More photos from August, after the agricultural aircraft conference we managed to abandon Guy with his Granny and escape for three precious nights at the Black Sands lodge at Piha beach. Piha is on the west Coast, 45 minutes drive west of central Auckland. It is a special place where the feeling of being on the edge of the world runs right through you. The feeling of isolation is even stronger if you arrive on the eve of a storm that plunges the upper North Isalnd into a state of emergency and leaves Piha township without power for 14 hours. Luckily the lodge has gas cooking, so we cooked a steak for dinner, using the maglight on Mum's car key ring to see if it was done. The water supply was from the roof but via a now useless electric pump, so we left the salad out on the deck to get washed by the storm. We did manage our first really long sleep in about 3 years, 14 hours from 7:30pm until the sun peeked through the dissipating storm clouds at 9;30am the next morning.
The next day cleared nicely after a hailstorm to test our resolve as we set off to walk the Cascade Kauri track. This track takes about 4 hours and visits a ridgetop stand of Giant Kauri trees. The top half of the North Island was once covered in these trees, but here in the Cascade reserve the hillsides were too steep to extract the logs, and the remained to become one of the countries first reserves. Hard to capture in the photos but these are huge and ancient trees, but look for jack and katrina the'tree-elves' in the first photo.
And then there is the beach, looking west 2000km to Australia somewhere out beyond the fading sun. It's a special place and we were lucky to be there.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Pukerua Bay
What can you do on a fine but chilly winters afternoon in Wellington? Catch the train to Pukerua Bay. After all the rushing about during which Guy was a patient wee soul we decided to take him on a just for fun excursion. We sat right up the front of the train where you can see out the front window, Guy calling out 'Green go!' for the driver as we passed signals. Then we walked the kilomtre or so over the footbridge across SH1 and down the winding track to Pukerua Bay. The bay is a great place to be on winters afternoon as the high hills to the South and east shelter your from the cold winds and catch the warming sun. Guy scoffed down Katrinas bacon and egg pie and then went off to explore the beach for intersitng flotsam and test hice gumboots in the rockpools. The dotty hat was given to us by a friend and we call it 'Guys Silly Hat'. By late afternoon even the excitment of the return train trip wasn't enough to sustain consciouness and on the last tunnel into Wellington, the long one under Newlands, his little eyes flickered shut and I had to carry him to the car. A very big day out.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Mountain Men Come to Visit
Guy's Uncle Rob and his friend Chong popped in for a visit after one of their mad mountain escapades up in the freezing Tararua's one chilly week in August. Guy always loves a captive audience and they built an enormous train layout and had a lovely time playing with it.
Rob must take some responsibility for Guy's train obsession as he started it all by giving us the first Thomas the Tank Engine set just before Guy was born (despite his subsequent best efforts to channel Guy's interests elsewhere).
Guy was fascinated at the thought of Uncle Rob and Chong having a 'sleepy-sack' in their packs, as well as tent and little cooker. The idea of a tent was so appealing that we took Guy to the Kathmandu store and he ran around the whole time in and out of every tent on the showroom floor. Looks like Grandad Pat's large family-size tent will be a real hit this summer when we attempt our first camping trip!
The Nutcracker
One weekend afternoon Katrina got busy in the kitchen and baked up a storm. Jack was very excited at this show of domestic goddess-ness, until he realised it was all bound for the freezer, but at one point the recipe called for nuts so Katrina prevailed upon Jack to crack some nuts for her.
We don't have a nutcracker, so Jack bravely brought his hammer into the kitchen and did it the old fashioned way. In his usual Mr Nosey fashion, Guy came over and asked "what are you doing Daddy?" When he found out what Jack was up to, he insisted on helping.
There you go - the definiton of trust - holding the nut while your 2 year old wields the hammer.....
Guy was so thrilled with this that he insisted on cracking the whole bag and ate a good 1/3 of them as he went (he is so his father's son!). As it was his first nut orgy, we watched anxiously for a few hours but no anaphlactic shock, so guess that Grandad Pat's love of nuts has been passed on.
We don't have a nutcracker, so Jack bravely brought his hammer into the kitchen and did it the old fashioned way. In his usual Mr Nosey fashion, Guy came over and asked "what are you doing Daddy?" When he found out what Jack was up to, he insisted on helping.
There you go - the definiton of trust - holding the nut while your 2 year old wields the hammer.....
Guy was so thrilled with this that he insisted on cracking the whole bag and ate a good 1/3 of them as he went (he is so his father's son!). As it was his first nut orgy, we watched anxiously for a few hours but no anaphlactic shock, so guess that Grandad Pat's love of nuts has been passed on.
Bridget's Birthday Party
Guy's friend Bridget from creche turned 3 and had a Dora the Explorer birthday party. They had to dress up so Guy went along as a pirate! He was so good with his costume, he even left the pirate earring alone until his ear turned red! He had a lovely time and won the Pass the Parcel (Dora the Explorer snap cards).
Then came the serious business of the afternoon - the food. Guy takes his food very seriously and can often be found sitting at the table at creche long after everyone else has gone, solemnly eating and eating and eating. Bridget's birthday party was no different and Guy sat there and chowed down on cupcakes (several), fairy bread (several more), pizza (one or two pieces) and Dora birthday cake (just to be polite).
Winter in Wellington
A couple of photos from July in Wellington after the southerly storms. Taken looking across the valley from our drive. Yep it was chilly.
Guys Big Boy Bed
Catching up on things, found these photos of Guy helping me assemble his new bed. We got a fullsize single bed, it doubles as a spare bed if we have guests and it is big enough for one of us to climb in a read a story, or possible look after him if he is sick. Here is a photo of Guy on his last night in his cot, with a photo of him on his first night in the 
cot, 2.5 years earlier.
cot, 2.5 years earlier. 
