Good grief, it's Friday already!

That was my comment, made to Jeanne this morning while my wake-up cup of coffee was still mostly steaming in its cup, so its rejuvenating effects had yet to do me much good. Friday already, and I haven't even started putting together a post for this coming week.  

In the old Peanuts comic strip, Charlie Brown used to show his level of frustration by the words, sigh, ugh, or aaugh!, in the text bubbles, depending on how upset he happened to be.  Fortunately, the small portion of coffee I had imbibed prior to realizing my post-less dilemma, allowed me to refrain from uttering anything similar. I just went with the comment already listed in the title of this post.

The fact that my title comment has an exclamation point at the end of the sentence indicates however, that I was treating my need for a post seriously. I planned to get to it today, 5/17/24. 

Not that it would be too hard to produce. The gardening group here at the village took a bus trip on Tuesday, up to a plant nursery that also included among its charms, a walking trail with assorted sculptures spread along its length. I was included as 'spouse of Jeanne,' and I tried to earn my 'passage' to some degree by taking copious pictures and sending them to the rest of the group.  

So, those pictures will make up my post for this week, and the next besides. (When I say copious, I mean it.) And, I have another reason for bringing you this particular post. The nursery/trail/sculpture garden was located outside Kaukapakapa, which  happens to be one of our favorite place-names here in Aotearoa.   

Now, neither Allie, nor Jeanne nor I belonged to a sorority or fraternity during our university years, but it is impossible to live or study on campus without becoming familiar with a number of, in my case, fraternities. I knew guys from several. 

You are probably aware that fraternities use Greek letters for their names and Kappa, the 10th letter of that alphabet, is used in several names. Kappa Sigma is one and Delta Kappa Epsilon is another.  

Therefore, when Allie first drove us through the tiny town of Kaukapakapa shortly after we had arrived in New Zealand, she pointed out that its name sounded like a Greek fraternity or sorority of dairy farmers. Jeanne and I were delighted and have loved the place for the memories it stirs up ever since.  

At the end of our tour at the nursery on Tuesday, I bought a jar of Kaukapakapa honey. How could I not? I have a special fondness for New Zealand honey, but more about that later.  

Let's get started with some photos. We had fully overcast skies that day but the layer of clouds was thin and therefore very bright. I notice pictures taken under such conditions turn out, for me anyway, somewhat washed-out looking.  I could try to edit in some sunlight I suppose, but decided against that.  

I have no clue about what that's supposed to be. It's kind of showing its age. 

  

That hanging sculpture is modeled on Kowhai flowers.  

And here is my treasure from our trip.   

Most of the honeys I have purchased here have been produced from a single species of flower. The bees have been located near large tracts of that species and the honey from each of those flowers has been collected from the hives before the bees could go on to harvest nectar/pollen from any other flowers.  In fact, the beekeepers do a microscopic analysis of each honey so produced, and if it is found that it has any more than a bare minimum of other pollens in it, it can't be sold as a single-species honey. They take their honey seriously here.   

Sometimes, I have valued and purchased a honey though, because of it's location of harvest.  It is a honey produced from dozens of species of flowers right here at Waitakere Gardens for example, or, most recently, from Kaukapakapa.   

Or, or course, there is my all-time favorite honey that is both a single-species honey, Pohutukawa flower, and also a local-area honey, having been harvested solely on the tiny island of Rangitoto, located about 2 miles offshore from Auckland. (Unfortunately, this is no longer available since the company producing it has decided to not transport bees out to Rangitoto each year during the pohutukawa flowering season.)  Fortunately, when I heard about this disaster, I went up to their retail outlet in North Auckland, and bought several bottles of the very last Rangitoto pohutukawa honey they had left. I have one bottle frozen and several bottles tucked away in a dark drawer.  And I'm not eating any. I prefer knowing that it's in my time-vault. Honey lasts forever.   

Well, I hope that you've enjoyed my post for today. As I warned you earlier, I intend to give you a second helping of pictures next week as well. See you then.   -djf