Our walk on January 1, 2019

Last year in April, we had a significant windstorm that knocked down a number of very large trees in the park to which we're walking today. One of the resulting gaps now allows us to see the pedestrian bridge across the Opanuku Stream that lies at the far end of the park. 

 It's a steep drop to this bridge, one of three in the park.

Some big old wood survived the storm thank Goodness. 

 I don't think the Frisbee course gets much use. 

 The park is relatively quiet this morning. Many people spent the night celebrating and may be sleeping in. 

 Let's walk part of the perimeter.

I have walked this path before but hadn't noticed what Jeanne pointed out to me today. There are lots of very large English Oaks along here. I like that. 

Although I don't believe we'll ever really need to harvest mass quantities of acorns, there is a part of me that has always felt a measure of pleasure, and comfort, in virtual planning for post-catastrophic times.  As part of that I have a mental list of all the English oak and pin oak trees in our area. This discovery today has increased our available sources of acorns significantly. 

 Making our way home through a short cut between neighborhoods.

 Jeanne tells me these are wild morning glory vines Kathie. We thought of you. 

 Yesterday, Lee and Kathleen's Christmas package was delivered to us and I discovered it contained a gift of Jiff peanut butter and thimbleberry jam. I told Lee in a thank-you email that I immediately popped the jam open and tasted some with a small spoon. It occurred to me as I did, that I was treating it as I would a jar of top-shelf caviar. It was sweet, not salty, and crunched rather than popped as I savored it, but the comparison to caviar holds nonetheless. I told him it was my intention to serve the family some hors d'oeuvres before dinner, highlighting this delicacy. 

So, here they are. Thimble caviar, not Beluga, adorns the top of the Ritz and peanut butter.

And this was our main for our first dinner of 2019.  Jeanne also made some cheesy tortilla wedges. Those are fresh from her garden cukes and zucchini slices. On New Year's Day. Can't yet get my mind around that. The avocado pieces are not ours, they were purchased,  but look at how nicely Amiri's avocado tree is doing. 

Amiri saved the seed from an avocado and planted it, with this result. We may have our own before long. 

And since I was in the back yard taking the previous picture, I just had to snap a couple of my pride and joy; my fig tree. Taken on January 7th, 2019. 

I used to make a seafood chowder for New Year's Day dinner, and would have probably continued the tradition this year, if the weather had been different. It was overcast as you saw from the photos, but the temperature was 24 C, or about 75 F. Just a bit too warm for a steaming bowl of chowder. (I'll make it as soon in the new year as I can.)  -djf

300th Post Retrospective

I thought quite a while before deciding on the subject of my 300th post.  That's quite a milestone after all. I had been throwing around some ideas that I thought might work,  bouncing them off the ladies when they weren't looking, and it was Allie who first suggested some sort of retrospective. That, I realized, made a lot of sense. 

So here I go. In this post, you'll see a few pictures you've seen before, and many that you have not. I've dated them, although the date doesn't really mean much for those that show only scenery. Still, it might be interesting to know when I took them. 

I have no idea how many photos I've shown you since I started. There were only two on my first post, but for a very long time now I've presented at least a dozen or more on most posts. That means that I must have displayed at least a couple thousand pictures of New Zealand. 

Obviously, I have used my blog to share the best of our lives with you. Sometimes the photos have been of objects, like benches, or flowers or fish. Other times they have been of food, the moon, etc., weather or buildings.  And a great many of them show us having a wonderful time. Does it look as though we live a life of nothing but travel, adventure, entertainment and wonder? 

Well, we have been blessed with the opportunity to enjoy a great many happy times.  And, truth be told, Allie works hard at providing the boys with as many opportunities for enrichment as possible. But, like every family, we have encountered very real challenges as well. Threats to our well-being have come upon us many times.  We've worked very hard to overcome the difficult times and have largely been successful. I hope that as you look through this photo album of mine, you'll remember to pray for us. I know that your prayers over the past years have helped us to accomplish what we have toward building the good life here you see on view.   

And it's true that we live in an amazing place. To this Yooper, Aotearoa is about as exotic as can be imagined. I wonder if I sometimes, or maybe often in these posts, sound a bit over-the-top enthusiastic about living here. I do get excited when I experience things that I've only read about before in my life and never thought I'd experience. That's my excuse I guess. My apologies if my enthusiasm gets tiresome. 

But I'm also aware, and have mentioned occasionaly, that Michigan boasts wonders every bit as awe inspiring as NZ. I loved seeng Cathedral Cove on the Coromandel Peninsula some time ago, but in writing about it said that I had Never seen anywhere with more gorgeous rock and water colors than at Pictured Rocks on Lake Superior. And I have never felt the same feelings in the rainforests here that I experienced in the frozen Gourley Township cedar swamps in the winter. I have seen those swamps on frigid but sunny days and during no-holds-barred blizzards, and tell you honestly that there was something magical each time about being in them. And what about standing in front of the Manabezho Falls on the Presque Isle River in the spring and watching the river split in two to form the island I've reached by traversing the swinging suspension bridge? Completely unique. A world-class experience. 

I have never been old before. It's not like there are classes I could have taken in how to do it right. At least, I never heard about any being offered. But untrained or not, I think that each of us, as we ease our way into this time of life, will discover something unique about ourselves and how we react to aging. Something exclusive, arising from our own psyches, our attitudes, likes and dislikes, habits, weaknesses, and so on.

What I've found so far in my journey through old age, is a feeling of delight. Of a heightened awareness and appreciation of how wonderful so many things can be. The reason for part of this feeling might just be my retirement. After a life time of so very many manic Mondays, I am finally, finally free. 

I remember so well my first summer after retiring. I picked gallons of chokecherries. I stood alone under the trees along River Road and Seven Mile Marsh Road and several times simply stopped, and starred into the distance. I could not believe that I had made it through my earning years and would no longer have to 'suit-up' each morning, make the commute and satisfy a boss. 

So my feelings of delight started well before we came to New Zealand. 

Along with this feeling of delight comes a feeling of gratitude. Gratitude not only for being able to live an extraordinary retirement lifestyle now, but also for all the experiences that I enjoyed during my working career. I've known so many wonderful people. For having gotten me through the hard parts. For having provided me with a good living so that Jeanne and I can relax now.  

I'm not looking forward to the act of dying. But I do think that once I've passed that inescapable step, I'll know a level of delight and gratitude that I can't even begin to comprehend now. Maybe the pleasure I feel now of being retired and living in this exotic locale is meant as a hint to me of what I'll feel when I make it to all humankind's ultimate destination. Till then, just like I did during my working years, I'll keep plugging away. 
As you've seen in my past selections and will see in this batch of pictures today, plugging away is easy in these surroundings. Especially with such a family as I have. What a life.  

In my very first post, I asked you all to come along on our continuing adventure. With my 300th post, I repeat the invitation.                                                                            -djf

First ever blog post picture. Hiking on Rangitoto 12/4/14



Second blog picture. 'Flat whites' just off Queen Street in Auckland  12/4/14

At very low tide on Te Atatu Peninsula 10/01/12

Those are miniature mangroves in the mud with air roots showing.

 At the Winter Gardens 12/28/12

Playing with our magnet people 10/13/12

A senior flash-mob happens along Queen Street. 11/09/12  

Mt. Eden  12/07/12

 Army Bay Beach  6/30/12  

Watching the recycling truck, 10/06/12
I remember this one so well...Hearing the truck coming the boys and I rushed out the front door on Applebox Lane to watch the excitement. After the truck moved on, I looked down Espalier Drive and saw that our activity had been duplicated at two more houses. I waved at the nearest pair. It was Tiger and his grandfather who lived just across the street. We grandpas grinned at each other celebrating our shared fun. 

 At the look-out above Lion Rock, Piha 10/31/12

Kerikeri Beach 8/31/12

I'm touching lava on Kerikeri Beach. Who'd have thought?  8/31/12




Hunua Falls 11/12/15




Kerikeri Falls 11/22/17

   Mini-train stopped on a bridge to one of Auckland's reservoirs, 1/18/13

 Amiri is playing Abe Lincoln at school and Arram is proud of him.  7/30/14

Huia Overlook 2/16/13




'Breath deeply the scent of a cave, Its odor carries hints of its mystery.  Accept its cool caress. 1/24/15



Zombies deep underground at North Head 4/12/15




At a park in Wellington 1/21/16

  On the ferry to Rangitoto  12/27/13

Allie battles the Tasman Gale of 1/05/14 



From our hotel room balcony in Rotorua, aka 'Sulfur City'  12/13/14

'Inside the machine' at Sky City, 5/27/15

 Looking toward Auckland from the top of Rangitoto 11/30/12

 Bilbo's house in Hobbiton. I read that 360,000 people visited here last year.  11/25/13

Fin whale surfaces in front of our whale-watching cruise boat 11/18/13

On Bethells Beach 12/15/12

Possible captions for this photo: (care to comment with one of your own?)

 'When you absolutely, positively have to catch a fish.'
'If this guy tells me a fish story, I'm going to believe him.'
'Must be a postman on his day off' (neither snow nor rain nor heat ....) 
'He catches a fish the old-fashioned way, He Earns It.'
"I think I hooked a big one honey. Quick, get the boooat....."

  Hmmm, not a hobbit hole. "There's a breeze coming out of here, Mom."  6/09/15

  We were younger then.  8/31/12             -djf