The Day That The Rains Came

From a very wet Wellington

A World Apart

Photo by Olivia Basile via unsplash

We have had no rain here in Wellington for the past couple of weeks we have been enjoying long hot summer days sitting outside with a glass of cold wine or a G&T well into the evening

But on Friday morning, Mother Nature decided to let us know who was in charge and the skies opened and the rain poured down.And all that day and the next it continued. The gardens all appreciated the rain but not so those still on holiday. You may have seen on your local television the floods that have been hitting the upper North Island. Chris told me she saw it on her news.So, what we’ve had in Wellington is the tail end of that storm.

Today has been mainly dry and hopefully, that will give those people who have been flooded out of their homes time to sort…

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Socialising on Sunday

A World Apart

I have written before about some poems I have read that see that seemed to have been written just for me. This poem by James Rainsford is a particular one:

“Please put down that bookyou’re reading now
and gently close its pages.
So no harm shall come to damage its cold thoughts.
Look up. Please, look up and see
what little there is left of mewhere you felt loved.“
© James Rainsford – Author, poet, photographer.

I often think about that poem and hear my late husband’s voice each time.How many times did I hear words like that in the 41 years we were together?

Today, I had lunch with friends in their garden on a lovely summer Sunday.I commented on how good the garden was looking. 18 months ago there was no garden when they moved into their new house, just hard-packed earth, mostly clay,that had been compounded…

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A BOLT OUT OF THE BLUE

A lovely Summer’s s day here in NZ. A quiet cup of coffee in the sunshine was disturbed by Breaking News. Our Prime Minister is resigning.

Jacinta Ardern, the Darling of the world press, and many of its leaders and politicians will resign “no later than February 7” The announcement was received by the general population here with shock and some might say, disbelief. There had been no indication to the Hoi Polloi of this before the announcement. She made the announcement today in Hawkes Bay and at the same time announced the date of the General Election as October 14th.

Now we have the usual jockeying for the position as Leader of the Labour Party following Ardern’s decision.

There’s nothing more for me to add. Just

Image via Linkedin

JB Wellington, New Zealand, Jan 19, 2023

Summer in Wellington

A World Apart

“Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.”
Roger Miller, Singer, songwriter, & actor
1936-1992

Another Christmas has come and gone, another New Year’s Eve celebration followed it as always, and has also passed and now we are getting back to the everyday life that we know.

All the festivities and fun are great.  It’s always good to catch up with friends and family and what better time than at Christmas and New Year?  But don’t you feel rather flat when the day has passed, the friends have left for home and things are really no different than they were on December 24th?  If like me, you were lucky to receive some gifts and now you have a few more ‘things’ to find places for, you will be adding the fact that you have friends and family who care to your Gratitude List.

After a spell of summer…

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FIVE WORD FRIDAY

A World Apart

FIVE WORD FRIDAY, ON SATURDAY

The celebrations, activities, and festivities continue here for a couple of weeks after Christmas Many people take their annual leave at this time, so offices have only a skeleton staff and some retailers change their opening hours.

The town is quiet and fairly free of the usual hum of cars, pedestrians, and shoppers.

So I find it difficult to keep track of the days. And that’s my excuse for writing this post a day late.

Now what else to write about. Our lovely summer has come to a grinding halt. We have had rain almost continuously for the past three days. Friends came for lunch on Thursday but we couldn’t eat outside as we had done on previous days. But because PollyAnna is alive and well in Wellington, the upside is our gardens all needed the rain and I haven’t had to go out and…

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Don’t say goodbye…..

Wise words for 2023

A World Apart

I’ve read a few posts where a resounding goodbye is made to old 2022, then door firmly shut and an optimistic face put forward.

I was thinking about that this morning in the bumbling about way my mind works, and it occurred to me that slamming the door on the old year, as one might on an old relationship might not be wise.

There are things I treasured about this year; events, people, lessons learned, and lessons relearned.

I don’t want to even forget about the difficult things, from which we learn and grow.

I sort of just want to gently shut the door, and give thanks.

This bit below says far more clearly my own thoughts.

Vedanta Kesari means ‘Lion of Vedanta’ and is a cultural and spiritual English monthly magazine published by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai

No matter what you believe in, or do not believe in, (and…

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If Wishes were horses..

A World Apart

‘All beggars would ride’

Comes that time of year when Resolutions fly fast and furious and may or may not be Wishes.

Photo by freestocks.org on Pexels.com

I was about eight years old when my teacher made the quote about horses and wishes, and it stuck with me. Probably because it had made perfect sense, although I did not fully understand the implications.

I saw this posted today on Darlene Foster’s Facebook (she of the Amanda Adventure series). I don’t know who Butterfly Sand is, but I know enough about Darlene that she understands the importance of ‘our hands’. You know the doing part.

We can plan, we can hope, we can wish.

But it all goes for nought without the doing.

Here we are, JB and me. Partners in A World Apart, living on opposite sides of this globe. That’s us a year and a bit ago when we…

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Welcome Another Year

A World Apart

“Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come,
Whispering ‘it will be happier’…”
―Alfred Lord Tennyson

January 1, 2023, and another beautiful summer day here in New Zealand/Aotearoa – the land of the long white cloud.  

Much of yesterday was spent sorting and tidying cupboards and drawers. I think those years spent in Scotland had a bigger impact on me than I realised. It is a tradition in Scotland for houses to be cleaned, polished, and tidied before the New Year comes in, and so this is what was occupying my time yesterday. 

Then today, my daughter decided that we would tidy the cupboard in our shared laundry.  This, of course, set off another round of attacking those cupboards and drawers that hadn’t been attacked yesterday.

After this flurry of work, I decided that I would have a cup of coffee sitting in this sunshine and enjoying this place…

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