Tag Archives: Travel

Tui on a wire

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Five years ago we had never seen a Tui in our back yard. We thought of them as birds of the bush or forest, certainly not visitors to our suburban home.

These New Zealand native birds have a distinctive white ruffle under their chin and a call which is a mix of ringing bells, clicks, whirrs and buzzes – with the sound of someone gargling mixed in for good measure.

About 3 years ago Tui just started to appear around the house and now their annual arrival is a mark of spring and the arrival of the warmer weather.

Their resurgence in numbers has been quite significant and is due, in no small part, to a successful breeding programme at our local wildlife reserve.

Nice.

The book of the blog

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I started writing this post as an endorsement of a fantastic service for turning your blog posts into a book – Feedfabrik.com. But I’ve just learnt that, due to problems between the partners, they have stopped taking orders, their website is offline, and it is unlikely to return anytime soon.

I first used Feedfabrik last year to produce a simple black and white book of the first 100 toscanakiwi posts which we had delivered to our cottage in Tuscany. We carefully carried it around Europe on our travels and it’s sitting, slightly battered and beaten up, in the bookcase next to me.

A month ago I ordered two volumes of blog posts (about 200 posts in all) hard bound on high quality paper and in full colour because they produce the pictures that go with blog posts as well as the writing. The books arrived last week and they look absolutely stunning.

It is a real shame that others won’t be able to make use of this excellent service in the foreseeable future.

Our thanks to the team at Feedfabrik.com. We love your work and hope that you’ll be back soon.

You hum it, I’ll play it

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In the last few days Wellington has been plagued by an outbreak of humming. Not your run-of-the-mill, can’t remember the words humming but rather humming on a city-wide scale. As our local newspaper put it on Tuesday:

Mysterious hum reported in Mt Victoria

A mysterious low-pitched humming sound has been troubling some Wellington residents for the last few days and it seems no-one has any idea what it might be.  The Wellington City Council has had several calls over the past few days with the most recent being about 5am today.  Spokesman Richard MacLean said the complaints had been coming in from Mt Victoria, Newtown and Mt Cook residents. “We are interested to hear if this starts to become a constant thing. We are keeping our ear to the ground.”

One Mt Victoria resident said he and his fiancee had noticed the noise on Saturday and it hadn’t stopped since. He likened it to a low to medium pitched humming sound and said it went all day and all night and was “doing his head in”.

Of course the source is a mystery but there have been many suggestions made in the local paper. Some rational and some not so:

 “Maybe it is the 50Hz hum that comes from a transformer feeding electricity to the area. If the transformer is overloaded it will hum louder, or maybe something on or near its enclosure is vibrating at 50Hz.”

“The Mothership is preparing [to] leave. Because Mt Victoria is actually an ancient alien spaceship. It would be a bit annoying for the suburb’s residents, though it would make the commute between Te Aro and Hataitai substantially quicker once it left.”

But  this comment is my favourite: “Why is Mt Victoria humming? Simply because she doesn’t know the words.”

Summer is almost here

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It’s been a while since the last Toscanakiwi post. Maybe that can be blamed on the end of winter – that period of the year where the worst of the bad weather is over but still the sun won’t shine and the days are more rain and wind than anything else.  Good news – spring has finally arrived and from last Sunday daylight saving commenced. Suddenly the days are longer, the temperature warmer and every plant in the garden is growing as fast as it can.

Last weekend we travelled to Nelson on the northern tip of the South Island for a family birthday. If there was any doubt about the arrival of spring, the afternoon spent sitting on the deck looking out over the Waimea Inlet to Tasman Bay and beyond was proof enough. It was a fantastic weekend – thank you to our wonderful hosts and, once again, happy birthday to wee James.

Today Wellington lived up to it’s windy reputation

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With winds whistling through Cook Strait at up to 140km/h today our place reminded everyone why it’s called Windy Wellington.

The normally peaceful view of small boats moored in the shelter of Evans Bay looked a little different today.

A South Island road trip

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This gallery contains 27 photos.

Last week I had the chance to head south. To leave Wellington for a couple of days, fly to Christchurch and take a road trip from Christchurch driving west over Porters and Arthur’s Pass to the West Coast. A work … Continue reading →

One year ago today

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July 12 2011 – we were staying in the lovely Villa Greta in Positano on the Amalfi Coast. It was a scorching hot day with the temperature hovering in the low 30’s (celsius) with hardly a breath of wind. The … Continue reading →

A taste of Italy

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Every time Jean and I feel homesick for Italy we make the pilgrimage to MariLuca Ristoro. It is owned and run by a friend, Guiseppie, and stepping through the door feels like stepping back to Italy. It’s all warmth and friendliness and excellent Italian food, all in the heart of Wellington.

Bellisssimo.

Note: photos are courtesy of MariLuca Ristoro

Start me up – carefully

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Ever since returning to Wellington my cars have sat, in garages, unused. Given their ages, starting them up after a 12 month hiatus isn’t as simple as turning the key and cranking. Just sitting still doing nothing means all manner of … Continue reading →

It’s all about looking out for each other

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Daisy the dog had a rough night last week. Part of her heart condition means that sometime she can’t pump enough blood around her system and without enough blood to her brain she faints.

This isn’t a pleasant thing and when she faints we always wonder if she will recover and be her old self. So far she has.

Before we moved back into our home she was fainting regularly but the return to familiar surroundings and routines has meant this had become a thing of the past – until last Wednesday night. She fainted twice and we were up until 3am making sure she was comfortable, relaxed, sleeping and, most importantly, still breathing.

And that’s where looking out for each other comes in.

Poppie is Daisy’s partner in crime when barking at the gate or begging for food but not the rest of the time. That changes when Daisy is unwell and then, somehow, Poppie knows.

Like last Thursday morning when Daisy was recovering. Poppie is the one on the right.