Inviting shade tree

I wrote about this tree last year at the end of autumn. I noted it was beautiful in all seasons, and I have enjoyed seeing it every time we drove out to see my father-in-law. But he died in September, and we have sold the house (final settlement was last week), so there is no need to drive past this lovely tree anymore. Except perhaps just to see the tree.

This is how it looked a month or two ago in summer. I love the leaves – like little ferns. It is so inviting – I just want to spread a blanket under its branches and shade, and lie there with a book and a picnic.

Another in the Thursday Tree Love series – find all the other bloggers doing it here.

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Let’s talk about the summer

Summer was so disappointing in December and January, practically AWOL in fact, that it only really arrived in February. So I’ve been taking great delight in the last few weeks, when – aside from a few chilly days during a southerly storm – we’ve had settled, warm weather. Yes, I know I talk about the weather a lot, but that’s because it is changeable in Wellington, and fine warm summer days are never guaranteed, let alone the relatively windless days, and pleasant temperatures that we’ve been enjoying for the last week. The cicadas have been noisy the whole week – in fact, last night I woke at around 4 am, noticed the moon had lit up the sky, and heard them calling as if it were daytime.

Eating al fresco is one of the great joys of summer, to me. I adore picnics, never got to have one at all last summer, and so was determined to have at least one before summer was over! So yesterday, instead of our usual Sunday activity of cleaning the in-laws’ house (the agent was holding an Open Home), the Husband and I went on a picnic, found a pohutukawa tree in a park and spread out a blanket in its shade, where we ate our lunch of a still-warm-from-the-oven bacon and egg pie, then lay down and watched the birds and the clouds. After lunch and before driving home, we enjoyed a walk and an ice-cream at a local beach, because ice-creams are compulsory on warm summer Sunday afternoons, don’t you think?

I had been hoping to have a summer holiday this year, but the timing of getting the in-laws’ house on the market has put paid to that. We’ll hopefully make a sale in a week or so, then we’ll have to wait for settlement, and by then Easter will have arrived. Travel in April would be nice, but with everyone travelling over Easter at the beginning of the month and the school holidays for two weeks at the end of the month, we’ll stay at home and avoid the crowds. I’m holding out hope to get away for a couple of days somewhere. I’m pining for a lunch in a vineyard, and maybe even a swim somewhere, if it is warm enough. It has to be a priority in the next couple of weeks. Because all too soon, May will be here, and winter will have set in. I mean, even our oak tree is starting to look autumnal. Its green leaves are yellowing at the edges, threatening with the change of seasons already. And the sun is setting earlier and earlier, now around 8 pm.

Good grief, how can I be talking about winter already in this post about the summer? You see what I mean when I say summer is fleeting here in Wellington?! Or do you find seasons are like this where you live too?

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Today

Today it is ten years since the Christchurch earthquake. The city where I spent my university years and met my husband, the second city of New Zealand, the city that had always been the major centre my family visited as I was growing up, the city I love changed completely ten years ago today. Now when I go, I need to use GPS, because so many of the major landmarks that helped me navigate are gone. There has been a major service today broadcast on national radio, and I will admit I shed a little tear as I heard the karanga, a Maori ceremonial call to begin proceedings. I haven’t visited the city for over four years, but I know it is still recovering.

Today is the beginning of the first week when my husband and I have (almost) no work to do on the in-laws’ house. It went on the market yesterday, with a deadline set for 9 March, and now we wait. We might even sneak away for a few nights somewhere. Our house is full of their things, of course. The Husband still has to go through some of them, deciding whether to scan documents and photos, etc. And we also have boxes for each of his brothers, taking up space, until we can arrange to post to them or (less likely) they can come and visit. Still, the urgency has gone. It’s a weird feeling, knowing that we are free.

Today I started a 30 Day Yoga Challenge. I’ve done them before, but over the last year I’ve really slipped with yoga, and I’ve decided I’ve noticed a decline in my core strength, and hence have had some back issues crop up again. (Though scrubbing and cleaning windows etc at the in-laws’ house has also been to blame). So by declaring I’m starting the challenge, I might actually feel the peer pressure to do it! I know I won’t do it in 30 Days. But I hope to stick to that if at all possible.

Today the sky is blue, I can hear the cicadas calling loudly outside my window, and the temperature shows that summer is still here. We’d hope that it would last until March, but we live in Wellington, and summer here is notoriously fickle! So we take each day as it comes. And so far this summer, we haven’t had any hot days (even for us), a few pleasantly warm days, and a lot of semi-warm/not really cold days! We’ve had meals out on the deck with friends, and the other night we had drinks on our deck with friends, going inside as the temperature dipped when the sun itself dipped behind the western hills. Tonight we’re planning a barbecue just for the two of us, because we never know if it will be our last chance. Summer in Wellington. We never take it for granted. It teaches us mindfulness, and taking joy in the moment. That’s not a bad thing.

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