Happy Holidays from the Barrier! Life carries on here very nicely and gently, though time moves no more slowly on GBI than anywhere else we’ve lived. We may want with all our being to “catch and keep it”, to hold on to every hour, day, week and month, but it all just flows quickly along down the river of time. Every plant, person, garden and water tank on the island received a wonderful gift from the sky on Christmas Eve day: a good, good rain after a long dry period. We measured 50 mm; up north they got twice that. And now, beautiful weather for holidaymakers! Guess who came to dinner! What a surprise when out of the blue Dennis appeared at our door a few weeks ago! He lived on GBI for about 15 years before shifting to Golden Bay a few years after we did, and his enthusiasm played an important role in us being here! Lovely to have him here on the island for a few days. Golden Bay isn’t the only place in New Zealand that has a cleaning fairy! We’re lucky to have lovely Rose here to help us! Ro’s been growing potatoes in straw mixed with cow poo! Seems to work great! Potatoes for Christmas, that’s what we always aim for! Something new has appeared alongside our straw bales, containers, and pocket gardens: grow bags. A holidaymaker who stayed next door a couple of months ago sent us four set-ups, all but the pallets they sit on. These are his photos. We hope that later in the summer, ours – with cukes, tomatos and capsicum – will look as full and beautiful. The bags he makes are huge, but you can also use very large cloth shopping bags. Tiny Gardens Carrots in boxes Beetroot in bales Greens in trays Garlic in pails. Cukes in a barrel Zukes in the ground Tomatoes in containers Pumpkin in a mound. Corn in bags Herbs in pots Spuds in straw We’re growing lots! We enjoyed a beautiful and bountiful Christmas dinner at Okiwi Passion with Gerald and Caity and their three WWOOFErs. This was a serious moment in the conversation! In the spirit of the season, here’s a link to a performance of “Ode to Joy” from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony by 10,000 Japanese singers, among them one of the graduate students whose theses I’m editing now: www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6s6YKlTpfw
Also in the December spirit, I’ll conclude with a photo of the GBI Santa Parade floats, such as they were!
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