Friday, December 23, 2005
Bush walks and baths
We are all on holiday now and the anticipation for Christmas is steadily rising. The boys are worried that They are not going to get any christmas presents and keep on urging us to go into town to get it "sorted out". As if we wouldn't give them anything!
We spent last Saturday finishing off our bath. Over here many people living with unusual (by European standards) water supplies, do not have a bath in the house. we have missed having a long hot soak. After some days it is just what you need. So we researched the possibilities and the picture shows the result. A cast iron bath surplus to Paula and Grant's requirements has beeen sunk into the lawn in a secluded corner. The drain goes down the hill. It is currently filled from the hose with cold water and by filling with buckets from the hot water tap. Authentic bush baths are raised off the ground and a fire is lit underneath them, wooden slatting along the base prevents a burnt botty!
Talking of which .... suffice it to say for those of you in the know, that the area is healing nicely but sitting down is a bit painful.
Moving swiftly on, Patrick lost his first tooth and the other fron one is leaning over like a pissed gravstone. The NZ Tooth Fairy took 2 nights to pay up, which we tried to explain was due to its small population and geographical isolation.
I took time off from my parental and patriarchal(?) duties to go for a highly enjoyable bush-walk at Diggers Valley on Sunday. Mein host and guide was Stephan who is the fellow wielding the machete looking like Crocodile Dundee. A small select group of us walked from the farm into the hills above. We followed his water supply line first and then carried on to find the source of the stream. The bush was steep in places and there were several waterfalls to negotiate. Our progress was hindered by a tough vine called supple-jack that is like a triffid, very easy to trip over it. Also the aptly named "bush lawyer" which is a creeper with leaves that have sharp hooks, once entangled by the lawyer, it is difficult to get free! Despite all these obstacles we found the point where the stream started and returned aching all over and wet through.
Christmas greetings to all our readers!!
We spent last Saturday finishing off our bath. Over here many people living with unusual (by European standards) water supplies, do not have a bath in the house. we have missed having a long hot soak. After some days it is just what you need. So we researched the possibilities and the picture shows the result. A cast iron bath surplus to Paula and Grant's requirements has beeen sunk into the lawn in a secluded corner. The drain goes down the hill. It is currently filled from the hose with cold water and by filling with buckets from the hot water tap. Authentic bush baths are raised off the ground and a fire is lit underneath them, wooden slatting along the base prevents a burnt botty!
Talking of which .... suffice it to say for those of you in the know, that the area is healing nicely but sitting down is a bit painful.
Moving swiftly on, Patrick lost his first tooth and the other fron one is leaning over like a pissed gravstone. The NZ Tooth Fairy took 2 nights to pay up, which we tried to explain was due to its small population and geographical isolation.
I took time off from my parental and patriarchal(?) duties to go for a highly enjoyable bush-walk at Diggers Valley on Sunday. Mein host and guide was Stephan who is the fellow wielding the machete looking like Crocodile Dundee. A small select group of us walked from the farm into the hills above. We followed his water supply line first and then carried on to find the source of the stream. The bush was steep in places and there were several waterfalls to negotiate. Our progress was hindered by a tough vine called supple-jack that is like a triffid, very easy to trip over it. Also the aptly named "bush lawyer" which is a creeper with leaves that have sharp hooks, once entangled by the lawyer, it is difficult to get free! Despite all these obstacles we found the point where the stream started and returned aching all over and wet through.
Christmas greetings to all our readers!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
