La Vita è Bella!!

A small Italian boy reached up to touch the crystal droplets, just as I was taking the photograph, and I felt his curious little hand, so delicately exploring the chandelier we had both found at the Genovese Antiques Market, perfectly captured the wonder and curiousity I was feeling.

Life is becoming beautiful again. There has been a long period of sadness and struggle, possibly beginning when New Zealand went into Level 4 Lockdown, and life dragged me down low and into a sadness that was threatening to drown me

There were so many factors, since returning to New Zealand, and I was unable to save myself until, one day I did …

The story of self-rescue didn’t begin & end with one single action but with a series of actions. Finally I have arrived in a beautiful place, with the loveliest people, and have begun to unfurl.

Rain because there has been a magnificent Fiordland downpour going on all day. They were talking of 30-40mm but I’m thinking that perhaps there has been more. And it’s still falling.

Tonight, we found a new pub … a new gathering place, full of good people. At one point, we were there chatting, two Kiwis, 2 Brits, an Irish woman, an Italian and a South African. I loved it, of course.

La vita è bella! It is all unfolding in the loveliest ways.

A Handful of Books I Have Loved ...

Discovered in the Centro Storico, Genova. Italy.

I have always been an avid reader. I love the places book take me, and I have always loved escaping into other worlds.

A friend asked me to recommend a few.

Here’s the list I made for Jonė.

Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels

Dinner with Edward: A Story of an Unexpected Friendship Vincent, Isabel

Running in the Family - Michael Ondaatje (his magical realism bio)

Love That Moves the Sun: Vittoria Colonna and Michelangelo Buonarroti - Linda Cardillo

A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East - Tiziano Terzani

I Saw Ramallah - Mourid Barghouti

What Remains - Denise Leith

In Xanadu - a Quest - William Dalrymple

The Journey is the Destination - Dan Eldon

Veronika Decidies to Die - Paulo Coelho

Nomad's Hotel - travels in time and space - Cees  Nooteboom

Travels with Herododus -  Ryszard  Kapuściński

Blindness -   José Saramago

The Way of Herodotus: Travels With the Man Who Invented History - Justin Marozzi

 When Nietzsche Wept - Irvin D.  Yalom

Mornings in Jenin - Susan  Abulhawa

Knulp - Hermann Hesse

The Truth About Lou -  Angela von der Lippe

Under The Wire - Paul Conroy

Following a Fly-Fisherman, Fiordland.

Sometimes, it takes something difficult, to make you appreciate what you have.

In this instance, it was waking to an unresponsive black screen on my beloved laptop. An issue I have since learned is directly related to the Windows 10 update that I didn’t approve.

I channeled the memory of a clever ex-husband, and recalled him plugging in an external screen, so as to bypass a long-ago black laptop screen.

And it worked again.

The appreciation of what I have came when I had to edit a photo, and there it was on my much bigger, external screen. I had been dilly-dallying about colour calibration, unable to calibrate it myself.

Forced into using it, I’m really quite pleased with the screen quality. I will have to get some work printed, to check that it’s right but really, absolutely, loving this screen.

The foto, a fly fishing trip I tagged along on. There was a point where we forced to leave the immediate river bank and wander through this tunnel of trees.

Fiordland.

My Dog-Walking Field, Manapouri

I have been truly blessed, in terms of the ‘view’, while dog-walking, down here in Fiordland.

Exquisite, isn’t it?

Native bush, in winter, Fiordland-style.

Being Stalked, Fiordland-Style

Hazel, the labrador belonging to Jazz and George, inspired me to create this slideshow.

She was stalking me, desperately wanting me to kick/throw/or otherwise turn her tennis ball into a projectile that she could chase.

The Intensity of her Stare, as she followed me around the small farm I was house-sitting, made me smile some.

I returned from Dunedin, and one night later, there I was house-sitting … in the most beautiful place.

4 horses, 1 dog, 1 cat, 10 sheep, and 10 more chickens, and tired as I was, I loved it.

There was this really deep bath, and a fireplace to weep real tears over.

Thank you, so much, to Jazz for asking me, and George, who accepted it.

Lockdown, New Zealand ... Fly Fishing

I was taught how to fly fish.

Thank you, Rob.

I was also taught how to gut and cook a Trout.

I am out-of-control proud about that.

Here’s the trout. Caught by Rob (the Australian, we shared our Level 4 Lockdown with), stuffed full of onion and tomato, and cooked on the BBQ, as taught by Rob, the Zen Fly Fishing Guru.

Next step, hiring a rod and heading out to the lake. Not to fly fish but to catch a fish.

To cook it and eat it ;-)