January Skies in 2024

 

January is our mid-summer month and, here in Hamilton, is usually the sunniest and one of the driest months of the year.

We average 230 hours of sunshine, a maximum average temperature of 24C (76F) and an average low of 15C (59F).  Rain can be expected around 20% of the time, and relative humidity averages a little over 70%.

Overall, the weather in January can be quite pleasant most of the time.

Some of our local hot-air balloon enthusiasts agree with me, and we have seen this sight out the window on several early mornings this month.

Enjoying a balloon ride soon after dawn

Most of our days have been blue skies with fluffy white clouds, and lately our temperatures have been in the late 20sC but thankfully dropping back into the mid-teens during the night.

Cloud building up on a sunny afternoon

We have also experienced some rain, and even a bit of thunder.  This photo was taken about ten minutes before a torrential downpour.

The sky was much darker than the photo shows

It is not very often I get to see lenticular clouds, so was thrilled to see this one recently.  They usually form over mountainous areas so I am picking it was actually sitting somewhere above National Park, roughly 150km away “as the crow flies.”

I was sitting beneath our umbrella!

January seems to have passed by very quickly, but I feel it has been a productive month.  I have achieved a few things (decluttering, organising etc.) that I have been wanting to do for a long, long time.

Life is good 😊

Margaret.

 

All Is Good

 

Thanks everybody for all the birthday wishes.  My appointment went well yesterday and life is looking good.

Son and I had a good drive up to Auckland and home again.  The traffic was heavy at times but most of our trip was an enjoyable drive.

The Weather Gods smiled down upon us, and even gave us some amazing cloud formations to look at.

My appointment was on the northern side of Auckland, across the Harbour Bridge.  As we came home again, I was able to take this shot of the city’s harbour skyline.  

Normally, when driving, I don’t have this opportunity – there is nowhere to safely stop and it is far too unsafe to try and take a photo when I’m behind the steering wheel.

Most of today I spent with a sister-in-law – we even managed to do some family history research together – but I was a little late coming home and got caught up in the evening rush hour.  I should be getting used to traffic now!

Nothing to worry about though, and I arrived home to find son had cooked up some chili mince and we were able to have nachos for dinner.  Nice for a change.

Have a happy day 😊

Margaret.

An Easy Day

Today began with lovely blue skies and I enjoyed taking my mug of tea and sitting outside by my little vegetable plot and soaking up some vitamin D from the sun.

I then wandered around the garden and found my first polyanthus in bloom.

Son drew my attention to our hanging baskets.  We both love the little “faces” on these violas.

The colour on these ones was so rich that it was almost velvety.

Being Saturday I headed inside and wrote my weekly email to my daughter – more like a lengthy epistle than a short note, but I know she enjoys reading them.  While I was doing this, the wind got up and in no time at all we had clouds appearing in the sky.

By the time afternoon tea rolled around the sun had almost disappeared.

Our weather forecast is for rain all day tomorrow as well as some wind.  Hopefully Auckland and Northland also receive some of it, as they are still struggling with drought conditions in many places.

Cheers J

Margaret.

LINKED TO Skywatch Friday

Homesick For The Beach

I feel I am beginning to be homesick for the beach.  It was the end of last year when I last visited a beach and I am really beginning to feel it. 

I blame my great great grandfather for this – he was a sea captain and I think he left some of his love for the high seas in my blood J

So, what is it I love about the beach?

There are two sounds I always associate with the ocean.  One is the crashing of waves, and the other is the loud haunting call of the Southern Black-Backed Gull (Larus dominicanus).

Walking in bare feet along the beach on a warm summer day is a sensual experience to enjoy.

So is standing on the edge of the ocean feeling the cool splash of waves playing over your feet – as long as you avoid the bigger waves, which can result in wet clothes if you’re not careful!

Beach-combing as you wander along the sand is great fun, finding pebbles, shells, seaweed, sea-glass and other bits and pieces.

Sometimes I like to just sit on the beach and watch other people enjoying themselves.

Standing on the edge of the sea and taking a deep breath of fresh salty air clears the lungs and wakens the senses.

Not all of our beaches are sandy.  Many are pebbled and some are rocky, but they all bring me happiness.

I’m already making plans for a beach visit when we are allowed to travel again.

Keep smiling J

Margaret.

LINKED TO My Corner Of The World

Lock Down Day Ten

Today, Friday 3 April, is Day 10 of our total lockdown.  Have I gone totally bananas yet?  Well, I hope not but I was incredibly grumpy this morning!

I found more pantry moth grubs and discovered some seedlings I had forgotten to plant.  There was a dead mouse sitting out on the terrace and our toilet cistern has begun leaking again.  Blah, blah, blah – just one of those days, really.  They happen sometimes.

Coastal sunset in The Catlins, South Island, NZ

Anyway, son went to the supermarket and managed to find some gunk while he was there (three times the price of a hardware store) so that should fix the toilet.  He also got rid of the mouse.

While he was out I gave my car its weekly exercise – start it up, back down driveway, turn around on the road, drive back up our driveway and stop.  I know vehicles can deteriorate if left sitting unattended for several weeks on end, so Friday has become Car Exercise Day.

My sweet little Suzuki Swift, parked on a mountain

After that I tackled our pantry.  Every item has been removed and checked for moth contamination.  Some food has had to be thrown out (hate doing that), and the rest has been put into sealed Zip-Lock bags before being returned to their containers. 

The shelves have all been scrubbed down and disinfected.  I am hoping that, a bit like fruit fly, when there is no food available the pest will disappear.  As a bonus to all this, the pantry is sparkling clean and very tidy!

The sun rising over Zion National Park, Utah, USA

This evening I will plant out the viola seedlings and hope they survive.  We are still under water restrictions, although not as bad as some places further north from here, but I can water them in with a hand-held hose.

Son reported our local Pak’n’Save supermarket was out of or very low on several items, the strangest being six lonely carrots sitting in a large bin!  They have flour again, but only in 20kg bags, and all of the loose bulk food bins have been packaged up into huge bags.  I wanted a few walnuts, but I now have enough to last me for months.

The sun is shining and I feel much better for having achieved something today. 

Keep smiling J

Margaret.

LINKING UP WITH Skywatch Friday

Practice Love, Not Fear

Covid-19 is not something we can personally ‘control’ and so it creates fear – fear of the unknown, fear of consequences, fear of deprivation and suffering.

These are strange times we are currently living in and many people have been overtaken with fear and panic.  There is panic buying in the supermarkets, with people fighting over toilet paper and people buying more than they need.  There is fear in people’s hearts about what may befall them, and this is especially true for the elderly and the health-compromised.

Snapdragons and Lavender

A certain amount of fear is healthy and a natural reaction to any situation that could potentially cause us harm.  It is a signal that we should remove ourselves from the situation or take steps to ensure our safety.  But when fear takes over it becomes unreasonable and prevents rational thinking and planning.

Panic has fear as its root cause.  People want to know they are safe and can care for themselves and their families.  There is a fine line between panic buying and reasonably wanting to provide for your family in times of hardship.

Some type of aloe, I think

Many people are aware of the Law of Attraction, which states that what you concentrate on most is what will happen in your life.  It doesn’t always work, as time and chance can happen to anyone, but it can affect how you respond to uncontrollable events.   

Imagine if we replaced fear with love.  Instead of grabbing supermarket items off other people, we would all be taking only our reasonable share and leaving plenty for others (a lot of supermarkets have now introduced rationing to force this principle into action).

Imagine if we all stopped fearing for ourselves in this pandemic and began to care more for those around us.  We wouldn’t see young party-goers on TV saying they didn’t care if they got sick because they were young and would get over it – they would have more concern about spreading the virus to others.

Agapanthus

Fear is a horrible emotion to suffer from long-term.  It causes worry and depression and a feeling of things being totally out of hand.  If we could turn it around and practice love/joy, to concentrate on good things instead of bad, then we would find more happiness in our daily lives and could be rationally prepared for when things go wrong.

I think what I am trying to say is that we need to understand that there is a crisis occurring in our communities and we need to be prepared on a practical basis.  This should not be driven by a fear of the unknown, but by a recognition that we should be responsible in caring for ourselves.

Sunset after a storm (2007)

Let’s concentrate on good things in our lives so we can create more good things.  Enjoy the beauty of the weather (yes, even the rain and snow), take time to really look at and appreciate the natural world around us, sit and watch the sun as it sets (or rises), watch comedies and funny movies, read light-hearted books, smile at each other, and use modern technology to stay in touch with friends and family.

We had a few showers here this morning, but now the sun is shining and I thought a couple of colourful photos might help on the cheerfulness front. 

Margaret J



LINKED TO Skywatch Friday

Rats And Things

Last night, after our lovely autumn day, we had a very clear still night.

This morning we had full cloud cover that resulted in heavy misty rain.

Not the best of days to spend time outside, although the sun is trying to break through occasionally.  So I set up a Freezer Book for myself.  Now I can keep track of what I have in my freezer and use things in order.

The lines beside some of the entries indicate how many of that particular item have been frozen – when I remove one I cross it off in the other direction.  The left hand column is for the date it was frozen.

Son adores his two rats and recently sent me a couple of photos of them.

Mayo was looking to come out of the cage for a cuddle (not from me!).

Pepper was eating a scrap of roast mutton he had been given.

Stay happy and keep smiling!

Margaret.

Black Friday Shopping

It may be Friday the thirteenth today but I gave up being superstitious about it many years ago, partly because I had no idea what you were meant to do or not do on this day anyway.  It always seemed to pass like every other normal day, and so far today has been just the same.

I visited Hamilton Lake for a short time and that is where I took this photo.  I was going to go for a short walk, but the sun was too hot and there were far too many people around.  I’m afraid I like my walks to be in relative solitude so that I can be refreshed by nature.  If I want to be in among crowds, I visit shopping centres (which I had already done earlier).

Hamilton Lake

I dropped grand-daughter off at school this morning before heading to the library for a book I had been reading about – Real Modern: Everyday New Zealand in the 1950s and 1960s.  It sets out to show how common items in daily use can show anthropologists what kind of normal everyday life people lived.  There is a lot of romantic hype about this period of time, and this writer endeavours to show whether that is really how the majority of people actually lived.

The shops were my next stop.  I am attending a celebration lunch tomorrow for the Diamond Wedding Anniversary (60 years) of my husband’s oldest sister and husband, and decided to go searching for a new top.  I found one as well, and the bonus was that it was on sale for $25 (I found another one that I liked, and it was $60!).

The top is black and white with sparkly silver bits (the dots in the photo) and has three-quarter sleeves.  It will go well with my black trousers and black sandals, and I have a black handbag to match.

My wardrobe is a little mixed up.  I am wearing black to tomorrow's celebration but I wore blue to yesterday's funeral.  I suppose it doesn't really make much difference these days what colour you wear.  Some would say it doesn't even matter what you wear, and we saw some very casual outfits yesterday.

Our area must be coming out of its drought situation as our water restriction levels have dropped from 3 to 2, which means we can now operate the sprinkler again between 6-8am and 6-8pm.

Water is so precious but we seldom notice it unless we have restrictions on its use.

Margaret.

LINKED TO Skywatch Friday

A Morning of Shopping

This afternoon our temperature has climbed back up into the late 20s so I am glad I did my shopping earlier in the day.

Down the road I was thrilled to see Californian Quail feeding on the roadside.  We have heard them calling but this is the first time I have seen them in this area.

My first stop was at the Herbal Dispensary.  There are not many of these shops around, and we are fortunate to have one located in Hamilton.

I bought some dried oatstraw to make a tisane with, as well as a bottle of Echinacea Root tincture.  They make this tincture themselves and only use two year old roots, so I know it is one of the best around.

Echinacea purpurea is sometimes known as Purple Coneflower and can be used as a medicinal herb to help strengthen the immune system, the roots being the most effective parts of the plant.

It can be used in the treatment of many infections, its action on the body being generally classed as anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal, anti-viral and anti-bacterial.  The tincture tastes disgusting and leaves an unpleasant tingling in the mouth – but when my body is fighting something, I’ve found this tincture will help me rapidly overcome it.

Echinacea purpurea (purple coneflower)

From the Dispensary I travelled to the garden centre and bought a dahlia, some spring bulbs (anemone, ranunculus, Dutch iris and hyacinths) and several annuals to plant out in the garden.   The dahlia is in flower but I am hoping it will transplant alright.  It seems these days that plants do not sell unless they are flowering.

A visit to the supermarket was my last stop, and then home again to find that the mail had brought me a book I ordered recently – Look Younger Live Longer by Gayelord Hauser (published 1960).  He was a popular nutritionist in his day and this book deals with how to remain healthy (and beautiful!) as one ages in years.  I used to own it and another of his books many years ago, but they had long since become victims of one of my major book decluttering sessions.

I have had a quick peek through the pages and most of the information still seems reasonably up-to-date, although the “super foods” he talks about have changed a bit with fashion.

I find I have so many gorgeous sky photos that I thought I would start a weekly posting of them, to link up with Skywatch Friday

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SPECTACULAR SKIES

This week’s Spectacular Skies photo is of a sunrise, photographed at 6am from the beach at Papamoa in 2010.  I love the way the sunlight is spilling forth from the gap in the clouds.

Have a great day,

Margaret.

02 02 2020 and Coronavirus

I love numerical date sequences, and today is 02-02-2020.  It will be over one thousand years before we reach the next date in this sequence (03-03-3030), but it is highly unlikely we ever will.  At some stage over the next 1000 years the calendar is bound to change, as it did in the previous 1000 years with the Julian calendar being overtaken by the Gregorian calendar.

A pleasant walkway in Cambridge

We have been having some unusual cloud formations in our evening skies the last couple of days.  Last night it was like a blob of cloud had been drawn out like candyfloss by some giant hand, so that it stretched out across the sky and caught the rays of the setting sun.  The photo is of the base of the cloud - I couldn't fit in all the fingers!

Last night's unusual cloud formation

The Chinese coronavirus is currently very much in our news.  Last night it was reported, almost with regret, that a quarantined person in hospital did not have the virus.  There is so much hype about coronavirus, and The Press need to be held responsible for it.  A lot of people have been panic buying face masks and there are reports of others abusing Chinese tourists for visiting our country.

Consequently, I have been very happy to hear a doctor come out and say we need to put things into perspective.  So far around 80 people have died, which is tragic – and yet, one million people die around the world EVERY YEAR from influenza.  And around five million children die EVERY YEAR from preventable disease and malnutrition.  Who is panicking over those figures?

Fresh air and sunshine is vital for good health

Good old fashioned hand washing is still one of the most effective methods of preventing the spread of communicable diseases.  Other hygiene practices, like stopping yourself from coughing or sneezing all over other people, can also help. 

Fresh air and sunshine needs to be allowed into our homes, yet so many never open their windows and quite an alarming number of people never even open their curtains!

Take care,
Margaret.

Back Again

I hope you all had a most enjoyable Christmas.  I certainly did J

I joined one of my brothers and his wife for lunch that day, along with their daughter and children.  I loved it when the youngest one greeted me with a “welcome to the party – the Christmas party!”

For my contribution to lunch I took a platter of savoury eggs with a centre of finely shredded lettuce and halved cherry tomatoes, garnished with parsley and decorated with a marigold flower head.

Son made himself sandwiches for his lunch.  He worked all day, as well as Boxing Day, and grand-daughter is spending the week with her mother.

Boxing Day was spent quietly at home.   Friday I braved the supermarket and it was still busy, busy, busy.  I guess it is the time of year where food takes centre-stage in people’s lives.  The supermarket was only closed for one day but it would be easy to believe they had been shut for a week!

Our weather has been rather pleasant, except for a strong wind the last two days.  It has been warm and dry during the day, and the night temperatures have still been dropping low enough that sleep is still possible. 

We have been having some spectacular sunsets from the smoke in our atmosphere from the terrible bush fires in Australia.

Only a couple of days now until we enter a new decade.  When I was at Primary School in the 1960s our teacher told us that many of us would no doubt live to see in the new millennium – and now here we are twenty years after it!  Time surely does go by.

Margaret.

Summer Solstice

Today we mark the Summer Solstice in New Zealand.  At precisely 5.19pm the sun will reach its highest position in the sky and this will mark the astronomical change of direction of the sun’s orbit.

Throughout history almost every culture has marked this event in some way with religious services and spiritual rituals, usually involving feasting, dancing and general merriment, and the lighting of fires.

Sunrise (Waikawau Bay, 2007)

(Photo used by permission)

It is the longest day of the year, having the greatest length of time between sunrise and sunset, and is one of nature’s more obvious turning points as from now on the seasons begin their long descent back into winter.

It is considered by some to mark the beginning of summer, and by others to mark the middle of summer (it is sometimes known as midsummer’s day).  Whichever way it is looked at the weather often becomes hotter after this day, with February nearly always being New Zealand’s hottest month of the year.

Midsummer Evening (Mt Maunganui, 2008)

Some modern ideas for marking this day are to watch sunrise and/or sunset, enjoy a barbecue outdoors in the evening, go for a long walk in nature, or light a candle and spend time contemplating the cycles of nature.

In the Northern Hemisphere it is, of course, the Winter Solstice.  Their days will now grow longer as ours will begin to grow shorter, which to me seems a greater reason to celebrate as it is always nicer to be moving into warmth and sunlight than into grey and dismal.

Summer Sunset (Pokuru, 2008)

Whether you totally ignore the Solstice (summer or winter) or choose to celebrate it in some way, I hope you have a great day.

Margaret.