Day in the Garden

Sometimes happiness is lying in the sun with a cat purring on your chest...

Thanks to Sarah for a great party last night and some interesting conversations. It was fantastic to finally meet some of the names behind the blog posts, and to discover that they were as likeable as the Pump queen herself...

So first, a confession. I didn't do the 10.6km run Sarah. I know - but I was overcome by public holiday lethargy and put off by the heat and wind. Instead I spent the afternoon lounging around communing with our garden, something that I don't do often enough. Being a typical Wellington dwelling, and built on a rather steep slope, the garden is a bit of a walk up or scramble down from the house itself. Usually we would settle for the hammock chair on the veranda, or the deck chair in the courtyard. However today it was too windy for the veranda, and too hot for the courtyard. So I found myself, Isabel Allende, the digital camera and the Tivoli Radio settling down onto a picnic blanket near the top of the property.

My first thought on arriving was that everything has grown like mad in the three years we've been here. We used to have a lovely view of the mountains from the little dug-out ledge where the former owner had a garden bench. Now the only view is of the tree ferns and hebes in the garden below.


My second thought was that we are extremely lucky to have a beautiful range of native trees and shrubs. One of our home's former owners may have been a grumpy, poorly liked bully, but he knew how to plant out a section. I lay below a leafy Kowhai Tree, looking over to a few blossoming Pohutukawas and the aforementioned tree ferns.


After I'd been lazing about for a while Gaffer walked, howling, across the lawn, lay himself purring on my chest, and everything was good in the world.