My time with Ginge has come to and end. Well, for the moment.
I’m now home and back with my view. Loved being on my own, but also enjoy the company of my friend. Nice to have someone to have a wine with.
It was a great sit and Ginge was real easy to look after. We became good friends, even to the point that he’d come into my room in the morning and make himself at home …. on my clothes!
Bless Him!!!
He’s not a cat that jumps on your knee, but he’s loving just the same.
The drive to work was a tad longer, but not too bad. Although coming down a hill to be faced with a queue … not exactly fun. But I always got to work on time.
At least the weather stayed fine, and I was able to hula hoop every day – up to 10 minutes without pause (pats self on back).
Home now for about three weeks before I sit again and the good news is that I’m booked up until mid September and this three weeks is the longest I’ll be here at my digs.
Of course, the highlight was not Ginge, but having my daughter, Amy, home from Sydney for about five days. The joyous news was that she and her partner climbed the Mount to welcome in the dawn and there he proposed to her …. ring and all! How romantic.
Had a wonderful day out with her on Monday and checked out the op-shops at Greerton. Did you know there’s a piano in the street? Super fun and loved the fact that Amy sat down to play a little – that’s my girl!!!!
I will leave you with something I saw the other day on the side of a van …. love it.
McD’s are at it again with their attempt to disguise the fact that their food is just plain and simply unhealthy. Hell, even when they try to be healthy, they mess it up.
They are now jumping on the food fad of kale. Don’t they know, kale is so last year as 2016 heralds foods from turmeric to seriously upgraded oatmeal and the real “new” is Koji (koh-jee) which is just rice that’s been inoculated with the koji mold, (this is what’s used to make miso and soy sauce).
But before you dash out to your nearest golden arches, be warned because it transpires that the new salad, with all its trimmings, has more fat, more calories, and less protein than a Big Mac.
A wee while ago there was quite some hoohar that went down when Donald Trump decided he wanted to build a golf course and resort thingy in Scotland. He promised loads of jobs and huge increase in the income of the area – the Government of the day fell for it.
The Great Dunes of Scotland
In a nut shell, he talked his way into obtaining land that was set among the Great Dunes along the Aberdeenshire coastline, like, 4000 year old dunes designated as a special environment site!
Now we know how delicate the ecosystem is when it comes to dunes, so, as you can imagine there was a lot of people who didn’t want the Trump Meister building.
The wind farms were not a good sight for Trumpy
But build he did. One poor farmer got a whole heap of dirt piled up so his view was blocked just because he wouldn’t sell out (dirt later removed through court action). Trumpy even wanted to get the Government to seize the surrounding farms, but under Scottish law, couldn’t be done.
The real trouble came when the Scots decided they would build a wind farm out at sea right opposite the golf course. This was just too much for Trump and he tried to sue the government which didn’t get him anywhere.
The upshot was that he threw his toys out of the cot and basically up and walked off the project. There’s now just a club-house and a golf course there, very few people use it but the sad part is that the ecosystem is stuffed.
So where’s this leading to I hear you ask. Back here to N.Z.
The beauty of the McKenzie Country
If you’re a New Zealander reading this you will know, or at least have heard, about the McKenzie Country. That gorgeous ecosystem in central South Island, most of which is owned by us, the public, and leased out as pastoral land. Some of this area provides habitat for several rare birds and fish including the black stilt, NZ Falcon, Canterbury galaxid (fish) and long-finned eel.
It is one of the most pristine areas of New Zealand (God knows we need to hang onto them) because it abounds with lakes, tussocks and environmental beauty.
Not only are there moves to sell off some of it to the private sector but now pastures of green turf have begun to appear to support a growing dairy industry in the area.
“Crop circles” of irrigated pasture for dairy cowsN.Z. the land of milk and … milk
The, forever money hungry, dairy industry is not content with the existing farms, but is hell bent, it seems, on destroying all the ecological and environmental delicacies that N.Z. has.
Sort of Trump style – no consideration at all even though there has been opposition from high country farmers, community boards, environmentalists, fisheries, forest & bird, tourist operators even hunters to no avail – the dairy farms came and continue to come.
And the impact they have made already is so sad. The problem is that these farms need water and so they are drawing from local lakes and already the impact has been felt.
The water is being sucked out.
Where once there were water filled ponds and small lakes – the reservoirs are drying up. The large lakes are still o.k. …. but if the dairy continues to grow – well, I’ll leave you to ask the questions.
What will become of the MacKenzie Agreement? This is a landmark document developed over the past couple of years by farmers, environmentalists, tourist operators, businesses and the community which is designed to protect the special values of this area.
It seems that nothing stands in the way of the dairy industry. The irony is that dairy payouts to farmers has fallen dramatically and if this keeps up there’s every likelihood that we’ll see a repeat of the 80’s when greed overtook sensibility and the kiwifruit crashed causing many to just walk off their orchards.
Today many dairy farmers are facing similar outcomes. Suicide rates have increased and perhaps we’ll see abandoned farms which, unfortunately, have already left their destructive footprint on our environment
Source for this post: Newshub
Source for Featured image: Mackenzie Country Communication
I’ve just begun a week at a home in Pyes Pa. Lovely new home with gorgeous ginger cat – three guesses to get his name. No? Can’t think? O.k. I’ll tell you ….. Ginge. But he’s one cool cat! Like his owners too. They were neighbours of mine back in the day when I was living at the Mount. Yup, they sold and shifted around the same time as I moved out and went house-sitting.
This couple are so lovely to house-sit for and this will be the third time (I think). Not only that but they gave a really great reference which has landed me another HS for 10 weeks over winter. If you haven’t guessed, HS stands for house-sit, but who am I kidding, you’re such a bright reader I know you already figured that out… my apologies for doubting you.
As you can see, I don’t have the wonderful views from here, but, like I said, brand new home, all the mod-cons, and best part – a kitty to talk to and cuddle. (when he lets me).
Oh, before I go, just thought I’d let you know that I’ve bought myself a decent hula hoop and am resurrecting the blue ribbon hoop winner child within me and getting some toning happening!
That’s right I had a right proud night last night.
My oldest son, Sam and his gypsy swing band played in Tauranga and it was awesome!
The band, Black Spider Stomp had a great day in my little city with very profitable busking at the Mount before setting up at Imbibe Bar and giving us a ripping great session of gypsy swing and jazz.
They had played in Auckland to a big crowd at Britomart then in a little jazz bar in Hamilton filled with young ones. Tauranga didn’t really have the audience, but then that’s Tauranga for you, but those who were there enjoyed it immensely – I could tell, they actually listened, some danced and most clapped at the solos and all clapped and the end of each tune.
They’ll be in New Plymouth tomorrow night then back to Wellington. Sure hope they come back – maybe Jazz Fest.
If you want to listen to their music – click here: Black Spider Stomp and you’ll get through to their website … you can actually hear all the music from their three albums.
Thanks for dropping by. My name is Fee O’Shea. I’m a mother and grandma, an author, and a Comedy Improver.
This blog is for my thoughts, my rants, raves, reviews and things that have grabbed my attention. From politics to social media to beauty, health and the environment. Fee’s World is written to bring you a smile or get you thinking. Enjoy.
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The drive to work was a tad longer, but not too bad. Although coming down a hill to be faced with a queue … not exactly fun. But I always got to work on time.
They had played in Auckland to a big crowd at Britomart then in a little jazz bar in Hamilton filled with young ones. Tauranga didn’t really have the audience, but then that’s Tauranga for you, but those who were there enjoyed it immensely – I could tell, they actually listened, some danced and most clapped at the solos and all clapped and the end of each tune.
