Spring sprang, again

By anyone’s measure, it’s Spring in New Zealand. The September Equinox arrived at 12:05pm today, so regardless of whether one observes meteorological seasons, as New Zealand and Australia do, or astronomical seasons, like the USA does, it’s indisputably Spring in this part of the world. Well, mostly: The weather forecast has been all over the place this month—sometimes really warm, sometimes cold and snowy (in fact, frost is possible overnight tonight in Kirikiriroa-Hamilton).

Weather and nomenclature/jargon notwithstanding, there have been definite signs of Spring. Up top is a photo of the tree on my street that’s been in so many of my photos. I took the photo this afternoon, after the equinox arrived, because it clearly shows the tree is finally leafing out. In fact, every year I “watch” this tree out my window, looking for this very thing because that means that Spring is pushing Winter off the stage.

So, what are our Spring and Summer expected to be like this year? Even before this year’s El Niño started to SuperSize itself, it was predicted that Kirikiriroa-Hamilton will have temperatures that are at or above normal, and rainfall will be at or below normal. It’s increasingly looking like hot and dry could well be our reality.

This raises a small conundrum for me. I was determined that this year I’d grow more vegetables than I have before (and some flowers, too). In normal dry summers we have watering restrictions, but if we have much harsher dryness this year, will there be total bans on all watering? Parts of England went through that in their summer (and they call garden hoses “hosepipes”, which confused me when I recently first heard it in the phrase “hosepipe ban”). I think that I’ll probably just proceed and hope for the best, though my stamina and energy levels may ultimately decide for me before the weather is an issue.

I’m also trying to work out how a way to hang some translucent fabric under my patio cover to reflect the hot summer sun. Failing that, I have a sun shade that I could tie to the frame with rope or whatever. Stay tuned.

Whatever this summer brings, though, I know I’ll like it—though I can’t promise I won’t still complain if the temperatures really do turn out to be hotter than normal. Or, maybe I won’t: The whole house air conditioning I had installed last year will mean I’ll be comfortable inside my house even if outside becomes too uncomfortable—and that was the exact reason I decided to add it.

Whatever happens, I’ll definitely be documenting this summer, whatever it brings. Of course.

The fruit of my labour

Behold the fruit of my labour! The photograph is of my tomato harvest for this year. While I did grow the tomato, this wasn’t actually the only one, just the biggest. But in away it was most of the harvest. As always, there’s a story to that.

Back in November, after the Labour weekend at the end of October had passed, I bought a 6-cell tray of little beefsteak tomato plants. I put them on my kitchen bench, under the Solatube skylight, and left them there—for months. By the time I was finally ready to plant them, only two survived (yes, I watered them, and I also rotated them periodically to make sure they grew well). There are a lot of reasons I didn’t get to them planted earlier, only some of which are kind of lame, but all of that’s kind of beside the point: It was simply the reality of what happened.

I planted to the two remaining plants in pots. As I have in previous years, but one of them didn’t survive the transplant. The one that did flourished and started producing—but time was running out. I was turning into autumn as the plant grew, and while we had a very mild autumn, it was still autumn. I left the plants to grow as long as I dared, but when nighttime temperatures started to get close to freezing, I picked the tomatoes green and put them in my fruit bowl with some store-bought tomatoes that weren’t quite ripe.

The tomato in the photo was the first to start growing, and was the biggest of the harvest (there were five in total), and it was also the first to start turning red. I had the first one over the weekend, and the others are all now ready, too.

The crop, small though it was, was quite good—sweeter than other varieties of tomato, and nice. Unlike the previous years I grew tomatoes here in Hamilton, I had no issue with blossom-end rot. That may be because of a change I made this year.

After the second year with blighted tomatoes, I did some research and read somewhere that calcium deficiency can cause or aggravate the problem. I also read that ground eggshells mixed into tomato soil increases calcium for the plants, so, I ground up egg shells in a mortar and pestle and mixed it that into the soil before planting the seedlings. I can’t know if that made the difference, but I do know the plant that survived was quite healthy and the tomatoes were as they’re supposed to be (unlike previous years), so when I next grow tomatoes, I’ll again mix ground-up egg shells into the soil.

The economics of this year’s harvest were not ideal, as Kiwis put it in their understated way. Each tomato that I harvested was more expensive than supermarket tomatoes in season—but they were also much better in every way. I like to think of this year’s tomato crop as being “Premium Tomatoes”. My garden, my rules!

For the next season, I plan on doing what I’ve wanted to do every year, but never have: Plan the next growing season while it’s still winter. That way, I’ll know what I’m going to do well before time, down to starting seeds so that the seedlings are ready to be planted-out when it’s warm enough (that method is also cheaper than buying plants…). That’s the plan, and maybe overly optimistic, but this year was an unusual deviation from even my worst years of gardening, so I think some optimism is warranted.

That’s the tale of my mini-harvest of tomatoes this year. All things considered, yes, it wasn’t ideal, but I still learned things, which is always a plus because I always like to keep growing. I just hope that my garden will next season, too.

Seasons changing in the right direction

The June Solstice arrived in New Zealand at 8:49pm this evening, and I’m celebrating that fact. The days will start to get longer beginning tomorrow, and, in 72 days, we’ll see Spring return. And, yes, I’m being seasonally consistent.

I’ve often talked about how in this part of the world we say a season begins on the first of the month (December, March, June, and September), and not on the solstices or equinoxes. However, those astronomical dates are very relevant to one particular thing: Hours of sunlight. For me, the related season is kind of beside the point.

Hours of sunshine dramatically affects how much I have to pay for electricity: The more sunshine, the less I pay, thanks to my solar panels. This is something I’ve talked about before, and especially about how the winter months (and the month either side) electricity generally costs me much more than in the summer months (and the month either side). That’s because the longer days of summer, combined with the higher aspect of the sun, means I generate much more electricity than in the shorter days with lower sun angle. The angle of the sun matters because in winter afternoon it dips behind neighbouring houses much earlier than in the summer months, making already short days even shorter for power generation.

I have a special device that prioritises my solar power going to the electric hot water heater if my panels are producing enough electricity. In the winter months the days are shorter and often overcast or rainy, and that means I may not generate enough power to heat the water. When that happens, I can push the “boost” (as it’s called) button on that special device to take electricity from the grid to power the hot water heater, which it does for an hour. I usually do that after 10pm, when the rates are lower.

Every winter I have a couple mornings or so in which my shower is, at best, quite warm, rather than hot in any sense, so I push the button. Recently, though, I had a couple family members staying with me for awhile, and because of the shorter, rainier days and three adults using hot water, I had to push the “boost” button several times. As always, I did that after 10pm, however, during a rainy spell I also hit the boost button in the evening, too, to give us a fighting change of having hot water for showers in the morning.

Had I been able to afford batteries when I had the panels installed, this possibly wouldn’t be a problem because I could use the stored power to heat the water, however, that still only applies of there’s enough sunshine to generate enough electricity to charge the batteries. So, I might still need to use that boost button, though possibly not as often.

I plan on looking into adding batteries, and also adding a few more panels, which, I think, should go on the roof toward the back of the house, which gets sunshine later into the afternoon, even in winter. We’ll see: None of that is cheap.

In the meantime, winter means that I use the boost button when necessary, and, whether I use it or not, I pay more for electricity. And that’s why I’m celebrating the June Solstice: As winter fades, sunlight hours increase, and so does my power generation, which, in turn, means my power bill will decrease, too. So, of course I celebrate the June Solstice!

The next of these events I’ll celebrate will be the arrival of Spring on September 1 (for me, one of only a few goods thing about that month…). The September Equinox will be on September 23 at 12:05pm NZST. We’ll see if I notice that, but I won’t be surprised if I ignore it.

The image of the sun in the photo up up top is from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (NASA ID: PIA26681). It was taken on September 10, 2025.

April was a… month

April may be “the cruellest month” in the Northern Hemisphere, but here downunder it’s in the middle month of autumn—no longer summer, but not yet winter, so maybe it that makes it the cruellest month for us, too? At any rate, this year’s April certainly wasn’t exactly the kindest month.

The first big storm to hit New Zealand was the remnants of ex-tropical cyclone Vaianu, which struck the upper North Island the second weekend in April. Right up until it arrived, we weren’t sure how bad it would be, so preliminary watches and warnings were issued so that people could prepare. Having learned the lessons from 2023’s deadly Cyclone Gabrielle, many local governments declared preliminary states of emergency so they could respond faster to any horrible weather—well, apart from one charming fellow from the corner of the country hit the hardest by Gabrielle who refused to issue a “woke” state of emergency. Bet he’s a lot of fun at parties.

I planned on taking the same precautions I’d done for Gabrielle, and by Thursday the ninth, we were being urged to “take preparation seriously”. So, on Friday the first thing I did was to I put my rubbish and recycling wheelie bins in the garage (they were both empty, so prone to being blown around by the wind). I also put my patio table and chairs back under their cover because the wind was expected likely blow rain under the patio roof, and I felt that the cover would keep the table and chairs dry. That also gave me a place to stash the plastic bag of weeds I’ve been clearing from around the patio (off an on…) for weeks. I also did a quick check of my gutters (especially where the downspouts are) and the drain in my back lawn. I was 99% certain they’re all clear, and they were.

On Saturday, I got together with some of the family for lunch, and it was a mostly beautiful day. When I got back home, I moved the plants and doormat by my front door into the garage (for Gabrielle, I moved them into my entry way because at that time I didn’t have enough room in the garage). And that was it.

It was evening before the rain started, and it frankly wasn’t too bad. That’s because the storm was tracking further east than some projections showed, than that meant we were spared the worst of it. Even so, the entire North Island and the top of the South Island were all under some sort of watch or warning, something I don’t remember ever happening before.

That night, I woke up a bit after 1am and could hear what sounded soft rain. I could’ve thought to myself, “That’s it?! Pfft, why it’s just a bit of ordinary rain!” And that’d be the “common sense” reaction, wouldn’t it? Trouble is, storms have their own ways.

I woke up a couple more times during the night, same sort of more or less ordinary rain. I let Leo outside around 8:30 or so, and the rain had paused. I noticed that all the wood fence boards were thoroughly wet, a sign that the rain had been steady all night: When it’s not steady, parts of the fence will stay dry. I also noticed how warm it felt, warmer than the actual 21 degrees (69.8F). So, yet again, I was reminded that “it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.”

After that, the rain started and then paused many times, but always remained “ordinary” in its intensity—nothing like Gabrielle was, or even as bad as severe “ordinary” storms. This figures: Waikato was under a “Heavy Rain Watch” until 6pm Sunday evening, and that was the lowest level of warning.

The rain became a bit more intense around 11:30pm or so, but the biggest concern in the area I live wasn’t the rain as much as the wind: We were under an “Orange Strong Wind Warning” (where Red is life-threatening, Yellow is possible damage, and Orange is between the two). That was scheduled to last until around 3am.

The issue was that the winds change direction and intensify as the storm moves south, because the winds hitting us start coming from a westerly origin. That was expected to happen in the Hamilton area later Sunday afternoon.

As it happens, the storm’s easterly track meant it headed back out to sea more quickly than originally expected, and that, in turn, meant the wind warnings were cancelled well before the original expiry. While there were a few strong gusts, for the most part there was really nothing more than a bit if a stiff breeze around my house.

Most other areas of the country fared reasonably well, though not totally unscarred. There was surface flooding in the hardest-hit areas, and some land-slips and damage to roads, but no one was killed and, apparently, there were so serious injuries. The storm’s track, and rapid weakening, meant it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been, but the warnings were heeded, and people (inlcuding me) were prepared. I hope this can be a model for future cyclones—because, thanks to climate change, there will inevitably be more.

That wasn’t the end of the weather woes, however, because the next week the Wellington region was hit with a huge storm that pretty much stuck over the region. The flooding was extensive, and a life was lost. The storm was so bad that it was compared to the 1976 Wellington Storm [see also: What made Wellington’s deluge so intense?, 1 News].

So, yeah: After the Easter weekend, April wasn’t exactly kind to New Zealand. Cruellest month? Well, that’s probably a bit premature: The year isn’t even half over yet.

Seasonal changes

By anyone’s reckoning, New Zealand is now definitely in Autumn. The 2026 March Equinox arrived March 21 at 3:46am. Leo and I were asleep at the time, of course, and its arrival certainly didn’t wake us up, and yes, I’m being a bit sarcastic. As I’ve made clear, in this part of the world we use the first of the relevant month as the start of the seasons, and not the equinoxes and solstices later that month.

I’ve also pointed out how the weather changes when it changes, and it has little to do with whichever date one chooses for the start of seasons. This particular autumn has certainly followed that pattern: We’ve had quite summery weather this month, and a few days ago Kirikiriroa-Hamilton hit a very summery high of 27 degrees (80.6F). It’s also been rather dry, as summer is, and not rainy as part later in Autumn can be.

However, there are obvious changes. The photo up top, which I took this afternoon, shows the tree on my street that s been in many of my photos over the years. That tree has an increasing number of yellow leaves, which means we’re not far from seeing the leaves leave. I’m not happy about that—just like every other year, of course.

Still, this particular season isn’t all bad. The cooler weather means the grass—and the weeds—don’t grow as quickly. This makes autumn (and early spring) the best times to clear out weeds, as I still need to do. It also means that the garage won’t be as hot as it is in summer, and that means I can work in there. Meanwhile, the rest of the house doesn’t need cooling quite as much, and doesn’t yet need heating, so I don’t sweat as much doing projects in the house—and it’s getting close to the all-too-brief time when I can open the windows—using my new window screens!

My list of projects to do (or just complete) is still very long—probably inhumanly so. The seasonal weather change may make projects physically easier to do, but it certainly doesn’t guarantee I’ll make any progress on any of them, let alone finish any. And yet: Every day is another opportunity to succeed, and it that doesn’t happen that day, then maybe the next one.

Honestly, though, I really do prefer that tree with it’s summer outfit on.

Being prepared is a journey

Three years ago yesterday, on February 14, 2023, two days after Cyclone Gabrielle had left Kirikiriroa-Hamilton behind, we lost power in my neighbourhood, something I mentioned in my treatise post about the cyclone a week later. It turned out that the power was shut off in order to repair a fallen cable, which is why it was only off for a couple hours—though I didn’t know any of that when I made the Facebook post up top.

In the part of my post where I talked about the power outage, I talked about what I did to cope, thinking the power might be off for a couple days. I mentioned going to one of the hardware home centres to buy a shop light that runs on the same 18v batteries I use for my power tools (and that now also powers the stick vacuum I bought last year). I later misplaced that light during one of my millions of failed attempts to tidy the garage, but, fortunately, I haven’t needed it since.

I also mentioned that I got an LPG (propane) bottle for the BBQ so I could cook, and that I couldn’t get it to work. That’s still not working. However, I didn’t mention that I’ve never actually used a gas BBQ, because that had always been Nigel’s job and I never learned). However, I still have the full gas bottle, and now that I’ll be able to actually use the patio I want to get the BBQ going again. Failing that, I also still have an LPG table-top outdoor heater that was the only thing Nigel wanted for his 40th birthday, and it may be more useful to me, particularly with Autumn only two weeks away. Or, not.

At any rate, I blame sleep deprivation three years ago for my lame jokes in the post. Coincidentally, parts of the country, especially the east coast of the North Island, have been experiencing a big (but non-cyclone) big storm, and that includies areas that got hit by a fatal storm three weeks ago. Kirikiriroa-Hamilton’s weather wasn’t too bad, though, fortunately.

In the three years since that cyclone, I haven’t done anything about electricity reslience, like adding a battery bank to my solar power system or getting a battery back-up that I can use to keep my fridge running it the power goes out. I still think a single back-up is a better option than a whole-house battery backup, but it’s a huge topic and researching it has require far more time than I’ve had available. Finding the right solution is still on the agenda, though—alongside so many other things.

New Zealand, like most places, has been experiencing more bad storms more frequently than, say, 30 years ago when I arrived in New Zealand. That trend will only continue in the years ahead, and we all need to do what we cane to prepare doe “severe weather events”. Despite everything, I’m actually better prepared than I was in 2023. That’s a good start.

The weather gods cooperated

I don’t want to alarm anyone, but today there was a bright light outside all day. It seemed to be coming from a bright disc in the sky—so bright, in fact, that I couldn’t even look at it! Also, the clouds broke apart revealing a pale blue colour behind them. Am I on a television film set, like in The Truman Show? Or was it the end of the world?

Well, just in case it wasn’t the end of the world, I mowed the back lawn today, something I haven’t been able to do since January 9—two and a half weeks ago—due to all that rain we’ve had. It looked pretty bad, but it was mostly because of the long weed flower stalks.

I also trimmed all the edges (!), though the fates didn’t want me to. The line in the trimmer ran out after only a few minutes (not a surprise—I was expecting that), but then the battery gave out much earlier than expected (it wasn’t at 100% charge when I started, but I thought there was more power…). I swapped the battery and continued on—and the line ran out again! It may have broken off in the bump head, but by then I was over it, put the trimmer away, and brought out the mower.

The mowing went without incident, however, there were two medium sized birds (I have no idea what they were) that kept landing on the lawn where I’d just mowed (looking for disturbed bugs, probably). They flew away when I started walking toward them again, landed when I’d turned around and was mowing away from them, all of which was repeated several times. I’ve never had that happen before.

When I was doing the last bit of lawn, I mowed close to the fence to chop up the weeds the line trimmer sliced off, and I noticed a tiny green frog trying to get away, moving toward the fence. It was the third time I’ve seen one, but it’s been a few years.

I then came in and drank some cool water, which helped cool me down. It was 26 today (roughly 79F), which is the warmest day my neighbourhood has had for a couple weeks, I think, and it had pretty high humidity. I did a few ordinary chores before dinner.

After dinner, I decided to go back outside because the temperature was lower—though the humidity was not. I started chopping at some of the weeds I hadn’t been able to get to before, swept up after myself, and then repotted a couple plants. And that was my day, the first one I’ve been able to get outside things done in a couple weeks.

I have some errands to do tomorrow afternoon, so I hope to get a few things done in the morning. But my main event will be to pick up stones for making the new Vegepod parking spot. And once I get that done, I’ll have cleared enough space on the patio to start working out what I want to do with the space.

Today, though, was a productive day. It apparently wasn’t the end of the world, fortunately. But whether today took place in a version of The Truman Show remains unknown.

It’s now my roof

Today I received the final invoice for my patio cover. I have no idea why it took them nearly a week to send the invoice, but I paid it today, too, because the due date was also today (as it was with the other two invoices, so it’s no big deal). At any rate, I now officially own it.

It’s rained, often heavily, though not constantly, pretty much every day for at least couple weeks. Because some of the dowpours were really bad, I didn’t want to start any outside work, even under the roof, because I knew I might have to stop suddenly.

It turns out, though, that the same weather that kept me from doing much outside also showed me that when I set up the patio I’ll have to keep things away from the edges, because—surprise!—rain doesn’t fall straight down. I know they make shades of very kinds, so they might also provide the clear vinyl ones like cafes use. Maybe? I think I’ll try managing the arrangement first.

The weather will be improving from tomorrow, with a sunny afternoon and then two days in a row (!) of sunshine, then a weekend with two days of mostly sunny weather before the rain returns on Monday. Put another way, I should be able to get some outside stuff done over the next few days—fingers crossed?

Still, the new patio roof is now officially mine, and so is all the work I need to do to be able to actually use it. With great privilege comes great responsibility, they say. At least I should sleep well for several days.

My birthday present

Today I got a birthday present I bought myself. But it was all by pure chance, except it wasn’t completely by chance. Just part of it was, and a couple times over. Still, it really was unlikely.

I got a phone call yesterday from the company providing the cover for my patio cover. They said it was ready to install, and I was next on the list, so they wanted to do the installation today—weather permitting, and if it didn’t, maybe on Thursday. The word “weather” there is doing a lot of work there: A tropical low pressure system was going to create stormy weather all over the top of the North Island: Strong winds, heavy rain, surface flooding, all the fun stuff. I admit I kind of laughed when they suggested that, and I thought that even Thursday was questionable. Worse, he said if the team was coming, they’d be here by 9:30am. I don’t do anything at 9:30am.

My sleep on Tuesday night wasn’t particularly restful. I went to bed early, and I set an alarm on my phone to make sure I was up by 8. I kept waking up every hour or so wondering what time it was, and that continued all night. I got a phone call at around 7:30—when I was actually asleep—but no one was there. I thought maybe it was the team letting me know they wouldn’t be here today. I woke up a bit more and was up by around twenty to eight.

I spent some time cathing up on what I missed overnight, just like when I get up at a more civilised hour. Eventually, well after my coffee was gone, it was 9”29, and I stood up and said to Leo, “Well, I guess we can just get on with our day.” Only a few seconds later, movement on our street caught me eye: It was a ute (“pick-up truck” in Americanese) emblazoned with the company’s logo, and pulling a trailer. They slowed at my house, and continued on down the street to turn around.

They came back up my street, then backed into my next-door neighbour’s driveway and onto my front lawn. It was pretty awesome, to be honest. By this time I was outside, and the passenger, a young guy who’d been helping the driver back up, said hello, introduced himself and shook my hand. The driver, an older man, came up and did the same. I only realised in that moment that handshakes seldom happen anymore.

This team of two was an “older” guy who seemed to be in charge (and, in this case, “older” still means younger than me, by up to 15 years 😳) and a younger guy (probably young enough to be the age of a theoretical grandson 😳) who seemed to be still training. Both were really nice and friendly.

Because I didn’t think they’d actually come today, I didn’t go out in the rain yesterday or this morning to move stuff off of the patio (and out of their way). The guy on the phone call yesterday said the team could help me with that—and they did. Working together, it went quickly.

The guy who seemed to be in charge asked if I had a mower to cut-back the overgrown weeds at the edge of the concrete patio. I knew from experience that my mower wouldn’t cope, so I got my line trimmer instead, and the guy made short work of clearing the weeds from the edges of the concrete patio. The guy did a much better and faster job than I’ve ever done.

Actually, I should say he “cleared the weeds again”, because I’ve done it several times over the past six months, but kikuyu grows so fast you can watch it grow several inches in an hour (not an actual fact). Even so, a small part of me was somewhat embarrassed at the state of it, but it was a very small part: This summer has been days on end of rain or else hot, sunny weather, neither of which are ideal for heavy, physical outside work. It was one of those “it is what it is” moments: After all, I couldn’t teleport into the past to properly deal with the weeds.

They set up their portable scaffolding plank to reach the roof, and the older guy made sure there were no weeds in the guttering (the new roof will cover much of it). I cleared them only a few weeks ago, so there wasn’t much (whew!), and he said they go to some places that are shockingly overgrown. I can imagine. I’m generally pretty good about the gutters because I only need a small step ladder (a couple steps) to be able to reach into the guttering. So, no embarrassment was necessary for that.

The wind started getting a bit gusty a little before 11, but is was only gusts, passed quickly, and the guys persisted. Only two hours in, and the structure was nearly complete. They took a break for lunch, and were completely done less than five hours after they started. I reiterated how surprised I was that they were here today with the looming threat of bad weather, and the older guy admitted that they had several moments of “if this gets worse, we’ll stop for the day”, and they wanted to get the frame constructed so it would be a short day tomorrow. However, the rain (mostly) held off, and they were able to get the whole thing done.

Well, mostly done, maybe. While I was on the phone with one of my sisters-in-law, I was looking at the newly finished roof and noticed there seemed to be a protective film still on the final rood panel. The older guy was packing their things away, and the younger guy was rinsing the patio (there was mud and dirt tracked onto it during construction). When he finished I pointed to the film, we both laughed, and he lept up and hung off the frame to try and remove the film. He decided to get a ladder. He came back with the older guy, we all had another laugh about it, and the younger guy lept up again, held and lifted by the older guy, and he eventually got it all off. I stifled the temptation to tell him to enjoy those abilities while he has them, because they won’t last. I didn’t want to be that kind of old man (yes, I’m kidding—mostly).

After the team left, I moved things off the lawn and back under cover, and I realised that some of the outdoor furniture may not be salvageable, possibly having deteriorated too much after some six years in the elements with no maintenance. I’ll definitely see if I can clean them up, of course, but I’m not upset about the prospect of repalcing it all, either.

The table and chairs are specific problems. I think the tabletop is slightly warped, but whether it’s too much to use or not is something I didn’t take the time to work out (it was raining, and I wanted to get the moving of stuff finished). The table frame is fine, and I could easily make a new top, if necessary, but I have no idea how to get rid of the warped one (I always thought that the ability to change the top was a positive benefit). But, what about the chairs? Dunno. I think I can clean them up enough for now, but I don’t know that the chairs can be easily or economically refitted. We’ll see.

Meanwhile, I still have to finish clearing the weeds, but that’ll be easier with the cover in place: It will provide some shelter from the sun and rain. Similarly, repairing the house wall where the old air conditioner was will be much easier with the roof in place—no more waiting for “ideal” weather!

When this particular project entered my timeline, I said it would probably be completed by my birthday. In the end, it was—just—but it’s fine because I wasn’t planning anything for today/tonight, anyway (I’m getting together with some of the family on the much more convenient Friday). So, a project I started months ago was completed today, on my birthday, so I choose to call it a birthday present to myself. If it had been completed earlier, that wouldn’t be true. So, yay for the chips falling in a favourable way! And for the weather (mostly) cooperating.

More important, maybe, I definitely think I made the right choice in the patio cover. And that’s a pretty great gift to myself by itself.

Before the installation.

As for example

Yesterday was a day that underscored things I’ve talked about in recent posts. That’s not unusual, of course, but it’s not often that I see examples so close to each other, and certainly not on the same day.

The photo up top is of my weedy back lawn yesterday afternoon. It had become about as overgrown as around a month ago (“almost” because it was three weeks between mows, not four), and this happened because of the reason I talked about last Tuesday: Rain—lost and lots of rain. The only days it didn’t rain were days I wasn’t able to do the mowing. As it happens, I was planning on visiting my mother-in-law yesterday, but when the sunny weather wasn’t going away, so I decided to do the mowing first.

When I got to my mother-in-law’s place, were laughing about not being able to remember what day it was, something I mentioned in a more serious context yesterday. After I left from my visit, I headed to one the home centres, Mitre 10 Mega, to pick up some suplies the other one (Bunnings Warehouse) doesn’t carry. I didn’t know what traffic would be like, much as I talked about on m post about Boxing Day. But wait, there’s more!

When I went to Bunnings on December 27, it was technically an ordinary Saturday, so I knew the hours would be the same. But yesterday, January 2, was a public holiday, and I realised I had no idea what the opening hours were for Mitre 10 or the supermarket I was going to afterward. I looked them up online before I left my mother-in-law’s place—and had some trouble finding the answer. Mitre 10 seemed to be their normal 7pm, but the supermarket closing was 7pm, a couple hours earlier than normal.

I got to Mire 10 around 5 to 6, picked up the first thing on my list, and then a minute later an announcement came over the P.A. that they were closing in four minutes. Fortunately, I’d looked up the aisle and bay that other items were in, and just skipped over what I hadn’t written down, and headed to the checkout, feeling a kind of disappointed frustration (though, to be clear, I still like the store: It’s NZ-owned and closer to my house than Bunnings is, but Bunnings has greater depth in some specifically hardware things, which I won’t go into right now. You’re welcome).

When I got to the supermarket, they had a sign with all their holiday hours for past two weeks, and it was, in fact, 8pm, so I could take me time shopping. I was back home before 6pm.

And speaking of rain, it was still sunny when I got home last night, but the clouds moved in and around 8:30 I heard some of the expected thunder, accompanied with heavy rain. Around midnight, the rain became extrelemy heavy and there was louder thunder. All of which was over in around an hour or so. Today started out sunny again, then yet more rain, and then thunder, returned early afternoon.

Rain has clearly been the number one topic over the past month or so in particular. I thought it was interesting how just one day had so much of what I talked about over the past week or so. But the holidays are over for now (the next one, Auckland Anniversary Day, is Monday, January 27), so it’ll mostly be mostly ordinary days. And mostly rainy, too, apparently. Oh, well.

Rain on my parade

Projects, I have a few, but then, too few to mention. But that’s mostly because the most important ones have been stalled for the past couple weeks. I knew that could happen because this is a La Niña year (technically, it’s part of the “El Niño-Southern Oscillation”, or ENSO), and that can mean a lot of rain—and it did, and still is.

I made a mental list of the “must do” things and the “would be nice to get done” things. It turns out, the only true “must do” thing was clearing off the patio for the installation of the cover. I wanted to clear out the weeds around the patio, and also re-paint the exterior of the house facing the patio, but the patio roof won’t interfere with either of those.

However, it would be helpful to be able to prepare the new (technically old…) spot for the VegePod raised planter. I’ll need to move it off the patio so it still gets full sunshine, but if the weather doesn’t allow me to get that done before the roof is installed, I can just move it onto the lawn with the other patio furniture—and hopefully it won’d sink into the lawn too much…

So, all the outside projects I need to do can wait for some stable weather, even if I’d rather get them done. That also means the rain delays aren’t as frustrating as they might’ve been otherwise. Besides, there are four public holidays this time of year, including Christmas, so not all of the delays were wet and windy (not even metaphorically).

One way or another, I’ll get those projects completed—at some point, weather permitting. I have no excuse reason for not working on inside projects, though. Maybe I just needed a rest? All things in their own time.

Mowing down challenges

I mowed the back lawn today. When I began, my watch said it was 22 degrees in my part of Kirikiriroa-Hamilton, and when I finished some 25 minute later, it said it was 24 (71.6F and 75.2F, respectively). The MetService App said the humidity was 70%. It certainly felt like both the temperature and humidity were higher (the projected high for today was 27, which is 80.6F, something it hit, apparently briefly, later in the afternoon).

The back lawn usually grows faster than the front, probably due to the fact that the type of plants that make up the two areas of “lawn” are different. This means that the back looked absolutely terrible—and also kinda pretty and meadow-like with the weeds’ flowers blooming and gently swaying in the light breeze. Still, suburban necessity demanded I chop it all down, but I’m sure Leo will appreciate being able to walk over the entire area without the weeds’ flower stalks tickling his nether regions.

Tomorrow, the front lawn is being mowed by the contractor I hired, mid-to-late morning, probably. I’d hoped to mow it last week so the guy would have a fresh start, but high temperatures (and me “feelin’ poorly” a couple days) meant it was already this week before I even could mow, and, well, I didn’t do it. The lawn needed to be mowed when I talked to the guy last week, and now it really needs it, but, like the back did, it looks worse than it is due to lots of weeds’ flower stalks, though unlike the back, few are actually blooming.

I’m the type of person who absolutely would clean before someone was coming to clean the house (something I inherited from my mother…) so that the job facing them wouldn’t be as big. I had the same impulse with the mowers. These days, though, I have a bit more of the “it is what it is” fatalism that so many others seem to have naturally, and that I now understand how sometimes that attitude can be really helpful, and even important, for our well-being.

So, the back lawn is done, and the (despite everything I just said, nevertheless embarrassing) front lawn will be done tomorrow. Doing only the back lawn left me hot and tired when I was finished, of course, but my recovery time was short, with a glass of cool (not cold) water, a towel to wipe the sweat, and then a rest in my chair for a bit being all I needed to be ready for Part 2 of my day. Mowing the back lawn, my watch tells me, meant walking a bit more than 2km (around 1.25 miles), and my average heart rate was a healthy 128bpm (peak was 139bpm), meaning it was a decent workout, though not dangerous for me. Mowing both lawns often pushed me a little too far in all respects.

This afternoon, I went on a shopping expedition to Mitre 10 Mega. They were having a promotion offer double Air Points for folks (like me) with an Air New Zealand Air Point card, a loyalty/rewards programme I mentioned almost a year ago. I’m also a member of Mire 10’s programme, and their card is in my Apple Wallet on my phone, which is handy. And then, too, I presented my Senior Gold Card for my 65+ discount. I mainly went for a cleaner to use on the cement patio when I clear it in preparation for the patio cover to be installed, and also to use on some of the outdoor furniture that’s so dirty that I won’t keep them if I can’t clean them. Stay tuned.

I also wanted to get a new clothesline to replace the one I last attempted to repair back in 2022 (and it broke again not long after). Back in my battles with the clothesline, I worked out that the problem was that it had been mounted to fence panels, and not the posts (as I thought they should be). So, before I headed out this afternoon, I measured the distance between all the fence posts in suitable areasm, and in all but one pair, they were space a little over 2 metres apart. At Mitre 10, I discovered that that all the models are either 2.4 meteres apart or 1.4 metres. Clearnly more research was needed, and I wouldn’t get the double Air Points for that kinda large purchase. Oh, well. It runs out I still got a discount of $7.06 (the till receipt didn’t say what gave me that discount…).

I think the solution may be to install boards horizontally between two sets of posts, and then affix the clothesline supports to that. If I do that, I’ll talk about it after the fact. If not, I’ll talk about whatever solution I come up with. The thing is, I used to use clotheslines all the time at our last two houses, and even here, too, until the Collapsing Clothesline Era began, and I’d like to do so again. But it’s also true that Kiwis generally expect a clothesline, and installing one will help with the eventual sale of my house.

So, today was a big day. I’m already glad I’ve hired someone else to do the front lawn—though I still wish I’d mowed the front lawn last week. Somethings don’t change. Including my clothesline, apparently.

Summer is here—finally

Today, Summer officially began here today. The graphic up top is what I shared on my personal Facebook on this date in 2021, and I used it again today. I’d forgotten about the goofy avatar cartoon thingees Facebook used to offer, but the fact I’d forgotten means I clearly haven’t missed them.

But I have missed summer, my favourite season.

The long range forecast for this summer is one of wet and humid weather for the top of New Zealand, and the southern parts may be hotter. I’m particularly glad that the ducted air conditioning is installed.

As it happens, it’s already been hot in parts of New Zealand (including at my house). November produced some record breaking temperatures. In fact, Auckland had the hottest day in November ever recorded. That’s not a good sign.

December is also the last month of the year, of course. Maybe that doesn’t really matter, since the way we measure time—months and years—are kind of arbitrary, but it’s seen as the end of the year by most of us on this planet, and, for me, that means starting to plan for next year, and that first means seeing what this year was like—basically, “not all that great”.

As I’ve made clear, part of how I judge my year is this blog, mainly because I’ve been doing it longer than pretty much anything else—and that includes longer than any paid job I ever had. So, at the moment, 2025 may turn out to be my least productive full year. November was tied for first with October for the most posts in the month, but I’d expected it to be my most-productive month. It wasn’t to be.

This reality is why I’m pessimistic about how (relatively) unproductive this year may end up being. However, the word may is doing a lot of work there, because I have a lot to finish up this month. For example, I have several projects still underway that will wrap up this month, and I know I’ll be documenting them all. I also have series of posts this month, and some leftover posts that I haven’t gotten around to, but still want to do. So, there’s a potential that my pessimism may be unjustified. Or, I may be correct.

In any case, summer is hear, and my whole house is now comfortable. That alone may change everything.

Cool man

My house is so cool! Literally, not esthetically. I’m still working on the esthetic part, a project all its own that will start soon. But for now, the important thing is that the temperature in my house is pleasant.

Last week, the installer stopped by and dropped off the parts for the system, specifically the outside unit and the unit that would be installed in the attic. We also went over where the various vents should go. As they were about to leave, I asked what time they’d be starting the installation. “We’ll be here at 8am”, he said.

8am?! I don’t do anything at 8am, even though I’m often up by then—yeah, “up”, but still making my way through my coffee. I knew that would be rough.

I needed to move stuff out of their way, such as, whatever was under the spot the vents would go, but also including moving stuff from in front of the circuit breaker panel. The latter just made it hard to stand close to the panel, which would be necessary for him to install the circuit for the new air conditioner (I could easily reach it when I needed to reset one, but, then, I have long arms…).

I couldn’t move the stuff early because I’d be tripping over it. So, I did the moving this past Tuesday, mostly in the evening. I went to bed, a little later than I wanted, and slept terribly, something that happens to me every time I need to do something earlier than I’d like in the morning (like a doctor appointment, for example). I think it’s partly that I’m afraid I’ll oversleep, even though I set an alarm to wake me up, but then a legitimate reason to panic popped into my head: I’d completely forgotten to clear out the under-the-vent spaces in my office and the guest room. Oops.

So, I got up at 6:30, after maybe five hours of sleep, and moved all the stuff I needed to, becoming quite overheated (due to no air conditioning in either of those rooms—or the living area, after that heat pump blew up). Once they arrived, Leo and I retreated to our bedroom and its functioning air conditioner, and I eventually cooled off.

They completed the installation of the equipment and were ready to start installing the vents, starting in the main bedroom, so Leo and I moved to the (still uncooled) living area. And here the first problem popped up: The back of the house, which includes all the bedrooms, has a lower roof, and so, less attic space, than over the living area. So, they had to move the location of the vent.

They also installed the vent in my office, and opened up the ceiling in the living for one of the two return vents, exactly where we’d talked about going. Unfortunately, I hadn’t taken the size of their ladder into account, and hadn’t cleared enough space in the living area, so they moved some stuff around. I had a look around after they left and saw they’d put the vent in my office in a different place than we’d discussed, and at a point where the roof was higher, and so, easier to install im, which is probably why they did that. I really don’t care where they put it, however, I’d cleared space under the spot we’d originally discussed on the other side of the room—and the spot I moved all the stuff too was directly under where the vent was actually installed. I’d have moved it for them if they’d said something, but, in the end, I think they just worked around it.

That was it for Day 1, and they were back around 8am the following morning for Day 2 (have I mentioned what an ungodly hour that is? I needed my alarm to wake me, which seldom happens). They installed the guest room vent, and the ones in the living area, and finally, the second air return vent—and there was another problem due to the roof structure: It had to be much closer to the other vent than was planned, though it’s still in the hallway, and there’s a door between the living area and the door, so it’s not like they’re right next to each other. The guy also installed the wired controller, and the sensor in the return vent so the system knows what the temperature is.

When they were all done, he showed me how to work the system, and showed me the vents in the living area. Before they began, I told them I didn’t care where they put them—they were the experts in where the best spot is, after all—but the think only I asked was that they be centred in the space and in a direct line, because if they weren’t, I’d notice it every time I looked up from my chair while watching TV. He told me they’d used their laser level to make sure they were aligned (and they definitely are), which I thought was both funny and kind of sweet, for lack of a better word.

That afternoon, after they’d left, I walked through all the rooms, and I noticed that the guest room, my office, and even the hallway felt cool, something that’s never happened in warm weather before. Today was the first full day with the system running, and the entire house felt basically the same temperature, and that’s exactly what I was trying to achieve by installing a whole-house ducted system.

He suggested that I do something I’ve done for years, that is, close the curtains over the stacker doors once the sun hits them in the afternoon. I did that because it keeps the heat out, and that will now help the new system, especially since one of the temperature sensors is on the living area. However, I wanted to test it a bit and left the blinds open in the guest room, and even with the hot afternoon sun streaming through the window, the room still felt cool, though less so near the window, as could be expected.

I think this situation will be helped once the patio cover is installed because the roof will block 99% of UV, which makes the sun feel hot (this does nothing about air temperature, of course). So, it’s possible I won’t need to close the drapes every single sunny day in summer, but I won’t know for sure until the cover is installed.

Finally, the company that installed the new system will return to remove the broken living area air conditioner (which isn’t needed anymore, anyway) and they’ll convert the power shut-off switch for the outdoor unit (which is currently sitting on the patio) into an exterior power point, something that will be handy when I use the patio (there are no outdoor power points anywhere on the house right now), which will be on a RCD circuit, of course. They’ll also take the broken unit away to dispose of properly. I'll have the one in my bedroom removed later on (there's no rush to do that).

Speaking of changes, the window blinds I had installed recently are also working exactly as I wanted, which is good, too. So, so far, everything has gone well, and delivered exactly what I wanted.

This means that my next step will be working on the interior of the house, and that’s all on me. However, the house is now cool and that’ll make the work so much easier—or even possible, to be honest.

Onward.

Hot as heck

We’ve had a bit of heat here in Kirikiriroa-Hamilton lately. The days have been beautiful, with blue skies, sometimes with puffy clouds, sometimes with none, and often with a gentle breeze. However, the daytime temperatures have been 5 to 7 degrees higher than is normal for this time of year, which, to use a typical understated Kiwi phrase, is not ideal.

I’m not going to sugar coat this: It was pretty miserable at the end of this week, from Wednesday onward. This is because I have no air conditioning in the living area, and it gets hot in there from early afternoon, and doesn’t get better until early evening.

Here’s what I mean: On Friday, it hit 25 degrees (77F) in my neighbourhood, which is already reasonably hot by our standards, but, worse, it hit 29 (84.2F) in the living area of my house, and that was awful. The next day, it hit 26 (78.8F), but it was “cooler” inside: 27 (80.6F) . Today it was back to 25 outside, and still 27 inside. I learned my lesson, and by Saturday started closing the curtains when the sun hit the stacker doors in the living area. 

I’m well aware that this is the sort of thing that some people derisively call “First World Problems”, and I’m also well aware that what I’m experiencing is nothing compared to heatwaves that people experience elsewhere, however, I’m not there, and I’m acclimatised to this area, not elsewhere, and by those perfectly reasonable standards, this has been rough.

There have been times in my life when I had no air conditioning, and I dealt with that using fans or whatever else I could think of. I spent one summer in Southern Illinois, and it was utterly brutal, far worse than anything I’ve experienced—before or since. I used to walk to the air conditioned Student Center to sit in the cool, possibly the only reason I got any studying done that summer.

This year, in this place, I have fewer options. I put an oscillating fan on high (no help) in the living area, plus a more powerful fan on the floor in the hallway, blowing air toward the living area. I’d noticed the hallway was cool, and figured putting a fan there would draw cooled air from my bedroom, and it did, but the cool didn’t actually make it into the living area. I suppose that at least I got a nice cooling breeze when I walked down the hallway to my bedroom.

Fortunately for me, my bedroom air conditioner is working well, and the past couple days I went back there to cool down (I knew Leo would follow me to cool down, too). But I also have things I want and need to do, and I didn’t want to stay in my bedroom all day. And so, I cooled down when I could, and endured the heat when I needed to.

All of this has reminded me of what I experienced much of my life, but an experience that time and technology eventually made uncommon. Now, after all these years with cooling, I find it very hard to do without it. At the same time, the weather is becoming more intense due to climate change, and that includes high summer heat and bitter winter cold. I’m aware that as I continue to age, temperature may well become a bigger problem for me. Still, where I live the winter cold is not as severe as the heat in summer sometimes is (so far…), and I’m thankful for that.

And yet, adaptations are necessary for us all. Many of the changes I’ve made to this house—the solar panels, window coverings, and even the patio cover and the ducted air conditioning—are to make the house comfortable even with harsher weather and temperatures, and to look after me as I get older.

I also recently did something unusual (for me) that helped. Last weekend, when the temperatures were still okay, I took a pair of jeans with holes in both knees and made them into cut-offs, the first time in around 50 years I did that (I think). I wanted them to wear around the house, not sure that I actually would, but having them as an option definitely helped.

Too much heat is exhausting, but I’d forgotten how true that is. With some luck, I’ll be able to forget again.

Oh, look! It’s NOT raining!

This afternoon, I shared the photo above on my personal Facebook page and Instagram, and the headline of this post is how I captioned the photo. It shows, of course, the tree on my street that stars in so many of my photos. It’s still putting on its summer clothes, and I’m so very ready for it. The weather has been pretty awful lately, so I also said: “But first, back to our regularly scheduled Spring programming: Rain and more rain.” I wasn’t kidding about that.

It rains a lot during New Zealand’s Spring, though not necessarily every single day, of course. Lately, however, we’ve had a lot of rainy days that included heavy downpours (including yesterday, when I went to the Waikato Home & Garden Show). That;s not going to change any time soon. Take for example today’s 10-day forecast:

Despite how it looks, right now only Wednesday and Friday are expected to not have at least some rain. Actually, aside from those two days, right now there’s expected to be rain at least part of every day from tonight through to Tuesday, October 14. Oh, well—I guess it’ll give me time to get some inside stuff done.

Equinox at the door

The September Equinox arrived in New Zealand at 6:19am this morning. Leo and I were still asleep at the time, although he waits for me to stir, and never tries to wake me up. He’s a good boy. At any rate, it’s now universally accepted to be Spring here—even by certain people who insist that seasons can only begin on equinoxes and solstices. Leo, of course, couldn’t care less about such things.

Spring is a season of change—although, one way or another, all seasons are. Nevertheless, there are some things that are unique to Spring, like pollen, for example. I never used to be bothered by pollen, but over the past decade or so I’ve been affected more and more, and it’s been particularly bad for me this year. Add to that the rainy and awful Spring weather New Zealand can get this time of year, and, well, it’s not ideal. Still, none of that lasts forever, right?

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been busy planning out exactly what I want to get done to the house, and the order it needs to happen, because some things can’t happen until other things are finished. As it happens, the Waikato Home and Garden Show is coming up, and it may be a good opportunity to organise quotes for various things, especially because there are often “show specials” to reduce the costs a bit.

While there’s a lot of work that I need to organise others to do, there’s still a lot I can do in the meantime, like cleaning. Rearranging the living area will mean moving heavy furniture that's been in the same spot since I moved into the this house more than five and a half years ago, and those areas will need some cleaning. I also want to clean the carpets using the cleaner I bought back in 2022. So, technically, this means I’ll be doing a major “spring cleaning” of the house, though because all of the work on the house will be sone in phases, some of that cleaning may (will?) extend into summer.

So, no matter how one determines the start of such things, it’s definitely Spring in the Southern Hemisphere. It also means summer in the Southern Hemisphere is officially closer, and, to me, that’s a very good thing, indeed.

The December Solstice arrives in New Zealand at 4:03pm on December 22, 2025.

The end of winter—at last

Today is the last day of winter in the Southern Hemisphere—finally. However, the past week or so has had a lot of rainy weather, and while it hasn’t been particularly cold lately, recent days have been rainy and blustery, with some very strong winds this afternoon and evening. Parts ofthe country have also received snow. September can have wintry weather, too, but that’s next month’s challenge.

August was a busy month for me, with a lot of things going on, seemingly all at once. However, that’s also meant little or no progress with the work refresh of my living space, something I talked about a month ago today. All I managed, really, was research on what I want to do and how I want it done. Unfortunately, that also included some deviations into projects that are farther down the road, in particular, I finally came up with the solution for how I want to refresh my dining table, something that’s stumped me for maybe a decade—progress? Maybe.

However, all the time challenges this month have affected everything, and that includes this blog and, in particular, the podcast I allegedly do. Over most of this year, I’ve been writing blog posts at night, usually right before I published them. Unfortunately, this month in particular—and not for the first time—I’ve been too tired in the evening to write. In fact, I’ve been more likely to fall asleep watching TV than to consider switching on my MacBook to write a post. Maybe September will have better solutions—and what’s the point of having a brand new month if not to treat it as yet another opportunity for a re-set? Eventually, that might even happen…

Still, I actually did manage to get plenty of stuff done this month, so I don’t want to make it sound like it was a total write-off—no month ever is, not even the ones in which I accomplished next to nothing. Even so, I’m hoping that tomorrow will mean the start of a very productive month. Hope—ahem—Springs eternal, right?

A good month begins

Welcome to August! This is a very exciting month because it’s the final month of winter, and that means spring and better weather is on the way. It’s been a challenging winter, one I’’l be glad to see go away.

It’s safe to say that complaining about bad winter weather is a behaviour I’m drawn to, primarily because because that weather that can be aggravating, annoying, or even just a massive inconvenience, and I no longer have much tolerance for that. I may not be able to do anything to change the weather, but at least I can still complain about it.

All that said, the weather really has been pretty disgusting this winter. Last month, I wrote about June’s weather, and I said in that post that the temperatures in Hamilton were more or less aligned with historical averages, but we’d had a lot of rain. In July, the avearge high temperature was slighly higher than the historical average, but—yet again!—the rain was significantly more than the historical average. Turns out, though, Hamilton got off lightly.

In July, parts of New Zealand received three or four times the average rainfall, leading TVNZ’s 1News publishing a detailedrport on it: ”What was behind New Zealand’s wet and windy July”. Worse. 1News meteorologist Dan Corbett said that the rain “would be returning — with a vengeance”, so,we should "keep that raincoat handy. There is going to be more wild weather coming." Oh, yay.

Apparently, we’re getting all this rain because the surface water in the Tasman Sea is much warmer than usual (and yes, that's related to climate change), and that means that ordinary rain storm systems passing over it draw up lots of that evaporating moisture and then dump it on New Zealand. That won’t last forever, of course.

Despite all the rainy weather, we still get sunny days, sometimes a few in a row. Today was a sunny day, for example, and I got three loads of washing done with free electricity, though I could only dry two of them (I dried the third load when the rates went down at 10pm—winter days have fewer hours of daylight, and that affects how much power the solar panels generate, and so, how much free electricity I can use).

This particularly rainy winter has given me a new pastime: Frequently checking the extended weather forecast so that I can plan things, like doing the washing and charging the batteries for the mower and line trimmer (as well as working out when I can use them). I actually think this sort of constructive planning is a good thing —usually? At any rate, it makes it possible to get things done even when the weather isn’t cooperatimg.

Yeah, sure, all of that, BUT, spring is now only a month away, and for me that’s a great reason to celebrate—unless spring and summer also throw up, so to speak, bad weather. If they do, though, I’ll plan around that, too. Maybe I’m more predictable than the weather?

Sunny side up

It’s been extremely rainy in New Zealand lately—shocking news, I know. As usual, I had work-arounds. Eggs among them.

Early last week, I looked at the extended forecast, and saw it was supposed to be rainy until this past Friday. But, we had a run of a few days without rain, so I mowed the lawns on Tuesday—and that went well, fortunately, and on one battery charge.

It was fortunate I mowed the lawns when I did, because the extended forecast kept changing, and the sunny days kept moving farther away. By Friday of last week, the entire week was supposed to be rainy, then by this past Monday we were warned of big storms, especially for the top of the South Island. I decided I wasn’t going anywhere that day.

I started the day by making fried eggs (photo up top). When I shared it on my personal Facebook, I wrote: “My brunch today, the only 'sunny' thing I’ll be seeing today. 🙁”. I then added:

Kirikiriroa-Hamilton is under an Orange rain storm warning, with the potential for very heavy rain and strong winds until the wee hours of the morning. The top of the South Island, however, is under a Red Warning. Basically, an Orange Warning means “be prepared” because storms may be bad, and a Red Warning means “take action” because the storms WILL be bad.

The weather Monday was truly awful: Sometimes heavy rain, strong wind gusts, and steady rain even when it wasn’t raining heavily. I definitely made the right choice to stay home that day.

The extended forecast has pushed out next sunny day out again, to one week from today—July 20. There’s like to be sunny periods over the coming week, but rain is predicted for at least part of every day/ So, yay.

I’ve fully embraced my winter adaptations: I run the dishwasher, washer, and dryer only after 10pm whne the power rate drops to the lowest amount. I need to do this because there aren’t enough sunny hours to get free electricity, both because of all the rain we get in winter, and because the daylight hours are still pretty short.

I’ve also felt cold much of the time this winter, more so than I have in many years. I have no idea why, since the daily high temperatures, while cold, aren’t particularly unusual. Maybe all the rain has made things unusually damp?

Still, one does what one must to cope, and for some folks—like me—it requires a bit more effort. Sometimes even something as simple as well-made “sunny side up” fried eggs can help, too. Just another of my winter adaptations.