The summer gold of sunflowers in today's #garden post. Subtitled 'sunflower meadows I have seen'. jury.co.nz/2026/02/08/s...

We are usually a quiet household of 2. From next Friday to Wednesday we will have 8 extras staying plus 3 in a nearby motel who will eat here as well. I am freaking out in advance so I can be calm and organized when they are here.

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again. #Pinks #ProudBlue

So many people worked long and hard for this outcome. We owe them a debt of gratitude.

Just had cause to write an email I have been waiting 3 years to send. A rather politer version of ‘No. Fuck off.’ It did start with no in a single word para which I felt captured the tone I wanted.

It isn’t set as firmly as I hoped but look at my jewel-like damson and green apple jelly.

Covid vax updates tomorrow. We have a family event in 10 days with almost everyone flying in from overseas and I do not trust air travel. It is what spread it to us in 2024.

On a grey summer day, I spotted a field of sunflowers down the road. When I stopped the car, it was apparent it extended a lot further than I had realised. Stock food, I assume.

One of the worst things about being over 65 is getting the 'Seniors' Newsletter and Gold Card deals' from this woman.

A Facebook *friend* request from somebody I know to be dead. Didn't actually like him when he was alive either.

Goodness. The spirit of the 1970s protest song but in 2026 from the superstar Springsteen.

I object to news media styling JuCo as 'mother of the House'. I see her more in the roles of evil stepmother or cartoon witch. Motherliness does not strike me as one of her qualities.

I would raise my eyebrows more at somebody who declared *fun runs* as a hobby than at the way more interesting topic of olive oil.

Day 3 of no daytime access in the house bar two rooms. Rimu floors coming up a treat, though. I think we last did them about 20+ years ago. Before we recorded things on digital cameras, let alone phones so not entirely sure what year.

We have so many lilies that we look at them en masse rather than individually. All raised from seed from controlled crosses here because who could afford to buy enough bulbs for for about 50 square metres of lily border?

Liatris - common name is gayfeather to the delight of a gay friend - and echinaceas looking mighty pretty.

What is most shocking about this article is that it is all about opinion polls - OPINION POLLS - not shock. www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-... Would all this be okay if the polls indicated it was?

Floor sander is here to redo the downstairs kitchen, hallways and loo. All I wanted was fine weather but nope. raining again. We are facing a deeply inconvenient 3 days and an upset, elderly dog - Dudley - who will be limted to just two rooms and the wrong door open to go in and out.

Judith Collins' friend.

The Barricades! Less Mis. But with a better outcome, we hope.

Away from pols, my latest garden/flower post is the big, bold bulbs of January. jury.co.nz/2026/01/25/b...

Do the same regs on entry to the UK for dual citizens apply to Australians too? Asking for my children who hold 3 citizenships. Can they still enter on their Australian passports? Does anyone know?

On the cheerful side, Winston is 80 and Trumpy turns 80 this year. These old men are not immortal, no matter how much they like to pretend otherwise. And I very much doubt that NZ First will survive past Winnie. They are on borrowed time. Average lifespan for men in NZ is 80.1, in US 75.8.

If Chippy remains silent, maybe the Greens ruling out coalition with Winston may make the choice clearer. This is a man leading a party with NO electorate seats talking about unelected bureaucrats. And unelectable MPs like Nicole McKee, Shame Jones and Casey Costello.

These common chairs which I have shunned - can anyone tell me the height of the seat? Are they standard dining chair height or lower? I am wondering about swallowing my pride and borrowing some for our upcoming family wedding in the garden.

Remember this? From a government which refuses to mention climate change and has systematically dismantled any policies related to dealing with it.

Every extreme weather event here now I say out loud to myself, my partner or the dogs, "But nobody mention climate change. This is the face of climate change."

Found this photo from 1992 - me at the Sinn Fein headquarters on Falls Road in Belfast and that may or may not be Martin McGuiness behind. One of life's memorable experiences.

I was discussing Citroens with somebody here a few days ago. I do not think I have ever been as cool as when I used to drive this car. Until it required major work on the motor when it became a nightmare.

Is this for real?

BBC reporter from Minneapolis filing his story wearing a full gas mask. Pretty grotesque.

I really do not want to hear Luxon talking about what turns him on or Nicola Willis talking about ‘sexy’ policies. I really hope their advisors tell them to drop the bedroom innuendos.

I looked up someone we had met re magnolias on Wiki to find: "He was High Sheriff of Cornwall for 1978 and was a past Prime Warden of the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers". He was a baronet, so titled, not a fisherman. (Cont)

The Klutz being invited to join Trumpy's 'Board of Peace' for Gaza tells us all we need to know about the competency, preparedness, status and intentions of this so-called plan for Gaza. And that is without even touching on the future billion dollar membership of this less than exclusive club.

Occasionally, I look and just sigh with happy satisfaction. I started this garden from bare ground around 2017. It was my first solo effort on an entirely new area in a new style to the rest of our garden.

A bit of horticultural boasting but this is an unusual sight. Most people grow these as a single bulb in a pot (costing $25 to $40 each) which is where we will have started 40 years ago. Now gently naturalised. Scadoxus multiflorus ssp katherinae.

Please take a moment to appreciate the BBC covering a story about the Pork Pie Appreciation Society. Complete with a pie chart!! www.bbc.com/news/article...

In the standoff between Trumpy and western Europe, I am betting on the collective Europeans who are smart, sophisticated and experienced whereas Trump is willy-waving.

Picking lilies to put through the house. Our lilies are pretty astounding.

Ha! The missing Xmas parcel from Sydney is turning me into a sleuth. I have worked out that it was misdelivered, not stolen as such. I know the address was correct. I have the dimensions and I have measured our letterbox and know it was not left there (as the tracker app claims).

Stewing Sultan plums to freeze for later in the year. This is the time of year that I refer to as entering my Squirrel Nutkin phase.

In a world gone mad, let there be lilies.

Still trying to get my head around the Adelaide Writers’ Festival uninviting a Palestinian writer out of respect to Jewish people after Bondi WHEN THE ASSASSINS WERE INDIAN. Are Palestinians to pay for everything?

I get furbabies and all that but designer 'functional' pet wine seems to hit new levels of end-of-civilisation- decadence.

Would we pay over $1000 for a single bulb? No. No. No. But we do own several plants of said bulb. Worsleya procera, common name Empress of Brazil. jury.co.nz/2026/01/11/w...

My day started at 5.10am to get daughter and grandson to the airport for the first flight out and I am now starting to wilt badly.

So the US has just moved to justifying state-sanctioned murder. Can we now drop any pretence of US democracy and leader of the free world crap?

Oh the irony, the irony that even after this excellent piece, Andrew Little rewarded Ray Chung with a committee chair position. @andrewlittlenz.bsky.social

I had to click on a Temu ad that kept popping up, just to see what the hell this photo was about.

We went to the Festival of Lights and a passing duck asked, 'Excuse me, is this the right queue for the particularly delicious Kapiti feijoa and pear sorbet?"