Let me see the day through

It’s been one of  THOSE  days. Snow snowed, deeper and deeper. I made a pot of tea. Power cut. Came back on after an hour or so. Made coffee. Another power cut, out for hours this time, back on about 4.30pm. Why can’t ‘they’ keep the power going when you most need it?

Nigel went out and got photos (and pies). We live near the shops – just a short walk down the street to the Four Square to get meat pies. Love being near shops!

Nigel’s snow photos below..

Here’s a Dunedin, New Zealand poem written by Kay McKenzie Cooke. I stole the first line of Kay’s poem for my title.

Kay grew up in Southland and lives in Dunedin. In her poetry I recognise the things I see, hear, feel, love and hate about living in the south of New Zealand.

She posted this poem yesterday on her WP blog  CUTTINGS  post:  In A Funk

nor’easter

Poem by Kay McKenzie Cooke. Presented by Liz. Nigel’s photos.

Poem about Dunedin. Photos of Tapanui, West Otago.

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New Zealand Cabbage Tree. Tapanui. 05 Aug 2019

Let me see the day through

this relentless wind, a fencing cabbage tree

its thrust and jab of blade.

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Snowy shrub. Tapanui. 05 Aug 2019

For days now

the unpegged washing of snow

lying in the mud

of Dunedin’s hills

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Home, today. Tapanui. 05 August 2019

where a giant hawk of cloud

lifts off and in its talons,

Mount Cargill

a sag of grey.

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No view of the Blue Mountains to the east today. Tapanui. 05 Aug 2019

If I could

I’d breathalise this wind

to prove how full it is

of Antarctic ire,

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how merciless its gathering raid and quest

to assassinate;

its intention to behead

every flower in its track, to shatter

the frozen bones of birds.

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— Poem by Kay McKenzie Cooke, Dunedin, New Zealand

Today vs yesterday – Walnut Tree in our yard

— photos by Nigel

Today:

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Yesterday:

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Compiled by Liz; Poem by Kay McKenzie Cooke, Photos by Nigel
Exploring Colour (2019)

45 thoughts on “Let me see the day through”

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  1. Pingback: Upturned – Book Launch – Exploring Colour

  2. I see.. Thank you once again for the information..
    While snowing is quite expected in Southern Alps Mountain Range, snowing elsewhere is quite strange.. Its beautiful nevertheless.. 😁
    I went to Russia during winters.. Crossed the Arctic Circle in Murmansk and went to the Arctic Coast of Teriberka.. Loved the solid ice, the snow and the associated landscape – all covered in a white blanket.. 😁❄️

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  3. Oh my God..!! So beautiful pictures of ice and snow..!! Love them.. Never knew it snows so much in New Zealand.. Will definitely plan to visit New Zealand and explore Dunedin..!!
    Thank you for sharing..!!

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    1. I grew up in the north of New Zealand which doesn’t get snow at all. Much of the lower half of the North Island, and most of the South Island, get snow at times – especially those of us who live further inland or close to the Southern Alps.

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    1. We, like many NZers, regard the cabbage tree with much affection. Only a few days before the storm, I’d attended a community event where a local told me that Tapanui would normally get a fair bit of snow on the ground a few times during the winter. They were surprised how mild it’s been so far. Funny how soon the snow arrived after that conversation!

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  5. Oh my goodness, that it really the depths of winter! we rarely get heavy snow in this part of England and never as heavy as that. (Scotland is an entirely different matter but the weather seems to have changed and winters don’t usually have as much snow as I remember.) Stay warm!

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    1. We eventually got through that day ok and the next day was warm so the snow was mostly melted by the end of the day with everything just wet (all the ground of course and lots of dripping from rooves and gutters.

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  6. I hate to admit that I almost didn’t read this due to SNOW invading my summer. I especially liked the pacing and feel of the poem. And soon enough you will thaw and find that neither birds nor flowers have abandoned you. Stay warm!

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    1. Enjoy your summer! A native songbird, tui, was back to his usual loud singing this morning. He likes to sit atop the neighbour’s tall tree and presumably sings to maintain ownership of his territory! Very nice

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  7. Oh, my, glad to read in one of your comments above that you’ve had a mild winter despite this rude coating and power outages! Pictures of the snow are pretty, and I did like to see it on the Cabbage Tree. I expect you’ll sort out the dry wood thing before next winter.

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    1. Should be good by then. Most of the snow has melted now although the weather people are talking up another storm early next week. Looks like August is going to be ‘interesting’.

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  9. Wow, that looks like one of our nor’easters. We just finished a period of 90+ degree days, now in the 80’s and there you are with snow storms. The geography explains it but what a wild planet we live on. I hope you took down your clothes line and it’s not squashed below that snow. Back in 2013 we had an unexpected October storm that deprived us of electricity for 5 days. Thankfully our woodstove kept us warm and provided a way to heat food…and tea. 🙂 The snow provided refrigeration. I ended it by giving in and taking a cold shower. LOL Hope you don’t have any more outages, Liz and Nigel.

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    1. Clothesline has toughed it out, it’s rugged. Five days power outage can happen here too in very bad storms – hope it never happens to me! One place we lived.. if the power went out we couldn’t even run the water or flush the loo because getting water depended on the electric pump! Makes you grateful for small mercies. Here we have a header tank so water flows even in a power cut.

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      1. How did our forebears survive without the modern conveniences we so rely on? lol

        Our water is provided by the town and the water pressure, @80lbs, flows all the time. Glad your loine survived. 🙂

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  11. To shatter the frozen bones of birds- what a thought! What a storm, what a snowfall! What a world we live in; I am here in underwear, sorry 🤭, with the windows open and a fan right next to me and not a breeze in sight so it’s another night on the sofa instead of up in the bed in the attic where the air is even less there than down here and yet, there you are, snow covered, captured, caught short of electricity but with meat pies at hand and magic falling in between the madness over trees and the stillness that comes after the heavy fall. The impressions your movement makes and the crunch your feet strike into the snow. I am so much more a winter’s child than a summer’s son. I am hot and sweaty and take too many showers these days to cope! Nigel’s pictures are so gentle, so calm and yet I know there is also cold and isolating in it too and you can read that so vividly in Kays poem. Wrap up warm, all of you! And keep the coffee and meat pies on hand 🤗🤗😘😘

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    1. We really are worlds apart Dami and yet here we are connecting through this blogosphere! I’m warmed by the words you’ve been so generous in sharing today – big thanks! Do you know that Kay’s also writing a novel? and with the end in sight now I believe, despite setbacks. My favourite poets – and you’re both beavering away on novels, in opposite hemispheres! Keep at it both of you.. it’ll be worth it!

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    1. I haven’t actually! We have a heatpump in the lounge and I’ve been relying on that hence my angst when the power went out. The hp is an older Panasonic but surprisingly effective – doesn’t spend too long on ‘thaw’ cycles. Y’day I’d had the electric blanket going as a back-up – when the power went out I stayed warm in bed. There’s a fireplace in the lounge but we didn’t get the ‘where to buy dry wood’ and ‘where to store it’ things sorted out. Being a mild winter it’s been ok until this blip. Spring’s just around the corner. (There’s daffodil flower buds all along by our little box hedge).

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  15. Benjamin is ecstatic just looking at Nigel’s photos : “WOW, Ms. Liz and Mr..Nigel are so lucky! I hope they remember to build a snowman.” He is amazed that it can be summer here and winter where you are : “I don’t get it Gem, that’s one of those ca-nundrums, right?” He loves the word conundrum, I use it so often that he says it too! While the poem was rather lost on him, he did love the part about ‘where a giant hawk of cloud lifts off and in its talons, Mount Cargill.’ I love the poem, it fits perfectly with the photos. Thank-you x 2!!

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    1. If you show him pictures of fencing he might also ‘get’ how the sharp ‘blades’ of the stiff cabbage tree leaves, when being blown by a wild wind, look like the ‘thrust and jab of blade’. I particularly love that bit and also the hawk that Benjamin appreciated. I’m glad he’s getting to look at poetry – I wish I had been when I was young!

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    1. Haha! You’re right. I don’t have it but we’ve been enjoying coffee with ginger biscuits. I also have tea and milo. Our local cafe has been closed for a week but re-opens tomorrow and they do lovely hot chocolate.. yum!

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  19. Look at that! It seems like a heavy, wet snow, too — the sort perfectly designed to produce occasional power outages. I hope your power stays on, but at least you have pies, tea, and the beauty of it all.

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    1. When Nigel first went out this morning the snow was powdery, dry and ‘squeaky’ but it didn’t stay like that for long! The power has stayed on for the evening 🙂

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