Writing this in limbo… I’m moving to Tauranga for a couple of years a few months to be nearer family while my baby is young. I’m staying with my parents short term and will soon move in to ‘Pops Cottage’ – which is the little house on my parents kiwi fruit orchard that my grandfather used to live in. (Pictured below)
I’m very lucky to be able to move here. Lock-downs permitting I’ll still be visiting my home and garden in Auckland once a month. Meanwhile I’ve taken over a little garden within the families fruit orchard (separate from the commercially grown kiwifruit, these are fruit trees my parents have been planting since I was a kid). I’ve started calling it ‘my allotment’. The soil here is so soft and lovely compared to the rocks and clay I’m used to in Auckland.
Though I grew up in the country I’ve lived in the city far longer, so there are many changes I’m having to get used to. The quiet stillness of evenings. The plethora of tractors, people, and sprays in a commercial orchard on some days, then complete isolation on other days. Living with people who cook Meat… I’d lived in a vegetarian household for so many years I’d forgotten how obscene and pervasive the smell of meat can be! 😂 I’m looking forward to moving into that little cottage some day soon. It’s about the size of my place in Auckland, only it’s in the middle of nowhere. But the middle of nowhere also has my parents nearby and my brother and his family just down the road, so my new little baby can grow up knowing his grandparents and cousins.
