d.i.y.

Back home! In New Zealand, someone asked me what I looked forward to most on my return to the U.S.A. I said, being in my home! It’s not a giant estate, it’s just .. home.

Home

We had a nifty surprise waiting, too. As we exhaustedly dragged our suitcases up the decks to our house, we heard running, splashing water. Carroll cried, “Oh my God, is it a broken main?” No, Andrew made a fabulous water feature (he calls it; he’s a landscaper) in our yard by the porch. It’s a babbling brook 25 feet long.

Babbling Brook

It’s gorgeous. I love the sound it makes! Allisun and Teina came down from Middletown and Chico State to help Andrew. Alli drove a tractor (her new professional degree is “D.M.” for dirt mover). I think Teina helped by wearing really cute shorts to top off her loooooooong legs.

Other things were going on in our absence, too. The lemon grass in our little kitchen garden declared itself leader of the free world.

Lemon Grass

Most puzzling is what became of our thai pepper plant. That it was nibbled to death from the top was no surprise: deer. The question is, what hot-mouthed critter(s) stashed all its peppers under the leaves of a neighboring zuccini plant, and hung out munching down on them??

Pepper Stash

Aside from all those good things, though, it’s been a wee bit tricky landing back here. Have you ever landed in a really small plane? Like a two-seater? They have a wonderful way of wagging their tails as they descend and home in on the runway. And they have a lovely soft bounce or two when they hit. And then roll on in. Coming back to the USA has been like that .. except it really was nothing like that at all. But you know what I mean.

When we went to New Zealand, I knew I would have a period of weirdness adjusting to the five hour time change, the season change, the sun being in the north, miracles like that. And I did. On return, I was going home, and I thought I’d just .. well .. be at home. All normal. But no. After 6 weeks, apparently it had become normal for the sun to rise in the west and set in the east….

At first, once we got back, I did just pop right into the new time, dashed around doing a couple of shopping errands so we had something in the frig. But then the whipsaw change hit me. The time in nz was a magical moment, a bubble of bliss. We spent hours every day for six weeks hanging out playing eating whatever with Matt & Lisa, Rangi & Manu. We never spend that much time with any of the other kids or any friends either. All fun time. It’s intense. It was a honeymoon without the fighting. And then suddenly it’s gone.

Also the moment was magically creative for me. I painted 50 something watercolors in nz! Not huge – the biggest is 24” x 17”, the smallest is 6” x 8” – but 50 of anything is a lot in 44 days!

And then the beach the beach the beach. Everyday. Sheesh!

And it was Spring in nz, suddenly it’s Fall going into Winter! What???

I feel discombobulated. Empty. No creative urge. No beach! It’s disorienting being back in time after a moment of eternity….

Ok, this time I didn’t fall down the stairs and break my wrist as I did within 12 hours of coming back from nz last fall. Achievement! Now maybe I understand better why that happened.