It’s been a long time coming, but it feels like winter now. How fascinating that the ice crystals form on the leaf margins, giving them furry little halos. I wish I had a more suitable camera for capturing the frost fairy’s handiwork. We just passed the shortest day here, but that would be about the equivalent of December 21 at home….the end of winter isn’t even in view.
Even with a chilly start to the day, it always rises above freezing. In the sun, it can be downright nice. Good thistle whacking weather. I was skipping around feeling pretty cheeky about winter so far–but then I realized that winter hadn’t actually begun. There’s a finance guy at work who wears pin-striped shirts and pointy shoes, but he doesn’t even have a heat pump in his house. “Heat pumps” are the kiwi answer to central heat–a machine that heats at least one central room. He’s the driver of a BMW with heated seats, you’d think he would install in-home heating, but no. It’s a mentality, not a lack of resources.
We don’t normally sleep with full winter garb, even in our chilly NZ winter house. Naomi fell asleep on the way back from a playground morning, and I figured the extra layers wouldn’t hurt. It will buffer her from the startling cold when she awakes.
Give It A Burl 
Are you sensing climate change in New Zealand? Will home heating have to become a reality like air conditioning is becoming one in Alaska? I’m hearing more & more often about the melting permafrost and cooling islands. What do you hear?
That picture on Naomi makes me so sad. It’s just ridiculous that any home could be cold enough that a child doesn’t over heat dressed in that many layers. I’m feeling fortunate that we haven’t spent a winter there yet. I think I’d loose my mind! Let’s modernize some homes New Zealand!
Love the pic of frost fairy’s work. I’m a cold weather person; yesterday was hot, muggy and sticky here – today promises more of same. blah. No matter the season, you capture the beauty of New Zealand in your photos; those of sweet Naomi and little man Milo are an added bonus 🙂
Would be interesting to hear what they are saying about climate change there. I recall my friend Oren Lyons (Onondaga Nation) telling me 40 years ago that “there will come a time, not too far off, when the ice will melt…what will become of the polar bears?…” etc. Native peoples have been prophesying this for as long as I’ve been alive (and probably much longer) but no one listened. There’s always hope. We do what we can.
Stay warm and well.