Betsy Devine: Funny ha-ha and/or funny peculiar

Uplifting (or maybe "no uplifting) message

Originally uploaded by betsythedevine

You’ve heard of homing pigeons, but how about re-homing chickens?

I bet you never realized–I surely never did–that this could become an issue of public concern, with its own official signage and Actionline phone.

Last night, this warning in a small (one block) green space just north of Auckland, New Zealand, gave us yet more evidence, just in case we needed any, that the world is indeed very different in different places.

New Zealand tree ferns

Originally uploaded by betsythedevine

There are many bits of New Zealand that pleasantly echo English village lifestyles in old cozy backstories of Angela Thirkell or Dame Agatha Christie.

But this is another country, with its own skies and climates and trees and flowers and amazing birds.

And its own (at least in Palmerston North) charming semi-tropical living spaces, white breezy one-story houses set among gardens with dark, shady paths.

Did I happen to mention that I like Palmerston North?

Beautiful view from breakfast

Originally uploaded by betsythedevine

I have been asked to blog some fine New Zealand landscapes.

Our first morning in Palmerston North, I saw something amazing without even getting up from our motel breakfast table.

Palm trees? umbrella tables? blue summer sky (which doesn’t come through in this photo)?

What took my breath away was the wide, wide open door. Yes, I am in a place now where people indoors enjoy full contact with the warm breeze coming from outdoors.

I love January in Palmerston North!

Biker chicks banner

Originally uploaded by betsythedevine

This morning I almost got fined $200 for packing undisclosed broccoli!

Yes, Frank and I are in transit again. Out of Boston at 8 a.m. Saturday to San Francisco (6 hour flight, 7 hour layover) to Auckland, New Zealand (13 hour flight, 4 hour layover), and soon onward to Massey University in Palmerston North.

I’m sitting typing this blogpost in Auckland Airport, where, as we picked up our baggage to go through customs, a cute little bio-contam-sniffing beagle got very excited about my carry-on bag!

I couldn’t imagine what she was sniffing–the past aroma of Frank’s lunch sandwich of lox? The beagle kept begging to look inside my mini-suitcase, and her very nice female handler had to check.

And guess what? I had packed our toothbrushes in a used plastic grocery bag that had still inside it two fragments of broccoli!!!

The beagle got several treats for finding my broccoli, and they very kindly let me off with laughter and warnings.

Travelers everywhere, do you know where your broccoli is?

A bit more “wisdom” if you should ever follow in our crazy footsteps:

1) Both BOS and SFO airports have TMobile wifi. I bought a 24-hour Tmobile pass in Logan and was able to keep using the same pass in SFO. Better yet, I was able to put my computer to sleep and then let Frank use the account to go online with his computer.

2) Among the things New Zealand wants to know about if you have them–hiking boots or other camping equipment. They worry about your bringing in dirt on the treads.

3) A 13-hour flight is much more comfortable than a 7-hour flight in some ways–you have real time to sleep, for one thing. And I love Air New Zealand!

1958 dog party, part 2.

Originally uploaded by betsythedevine

“My phone doesn’t have a business model. Neither does my porch. I still like having a phone and a porch because they help me meet new people and communicate with people I know. Same with my blog and podcast.”

That’s a quote from Dave Winer…thanks, Dave, and not least for sending me back to this old Flickr porch photo of mine, a dog birthday party, 1958 or thereabouts. Here’s a better photo of the same party.

My mother holds a tray of raw hamburger to treat our neighborhood dogs, because my mostly-spaniel Suzy was having a birthday.

Yes, in those innocent days before Big Agriculture discovered that cows could be fed plastic pellets and ground-up carrion, nobody had yet invented “mad cow disease.”

I guess that’s a digression–but hey, that is my blogging model!

Comcast goes out to lunch asks me to hold

Originally uploaded by betsythedevine

I have been waiting online two hours for a Comcast chat service person.

Fortunately, I have lots of work to do at my computer while I wait.

Higher than usual service times? I hope so. I started off as “No. 2 in the queue” and after an hour graduated to my current status as No. 1.

La la la. Still waiting.

Comcast customer service is “No. 2” in my book!

Powdered-sugar world

Originally uploaded by betsythedevine

These NH trees got covered with a dusting of powder snow. The air is so cold that any breeze blows up a puff of fine snow from tree branches. It glitters in the sunlight like Tinkerbell’s fairy dust.

Wish my picture could show that sparkle and shine.

Any rational person knows that this stuff is going to end up on the road as dangerous brown slippery goo. But oh, when that powder flies, the effect is still pure magic.

The Infamous House of Lights

Originally uploaded by stomptokyo

Picture this picture half an acre wide.

One of the most amazing Christmas displays in the USA — I think that’s what NBC said, or maybe it was People Magazine.

• Half a million lights…
• 118 electric trains running round in meshed circles…
• Reindeer(s) and wise men and big glowing plastic Virgin Mary statues set off, in a warm-hearted way, by Biblical texts about the importance of Jesus.

All on half an acre of St. Petersburg, Florida, lit up like…see title above for (I think) the right metaphor.

Florida? Yes, for a few days…

Part of the mesh and mismatch of a year of travel is that even when “home” there are places we have to go, family we can’t miss seeing. So, somehow more travel breaks into our Christmas break, three weeks long, between home-from-Stockholm and headed-out-to-New-Zealand, quickly to be followed by four-months-in-Oxford.

I’m on my annual and always delightful visit to my little sister in Florida. And last night after dinner she and Bill asked if I would enjoy “some Christmas lights.” Maybe I should have guessed from their smiles as we headed off that they were planning to surprise the houseguest from understated New England.

And they sure did!

But sadly, I can’t surprise you with my own many photos of St. Pete’s famous or infamous House of Lights–which has its own website at ChristmasDisplay.org. My camera-to-computer cable got left at home. Thanks to StompTokyo (and to Flickr’s “Blog This” button) for this panorama to give at least some sense of scope.

Christmas melancholy and relief

Originally uploaded by betsythedevine

The presents have been unwrapped–the wonderful, wonderful presents you see in this picture from my childhood, two huge dolls and a dollhouse we’re going to share. As you can see also, the Devine kids are exhausted, having been up with our stockings and anticipation since long before dawn.

It’s interesting that my father decided to save forever this moment of Christmas melancholy from the late 1950s.

If you look closely, our ninety-something year-old Aunt Harriet wears a quite different expression – maybe satisfaction? The shopping and cooking and organizing are over at last and perhaps very soon even grownups can have a nap.

In more recent news, sorry about the light blogging. Frank and I were both laid low by a completely miserable post-travel cold. But like Aunt Harriet, we feel relieved and happy that we still managed to spend one more family Christmas with our wonderful family.

Home for Christmas

Originally uploaded by betsythedevine

Oh how beautiful it was to be home in Boston, as we stood in the cold waiting for a late taxi, under big flakes of snow slowly falling down through the night air.

We got home late December 20, after many delays caused by the third day of Boston snowfall this week.

And today is the shortest day of the year. I plan to enjoy some of these long winter nights sleeping off my jetlag.