My quilting thoughts and inspirations sprinkled with a glimpse of life down on the farm

Saturday, August 8, 2026

The Winterless North

(Day 8 of  my August blogpost a day challenge)
Northland, the top part of New Zealand, where we live, is often called the Winterless North. Many laugh at that description as winters can sometimes be a bit soggy and it still feels very much like winter. But we have what's called a 'subtropical' climate with 'warm humid summers and 'mild wet' winters.
That all changed this week when a Polar Blast hit the country. Snow in all sorts of places, and heavy (ish) frosts here in Northland. It's been a few years since we've had a decent frost.
So I had ice in my feeders (they hang on the gate/fence outside the pens) and a lovely white landscape for a few hours.

What was rather funny was taking Odie to school on the first frosty day....quite possibly a lot of these Northland kids had never really seen a decent frost before and the buzz was unimaginable. Such a lot of excited chatting and stories. One little girl showed me her bowl of snow she'd brought from home (!) and another wee chap told an extraordinary story about his dad covering his hair with orange juice, then rubbing his head on the ground and ending up with frozen orange ice blocks on his head!!!
Friends of mine in cooler climes would have rolled their eyes at the excitement!
Nothing like what was happening down south but it's all relative isn't it?!

This morning while feeding calves, my phone flipped out of my pocket (I thought I'd closed the snap but obviously not!). 
After a fair bit of hunting -it was on silent so I couldn't ring it- I finally found it —
It must have tipped out when I leant over to move these calves around the feeder- and then nicely trampled by them while feeding! —

'til next time,
happy stitches,
Raewyn 

14 comments:

  1. The children get excited when we have the first snow in the northern hemisphere in late autumn. By January everyone is over the excitement and ready for spring.

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  2. The story of frozen orange ice blocks is hysterical. I think there might be quite an imagination there. The phone doesn’t look too promising.

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  3. It was a bit nippy wasn't it. Warmer today with the rain.

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  4. What fun for the kids. I remember well a similar experience of ice on the puddles at the side of the road.

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  5. It's not only kids who get excited with snow. I remember when was about 16 and together with boyfriend walked up hills in Upper Hutt to reach the snow, my first time! Such fun, and all worth the effort.

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  6. It is rare to have weather like that there. I wonder when the last time previous was?
    Blogger friend Amy in Westport had left a bucket of water in her garden and woke to a good thickness of ice at the top!

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  7. The children do love a frosty morning.

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  8. A lovely crisp frost can be so pretty. I take it the phoen did not survive? x

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  9. Nothing like a nice frost and the crunching sound under your shoes. Not so good the iced windscreen as you're running late for work! Lovely calves. Hope the phone survived the encounter

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  10. It so funny to see different areas enjoying these scenes. It’s so nice to see this but I’m not sure I would enjoy living it. Hope your phone survived

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  11. Was your phone ok? Have not seen a frost like that for a while, have not heard of the orange blocks either!!

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  12. Looks very chilly with all the hail . Sounds like the kids enjoyed telling story about it.
    Hope your phone survived.
    M

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  13. Brrrr! That is really cold. I must admit it is a long time since I have had a frost where I live.
    I hope your phone was okay after all that excitement.

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