Courtyard

I think my favourite thing about the cowshed is the courtyard. I have always wanted to live around a courtyard and whenever I am visualising my dream home there it is, with sun, plants, a water feature... The courtyard here reminds me of my Aunt Janet's place (which enchanted me as a child visiting the Ozarks) where at least three trailer homes circled around a swimming pool. Here, the cowshed, the barn and two caravans surround a square of hot sunshine with a concrete water trough with gold fish. Yesterday I put my sun oven out in the courtyard and cooked potatoes for lunch (steamed, then dressed in lemon, oil and thyme) and dahl and rice for dinner.

Other highlights from my first day as a Northland resident include: a remarkably painless and apparently successful attempt to lay out the text of 'Karori' using Adobe InDesign, which has only given me very tight shoulders on previous encounters. Getting very hot and sweaty while cleaning the kitchen and then, oh joy, Vikki took me for a swim in the sea. Heavenly. And I finished my day with a dusk walk around Pataua South which can only be reached from North by a footbridge, utterly peaceful.