Art Peekel

I had the best intention! Really! Thought I'd post a blog every other day or so while here in New Zealand. Well, at least a couple times a week. Now it's nearly a month since my arrival, and I'm just getting around to posting my first blog. UGH! My problem, if you ask me, is thinking too big. While in Buenos Aires and especially Costa Rica I wrote very long blogs. As anyone, my guess is, who has ever written a serious, thoughtful blog can tell you, it takes considerable time. I'd often write a draft, then rewrite it several times before the final edit. In a recent conversation over Skype, a friend suggested I write shorter blogs. That seemed so simple, but really struck me as a brilliant idea. She went on to say that once I got into the swing of things I just might find myself writing more often. Hey, sounds like a plan to me. So, I'm giving it a go! Slight hitch in the plan. Helen and Henry, the couple who own the place where I am house sitting, arrived home from their two-month holiday in Europe yesterday afternoon--as I was typing the previous paragraphs. And so I had to stop. Now it's Thursday morning. Couldn't get back to this blog before now because the three of us talked constantly until we went to bed last night. More about that some other time. But soon I will be invited to join them for breakfast. That means I'll have to stop again. Probably won't write much more. If I wait to post this, who knows how long it will be. Before closing, let me just say how grateful I am to Helen and Henry for permitting me to stay in their home and to Diana, my new friend back in Palatine, who introduced me to them and several other friends of hers here in New Zealand. As I have written in emails I have sent out over the past four weeks, I keep pinching myself. This country and it's people are wonderful. My experiences have been more memorableo than I ever dreamed. Please stay tuned. G'day, mates!