Words, birds, a unicorn and Rosie

    I need more words.
    I was sitting on the back porch this morning with a cup of coffee watching an uncertain gray sky turn to brilliant blue as the wind swept the clouds away and it occurred to me that I need more words, or better words, to describe New Zealand.
    I have a lot of words, have spent a lifetime collecting them in fact, but they all seem inadequate these days. The brilliant greens of the forests, the startling colors of the ocean, the wild scenery that can take your breath away... how best to describe them? There must be words out there I have not yet come across that, if I can only find them, will help me paint pictures in paragraphs of how incredibly beautiful this country is.
    I'll keep looking.
                                                                 ............
    I saw a unicorn today.
    She was about four feet tall from the floor to the tip of her horn, walked on two legs with the calm assurance of someone who knows that, while the world may be a dangerous place for her kind, nothing bad can happen when you're holding onto your mom's hand.
    "It's not every day that you see a unicorn, especially in the Countdown," I said as she and her mom drew near.
    Her mom laughed.
    "That's true," she said, "but when you do it's supposed to be lucky."
    "That's what they say," I replied, "and I believe it."
    I watched as she and her unicorn-costume-wearing daughter headed for the vegetable aisle and thought that one of the best things about being a kid is that you can dress up like a fantastic horse with a sparkly horn and go to the grocery store without feeling the least bit uneasy, anxious or out of place.
    I wonder, sometimes, why, as we grow older, we lose that easy assurance that the world will accept us just as we are and, instead, try so very hard to be something we are not.
                                                           ............
    Rosie Dunn smiled at me today.   
    You may not know who Rosie Dunn is if you don't live or work in Lower Hutt, New Zealand but she is the champion checkout operator in this country.
    It's true.
    She won the title earlier this year at a competition in Wellington and there's a big sign in the window asking you to say congratulations when you see her. She stopped by my checkout line to authorize a purchase when I noticed her name tag: Rosie.
    "Are you THE Rosie?" I asked.
    She smiled; it was a beautiful smile that fairly sparkled.
    "I am," she said.
    "Congratulations," I said.
    She smiled again.
    "Thank you," she said.
    New Zealanders are a little different from the rest of us in some subtle ways including the fact that they (a) seem to take their work seriously and (b) they know how to accept a compliment with grace.
    Rosie Dunn is the best checkout operator in the country and that's something she worked hard to be. When I congratulated her she didn't act embarrassed or roll her eyes or say she was lucky.
    She smiled and said "thank you."
    And because she did, my day was made just a little bit better.
                                                  ............

    This house, surrounded by a forest, is a haven for someone like me who takes great delight in watching birds.
    There is a wide variety of birds that live in the trees near by: They range from the New Zealand Pigeon, which is very striking in color and pretty big, as pigeons go, to the Tui, with its distinctive white pouch on its neck and white-striped wings. There are also Barbary Doves, Pipits, Whiteheads, Grey Warblers and even Sparrows as well as assorted Wrens and Finches. They don't seem to be bothered by the presence of human beings - which might say a lot about New Zealanders - and they don't usually fly off when I step out onto the porch to watch them.
    They are, however, extremely camera shy.
    I know this because the birds and I can exist in perfect harmony as long as I'm sitting down and even when I stand up and start walking. As soon as I raise a camera to my eye, however, they are off in a flurry of wings and what I can only assume are scolding calls.
    The result: Except for photos of some seagulls at assorted beaches, and we all know what hams they are, I only have photos of two kinds of birds so far. One is a picture of a goldfinch that I took more than a month ago and the others are of this New Zealand Pigeon shot through the kitchen window.

These pigeons are huge and beautifully marked.

They also tend to be camera shy so these photos were shot from the kitchen window.