So this is Christmas?
VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Fri 20 Dec 2013 11:07
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Having grown up in northern Europe it is
surprisingly difficult to accept a summer Christmas. The summer itself is easy -
midsummer day on 21 December is no different an experience to midsummer day on
21 June - but to find Christmas happening at the same time is weird. As an
example, here is the Nelson City Brass Band playing Christmas carols on the lawn
at Broadgreen Historic House last Sunday:
 Listening to Jingle Bells, Rudolf the Red
Nosed Reindeer, Silent Night and the rest on a hot summer afternoon under a
cloudless sky seems somehow odd. Refugees from all over the northern hemisphere
who have been here for years tell me that none of them ever get really used to
it. Since Christmas is of course really the European pre-Christian celebration
of the winter solstice, commandeered by the early Church, I guess you could
argue that it properly should be dark, cold and gloomy!
As an aside Broadgreen House is named after
Liverpool Broadgreen to which it bears no discernable resmblance at all. It was
built a man called Buxton who started life in Derbyshire and opened a business
in Liverpool before emigrating to NZ with his six daughters in the
mid-nineteenth century. Miraculously the house and contents have survived almost
intact, and in addition it is now surrounded by a delightful rose garden, seen
here a couple of weeks ago:
 Not only is this open to the public it really is
open to the public: it is not hidden behind a locked gate - there isn't
even a fence. Anyone can walk around the garden, anytime, 24/7/365. Any no
damage of any sort; no graffitti, no broken bottles, no litter, no uprooted
plants. Just a lovely rose garden. Not all of NZ is so perfectly behaved, but
much of it is and the difference from the UK is
sadly marked.
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