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Gareth

@grenow.bsky.social
2.2K followers 2.6K following 2.5K posts

Self-reinvention is a way to stay young, as long as you can remember what you were. I recall being an author, journalist, photographer, truffle grower, climate change writer, magazine editor and publisher, but who can be sure? Born at 313ppm

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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Company during my morning aprication
A hare half sits on the lawn, aware that there’s someone watching.
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Apparently everyone is doing this on the socials, so here's mine. Number nine is my current hot pick.
Nine album covers: Revolver/Beatles, This Is Soul (1968 Stax comp), More/Floyd, Surf's Up/Beach Boys, This Year's Model/Elvis Costello, Hand Of Kindness/Richard Thompson, Creek Drank The Cradle/Iron&Wine, Mutton Birds/Mutton Birds, Age Of Everything/Johnny Marr.
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Waipara River dam scheme halted by urgent need for snacks
Three small children are ankle-deep in a stony river, standing behind the rudimentary beginnings of a dam.
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Said spherical concretion. A bit bigger than a basketball, so no boulder.
A blue grey sphere emerges from the softer clay matrix.
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Here's a bit more of the beach - one of the finest and least visited in North Canterbury, with nice sand and interesting rocks and fossils. If you peer closely at the foot of the clay cliff on the right you can just see a spherical concretion emerging.
MacKintosh Beach on the North Canterbury coast.
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Banks Island from MacKintosh Beach, Waipara, yesterday.
A range of apparently low hills hugs the horizon under a cloud-washed blue sky. The foreground is a sandy beach dotted with stones, and a large piece of driftwood.
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Beach boys (and a girl) #waikuku #thetideishigh
Two boys with spades are constructing a large sandcastle while their cousin dallies with the waves, encouraging them to breach the castle’s defences
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
...until I deployed my defences. Which do at least stop him from leaving beak marks in my helmet (which can be seen below).
A cycle helmet with long cable ties protruding from its back rests on the seat of a bike which is leaning on a fence in front of the iconic Waipara Three Deans hills.
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Evil little bugger. Left beak marks in the back of my bike helmet...
A makipai/magpie in mid swoop against a clear blue sky
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Didn’t last long
The setting sun is lighting the tops of the now snowless Teviot Hills, and the bottoms of cold clouds
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Winter has come calling
The Teviot Hills between Waipara and the sea have a topping of snow
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Intimations of grandeur to come
A wisteria flower bud is engorging and lengthening, beginning the slow reveal of its purple gorgeousness
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Buried at the bottom of Berkeley Earth's just released August temperature update: [There's] a 93% chance that 2026 will become the warmest year on record, driven by the strengthening El Niño and the exceptional ocean warmth of recent months. berkeleyearth.org/august-2026-...
Graph of global temperatures from 1850 to 2026, showing that this year is highly likely to be the hottest ever recorded.
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
If we're going to do blossom, here's something a little out of the ordinary: tagasaste, or tree lucerne, Chamaecytisus proliferus var palmensis. Introduced from the Canary Islands well over a hundred years ago. A legume, so nitrogen fixing. Good as a nurse crop, and as fodder in dry periods.
White tagasaste blossoms and some pea-like seed pods from last summer backlit by strong sun against a dark background.
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Coming soon: the sweet smell of mercaptans.
A close up photograph of a large white dinner plate, upon which can be seen eight thick spears of new season asparagus, accompanied by a third of a family chicken pie of some distinction, a generous pile of beetroot sauerkraut, served with some pickle and mustard.
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I see your cow, and raise a baby cow
A black and white Friesian calf enjoys the evening sun and is blissfully ignorant of schnitzel
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Nekk minnit… the mower engine expired. Such are the joys of spring in a large garden.
We are looking across a freshly mown lawn, resplendently green in the afternoon sun. Two flowering cherries frame the scene, both pink but one almost crimson, the other more of a blush.
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Bloody paparazzi
Two kereru (NZ native pigeons) are wondering why their evening snack is being disturbed by an idiot with a camera.
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Fry me a river…
An image of a BBC news tweet that says “battered Smart car pulled over by police”. It has been retweeted with comment “The Scottish have gone too far this time “.
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Memes gotta meme
It’s the bloke looking at a girl meme, except he’s Canadian looking at a blonde in a Euro t-shirt, while his fat girlfriend bears a striking resemblance to Donald Trump
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Deans and clouds #seenwhilecycling
The ridge of Waipara’s Deans hills is topped by a confection of lenticular clouds on a deep blue sky.
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Grade A grey day
The cloud is so low it’s virtually fog, and it’s raining old women and sticks.
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
A contribution to lunch #brightlights
The brilliant yellow stalks of chard “bright lights”, shortly to be cooked and eaten with porchetta and crunchy potatoes
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
This morning’s animal on the front lawn is a hare.
An alert hare has loped across the front lawn and has paused under a claret ash to make sure I’m not moving.
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
The first of our “summer” truffles presented itself for disinterment today. Not ripe, but ripening, in what is our first week of spring. #tuberaestivum
A small black truffle covered in the large warts characteristic of its species shows a little of its flesh to tempt us, but is sadly not ripe enough to make a good meal.
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Howling Nor’Wester blowing rain over us at the moment.
Dark clouds drop rain but let a little blue sky show through. The hills on the horizon are in sun, but the lawn in front is wet. Swallows swoop (not shown).
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
I can see that coast…
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Slight re-edit. Works better this way. “Incoming”
A magpie intent on frightening the beejesus out of me is dropping out of the sky straight at me
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
This young bird is a really persistent helmet banger. Time to turn the helmet into a hedgehog with some really long cable ties. #cyclinginspring
A magpie begins an aggressive swoop on the photographer, basically dive bombing off a power line.
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
To round out your library, you need to add... www.foragingnz.com/book
The cover of Foraging New Zealand, by Peter Langlands, showing a pair of hands picking a spray of elderflowers
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Blossom, dearie #almond
A cluster of white almond flowers with pollen laden pink stamens is contrasted against a deep blue cloudless sky. Yesterday it rained.
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Shagtastic #waikuku
Kāruhiruhi - Pied shag - Phalacrocorax varius, posing on a branch, not long out of the water.
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
In 2003 Antonio and Priscilla visited Limestone Hills along with a bunch of chef/cook luminaries from NZ and the world after a foodie weekend - Savour NZ - and after he’d cooked porcini for the group he was kind enough to sign our book.
The title page of the aforementioned book, with the inscription “To Gareth and Camille, with gratitude and much love. Antonio Carluccio, 6/5/03.
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
From An Introduction To Italian Cooking, Michael Joseph, 1986
POLLO AL FORNO CON PATATE
Roast Chicken with Potatoes
This homely dish is known in all the regions of Italy. Chicken used to be a Sunday dish, but is now eaten on any day of the week. As this is an easy recipe which does not require much preparation time, it is highly suitable for a weekday meal.
Serves 6
1 roasting chicken weighing 1.5 kg (3 lb)
1 kg (2 lb) medium-sized yellow waxy potatoes
1 onion
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
20 unpeeled cloves garlic
salt and freshly ground black pepper
10 tbs olive oil
Preheat the oven to hot (220°C, 425°F or gas mark 7).
Clean the chicken and cut it up into 12-16 pieces. Peel the potatoes and cut them into quarters, then slice the onion. Put the chicken pieces together with the potatoes into a baking tray, mix together with the sliced onion and the whole rosemary leaves. Season with salt and pepper and pour over the olive oil. Scatter the unpeeled garlic cloves on the top and place in the oven. After 20 minutes, turn the heat down to 190°C (375°F or gas mark 5). During the roasting time, turn the chicken and potatoes over occasionally so that they cook evenly on all sides.
The potatoes should be golden and the garlic crisp after about 1 hour. Serve with salad.
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Italian roast chicken. A Carluccio recipe from the mid-80s, and a family staple for 40 years #sundaylunch
A jointed chicken, golden brown pieces after an hour in a hot oven, surrounded by onions and potatoes, with garlic, rosemary and local olive oil
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
The best description of a visual migraine I’ve ever read…
Two scintillating scotoma events this week. I never get migraines, only this, their logo: a clever little neon staircase which starts as a point source, curves around on itself into a broken circle, then slowly and dignifiedly, across half an hour, expands until it seems to have got bigger than my visual field can contain. At which it might, therefore, be said to have vanished. I’m not sure it has.
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Walking on the euphorbia...
A wasp - probably Vespula germanica, the German wasp - is snacking the flowers of a euphorbia.
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Apricots in prep
Two pinkish white apricot blossoms sidelit by the afternoon sun against a dark background.
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
To thrive or not to thrive, that is the question... richardjmurphy.substack.com/p/do-we-want... #nzpol
We, and especially our politicians, have to decide: do we want to comply with arbitrary, meaningless economic rules, or create well-being for everyone? Stephen Bush’s approach is all about appeasing finance. I want well-being.

Bush wants to constrain the delivery of that well-being by imposing arbitrary financial rules to ensure that happens.

I show that without those self-imposed constraints, we can have what we want.

So, why are we siding against what people want and need? That is the question.
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Not a bad sunset over The Deans tonight.
The sky’s on fire
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Pīwakawaka posing
A fantail keeps an eye on the bloke with the big lens poking in her direction
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Bee Bumble and the Blossoms The wild plums are turning the valley white
The sky is blue, the plum blossom is white, and the bumble bee's black offset with yellow offers a striking contrast
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
That coy “come quack with me” look…
A lady duck has her beak tucked under her wing as if to hide new lipstick of an exciting shade
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Today I be mostly baking sourdough fruit loaf
A freshly baked and urgently sliced sourdough loaf studded with currants, raisins and sultanas giving off a lovely spiced aroma.
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Good night to Waipara’s hills, from Limestone Hills
The pink rays of the setting sun picks out the folds and creases of the Teviot Hills
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Fog blowing away as the southerly begins to pick up #waiparagorge
Low cloud that has been fog is being blown northwards, revealing the blue sky above and fields below
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Our melanistic pīwakawaka is a real poseur... #rAhipidurafuliginosa
A photogenic melanistic pīwakawaka presents its best profile to the photographer, who had to zoom out because she was so close to the camera...A photogenic melanistic pīwakawaka presents its best profile to the photographer, on a different perch.
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Melanistic piwakawaka/fantail posing for pictures #rhipidurafuliginosa
Melanistic piwakawaka/fantail looking quizzically at the photographerMelanistic piwakawaka/fantail posing side on, on a branchMelanistic piwakawaka/fantail showing her best side
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Nos da pawb
The setting sun behind us underlights the clouds over the Waipara valley in a pinkly dramatic way
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Gareth @grenow.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Sunset in Waipara
Sun setting on the snowy slopes of the Teviot Hills in Waipara. It has been a chilly and damp day - the coldest in a long time.
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