New Zealand Landscaping

     I wanted to write some more about the scenery here.  Imagine gigantic dirt hills.  Not quite mountains, but very large hills.  Now, picture even larger blankets of thick sod with dark green grass.  Now, take the sod and lay it gently over the huge dirt hills, but crinkle it up in many places, so it looks imperfect.  The sod blanket should definitely be wrinkled and crumpled, and it should be in unexpected places sometimes.  When finished with that, choose a crazy variety of trees and place them wherever.  Choose from evergreens, a wide assortment of normal-ish leafy-looking trees, big palm-looking trees, and more than a few freaky symmetrical trees that look just like fake plastic Christmas trees.  Place them everywhere.  Clump trees that look alike together in some places, but mix some of the different trees together in multiple places, too.  

     Now, it's time to make some natural fences.  Plant some of the evergreen type trees in straight lines, very closely packed together, preferably where you would like a fence or a boundary of some sort.  Let the branches grow and entangle tightly together, so closely that it's impossible to see through them.  Shave those trees into enormous hedges that act just like fences.  Make some of them ten feet tall, but make most of them over 20 feet tall.

Throw in a few rusty brown rocks here and there.  A creek is necessary, too.  Or, you can choose a wider river, but not too often.  

     We are almost done.  It's time for the sheep and the cows.  We'll need more sheep than cows.  Put the sheep everywhere.  As I mentioned before, many sheep are on the sides of hills, even extremely steep hills.  Put some in the flat spaces, too, though.  In some places, put hundreds of sheep together.  In other places, put just a dozen or so.  For fun, put just one sheep alone in one area.  There.  That's about it.  You can do the same with the cows, but the ratio should be 3 sheep to 1 cow. We now have the New Zealand landscape.

     The only thing missing is the depressingly gray skies (my opinion as a New Mexican).  It is fall here, but the sun shows up about as often as the cows compared to the sheep.  Every once in a while, let the sun come out to warm things up, but do not let it stay out for more than two hours.  Make sure the sun is also very low in the sky.  It should feel slightly claustrophobic to get it right.  Make it rain or mist for the majority of the day.  The moisture can stop when the sun comes out.  If it is not raining, it should at least be misty or extremely humid and foggy.  

     James has now moved into a nap position on the longer charcoal gray couch, so I have managed to outlast them all.  He is not napping, however; he is looking at videos on his phone.  I am tired, though, so it's time for a break.

Until next time...