IN MY BACKYARD

A TOUCH OF ITALY

Howick Local Board’s chair Adele White on her happy place, her favourite retreat in Whitford.

The most wonderful thing about my backyard is the peace and privacy it brings especially during the last few years in public facing jobs.

It has an Italian country flavour stemming from the love of my Italian heritage and borders a long stretch of beautiful New Zealand native bush.

I especially enjoy wandering around our small acreage early in the morning, often in my pj’s, to see what has grown, and to enjoy the fresh air. property shared with our cats and some heritage hens. We have many feathered visitors including pheasants, tui, kereru, rosellas, hawks, kingfishers and herons.

We grow vegetables, and whatever fruit we can get before the possums raid it, and annually produce a nice show of fragrant spring flowers – some of which find their way indoors.

As a marriage celebrant, it has given me great pleasure to marry a number of couples in our garden – offering it to them when they haven’t found the right place to exchange their marriage vows.

“It has an Italian country flavour stemming from the love of my Italian heritage and borders a long stretch of beautiful New Zealand native bush.”