You know how something – a dinner table anecdote, an overheard comment, a flicked-past-and-then-lost-forever article on your newsfeed – can capture your imagination? Often, I’ll find myself turning over, pondering and polishing thoughts and daydreams that bear little or no connection, as I potter around the paddocks, to the task I am undertaking. I like to think of it as cerebral freewheeling; that I then immediately register a mental picture of a hugely smiling cartoon brain clutching the handlebars of a bright red, old school Raleigh, little brain-feet raised off the pedals, hair streaming, as it careers down a very steep hill gives you an idea of the calibre of most of this paddock pondering but the thoughts that prompted this missive are, I promise, slightly saner.

Firstly a little background.

The late Isaacs, (Sir) Neil from Timaru, South Canterbury and Devon-born (Lady) Diana, met on an India-bound troopship near the end of the second world war. Married in India in 1946, they may or may not have been instrumental in the construction of the Nagwa Dam (I can’t find anything to absolutely confirm this

but this picture of Lady Diana, courtesy isaacconservation.org.nz, seems to support it) after which they returned to New Zealand and established the earthmoving, road and civil construction company, Isaac Construction. By 1954,they had set up their home and company office on a shingly 5 hectare block on the then outskirts of Christchurch and the contents of their literal backyard came in very useful in their line of business. It still does but their backyard has grown a bit. Both of them being forward thinkers with an eye for environmental issues, it wasn’t long before they started prettying up the resultant pits and voids, waterfilled due to the high water-table, and thus Peacock Springs, an internationally acclaimed quarry reclamation conservation project (now overseen by the Isaac Conservation and Wildlife Trust) was born.

Now, recently one of us heard – and it could all be one of those urban myths – that along with all the amazing conservation projects involving flora, fauna and even heritage buildings, and aside from all their countless philanthropic ventures (the quake-repaired Isaac Theatre Royal for one) the Isaacs also had constructed, at the opposite lake end to the homestead, a holiday home reminiscent of those gracing exotic, flashy lakesides on the other side of the globe. Sometimes, so the story goes, when life got a bit much and a bit of R and R was called for they’d get out their suitcases and repair abroad – totally unreachable by (in those pre-internet days) phone – without leaving home.

And that got me thinking…

At this time of year you need to be pretty rugged up when you set out to do the chores on the Homestead. I spend the earlier part of my mornings progressively discarding layers as the sun climbs higher only to have to rug back up again to partake of my morning coffee in the shaded downstairs kitchen.

Not this week.

This week the I borrowed a leaf out of the Isaac handbook and “jetted off”; somewhere in Europe, I think, with a discrete view of the Alps (Southern) and lots of sunshine.

Morning coffee in the paddock.

Without the jetlag – and dogs are welcome. Babette the cat even came along one of the days.

Cerebral Freewheeling; don’t knock it ’til you try it!