Rae Roadley

Author's details

Name: Rae Roadley
Date registered: January 10, 2012

Biography

Rae is a journalist, freelance writer and writing tutor. Soon after returning to her hometown to work for Northland's daily newspaper, she met beef and sheep farmer Rex Roadley. He lived in a historic home at Batley on the Kaipara Harbour and after moving there, Rae reported on farming then wrote a newspaper column, The Country Side. Her wryly amusing tales of country life earned many followers and led her to learn more about the local people, past and present. She tells the story of her new life in 'Love at the End of the Road: Finding my heart in the country'.

Latest posts

  1. Rooting for the Kaipara Harbour — July 11, 2017
  2. It was a dark and stormy night — September 6, 2016
  3. Spark staff plant the Kaipara coastline — June 13, 2016
  4. Floss plays just for the fun of it — September 24, 2015
  5. Notebook made with love and a bit of Batley House — September 1, 2015

Author's posts listings

Dec 05

Zana Bell – NZ author

Categories:

Authors and guests, Rae's Blog

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Zana Bell’s latest novel Close to the Wind is a playful romp that takes its characters across the world, from Britain to New Zealand. It’s fun, funny and meticulously researched – I know this because a while back Zana was querying how long it would take to travel by horseback from Christchurch to Dunedin, in …

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33 comments

Nov 19

Freedom campers need to play by the rules

Categories:

Rae's Blog, Random rural yarns, Seabirds and environment

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I hadn’t thought ‘lightly’ and ‘politely’ could be interchangeable until a letter from a rental vehicle company proved that, indeed, this is so. We share a Kaipara beach with ‘no camping’ signs which were ignored by some freedom campers I met during a preprandial wander. The couple, whose van had been parked all day, were …

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Oct 29

Passersby get bearings wrong

Categories:

Farming with the farmer, Rae's Blog, Random rural yarns, Uncategorized

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Spring has sprung, the grass has ris’, daffodils are blooming and lambs have bloomin’ popped out everywhere. But unfortunately it’s not always a lamb that pops out but what farmers call a ring or bearing. In fact, it’s a prolapsed vagina. The farmer reckons about three of his sheep a year suffer this misfortune which, …

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Jul 24

Floss’s Bark: Skirting around farm gear

Categories:

Dogs, Floss's Bark, Rae's Blog, Random rural yarns

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A Blog by my Dog. Dear Readers, My boss recently went on a cattle moving mission dressed like a real girlie girl – and being a female, I’m qualified to comment. Oh, the shame! I was, of course, wildly excited when cattle broke through a fence and got onto the beach. Not only is this …

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2 comments

Jul 08

Slimy brown scum – it has a name

Categories:

Farming with the farmer, Rae's Blog, Random rural yarns, Seabirds and environment

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Anticipating cultured conversation after a local theatre performance, we retired to the bar for a night cap. But as this is a rural area, talk was all about an entirely different type of culture – a strange gooey, gunky and shiny brown growth. I’d first spotted it while being a marshal for the Rally of …

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140 comments

Jun 11

Meet Fearless Fred and author Maureen Sudlow

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Authors and guests, Rae's Blog

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When Maureen Sudlow asked me to review her children’s book, Fearless Fred and the Dragon, this is what I had to say: “Children will be amused and engaged when they meet Fearless Fred who, wearing tinfoil armour, sets off to fight a snorting dragon. Told in rhyming couplets and featuring repetition that will delight younger …

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4 comments

May 27

The learner gardener – just do it

Categories:

Rae's Blog, Random rural yarns

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Here’s a gentle plea to all those passionate people who exhort the rest of us to grow our own food – kindly stop insisting it’s all such jolly good fun. These gardeners – who you’ve seen on telly and read about in newspapers and magazines – gush and enthuse and rave and chortle. Gardening is …

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5 comments

May 10

Talking to the animals

Categories:

Farming with the farmer, Rae's Blog, Random rural yarns

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At a seminar about the challenges farmers face when employing staff, the farmer turned to me and whispered, “This is why I work with animals.” When you work with animals, you don’t need to talk to them and if you do, it doesn’t make a jot of difference to their behaviour. When he moved sheep …

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4 comments

Apr 15

Male cows? A lot of bull

Categories:

Farming with the farmer, Rae's Blog

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I’d just made morning coffee for a visitor when I spotted cattle meandering down the road. The visitor agreed to help return them to their paddock, saying he’d seen them on the road and, in retrospect, should have mentioned them. Townie, I thought. And, he said, he’d have sworn they were cows. Townie, I thought. …

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2 comments

Mar 15

Moving feisty bulls – green exercise

Categories:

Farming with the farmer, Rae's Blog

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My fitness programme – moving cattle every other day – is apparently ‘green exercise’, not because grass is involved but because it serves a purpose. However, like other fitness programmes, I soon didn’t want to do this one either. After turning off the power, I’d pin down the electric fence in the technosystem and step …

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2 comments

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