Winter has mostly been on the mild side, though here in the
valley there’ve been plenty of morning frosts.
Wineries and gardeners are concerned that the lack of persistent cold
means that bugs that would otherwise perish are still surviving and will thrive
even more when it warms up. Perhaps
they’re worried too soon. The local ski
field (Rainbow) has just received its first significant dumping of snow, so
winter is definitely not yet done with us. The photo above (sorry for all the sunsets) was taken from the school bus stop looking out of the valley. The small glistening patch is the Onamalutu River winding its way towards the Wairau.
I’ve spent a week at Greymouth, working in the maternity unit
and catching up with some good West Coast folk.
The ward was unusually quiet this time, no near catastrophes on my watch
– a pleasant change at last. The weather
wasn’t too bad either, which made the travel to and fro quite pleasant. This delightful sunset was on my first
evening there, and taken from a viewing point just round the corner from where
I was staying (courtesy of the West Coast DHB).
Back home, most of my outdoor time has been consumed by
clearing the woodchip paths in the vege garden. Most of the weeds have seeded and grown on top of the weedmat, but in a few places the more persistent undermat weed roots have well and truly woven themselves into the mat. If only my sewing was so good. The most well-trodden routes have composted
beautifully and almost completely, and this lovely dark soil has been
painstakingly scooped up and transported by wheelbarrow, mostly to the orchard,
but also to top up some of the horse arena beds. Some of these beds were quite short of organic
materials when they were set up, and it’s great to be able to put this rich matter
to good use. So far, I’ve done most
Winter veges are still feeding us, though supplies are
dwindling and there’s not much growth in those that are left. The fruit trees are bare and have received
Derryn’s magical pruning touch. She’s
like Mrs Scissor-Hands, snipping and chopping away while I follow in her wake. It takes me 5 minutes to agonise about a
decision to cut one branch. I did have a go with the plumcot (in the photo) and the 2
pear trees that mark the entrance to the vege garden, hacking off branches and
tying down some of the remaining ones to make them ‘dance’. Derryn thinks they look fine (phew) and hopefully,
so will Chris, our old garden tutor, as she looks down from her heavenly abode.
The chooks have been temporarily re-confined to barracks after being caught red-handed in the vege garden. They made a beeline for Karyn’s bed, so it was tempting to turn a blind eye! We’ve started re-releasing them again, but usually only later in the day. They’ve done a pretty good job of spreading the woodchip compost around the orchard trees as well, so maybe their free-ranging days are numbered.
We’ve finally made a decision about what to do with the
patch of land behind the pump-shed. My
idea of a triangle-shaped hut was poo-pooed by Peter in favour of his pond
concept. It is an obvious place for a
pond, and means that we can even out the ground a little so it doesn’t go
downhill. The pond liner is ordered, and
we’ll use some rocks salvaged from around the house to build up the area. Having spent months trying to decide what
tree to put in there, I’d finally succumbed to a bargain-bucket cider apple
tree (a Cidre Bisquet) that begged me to buy it. It’s planted and staked, and will now be able
to provide some summer shade to the new pond. 
Sometime ago our neighbours asked if we wanted some bluebell bulbs that they have in zillions. They recently brought some around and we got them planted up in the orchard, at the shady end along the driveway. We plan to get round to expanding the numbers of bulbs from their huge supply. We have fond memories of bluebell woods in England, and even fonder memories of Peter's mum loving them. It should end up as a treasured reminder of her.
Leggy and the ewes are still munching their way around the property. We’ve been feeding them with ‘sheep nuts’ in the hope of taming them before they start lambing. If they start lambing that is. They’re not exactly looking laden with lambs, but we’re still hopeful that they might be pregnant. They do love the sheep nuts, and can be quite demanding when you go out in the morning, and at any other time they think they’re in with a chance of a feed.
Billy is slowly getting on with driving. He’s been driving the ute around the paddock,
but after having a proper lesson with a driving instructor, has decided that
the ute really is a sod to drive. We’ll
insure him in our (automatic) family car so at least he can get some experience
on the road. He’s keen to get his own
car, but that will require a job first, so maybe it’ll be a while…
Derryn’s been brewing kombucha. When her ‘scoby’ was big enough to divide,
she gave half to me. It’s now busy
looking disgusting in a glass jar on the bench.
So far it’s green tea kombucha, but if I can keep it alive, then I’ll
progress onto honey kombucha (jun). I do
have form on the fermentation front at least - not only in the form of wines,
but I’ve also managed to keep kefir grains alive and kicking for several months
now. Here’s hoping…
All up, it’s a quiet time on the farming calendar. We’ll be booking in another few tonnes of lime sometime over the next few weeks. Otherwise there’s little to do on the paddocks beyond feeding out hay to the cows. The sheep can help themselves to hay but aren’t really very keen. Scooping up the woodchip from the vege garden paths, re-weed-matting and covering with pea metal should save us precious weeding time in the long run, but is already taking up a huge chunk of the available winter outdoor time. There’s never a now-what-shall-I-do moment, which I tell myself is a real blessing. How lucky we are to have things to do all the time and not get bored! Of course there are definitely moments when a bit of boredom wouldn’t be a bad thing, but this country living lark still isn’t bad at all. Just ask the cows.
