June 2023

                                                                            Winter has definitely arrived, with its frosty mornings and blue skies interspersed with days of rain.  It takes hours for the morning mist to evaporate on frosty mornings, and the ground frost can persist longer in shady zones.  Hard to believe it's the shortest day already.  

          

The herb garden along the garage is nearly clear and I have long-term plans to get rid of it altogether and widen the path, possibly planting an agapanthus hedge or something that won't need much care.  A new home can easily be found for the current herbs.  The wisteria and Granny Smith Apple tree are sporting serious haircuts, and the scented jasmine by the sleepout door is tamed. The flower garden beds have died back enough to clear out the dead stems and seed heads.  Roses have been pruned, this time by me.  I've cut them back so hard that even Karyn didn't criticise (much).  Limbs from trees of all sizes have been neatly sawn off with my trusty Stihl pruning saw, including the copper beech that is growing fast despite its proximity to the large tulip tree.  All the garden zones around the house are now ready to receive their winter blanket of lucerne straw.  That's not a quick job alas.  

                                                        

Though it's mid-winter, there are some colourful gems to be found among the dead or dying foliage.  White winter hellebore flowers are hiding behind brown stumps, and there is even a single white NZ iris flower braving the cold, alongside a couple of pink Sweet Williams.  The succulent houseleeks are also sporting one pink bloom.  More added colour comes from the bright red pyracantha berries that the birds are eating their way through.       

                

The vege garden is clear except for the carrot/beetroot crops.  I've done the dastardly weed spray deed and am just waiting for the remaining hardy weeds to die off before applying the weed mat and carpet.  That's an even bigger job than the straw application and will necessitate a trip or two to a local carpet store to raid unwanted offcuts from their bins. The raised beds in the horse arena are also cleared and the whole area looks pretty empty and barren, a far cry from its usual level of abundant growth.  The fruit trees in there are all savagely pruned, including reducing the height of some of the bigger ones - the entrance pears, crab apple, fig (again) and peachcot.  The step-over espaliered apples have never been pruned so starkly - I'm keeping my fingers crossed it's cure not kill.  Karyn has been gifted the 'pleasure' of pruning the feijoa tree now that it's finished fruiting.  Let's hope she leaves something behind,

 The orchard too has received its 'big prune'.  Karyn came to help and was given free rein to remove any branch that offended her in some way.  Peter helped out with his chain saw on the bigger branches, and our pruning saws did the rest.  Heaps of wood was removed and has now been cleared onto a big bonfire pile that is awaiting some dry weather.  Branches big enough for firewood were chopped up and have been stacked.  A sample of each of those branches was labeled and put aside so we can see how the wood ages and what crafts they can potentially be used for.  Mostly this wood is a beautiful orange colour, with the exception of the mulberry (centre of pic).   

The bee colony is still going strong and has been properly wintered down.  The plan is to take this hive to Jane's place so that she can look after it with her hive and not have to travel here.  Her place is just over 1km away - not ideal but still the best option.  We're hoping that shifting it in the middle of winter will mean that there won't be many foraging bees to get disorientated.

                 

The cows and sheep are tolerating the winter weather without enthusiasm, especially when it's wet.  They get daily (or twice daily for Nike, Kratos, and Triton) hay, and there's still grass to graze.  The ewes tend to stay together as a flock, except occasionally the 2 black ones separate and do their own thing.  Kratos is the same - dodgy legs getting up but when he's up he can even run when he wants to.  He still feeds from his mum and seems to be growing OK.  Triton manages to get a feed from Nike too, though always from behind. 

                 

Billy is settling in Perth, yet to be gainfully employed but probably not far away.  Sam and Molly came up for a weekend for Sam to rehearse with the local Marlborough District Brass Band.  He'll be back again in a couple more weeks.  He's recently been touring the north of the South Island and will be heading to Switzerland for their Tattoo in July.  Laura has moved to Christchurch with the aim of getting an office job rather than working from home.  Lucas has recently started a new job with an Auckland employer which should mean he'll be able to just work from home doing ordinary hours rather than the extended hours he did as a contractor.  Peter is counting off the days until retirement in August.  A friend of Billy's, Josh, will move into the house while we're away, bringing his own livestock (miniature cattle).  Hopefully, this house-sitting arrangement will work well for us all.  I'm still working on securing an Australia job, should be sorted soon though.  I've been invited to present at the GOLD Midwifery online conference in 2024, so preparation for that will have to be shoe-horned in somehow.

Crap-clearing and general maintenance of the house are in full flow.  Lots of stuff, even books, have gone to re-cycling places, and some have been binned.  Long-standing quirks with the house are being addressed, especially those related to lighting and security that we have been ignoring for years.  Karyn has found a temporary home for the (too many) houseplants in a Pilates studio in town.  It feels like plans for our Australian adventure are coming together and it's starting to feel exciting.  Our prior UK holiday plans are also shaping up too, with most of the complex things like accommodation bookings already pre-booked.  Adventure here we come!  It remains to be seen whether we'll be desperate to return to this lifestyle block life or pursue other life paths.  I can't see us as City Slickers, but maybe we'll be ready to embrace some kind of change.  Meanwhile we'll continue to put up with living in paradise. 

May 2023

 Lots has been happening in the last 2 months, very little of it related to lifestyle blocking.  Nick's worsening health in the UK meant that I made a decision to return to ole Blighty to spend some time with him.  I flew out at Easter and stayed for the rest of April.  Mostly I stayed with mum and Nick, with a brief break in Yorkshire.  April's blog was duly abandoned.

                                                       

York was its usual beautiful self, daffodils on the city wall banks just passing their peak.  Spring bluebells were just coming on.  The train station held happy memories of my first date with Peter, and the Minster was resplendent in the morning sun.  I enjoyed long walks with Dennis, Hag's delightful collie/lab puppy, and of course, the usual volume of alcohol (lots).  

 When I returned home in early May, autumn had well and truly arrived.  Short days, glorious autumn colour everywhere and heaps of leaves to sweep up.  Stunning sunrises, rays of sunshine breaking through low, misty clouds, and ethereal colours in evening skies.  There's certainly lots to love about a kiwi autumn.

Some tidying of the vege garden has been happening.  Many of those autumn leaves have been swept up and placed where they'll add structure to soils. Heaps more yet to drop, so hoping that my back is up to the remaining leaf-fall sweeping.  The raised beds in the horse arena are tidied and prepped, ready to be covered in weed mats and carpet.  The feijoa trees have been harvested and severely pruned.  The blueberry bushes have also been cut back, as have the whitecurrants.  Hedges are trimmed and remnant weeds are removed.  I'll probably make myself do a final weed spray before everything is covered.  The olive trees need another good prune - that'll happen when we do the Big Orchard Prune next month.

I'm also getting there with the main vege beds.  All the low hedges are trimmed and the smaller trees are cut back.  There are carrots to harvest, and some weeding left, but the lion's share of the tidying is done (at least I hope so).  Blanketing with weed mat and carpet will be quite a monumental task, but hopefully satisfying.  And when it's done, it's done.  Left to rest with its microbes until spring 2024.  Eeek!

The orchard has yet to be future-proofed.  I'm waiting for the last of the fruit - the persimmons - to be harvested.  They're just ripening now and are such a treat.  It's the best persimmon crop by far and not yet completely decimated by persimmon-loving possums and birds.  They've made a start, but maybe they've found alternative sources this year.  We'll do the Big Prune and let the ewes in to keep the pasture down.  Sam wants fruit wood for the new love of his life - his kettle barbecue - so we'll chop and label some chunks from the pruning.  

Apollo is next on the home-kill list, and that's likely to happen soon.  He's pretty huge and has developed a bit of a bullish stance and attitude (though I'm sure he's still that lovely, loopy, little boy inside).  Nike and the calves have been separated from Apollo and Pandora.  Nike is still being an amazing mum to son Kratos and 'nephew' Triton (pictured, son of Pandora).  They both still feed from her, despite their relative sizes.  Triton is now bigger than Kratos, who has continued to suffer from some kind of neurological problem.  He really struggles to stand up.  It's awful to watch him staggering, but once he does get up he can move around OK and graze.  We've talked to vets and he's had antibiotics and painkillers, none of which have made any difference.  The plan is to watch and wait.  As long as he carries on feeding and grazing, and his condition doesn't worsen, then there's no hurry to make any life-limiting decisions.  His father earned his moniker 'Noddy' because he had a kind of neurological disorder.  Kratos's is different but maybe there's a hereditary theme.  Hopefully, Kratos will grow out of it like his dad did.  

Peter and me managed to find a good weather day to take a winery tour by tandem.  Once we had mastered the tandem - no mean feat - we had a good old cycle along the Wairau River stock bank, where we used to walk Maggie many moons ago.  We called at 3 wineries for tasting and snacking and returned the tandem without accident or incident.  

Sam visited Blenheim with the Army Band and we really enjoyed their fantastic concert.  Jodie and son Ariel joined us, and we bumped into a few old friends there.  We had brunch with Sam the next day, and the band stayed on another day for a concert at the Boys' College.  Sam will be back a couple of times to play with the Marlborough District Brass Band in the next few weeks, hopefully with Molly and Lexie.

Billy meanwhile, is in Perth.  He left NZ early in May and has been sorting out accommodation before he actively seeks work.  He needs to get his documents in order before he's eligible for work, and that's been frustrating and lengthier than he'd imagined.  Hopefully there'll be news soon.  At least he has much warmer and sunnier weather than here.

Sadly, Nick passed away a couple of weeks after I returned home.  His oesophageal cancer had spread to other places including his liver, brain, and lymph nodes.  He died peacefully at home, as he'd wanted.  Final arrangements are in hand.  Part of my farewell message to him included some lines from Robbie Burns' poem 'Epitaph on my own Friend'.

“Few hearts like his, with virtue warm’d

Few heads with knowledge so inform’d”

Rest in Peace Nick.  You have been a much-loved and respected part of our family 💜 

March 2023

The odd weather has continued, some hot and sunny days interspersed with rain and occasional thunder, even an earthquake or two in the mix. The whole property is looking a bit disheveled, though nothing that a good bit of wintering down won't solve.  There are definitely signs of moving into autumn - a couple of delicious chilly mornings, heaps to harvest and shorter days.  I absolutely love the sense of abundance that comes at this time of year.  The kitchen and dining areas are littered with bowls of fruit, veges and other crops for processing.  It's a lot of work but deeply satisfying.

                           

Carrots and beetroot are in full flow and can stay in the ground until they have to be harvested, but most of what's left - onions, corn, beans, courgettes, silver beet and tomatoes will be fully harvested in the next couple of weeks.  All the vege beds will eventually be closed down for winter, and most will be closed down for longer than that.  Jane has gifted a whole heap of partially opened weed mat rolls, and once the weeding has happened, the beds will be weed matted and topped off with old carpet.  The photo shows the 'before' image...

                           

The tomato jungle is particularly untidy, but it's so productive that it's hard to believe that hours spent taming those side shoots actually pays off.  I'm rather fond of that jungle, and have gifted heaps of tomatoes, and there's still plenty more to go.  There are more jars of tomato sauce in the freezer than you can shake a stick at - what a bloody luxury that is!

                            

The Aztec corn matured and has now been harvested.  What a treat for the eyes it is.  I absolutely love the colourful kernels and have to come to the conclusion that the very moment of peeling back the pericarp and seeing the beautiful jewel-like corn is actually the main reason for growing it. It will be dried and ground into corn flour, and this will also be admired.  Probably one loaf of corn bread will be baked, and the rest of the flour will sit in the back of the pantry until I find someone to give it away to. 

                   

Now I think about it, it's probably the same for the gourds.  6 gorgeous gourds were harvested from Madame Cholet, but I fear their foliage died back before they matured, so it's likely that they'll just rot.  There is another productive gourd plant outside so there will probably be salvageable gourds in a few months.  Quite what I'll do with them I have no idea, but I will get lots of pleasure from just looking at their delightful curves. The happy little Baby Bear pumpkins have also been harvested and will be eaten as well as admired.

                                                      

Sam and Molly have been on their fungi forays and gave me several bags of freshly harvested mushrooms.  Some were eaten straight away, and the rest were dehydrated.  Sam's heading here tomorrow to pick up his beef from the butcher (RIP Attis) and is bringing me more.  Yum, such a treat.

                                                     

Peak pear has now passed, and what a joy that's been.  Plenty of Conference, Packham and Nashis (some of these absolutely huge) have been consumed and gifted.  Lucas and Laura want to make pear wine, so the last 8kg has been put aside for them.  Next up will be feijoas and then finally persimmons.  It looks like there'll be a few million feijoa and quite a big crop of persimmons, unless they are targeted by dastardly possums again.

                                               

The firewood has been fully split using a very grunty splitter.  It was an exhausting day of work for Peter, Lucas and Billy but the job's done now, just the stacking to take care of.  It's quite a haul that we hope will last at least a couple of years.  It's long burning wood that won't light readily, so we may need to source some pine or other quick burning wood.  I'm guessing that Peter will need a bit of a break between firewooding activities.

News of Nick's health is not good and I'm heading to the UK for 2-3 weeks soon.  When I return, the tidying up and wintering down will be the priority.  We've made a life decision to go over the ditch to Australia for a spell when Peter retires later this year.  Lucas and Laura will occupy the house and manage the land in our absence.  There's quite a list (currently in my head) of tasks to get on with that will ease their transition to lifestyle blockers, and to get the house organised so they can feel at home there.  The garden areas also need managing.  Most of the vege beds will be closed down with that weed matting, and the flower gardens will be dressed with a thick layer of lucerne straw that is waiting under the carport.  Laura will do what she can, but it's become very obvious that I've totally created a beast of a garden in terms of workload.  Hmm, maybe a little life lesson in there for me.  

Attis has gone, and Apollo will be following soon.  That'll leave Nike and Pandora, and calves Kratos and Triton.  Billy will sell Kratos as a bull calf when he's old enough, and Triton has been steered.  All the rams are gone too.  So, no more testicles on the property.  Hopefully that will make the livestock easier to manage in our absence.  I'm planning to reduce beehives to 2 colonies that will be cared for by Jane and Derryn.  One of my current 4 colonies has died off, so I'll probably just have to unite the two smaller colonies to end up with 2 functioning hives.  Jane's hive at her place meanwhile is looking fantastic and she's up for managing mine (big thanks Jane). 

Whether this blog will continue is yet to be decided.  Perhaps it'll retire gracefully, or maybe morph into tales of Australian adventures.  I have no idea whether we'll be desperate to return to our slice of kiwi paradise, or whether we'll want a different, non-smallholding, kinda life.  It feels good to not know and just go with what blessings the universe has in store for us.  Bloody lucky or what?

   

February 2023

                                                      

February 2023 has been memorable for New Zealand, but sadly not in a good way.  The northeast of the North Island, in particular Coromandel and Bay of Plenty, were first hit by a torrential rainstorm that resulted in wide-spread flooding, and then crushed by Cyclone Gabrielle.  Loss of lives and damage to homes and properties was extensive and even more rain is impacting the clean-up.  For us in the South Island, we totally dodged that bullet - all we got was a bit of wind and rain, and an eerie sky at dusk.  Auntie Sally flew in the day of the storm and would have been significantly delayed if she'd been transiting through Auckland.  Luckily Christchurch was only affected by extra workload from re-routed flights.  She landed uneventfully on time and in good spirits.  

                                                             

As it's late summer, the gardening jobs revolve around weeding (always), harvesting, and processing.  Some tidying up has happened, and generally the place is relatively tidy, though that depends where and how closely you look.  Vegetables have been maturing and feeding us every day.  That one prolific Lebanese cucumber plant is feeding many others too.  Tomatoes are ripening and many jars of tomato sauce are filling what little freezer space we have remaining.  And looking at what's left, those tomatoes have barely started.  Beans, beetroot, lettuces and spring onions are abundant and I've decided to ignore the courgettes/marrows as I just can't keep up with them.

                                     

In Madame Cholet, the peppers are ready and the chillis just starting to colour up.  Luckily the cucumber plants have been trained up the central tunnel house supports so just need to be tucked back in every now and then.  A few melons are quietly swelling among the jungle of foliage at the back.  The bloomin gourd plant is taking up heaps of space though the foliage is being nibbled by something.  That's nearly a relief as there are several pretty large gourds, which is at least several more than I wanted - so it won't be a tragedy if they don't make it (I'll try and sound like I mean that, but obviously too many gourds is never a bad thing...).

 

Onions and carrots are nearly ready, and the leeks are fattening up.  Sweetcorn and Aztec corn cobs are just about harvestable, and the many bright orange mini pumpkins are draped around like decorations.  It is indeed a lovely time in the vegetable garden.

                                                      

My lovely colleague and amazing weaver, Iona, created this absolutely stunning vegetable basket from harakeke/flax that was harvested in Whatamango Bay.  It's been woven with the smooth side within and so doesn't scratch any contents.  It was traditionally used for kumara harvests, but here it's holding my plums.  Such a beautiful and precious gift that Iona says must be used.  I'm very happy to oblige!

                                                           

The plums were used (at Billy's suggestion) to make Roasted Plum & Honey Sorbet, which is not only a great option for an after-dinner palate cleanser, but also works well as a 'bring a plate' contribution.  The small crop of greengages was also transformed into sorbet, and so have the Red Bartlett pears in the picture. 

                                         

We made a decision that it was time for our 3 rams to meet their maker.  'Homekill' Bruce came round and did the terrible deed and we ended up with over 100kg of mutton (hence the reduced freezer space).  That included 40kg of sausages which are amazingly delicious, and several joints that we'll have to work our way through at least on a weekly basis.  We requested the fat from the butcher and the slow cooker transformed it into tallow that we'll cook with.  The picture shows it in its yellow liquid form and then it's white, solid form.   

Lucas offered to dig a hole for the remains, and unfortunately his spade hit the main water pipe to the house - something it hadn't occurred to any of us to consider.  Peter managed to fix it the next day, and this small delay allowed Woody enough time to sneak through the fence and avail himself of some of those remains.  If only we'd got a picture of him with his cute little blood smeared body.  I'm sure he had an absolutely fabulous time.    

Peter and George have been very busy with firewood.  They've now totally cleared the wood from the site and have hired a very grunty splitter for a few days next month.  Our driveway is completely lined with big wood rounds, that actually look quite sculptural. It's very satisfying to see them there as a symbol that we're ready for winter, almost a shame to split them!

I've taken on less extra shifts this month so that me and Sally could have a few adventures.  We stayed in Hokitika for a few days at the start of the month.  The weather didn't come to the party, but neither did it ruin the party.  We had a great time in Punakaiki, Hokitika Gorge and Tree Top Walk, and around Fox.  The Hokitika Beach Art Festival was just closing so we were in perfect time to check out the amazing creations made only from beach finds.  

 

One hot and sunny Marlborough day we took the Mailboat Cruise from Picton and had the pleasure of observing not one but two pods of dolphins.  The first ones were Hector's dolphins - the smallest class of dolphins in the world.  Later we were accompanied for ages by a bigger pod of Bottlenose dolphins - the largest class in the world.  It was a real treat to see them all, and other wildlife too.  There was even enough time for a brief stop at Ship's Cove - preferred NZ destination of Peter's great great great etc Uncle James Cook.  

Wine has featured in our trips out (and also at home, eh Sally?).  We did a wine and platter tasting at Framingham and went to The Bottling Company HQ to watch Peter and Billy hard at work. Sally heads back to ole Blighty at the weekend and we'll miss her happy company at home.  

                                               

I'm still running, and still not getting any faster.  I am covering more distance now though, usually 5-7kms a run, 3 times a week.  Early morning is always the best time because the road is quieter and it's not too hot.  And also the scenery can take my breath away more than the running.  

Sad news from England is casting a shadow over our general contentedness.  We're deeply hoping that Nick's remaining time is both long and positive, and very much look forward to seeing him later in the year. Kia kaha Nick from us all in Aotearoa New Zealand 💜