April 2015

Autumn’s definitely here.  Even some frosty mornings which have just finished off the outside cucumbers, courgettes and pumpkins.  After months of drought and hot sunny days, the cool nights and dewy mornings are welcome.  We’ve had enough rain to get the pasture growth going, and the sun shines, keeping us in the low 20's most days - especially beautiful after chilly nights.  It’s perfect weather for outdoor work.  A fabulous climate all up.

Collingwood beach

I’ve finally managed to get round to a going on a basket-making course – something I’ve wanted to learn to do for a long time.  The course took place at Collingwood, in the far north west of the South Island.  Another really beautiful spot, with plenty of West Coast charm.  Sarah, the instructor showed us how to weave baskets out of flax, and finish them off by twining the combed flax into rope.  Mine ended up very much ‘home-made’ but will at least function as a basket.  It got better as I went along, so hopefully my next baskets will be better.  There’s plenty of flax right here on the property, and heaps more all over NZ.  It’s great to have the skills to create something useful out of a freely available material.

The newest raised beds in the horse arena are being topped up with composting materials.  A stray pumpkin seedling put in a late bid but has since been finished off by the frost.  Hopefully they will turn into beautiful soil by spring, so the olive trees which are currently bedded into the vege garden can then be re-homed.  The weeds in the rest of the horse arena are above waist height so we’re really going to have to prioritise them sometime soon.

 

The chopping down of pine trees in our part of the valley looks to be finally coming to an end.  Hopefully it’ll be a fond farewell to the dulcet tones of chain saws and logging machinery which have kept us company since we arrived.  Only a few patches of trees remain on the hill to the east, though there’s plenty more elsewhere in the valley.  The hillside behind our house has greened up a lot, though mostly this is from weedy bush growth than from the new pine plantings.

A final rabbit catastrophe has ended our rabbit-keeping experiences.  The one remaining buck was being spoilt with lots of food, until one morning when he didn’t come out of his sleeping quarters.  He had been brutally murdered, and left matted in blood and with bits missing.  It was a gruesome sight.  Something had prised open the hutch roof, pinging off a couple of nails, and squeezed in to do the deed– possibly a stoat or a cat.  Maybe the roof had already been damaged by a grazing sheep unbeknown to us.  A very very sad ending for him.  The only tiny shred of consolation was that it was definitely the right decision for us to no longer keep rabbits.

The veg garden is slowly being worked through and either re-planted or closed down for winter.  The photo below shows a ‘before and after’ view of one of them which has been partly cleared.  It’s great to have copious quantities of the ‘burnedy’ hay to use as a mulch.  The corn, pumpkin, courgette and outdoor cucumbers have been harvested.  Not as many pumpkins as last year, which may not be a bad thing as there’s still some in the freezer.

Two demi-johns of mead have joined the other wines in the hall cupboard.  Peter brought home a few buckets of red grapes, mostly Syrah.  We’re going to have a go at brewing only the juice, rather than letting it sit on the skins.  This should produce a wine with less tannins, which optimistically won’t give me a heinous hangover after half a glass.  It’s a delicate pink, which will be named ‘Pete’s Pretty in Pink’.  The earlier batch of wines (pear, rhubarb and blackboy peach) will have their first racking next weekend.  They’re not looking great – lots of fruity debris - but hopefully will turn out alright.  The worst-looking batch of wine I ever made was a marrow and ginger.  Before filtering it looked like someone had thrown up in the bucket, but it went on to be truly delicious.  You can always be optimistic with wine-making. 

The rosemary hedge around the former compost circle has been planted.  Amazingly the cuttings I’d stuck in a plant pot were already rooting.  The bed will be mulched over winter, and a decision will need to be made about what to put in the centre.  This keyhole bed is smaller than the others, so it’ll have to be something petite.  I’m thinking of another herb, perhaps some variegated sage or something more unusual. 

The flower gardens need a decent tidy-up.  The tansy has gone wild alongside the chook run and is still in full bloom.  Otherwise it’s mostly the geraniums and cosmos which are still flowering and keeping the busy bees supplied.  The chocolate cosmos is as beautifully scented as ever.  Several flower seeds have been saved for next year, and many more will self-seed (and probably be weeded-out by accident).  Some vege seeds are also saved for next year. 

The pomegranate tree in the centre of another keyhole bed is coming along really well.  It was originally rescued from a garden centre sale, and was touch-and-go for a while.  It’s now bushy and is flowering.  Quite an unusual time of year for blossom, so I ought to find out more about it.  They’re pretty flowers – hopefully one day they will fruit.

Madame Cholet has been totally cleared out.  There were a few tomatoes and peppers, and several cucumbers and chillies left.  They were harvested, and then the barley straw ‘soil’ was compacted by me jumping up and down on it.  It looks more like proper soil now, and it seemed a shame to just let it sit there doing nothing.  I had a brainwave and decided to plant some peas (plenty spare and good nitrogen-fixers).  Then I had another brainwave and planted some carrot seed.  Time will tell if that’s genius or just nuts.  It does look like the carrot seeds are germinating, but they could just as easily be tomato seedlings from the ones that got away and rotted…

The last crop of tomatoes

The pizza oven is still in one piece, and still a triumph.  We’ve cooked whole meals in it – a roast, baked potatoes, roast veges and even Yorkshire Puddings.  We’re slowly getting the hang of it.  It’s one thing to cook meals made from food grown at home, and another to be able to cook it using free wood fuel.  Self-sufficiency or what?!

On the home front, the boys are just back to school.  They've both spent a few days in Christchurch with Lucas and Sophie, no doubt wearing out their internet. Sam's hoping to pass his full driving licence sometime soon, and is keeping as busy as ever with band commitments.  We're going to see the local production of 'King and Country' this week - a play about New Zealanders during WW1, accompanied by the brass band.  Billy's soccer season has started and the wine vintage has ended.  Perhaps a bit of normality is afoot, whatever that is.

This quote by Roald Dahl was on the Collingwood school classroom wall.  We're very blessed that it only takes a glance out of any window to generate good thoughts.

'If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely'.