I’ve been pre-occupied with gravelling the vege garden
paths, and finally the job is about done. It all looks grey and dull, and I much prefer the organic look of the wood chip paths. Hopefully it'll look better with a bit of spring growth. The truck that delivered the pea metal got bogged down in the paddock
next to the orchard. The driver had to
drop the load and then dig his truck out.
He got out ok, but munted the paddock on his way, and worse, left us
with a giant pile of pea metal miles away from the vege garden. It took some significant boy bribery to
eventually get it all painstakingly moved, wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow. There’s just the gap between Madame Cholet
and the Gin Palace left to fill, and some extra gravel layers in parts of the horse
arena wouldn’t go amiss. We’ll get the
pea metal by the ute load next time though.
The new pond is bedding in, though its surface is coated in
a seasonal layer of yellow pollen. The cider bisque tree is still in winter
mode, though it is sporting some fattening buds. Some other plantings will naturalise the area a bit, but all in good time.
Karyn managed to wriggle out of the gravel-shifting, but I
did put her to work transplanting seedlings from my indoor heated mini
greenhouse into seed trays in the tunnel house.
So far only spinach, kale, lettuce and cabbage, but I’ve re-planted the
mini greenhouse with some cucumber, tomatoes, peppers and beetroot. In a couple of weeks it should be warm enough to sow heaps more seeds in Madame Cholet.
The spring temperatures have caused an explosion of
blossom. The stone fruit is flowering
away, as is the rosemary in the herb garden, very much enjoyed by bumbles. The Rhodies are beginning to bloom too, and
so are these pretty little primroses and hellebores. Up the driveway there are
several flowering camellias, and around in the valley there’s a blast of yellow
from the broom and gorse - all good news for my honey bees.
The chooks are still happily free-ranging and laying around
3 eggs a day. Now that the graveling is
done, the next urgent priority for attention is the flower garden. The photo is a ‘before’ shot, that should shock me into a bit of tidying-up action (I hope). The chooks particularly enjoy scratching
around in it, so it’s sure gonna feel mean to confine them to their run. They’re doing their best to behave. They’ve made no attempt to infiltrate the
vege garden, and haven’t been destructive elsewhere. They do have a tendency to crap in the car
port when it’s raining, but I guess you can’t really blame them for that. Cornelius tends his harem flock lovingly and
is a real softie (unlike some of the aggressive Bobs we’ve had in the past).
Our Japanese visitor was the lovely Taisei, and he stayed
for a very enjoyable week while he attended an English language programme with
fellow pupils at Marlborough Boys College.
He and Billy went skiing at Rainbow, and did some indoor bowling, as
well as home-stuff. Taisei proudly led
the rousing haka at the Sayonara party on their last night here, and even got
his photo in the local paper at a school activity. He gave us some intriguing gifts, including
chopsticks, a spinning top, origami and weird facemasks, plus some lovely memories.
The sheep are still mooching around, as are the cows. We’re observing them for signs of
pregnancy (ewes) and heat (cows) in the sincere hope that there will eventually
be bouncing bundles of joyful offspring.
We’re holding out for chicks too, since the hens are back on the
lay. For now it’s relatively quiet on
the old life-style block, unless your super-sonic hearing can tune into the
stealthy advance of the thistles that are just starting to pop up their ugly
heads. The clocks change this weekend,
then it’ll really feel like spring.
