July 2022

Whilst Europe bakes in the hottest summer temperatures on record (even 32 degrees in Scotland - surely the end of the world is nigh??), New Zealand's winter is warm, windy and wet.  Very wet.  We've dodged a total flood bullet or two here, but elsewhere in the country not so lucky.  One hefty storm turned about half of the property into lakes, but it resolved quickly and there are some cold and sunny days forecast.

The happiest ray of sunshine this month was the unexpectedly early arrival of our first lamb.  She was born to Skylar, mum of last year's triplets, who must be very relieved she doesn't have another 3 mouths to feed.  She'd looked exhausted and out of condition for weeks after they were born, but this time she's robust and lively with her one gorgeous ewe lamb.  There are no signs that it was anything other than a singleton pregnancy.  Maree, the black ewe, is looking quite barrel-shaped, so hopefully more little bundles of joy to come.  Hope she manages to birth during a dry spell.

The monumental task of pruning the orchard, amazingly, has been completed.  I'd made a start and taken off huge limbs from a few trees.  Then enter Karyn: I'll help you, says she.  Silent gulp and small prayer for the souls of the trees who know not what's ahead.  Thank you, says I.  Peter joined us with a chainsaw, while we were armed with a reciprocating saw, 2 Stihl pruning chainsaws, secateurs, and step ladders.  Those trees had no chance.  The huge limbs I'd taken off earlier looked pathetically small in comparison to what Karyn was taking off.  To be fair though, the trees were due a significant prune this year, having only had a tidy-up last year.  And they are getting quite substantial, so probably I should concede that they needed it and be grateful to Karyn for mutilating my trees.  Um, thanks Karyn.  For daring to go where I hesitate...

Another job (nearly) ticked off the list was sorting out the raspberries.  They need to be pruned (waiting for dry weather) but that'll be easy now I've tidied up the straggly mess they'd become.  Several were dug up altogether, a back-breaking task that my back may not forgive me for in the morning.  The other half of the bed has blackberries which also need pruning and tidying attention.  

                           

The Gin Palace and vege garden haven't escaped a tidy-up either.  The hanging basket has been re-planted with succulents - hopefully, they'll be hardy enough to survive that dry and windy zone.  Mesh, netting, support sticks, assorted pots, and other random garden equipment/rubbish had been gathering in and around the Gin Palace, and also strewn around the vege garden.  Not anymore, and that's a really really good feeling.  Seed packets are lined up and now there's space and order to get them started next month.  Peter's colleague Sharyn gifted me an assortment of heirloom tomato seeds.  They're mostly beefsteak / saucing varieties and I can't wait to plant them in my new electric propagator (the previous one had finally died of old age).  

 Laura and I finally got our garlic planted.  A little later than the shortest day, but in nonetheless.  A few elephant garlic bulbs went in, but most were bought Printanor bulbs.  Fingers crossed the very wet soil won't rot them before they can make headway above ground.  Laura planted hers in a bed that has been gifted to her.  It's still got harvestable purple sprouting but once that's done she'll be able to use the whole bed.  She's got some vege seeds good to go too.

 

The plants in the driveway raised bed at the front of the property are starting to fill out the zone.  Most are natives selected for their colour, and happily the two Kowhai are coming away beautifully.  They were planted as replacements for the original kowhai that were felled down to make way for the Womb.  It'll be wonderful to see Tui on them sometime soon.  

The citrus are also colourful, fruiting their little hearts out right now.  There are still lemons for Africa, no matter how many are harvested, and more ripening all the time.  The grapefruit (not in the pic) still looks horribly yellowed and sick, but is hanging in there.  It's had citrus fertiliser applied a few times, maybe that's why it's still alive.  There aren't many oranges but they are delicious.  Not so the sour mandarins and clementines - hoping that they'll taste sweeter as the trees mature.

The cows are getting pretty big now, and are all generally behaving.  They're being fed hay twice a day, and Apollo continues to be last to the table every time.  The feeding areas in the paddocks are getting quite pugged, but there isn't really a solution.  It's hard to know if it's best to just totally munt one or two areas, or try and feed them in different places each time.  We're sticking to the munting one or two areas because it's tricky to be choosy when you've got half a bale of hay in your arms and hungry cows.

 

Molly has become quite a forager.  She collected heaps of chestnuts in Autumn from the land around Burnham Military base and painstakingly shelled them all before freezing them.  Then they came my way (big thanks Molly).  They went in the dehydrator for about 12 hours before being blitzed into flour.  This was sieved, leaving tiny bits that didn't want to be flour - let's call them Chestnut Grits - that are possibly even more delicious than the flour itself.  My pal Hayley transformed the first batch into this delish bread. I reckon there's probably a market for 'Organic Military Chestnut Flour'.

I had a work trip to Wellington and managed to stay a couple of nights so I could spend precious time with Vida and other hypno-friends.  I stayed in Vida's gorgeous family caravan -  a real treat in itself.  And we made a visit to 'UK Goodies' to stock up on an obscene amount of British biscuits, chocolate and jelly babies of my youth.  Most were for Peter obviously (yeah, right).

Instructions for making a Mason Jar beehive were doing the social media rounds and I got totally sucked in.  The idea is that the mason jars are fixed upside down on a board, with bee access at the base.  The bees build comb directly in the jars, and when they're full, you just unscrew them and voila! Comb honey in a jar.  I sourced cheap Agee jars and Peter constructed the board.  It'll go onto whichever hive hits spring the strongest, and optimistically there'll be comb honey for Christmas. Can't wait!

Sam and Molly moved into their first new home in Rolleston.  We visited for the weekend and enjoyed many delights of Christchurch and Rolleston.  Billy is still talking about coming home in September.  There are plenty of job opportunities here for him if he wants work.  Lucas and Laura are still enjoying the delights of the sleep-out.  Maggie benefits from her daily walk with them and Woody.  She's now 16.5 years old and is showing her age with hearing, sight, stiffness and falls, but she's hanging in there OK.  An amazing old girl.

Me and Peter are loosely planning a holiday next year when he retires.  No point getting too excited too soon, but it'll include some time in the UK.

So rock on August.  Seed planting awaits (did I already say that?) and longer, fresh, sunny days.  Another log on the fire for now please.