April 2025

Autumn is peaking, meaning fresh sunny days, longer chilly nights and glorious colours.  The last summer hues in flower form still lend their radiance to the colour scheme. Most mornings bring stunning light and shade contrasts.  Lots of leaves to sweep up and the last of the season's crops to consume and process.  There are a million other gardening jobs on the list, several of which require 2 functioning shoulders.    

                                                          

Luckily, I'm blessed with friends who are willing and able to help out.  Jane helped me with the heavy lifting part of wintering down the beehives.  I was suspicious that the middle of the 3 colonies wouldn't survive, and sure enough, no bees and no honey in that hive.  I didn't expect that the outside hive had suffered a similar fate, but there it was.  Lots of wasps were in it, but I don't know whether they created the demise or just invaded later for the spoils.  Happily, the last colony was buzzing.  It was inspected, and we inserted the miticide strips and ensured they had plenty of supplies for winter.  

              

Karyn has been a true garden fairy, trimming hedges and digging up corn stalks and weeds and numerous other little tasks along the way.  She also gifted some strawberry runners that had gone wild in her garden beds - 86 of them!  Several were squeezed into the Verdia, and the rest were planted separately for future transfer to a self-wicking bed. 

        Recently harvested crops have been harvested and processed.  The quince tree didn't look healthy, but it still produced a good supply of big fruits.  They were peeled, sliced and blanched and are now in the freezer, likely to be used in smoothies.   There are 3 sweet chestnut trees on the property, 2 of which are big enough to produce abundant nuts, and the 3rd probably will join them next year.  Billy helped to pick them, climbing up into the tree to shake down as many as possible.   The fig tree is overloaded with fruit (again).  The photo shows figs foraged from the 2 fig trees in the pocket park next to Sam and Molly's house.  The fig and ricotta with honey on toast was Ben's creation for Hayley's and my breakfast.  Yum!  

                                   

Feijoas are just starting to drop.  This year I'm down to one tree (from 4) so obviously expecting a smaller volume than usual.  Unfortunately, this is the first year the tree has underproduced volume-wise (of course), but the fruits are big and bonny.  The single bottle gourd will be seasoned and dried, then crafted into something fabulous.  Probably a musical instrument or a set of spoons.  When I work out how.

    Mushroom season is in full stride.  Molly kicked off with a very generous gift of Porcini mushrooms, harvested from her secret place that may or may not be military property.  I had plenty to pass on some of my stash to Craig, a fellow mushroom-lover.  Then Peter and Billy found field mushrooms in the paddock, and I've just devoured the Birch Boletes (Molly's favourites) from our driveway.  Molly's been my mushroom guru - I wouldn't eat any without her sage advice, and her enthusiasm is contagious.  

         

The last crops of the season are on their way.  The yacon and Baby Bear pumpkin are awaiting a decent frost - any day soon.  There are heaps of still-green persimmons that I heartily hope will turn into delicious orange lanterns in time.  And all the citrus trees - orange, mandarin, tangelo and lemon - are festooned with young fruit.  Karyn thinks the lemon could use more fertiliser, so off to Bunnings I'll go!  

                             

The newest compost pile in one of the garden beds is breaking down nicely, but is far from being closed down.  Hopefully, it'll make good base layers for the self-wicking beds when they're ready to be filled.  My shoulder is delaying progress on this as I'm not yet up to shovelling.  The soil pile created from the previous horse arena raised beds is now hosting a cracking patch of weeds that needs urgent attention.  They should be easy enough to pull up.  Peter wants to use some self-wicking beds for potatoes and for breeding White Cloud Mountain Minnows.  Research suggests they should work for these.

                                                  

The sheep are looking pretty awesome these days.  As in, they all shed their wool and not a bad hair day among them.  They do like to pose too.  Hawkesbury looks big enough to service his flock of ewes, so here's to the pitter-patter of tiny hooves later this year.  

                                                         

We took advantage of the eased outdoor fire restrictions (and Billy's muscles) to burn a whole heap of rubbish and random junk.  It was a quick and efficient fire and deeply satisfying to get rid of burnable stuff.  There is definitely more of a sense of less clutter around the place.

                       

Bumble bees continue to frequent the abutilon, diving in and out of the bright orange flowers and getting covered in pollen.  So cute, and such a shame they're reluctant to stay still for a photo.  The joy they bring is in stark contrast to the sight of wasps, which are also having a good year.

                                                   

The three 20-litre demijohns of wine (elderberry, rhubarb and cranberry) have been racked.  All are on the verge of being drinkable - definitely so far so good.  The next racking in a few weeks should provide a better prediction of potential quality, so fingers crossed they mature properly.  There's always the option of converting dodgy (or otherwise) wine into vodka with my new air still.  Just a case of getting round to learning how that works with a trial run.  Luckily, Molly can also be my spirit-guru.  Guessing I'll need all the help I can get.  

                                                        

Billy flew out of Christchurch, so I got to spend another few days there.  Lucas' and Laura's place for a couple of nights, then with Hayley and Ben.  It was lovely to catch up with everyone, and there were no car dramas en route this time.  Billy landed safely in Munich and then headed into Italy, where he'll be au-pairing for the foreseeable - at least long enough to avoid the southern hemisphere winter.     

It's less than 3 weeks before my sick note runs out.  This non-working life thing is a bloody luxury that will be hard to relinquish when the time comes.  Fortunately, the world is my oyster for work opportunities, so maybe something will grab my attention.  In the meantime, there's always the lottery! 

 

March 2025

                                        

Rachel and Geoff flew into NZ from Australia, where they'd had a ball holidaying in Melbourne and Tasmania.  They were staying with friends in Auckland when I flew up to meet them.  I'd hired a car from Budget Rentals, and it's fair to say this vehicle was at Budget Rentals' budget end.  It had a huge dent in the boot and had more than 300,000 kms on the clock, which made the extra bodywork insurance I'd taken out seem quite unnecessary.  However, it was perfectly reliable and probably a security advantage to be a real old dunger.

  

        

We were booked into a motel in Paeroa for 3 nights.  It's the home of NZ's iconic soft drink L&P (Lemon & Paeroa) and is also renowned for its numerous antique/second-hand stores.  We spent the first relaxing day wandering around and exploring the shops.  On the 2nd day, we went to the small town of Te Aroha.  Geoff hired a bike and cycled along a stretch of the Hauraki Rail Trail, while me and Rach drove over.  Te Aroha has hot pools and mineral spas and it'd have been rude not to partake of the waters.  After a decent bubbling soak we had a wander around the town's sculpture trail, created by artist Adrian Worsley from recycled, reused and reclaimed scrap materials.  

                                                                        The next day we headed out to the Karangahake Gorge and did the Window Walk - beautiful scenery and spectacular mining remnants including disused gold mining tunnels.  Torches were needed for parts of the route.

From here we headed to the small town of Opoutere on the east coast at the base of the the Coromandel.  Geoff's friend Brian has a sweet little bach with a fantastic sea view, sometimes rented with AirBnb, but ours for another few nights.  Wow! How lucky were we?  We swam in the sea twice a day and did a local walk up Maungaruawahine Pa hill for an elevated view of the sandspit, harbour and outlying islands, and across the harbour to the sister Pa.  The spit is a breeding ground for several endangered species of native sea birds, including the NZ Dotterel.  A fantastic slice of unspoilt kiwi heaven.  Our last trip out was to Whangamata and a final dip in the sea at Onemana Beach.  This stunning beach has magnificent waves and is frequented by surfers.  As non-surfers, our only option was to 'body-surf' those waves, and much joy was had.  Then, as Geoff would say: "It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye".  On this occasion the 'someone' was me and I cracked my clavicle.  A particularly phenomenal wave upended me and dumped me down on my head and right shoulder onto the sandy sea bed.  The fracture wasn't identified until I went to ED a couple of days later.  It's complex and distal and I've also stuffed my AC joint, but I'll probably get away without surgery.  I've been signed off work for 2 months and will start physio next week.  It's the first bone I've ever broken, and though it's sore and activity-restricting (no beekeeping😬) it could have been way worse.  

                                                                  Meanwhile, time waits for no tomato, and the first batch has been converted into loads of jars of tomato sauce using my (Annabel Langbein's) usual recipe.  I've since picked another batch, some of which will be made into tomato chutney and the rest gifted.  I've also harvested the 6 silverbeet plants - note to self, that's at least a year's supply.  I blanched the stalks and sliced the leaves before freezing them in several bags.  Those leaves can be added to smoothies and all cuts can go into soups.

Madame Cholet is like a jungle, and hidden within were massive aubergines.  What treasure!  Plenty to eat, freeze and gift.  I'll make a few batches of ratatouille with the next harvest, as there are also plenty of courgettes and peppers.  There are a million more tomatoes, heaps of basil and numerous Carolina Reaper chillis to fully ripen before I can even think about wintering down the tunnel house.

Feijoas are fattening up, as are figs and persimmons.  The orchard trees will all need a serious prune in winter, and hopefully, there'll be a better crop of stone fruit next season.  The fruit cage project also needs attention but will have to wait until my shoulder heals.  The same for hedge trimming.  I can do some gardening - like one-armed weeding and raking up debris - just not too much at once.  

                                                                     We've recently returned from a trip to Christchurch for Sam's graduation.  It was Bracken's first long trip and the poor little mite was sick 3 times on the way there.  It was also a challenging test for driving the EV.  A temporary lack of EV charging facilities in Kaikoura meant we had to plan carefully.  The weather conditions weren't in our favour, using up more kms of available power than predicted, and I had to drive like a nana to get us as far as Cheviot to recharge.  There were more challenges on the way home - all in all, a steep EV learning curve.

Luckily we were only a few minutes late to the graduation ceremony.  Me and Molly whooped loudly when Sam was called to the stage to receive his parchment, and afterwards we celebrated with dinner at 'Smokey T's'.  He plans to follow up with a Masters degree later this year. 

Billy is working on the grape harvest again this year.  He's driving the gondolas and his hours are 3am - 3pm every day.  It'll be over soon, after less than 4 weeks.  He has plans to au pair in Italy from mid-April, so will have a bit of time off between jobs.  Lucas and Laura are still waiting for the final paperwork before they can move into their new Rolleston home.  Hopefully just a few more weeks.

We're making a big effort to sort out our worldly goods and get rid of excess 'stuff' that doesn't serve us that has been stock-piling over the last few years.  The process will be ably assisted by the few weeks off work that the universe is now insisting upon.  I'd planned to take a break anyway, but my dodgy shoulder will ensure I'm not lured back to work too soon.  On that note, I'd better at least get on with some gardening before I'm thwarted by the 5 days of rain that is forecast this week.  Onward and upward...

 

February 2025

There are signs that summer is starting to give way to hints of autumn.  We're still getting some hot days in the late 20s, but days are shorter and mornings are fresher.  The photo shows the clouds dispersing as the sun rises - such a gloriously beautiful start to the day.  

 

The two honey boxes yielded a few litres of fabulous sweet honey.  Some of the frames were still heavy when they came off the extractor.  The honey that was left was thick and I had to scrape it off the frames.  It was delicious but took ages to filter through the sieve.  I used the solar oven to warm it up to make it more runny, but it was hotter than I expected and that melted some of the wax into the honey.  The honey still tasted good but I've bottled it separately and called it 'cooking honey'.

 

There are 20+ litres of elderberry and 20+ litres of rhubarb wine in one of the fabulous demi-johns that Shona gifted me.  When I realised that the cranberry bush was fruiting its little heart out (and with no need for several kgs of cranberries to eat), it was an easy decision to make another 20-litre batch of cranberry wine.  Several kgs of Packham's pears will also be converted to wine once fully ripened.  That's quite a lot of dubious-quality wine fermenting in our airing cupboard.  Hopefully, it'll all be delish, but if not, I have a cunning plan to convert it to fruit vodka in my new bench-top air still.  The still is ordered but has yet to arrive.  I'm very excited about its potential, and also a little worried about its potential to speed up my demise.  Molly uses this kind of still to make gin, and my friend Jenn gifted me a generous sample of totally tasty vodka, distilled from some dodgy mead that her husband made with my honey years ago.  I'm gonna need plenty of wine to experiment with.

The garden is productive and I'm slightly concerned that we're approaching tomatogeddon.  There are 4 patches of tomatoes (18 plants all up).  Each plant had an egg cracked into its planting hole and they're all showing off.  I'm thrilled to have this 'problem' and delighted that I have plenty of options for dealing with the glut.  The tastiest toms will be turned into relish, and there'll be plenty of bottled tomato sauce for the freezer, even if I eat a mountain of tomatoes every day.  Can't have too many tomatoes!  

The squashes are also productive.  Several 'Baby Bear' pumpkins will turn into orange lanterns and a few butternut squashes are fattening up.  The gherkins are monstrous and the gourd plant is producing enormous cylindrical fruit that I have no idea what to do with.  Yet.  

It's been a poor season for stone fruit in the region, so not just mine.  It was delightful to find a few (5) Blackboy peaches on a tree that has looked considerably unwell for a while.  Many of its branches are dead, but those remaining are in full leaf and with spectacular peaches aboard.  It'll get a good old prune in a few weeks (along with the orchard trees) and hopefully will live to tell the tale next year.

Peter has been making steady progress with the fruit cage and self-wicking beds while I've been working.  The cage structure is concreted and secure, and the netting will be attached once we've filled the self-wicking beds.  Most of the beds have drainage and just need to be placed in their final positions before adding geotextile wicking membrane, sand and soil/compost.  Then the planting fun can begin.

 

Peter has also been working on the firewood pile - splitting and stacking.  Several firewood piles around the property should keep us toasty for a few winters to come.  If George has anything to do with it, there'll be more on the horizon.  We've also cut up several lengths of smaller branches to fit in the char kiln when we start lighting fires.  They'll provide beautiful bio-char to nourish the planting beds.  He's also completely repaired the Womb roof that was damaged in a storm.   Instead of roofing felt, he's attached more resilient corrugated iron which has improved its aesthetics. 

The dahlias are still filling the flower gardens with happy colour.  They really are the flower that keeps giving.  In a few years, the garden will probably be wall-to-wall dahlias, but I probably won't be complaining.  They are so vibrant and it seems that everyone has a favourite.

                                     

I had to laugh when I looked closely at the 'Bug Hotel' that hangs from the Gin Palace.  I'm not sure the biodiversity was intended to include the paper wasps that managed to find a gap big enough to build a nest.  

After-dinner dog walks along the Ohinemahuta River provide a very pleasant evening stretch, and for many weeks we've been serenaded by avenues of wild carrot flowers.  Umbels are an impressive flower form and it's fab to see bees scouting for nectar and pollen, even if having a 'bumble on your umbel' sounds more like a medical condition.  There are other wildflowers too.  We've also been tracking a huge eel at various places along the river, and sometimes its smaller mate, though no sightings for a few days now.

 

Sam and Molly with friends JJ and Dan came to Blenheim for the Wine and Food Festival.  The NZ Army Band were playing - awesome!  Peter got a bit carried away and showed everyone how to do a foot-tapping dad dance that I'm sure was universally admired.  It was a seriously hot day and much ambrosia was consumed.

We all walked Bracken after dinner along the river and played our usual Pooh Sticks.  The sun's descent timed itself perfectly for the reflective photos from the bridge.

 

Auntie Sally arrived as planned, with her trademark tiny suitcase.  She got a lot of stick about wine consumption - check out the items on her grocery bill!!  We decided to have a couple of days at Hanmer Springs where we stayed in a lovely cottage, enjoying gorgeous weather and great food.  On our way home we pulled off the road to watch a big pod of dolphins playing in the sea near Kaikoura.   It was lovely to share Sally's happy energy again.

Sally's partner Keith arrived after a few days too.  He'd been staying with family in Melbourne and was keen to explore the South Island.  Peter and Billy took him fishing in the Kenepuru in Gladys where they caught snapper and snaffled green-lipped mussels.  I took them to Nelson for a day too, and we all swam in the sea at Tahunanui beach.  We also did local walks along the river and at the reserve.

I'm really looking forward to some more time at home soon.  I've resigned from work and will take a few weeks or months' break before finding work again.  I had planned to do that on my return from Aus, but that thought got waylaid so I'm resurrecting it again.  I'm feeling in need of some garden healing and want to also pick up weaving and learning the keyboard again.  Work has been taking up far too much of my emotional energy and has resulted in some neglect of my precious friends.  That definitely needs rectifying.  Maybe I'll be able to lure them with some homemade spirits...