October 2021

October has seen our most harrowing lifestyle block experience so far. Our heifer, Athena, the first calf to be born on the property, who despite our best attempts, had never become pregnant. Too fat and then also too old we were told. However, one day she was behaving very oddly and we realised that she was in labour.  Noddy (pictured) must have finally succeeded where others had failed - maybe a selenium success at last. Our initial excitement turned to concern when she still hadn’t birthed hours later.  Eventually, the vet was called. She confirmed that the unborn calf was long dead and that things didn’t look good for Athena either.  Athena had become increasingly distressed and unable to stand. We faced the stark options of either an on-the-spot Caesarean, that she may not survive, or to put her down. Peter made the difficult decision to put her to sleep - she was clearly suffering and the thought of making that worse was unbearable.  Our good neighbour later came round with his digger and now she rests in peace in the paddock in which she was born. Had we got onto the selenium years ago, this tragedy might have been avoided.  RIP and in our hearts Athena. 

  

Meanwhile, the lambs continue to fill us with joy. Young Snowy pretty much weaned herself off the small volume of milk supplement we were giving her. She’s still petite compared to her siblings but she’s lively and robust. We managed finally to dock their tails after the usual rigmarole. The adult sheep also got their selenium drench and due attention was given to the clacking dags around Saul’s arse (again).  Both Skylar (white ewe) and Marie (black ewe) are shedding their wool, so they look pretty scrappy right now.  Happily, Skylar is looking less gaunt than she did soon after the birth of the triplets.  As a result of her penchant for sheep nuts, she's become quite tame again.  Maire is much more cautious but nonetheless also very fond of said nuts.

Numerous vege seedlings have been planted out. A few brassicas, more garlic, spring onions, coriander, spinach, silver beet, red and white onions, beetroot, daikon radish, and tomatoes purchased at the annual Linkwater School plant sale. Gorgeous Aztec corn, graciously germinated by Karyn, was proudly planted but the next morning was totally munted, every single one plucked out and discarded or magicked away. The thorough work of birds it seems - blackbirds or quail.  Hope there was a good reason for this massacre.  The same fate nearly befell the onion seedlings, but I noticed in time and covering with mesh seems to be a deterrent.

  

Asparagus has been prolific and awesome this year. I’ve enjoyed many a meal with asparagus in the starring role.  We have been privileged to have eaten like royalty lately, with venison and groper, sourced from hunting and fishing and gifted by friends Jane and Al from down the road. Even some presentation pizzazz eh? 

   The flower gardens are delightfully filling out.  The poached egg plant, beloved by bees, is seeding and flowering all over the place.  New plants from Linkwater are also swelling the ranks, and the pea straw is effectively mulching (or hiding) the weeds so it looks quite tidy still. The white-flowered shrub is a hydrangea, a present from Lucas a long while ago. This is its inaugural spectacular display, optimistically the first of many. 

   Elsewhere more flowers are popping up, including the beautifully fragrant wisteria by the sleepout.  Geraniums and other plants have been added to the trough outside the Womb.  Heaps of sunflower seeds are germinating, as are some very special forget-me-not seeds that were sent from the UK after the funeral of our truly awesome and much-loved sister-in-law, Linda.    

Peter has been busy on the firewood front, chopping up the logs that are littering the paddocks and the fence line.  We chopped a big log along the river bank when walking the dog one day. It rained heavily that night and the next day the chunk that we left behind had sailed away in the swollen Ohinemahuta River. Plenty more where that came from luckily.  We’re working on the ones that are easiest to access and best positioned to cut first. The woodshed is full and there’s more firewood in its extension.  It’s a great feeling to be ready for next winter so soon.  The huge huhu grub was one of many formerly resident in a large willow tree that fell down many moons ago in the wetland that Peter has been gradually working through.

Some de-crapping has also been happening, mostly burning of various piles of sticks and old bits of wood, and some of my old hive ware that’s well past its prime. There’ll be more once we clear out the carport next to the garage.  We’re hoping to put our boat in there when it arrives next week (if it fits).  We’ve been saving hard, and income from the vaccine clinics has added to the pot.  Peter is pretty excited as this is a long-standing dream come true for him. We’ll do our skipper license online and will take an experienced boatie out with us the first time at least.  More boat news next blog!  

Bees have been very exciting this month.  The split of my hive that Iwan helped with looks to have worked.  There’s normal bee activity at both colonies.  Derryn messaged one day with a photo of a swarm in her garden from one of her hives.  That colony now has a new home at Jane and Al’s place.  They are very keen on a bee ‘apprenticeship’ that I can help them with. It was a huge swarm so here’s hoping they’re happy in the valley. So far so good.

Work on the sleepout bedroom is slowly proceeding.  The electrician has sorted out the main light fitting and shifted the sockets to a better place.  Peter has filled in the millions of holes and cracks in the paintwork, and a new carpet is waiting to be installed.  Just the painting to do once the filler is sanded down.  It's coming together nicely and should be quite habitable by the time Lucas and Laura get here.  

The covid situation is still troublesome. Auckland and other parts of the North Island have been in levels 4 and 3 lockdowns for a while, and case numbers just aren’t settling yet. A single South Island case in Blenheim didn’t lead anywhere, so we dodged a bullet there, for now at least.  Vaccine rates are increasing but the country is some way off the 90% mark. New compulsory requirements for teachers, health workers and the hospitality sector to be fully vaccinated have massive implications for those who would otherwise choose not to be vaccinated.  We’re all still a little confused by the rules, and in any case, these will change to a new traffic light system soon.  

Meanwhile, Christmas is coming.  I’ve been as annoying as usual and have pretty much sorted out parcels to go to the UK, Spain, and Korea. They mightn’t yet make it, even though it’s still October. The US has just announced that they're not attempting to send parcels to NZ (and other countries) because the freight issues are too overwhelming. Maybe other countries will follow suit.  

Peter and me are potentially facing our first Christmas alone or not at home. That’s not a bad thought incidentally, though I’d hate to think that’ll be normal for us going forward.  Billy is still in Spain but his visa will run out in early 2022.  As always he has no specific plans beyond that, but as always he'll probably land on his feet somewhere perfect.  Lucas and Laura still haven't heard about Laura's residency visa yet, but they're making concrete plans for the happy day that they return to NZ (beginning with a very large TV).  Sam and Molly don't really know what they'll be working over Christmas, so we'll probably head to theirs at some point. The vaccine clinic work is showing signs of drying up, which was inevitable sooner or later.  The extra hours have worked well for me and may lead to some future work vaccinating pregnant women. I've managed to find a commitment-less week in November that I can take off - can't wait.  My Hypnotherapy portfolio is dangerously close to submission, and I've promised myself an online ukelele course when it's finally out of my hair.  A solid week off will make all the difference.  

September 2021

Spring has sprung, and very welcome it is too.  Though it's been the wettest spring that I can recall, there's no doubt that the increase in temperature has been triggering fresh pasture and weed growth, fattening buds and bursting blossoms out, including these exquisite peachcot blooms.  It's also meant that some evenings are comfortable inside without a lit fire.  Hopefully we'll soon get a few sunny days to dry out the sodden pastures.

  The most delightful spring event has been the birth of beautiful lambs.  Our black ewe Marie was first up to birth a gorgeous jet black ewe lamb (called Clover).  We discovered later that she'd actually birthed twins, but the other lamb was very small and stillborn.  A few days later, Skyler who had been absolutely huge, birthed triplets.  We realised she was in labour and got there in time to witness the birth of her 2nd lamb.  The firstborn lamb popped into sight and we were delighted that there were 2 liveborn lambs.  We blinked and then voila - a 3rd lamb appeared.  They are 2 girls (Snowy and Stormy) and a boy (Sunny - all named by Melissa thank you!). Snowy is significantly smaller than the others.  Maybe she was a little weaker and the others got the lion's share of the milk.  We've been giving her a couple of top-up feeds a day, and she's got much livelier.  She likes to sleep lying on top of her mum - adorably cute but very tricky to photograph.  They're all fabulous time-wasters.

Meanwhile the cows are enjoying extended pasture options.  Instead of our aborted holidays to Sydney and Coromandel, we decided to stay at home for our week of leave.  Peter had already put in the new fence posts along the river boundary, a couple of metres in front of the old fence.  We managed to wire them up, including a hot wire, so could finally let the cattle into the back paddocks.  They immediately went mad scoffing the new grass, and poor Attis must have overdone it and ended up with a sore tummy.  It took a few days before he was back to normal again, but we were quite worried about him for a while there.  Pandora and Nike are still separated from the others and will remain so until they're old enough to become pregnant (in another year).  Pandora looks to be on heat so here's hoping the fences are good enough to keep them apart until then.     

 The garden also got some attention during that week.  The vege garden gravel paths are now done (except for one corner) and they're looking pretty darn good.  In fact, better than ever, which does make me feel a bit like I took advantage of the good natures of my garden fairies.  The gravel paths around the house are sporting a vibrant green crop of weedy grass - a gift from the silty floodwaters - and this makes me deeply appreciative that the vege garden paths won't have the same fate.  I don't mind weed spraying non-food areas, so it'll be easily sorted when I get round to it.  The garlic hadn't washed away in the flood and is now through.  I've planted a few more bulbs for good measure, and also some bought spring onion and coriander seedlings.  Such a good feeling to get things in the ground.  

 Madame Cholet is hosting the first batch of germinating seeds - various brassicas, spinach, beets, onions, daikon radish, lettuce, tomatoes and chillis are all popping up.  I'm having a bash at planting by the moon and these were sown around the last full moon.  I'm waiting until the weekend to plant the spuds, and soon after I'll get the beans and corn sown in the toilet roll plant pots that are lined up.

  

Black and red currant cuttings are planted out, as are a couple of new white currants.  The old gooseberry plants were spikily taking over the world and kept cross-pollinating and producing only a few small fruit.  They're now dug out and 2 new desert gooseberry plants have replaced them.  Two fruit trees gifted by Raylene at the Garden Bee have been re-homed in keyhole bed centres.  All these new plantings are in weed-matted beds, so that should cut down on future weeding hurray!  The strawberry bed has even been re-vamped.  Some new camarosa plants were planted, fertiliser was added, weedmat re-applied and Karyn's gravel loaded back on top.  The bed has a leaky hose running through it.  Just a case of remembering to plug that in every now and then.  

   

The flower gardens are showing signs of life, even flowers are appearing.  I planted some old-fashioned English bluebells around the base of the tulip tree and they've popped into life.  Irises and rosemary flowers are also adding purply blue to the colour palette out there.  The main flower bed is now totally weeded and pea straw applied.  The old pea straw was laid first.  It was already rotting down and full of river silt (guessing I'm going to be doing lots of weeding there this year).  A few new bales were needed to complete the task - these bales are full of pea seeds so I'll also be weeding out pea plants.

 The hedge cuttings that would have been planted around a couple of the keyhole beds sailed away in the flood, never to be seen again.  I've taken new ones but probably too late.  Here's hoping nonetheless... The tree seedlings that didn't float away (lots of oak, some pine nuts and an assortment of random probably stone fruit) have yet to be planted in the woodlot but their time will come.

Two demi-johns of mead are bubbling away and the Gorse Flower wine has had its first racking.  Molly was quite impressed with it - she thinks it tastes like apple crumble.  It was an optimistic enough taste to warrant another batch, which I'll get on with as soon as I get a sunny day at home with time on my hands.  I've spotted a recipe for Gorse Flower Gin too, so heaps of flowers will be necessary.  Luckily there's no shortage and it's a great feeling to be using a plant that has pest status here. 

  Sam and Molly came over for a weekend.  Plenty of eating and drinking happened as usual, and we had a fab day out in Picton (missed you Grannie-Annie!).  The family tradition of Mini Golf had to happen, won by Peter (no surprises there).  We trawled the shops and the stunning foreshore then headed home for a game of Monopoly (won by me - no surprises there either).  The face masks had arrived in a parcel from Lucas and Laura in Korea.  They made our skin peachy soft and helped wile away the evening hours (we know how to party here you know).  

 I'm still picking up vaccine clinic shifts.  While we were back under level 4 lockdown, the whole vaccination operation moved into the Stadium: plenty of room for 2m distancing, and literally thousands of freshly motivated people to vaccinate.  Now we're in level 2 the clinic has returned to its original venue, and the outreach clinics are being extended.  We did the first drive-thru at the weekend, using New World supermarket trolleys to stash the vaccination equipment that were taken out to cars.     

 I've been putting the mountain of beeswax to good candle-making use.  I probably have too many moulds but they are all adorable.  I'm making enough of these curious pregnant woman torso candles to gift my midwife colleagues at Christmas.  A few a day when I'm home and it's raining seems to be working.  It does keep me from doing other things I should be doing on a rainy day (like writing up my diploma portfolio), but it keeps me happy, and that's a pretty powerful argument when you have a dilemma.

 Lucas and Laura are patiently waiting for Laura's residency to come through, and in the meantime Laura has got a job working for the same company as Lucas as a junior website developer.  That's fantastic news for them because she can do that anywhere, even from the Onamalutu Valley.  Billy is enjoying au pairing in Ibiza, including being flown into Mallorca with his host family for football purposes.  His birthday present to Peter was the current Leeds shirt - proudly modeled in the photo.

Just us and the dog at home, so it's rather peaceful here.  Work keeps us both busy of course, but our downtime is relaxing enough despite the Life-Sentence Block work.  Better get back outside - those lambs won't watch themselves after all...   

August 2021

It’s been a biblical few weeks.  First came the destruction (flood) then the resurrection (restoration of the vege garden) followed by life ever-after (level 4 Covid-19 - let’s hope it just feels like forever). Timing-wise I’m feeling pretty blessed.  The garden working bee was perfectly scheduled - enough time for me to emotionally recover and get the necessities (weed mat, pins and gravel) in place, but just before covid lockdown level 4 hit us like a bus on Wednesday 18th August after a single case of Delta covid in Auckland.

  The working bee was a total joy.  Several very good and kind people came along to shift rocks and gravel and pin down weed mat, transforming the vege garden and some of the horse arena zone into a tidy, fresh, and neatly-pathed spectacle, frankly sooo much better than it ever has been.  Some of the volunteers prioritised the kitchen and made sure that everyone was well-fed and watered.  Big thanks to George, Gwen, Chelsea, Jane, Al, Derryn, Robert, Tina, Phil, Raylene, Emma, Carl, Sue, Hilda, Suzie, Caroline, Jodie & Clare.  I owe you all big time and am furiously making thank you candles.  

The rain has been a recurring theme this winter.  There’s a deluge expected again tomorrow, followed by days of rain and drizzle.  Probably (hopefully) not flooding levels again, but we’re still pretty boggy. I wonder if we have a very dry summer in store?  Happily, there are also signs that spring is on its way - sunshine, buds bursting, blossom, vivid green grass, and of course, those nor’wester winds. 

 

Winter colours are still lighting up the garden.  As I’ve trudged up and down the garden path a million times with wheelbarrows of gravel, it’s been absolutely delightful to check out the palette range, from purples and browns, to pinks, oranges, yellows and many greens.  The pinky/purply happy flowers are viola weeds that pop up charmingly everywhere.  The main flower bed is in a sorry state - taking advantage of me not getting round to spreading the pea straw by liberally adorning itself with weeds.  And of course, the orchard hasn't yet been pruned and may not get a look in this year.  It'll have to stop raining at a time when I'm home and without other priorities.  Um, we'll see.

  The natives in the bed in front of the Womb are starting to look more mature.  Even the hedge plants look like they may one day be an actual hedge.  The numerous cuttings of Mexican Orange Blossom are declaring themselves to be alive or dead - it's kinda good to know that before they're planted out.  I may wait until autumn to do this, to give them chance to get more robust before they're battered by the nor'wester winds.  The small trees in the pot are very welcome stone fruit gifts from Raelene that will one day find a home in the vege garden and orchard.

 The currant cuttings are coming away beautifully and will soon be planted into their forever homes.  I ditched a couple of beds (yep, another idea of Karyn's thank you) that previously housed currants and blueberries to extend the vege garden gravel paths behind the hay shed.  Now there’s more room to work beehives (when I get new colonies) and there are still two decent-sized beds remaining, one for red- and the other for blackcurrants.  A small raised bed in the horse arena will be planted with white currants.

 The livestock seem to be back to their normal selves following their near-death flood experience.  They're certainly demanding of hay, and it's reassuring to see that there is some spring pasture growth happening.  The days are getting longer too, which makes it possible to feed them in the daylight after a long vaccine clinic day.  A couple of the ewes are looking quite barrel-shaped, so here's hoping.  I've been wrong about this too many times before to rely on my wishful thinking

 The bees are pretty convinced that good times are ahead.  Normal hive activity has been observable, but I learned that locally, hives are being overrun by varroa mites (thanks for that tip Karyn).  Though the top bar hive has bees and brood, sadly in small numbers only.  I’ve added miticide strips but otherwise, they’re on their own.  I’d need another top bar hive to combine them with another colony.  The other hive is totally thriving - heaps of bees and brood, and even some honey stores leftover from winter.  Derryn can do me another split in a few weeks, and if I’m lucky, a swarm might come my way too.  I foresee a honey-filled summer.

 My lockdown birthday was serene and peaceful, on my own at home.  I’m not complaining. Lots of garden time, and the joy of foraging with Maggie.  Two litres of heavenly gorse flowers were picked and are now bubbling away in a demi-john.  Despite the first recipe instruction quipping 'bandage the holes in your fingers from gorse thorns', this wasn't necessary.  Small female hands meant that gloves weren't any advantage, and the flowers were so profuse I could be really choosy about the most reachable ones.  The wine is a delectable buttery yellow that I hope will live up to its divine reputation.  

 As well as the mini chain saw, I also got myself a new ukelele for my birthday.  I've been to classes with pal Jill and have enjoyed them tremendously, though it's safe to say I'm not likely to be hitting the showbiz scene anytime soon. Jill and me managed to strum along quite musically to 'Happy Birthday' at her husband George's party.  Hopefully there'll be a group we can join when lockdown is done. Billy got me a Kings Seeds gift voucher for my birthday, so I'm fully engaged in the process of drooling over what I'll grow in my newly floodwater-nourished beds.  The planning for seeds is nearly as exciting as the execution, and comes with the added bonus of rose-coloured spectacles.

There is a Billy-sized gap in our lives - he's working in Ibiza as planned.  Lucas and Laura want to come and live in our sleepout until they've saved enough deposit for their own place.  They're just waiting for Laura's residency.  We're keeping everything crossed that the current Covid situation won't delay their plans.  Sam is getting very bored working at the Managed Isolation Facility (MIQ) in Christchurch, and Molly is working from home.  Peter's as busy as ever, as an essential wine bottler (!).  

We're just canceling our Coromandel holiday plans - that were previously Syndey holiday plans - as we won't be able to fly into Auckland any time soon, even if we can eventually move around the South Island.  Probably I'll end up doing some more Covid vaccine clinic shifts instead of holidaying.  So lucky eh?  What is really amazing is that here are no deaths from Delta so far; some hospitalisations but no-one in Intensive Care.  We're all watching and waiting and hoping that lockdown restrictions will ease, and that life ever after will be freer and with less masks.