First off Karola and I picked all the Granny Smith apples off the one tree with unintended branches of that variety and some branches of Pacific Rose. Karola now has maybe twenty shopping bags heavy with apples.

Then I took the Subaru in to get its towbar fitted – $250 for the purchase and fitting of a brand new towbar. After that it was off to Newport Auto Electrical to book the car in because the front passenger window doesn’t open.

Oak Avenue aka Ormond Road has been closed at the Omahu Road end for almost two weeks while a large pipe is laid – possibly replacement of a sewer – in Omahu Road. This has made the Avenue delightfully free of traffic, especially at what passes for rush hour round here.

Karola raked and smoothed the ha-ha slope helping cover the seeds and removing lumps and stones.

I used the 3 rolls of alkathene to connect up a tap in our planting area near the big shed to a trough in the back half of the orchard where the wethers are to spend the next month or so.

Alan Ladbrook lit a small fire of orchard trimmings he’d piled up in the middle of the sweet corn patch and we added a heap of brambles and some old stumps in the hope that these too will be burned up.

Hawkes Bay Weather: 9°C—25°C; 2.3 mm rain [83.5]