Monthly Archives: April 2013

Calm day, rain on the way I think. Laurie McDermott dropped in first thing and gave us some sliver beet from his own garden. Karola is planting two of her 12 holly trees each day, under the oaks between the homestead garage and the 121 entrance. Karola took one of the mowers in to be fixed. Henare popped in on his way home for a chat and to give us a bag of Fuji apples. Karola gave him some of Laurie’s fresh silver beet.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—23℃ 0.4mm rain [82.8]

SwimGym

Karola sent David Groves’ notebook computer to him via courier and asked to borrow one of the detective novels by Michael Dibdin (deceased 2007) – the detective is called Aurelio Zen.

Hot autumn day in Hawkes Bay.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—25℃ no rain [82.4]

After breakfast we went to the Hastings Farmer’s Market – bustling crowd and lots of stalls. Later, after lunch including scrambled eggs cooked by David and smoked kahwai Karola bought at the market, more animated conversations over an otherwise languid afternoon.

Mid afternoon Deryn and David left for Wellington and we relaxed. Took Bramble for a walk.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—22℃ no rain [82.7]

Breakfast with Deryn and David and then we went off round the orchard for a walk with Bramble. Apple pickers came earlier and we found that they’d picked some of the Braeburns and all of the Granny Smiths on the Braeburn tree with a couple of branches that threw back to the rootstock Granny Smith.

Later we went out to Clifton Cafe for lunch and after that up to the top of Te Mata Peak, then on to Rush Munroe’s for icecream and finally Karola and the Groves walked home along the length of Oak Avenue.

Venison dinner and another evening of lively discussion this evening.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—22℃ no rain [82.8]

SwimGym

Karola and I went out shopping for the weekend; back before lunch. This included buying a dozen holly trees from Greenleaf Nurseries in Clive. They propagated these after Karola requested them year after year for about four years and rang a month or so ago to say they were ready.

I mowed the cottage lawn again; Karola mowed it only a few days ago. It’s still very damp so didn’t cut well but a couple more mowings will see the new grass blending in with the old satisfactorily.

Deryn and David Groves arrived earlier than planned so we had afternoon tea and then they settled in. Had dinner and chatted animatedly – they’ve lived overseas quite a lot as well – about the iniqueties of Margaret Thatcher’s Britain and the like. David is. I guess, an Italiophile. Italy is his life’s work as a lecturer and academic.

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—21℃ no rain [81.4]

Quiet day. Shane Hay came and mowed the lawns so they’ll look nice for our visitors at the weekend. I did a spot of mulching in the Goose paddock and along the orchard drive, just tidying up.

Last Sunday Harry and I talked about Health and Cholesterol.

Cholesterol, molecules known as LDL, come in two types: bad small dense ones and large fluffy good ones. It’s not just the absolute cholesterol level that matters but also the ratio between “good” and “bad” cholesterol.

Blood tests measuring the level of HDL and of TG (triglycerol) and the ratio of these is an excellent proxy for the levels of good and bad LDL. The lower the ratio of TG:HDL the better.

One thing to watch in discussing this topic is whether the measurements are in milligrams or millimoles as this can confuse.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—22℃ no rain [82.0]

SwimGym

Finished the electric fence distribution system improvements including putting the wire in a pipe beneath ground across two small gates.

Went to Roger Hall play “Taking Off” at the Hastings Opera House with Noel and Jenny Hendery and Peter and Charlotte Offenberger this evening, followed by soup and cake at the cottage provided by Karola. Enjoyed the play and the after-play supper was lively and interesting – well to me anyway.

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—24℃ no rain [82.3]

A gorgeous autumn day, cloudless brilliant blue sky, gentle breeze.

Made some improvements to the electric fence distribution wiring and also moved the remaining logs of the Liquid Amber off the lawn under the big oak and into the Goose paddock. Karola mowed the cottage lawn – including the new grass, on a very high setting.

My two ARM-based Arduino microcontrollers, ordered last October, arrived today. So much computer power in such a small package.

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—23℃ no rain [82.8]

SwimGym

Very mild day and cloudy. We picked lots of mushrooms from the paddocks this morning. One minute not a mushroom; overnight dozens of them.

Some of Karola’s lambs jumped up the ha-ha today; first just four, then nine. So, I’ve put a series of electric fence outriggers along the ha-ha, out of sight, and we expect this will stop that nonsense.

Apart from a short trip into Hastings Karola spent the afternoon outside sweeping leaves and small bramches from the driveways. It’s feeling like autumn with many trees now beginning to turn colour and shed leaves.

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—20℃ no rain [82.9]

Sunday – rain overnight and showers most of the day – bliss to my ears – and it’s still quite warm, partly because Karola lit the fire this morning I suppose.

Karola, with a little help from me, rolled up the electric fence in the orchard and we’ll leave it now until after a good rain after Alan sprays the peaches with an essential anti-bacterial copper spray before the leaves have all fallen.

As mentioned earlier, Alan Ladbrook is not going to renew his lease of Karola’s orchard beyond 20th May so we’re beginning to explore other options. We plan to tell Willie Thow or his manager next time we see one of them as their sub-lease of the apples also comes to an end on 20th.

Alan leased Karola’s orchard and a block of peaches over the road, where Graham Velvin had part of his orchard before he sold up and we bought this part. Alan will continue to lease the peaches over the road as that lease has a couple more years to run and it doesn’t have the complications of sub-leasing which Alan found a bit of a trial.

Alan’s daytime employer, Longlands, has been offered the orchard lease but decided they already had enough small mixed age/fruit orchards for now.

Bruce McKay is the Watties contact for the peaches which, being Tutara Star, are licensed only for selling to Watties. They are an Australian import that fruits later than Tutara Belle but earlier than the staple Golden Queen variety, giving Watties a more even flow of fruit to can over the summer.

The pink ribbons on several trees were put there by Watties and are labelled with the number and size of fruit on that tree so that Watties can estimate the tonnage of fruit to expect from the orchard. The orange blazes spray-painted on rather a lot of trees, maybe close to 100 of the 850+ trees, indicate that the tree will need replacing in the next season or two. Those with a slivery leaf have “silvery leaf” disease. Others with sap bubbling out of the trunk, splitting the bark, have “bacterial blast”.

Alan will be spraying the peaches with an anti-bacterial copper spray shortly, before the leaves have fallen, and we need to keep the sheep well clear until the first significant rain after that as the spray can be fatal to sheep. The next major peach activity is thinning which can be done as late as August as long as it’s well before bud burst.

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—17℃ 4.5mm rain [82.9]

Saturday again, with an excellent Country Life programme featuring John and Bunny Mortimer (dendrologists, farm forestry experts, 9 children, Tiatua arboretum near Hamilton, 1500 tree species, book – “Trees for the New Zealand Countryside” on it’s fifth reprint, they’re both now approaching 90).

Rained overnight and occasionally drizzled during the day.

Frank Haywood (Louise Cope’s father) and David Cope and two children visited mid afternoon to discuss whether they might like to take over the orchard lease now that it’s ending (20th May) and Alan Ladbrook is not renewing. We won’t know if they’re interested until they’ve had a look round, but it’s a possibility.

clife-20130419-2126-dendrologists_john_and_bunny_mortimer-048

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—16℃ 20.4mm rain [82.7]

SwimGym

Then a quiet day with lunch at Taste in Hastings. Henare and Scott called by – he’d had no problems when looking after things for us and had fed the sheep a little hay but the rain came and the grass began growing again so not much needed.

Anna’s Trip – Christmas 2013

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Sat 14Dec13 SQ321 LHR-SIN 22:05(18:45+1)
Sun 15Dec13 SQ285 SIN-AKL 21:15(12:10+1)
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Thu 26Dec13 NZ8475 NPE-CHC 14:10(15:40) Anna & Dave Locator:47KEYH
Tue 31Dec13 NZ8152 NEL-WLG 17:00(17:35) Anna & Dave Locator:47KEYH

Mon 06Jan14 SQ282 AKL-SIN 01:05(06:35)
Mon 06Jan14 SQ308 SIN-LHR 09:00(15:10)

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—17℃ 1.2mm rain [82.6]

After a very sound night’s sleep we went over to Meanee and collected a happy Bramble from the kennels. She was playing with 4 – 5 other dogs of similar size when we arrived but switched her attention rapidly once she knew we were there. My take is that she enjoyed being there – with the canine company – but was also glad to be home where she could wander freely and do what she wanted when she wanted.

Karola and I walked around the place and counted the sheep and looked at the grass and the apples – all seems just fine.

Highlight of the day was an e-mail from Anna in Ealing with details of their flights to and from New Zealand next Christmas.

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—23℃ 0.2mm rain [82.3]

Another good breakfast in the Stables followed by another wander round the grounds and more photo taking. We also climbed the tower inside the castle and gazed in all directions from the top, through the mist and gentle rain that has been a feature of our visit to Larnach Castle.

We set off for Christchurch just before lunch and had lunch at Fleur’s Fish Restaurant at Moraiki – a well known restaurant in all the tourist guides. We got up to Ashburton just before dark and relaxed for a while looking round the aviary, trees, and garden at the main Ashburton public park.

The rental car was returned on time and we made our way to the terminal. As the flight was delayed for 30 minutes we had a snack in the airport. Uneventful flight back to Napier and drive home.

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—22℃ 4.8mm rain [?]

Larnach Castle hearty breakfast in the Stables block. In the morning we followed the tree trail round the garden, Karola exclaiming with delight when she saw something rare or unusual.

Margaret Barker met us for lunch in the Ballroom cafe and she told us about the garden and trees that she planted and nurtured at Larnach Castle. After lunch, despite a hectic schedule including filming for a forthcoming video about the castle and gardens, Margaret strolled round the grounds with us, discussing her favourites.

Late afternoon we drove out to the albatross colony on the end of the peninsula beyond Larnach. We were too late for a guided tour but walked around and Karola did see one of these beautiful birds with its vast wingspan, swooping low in along the cliffs.

DInner was in the castle’s Music Room with two other couples, both from Australia and, as part of the dinner, we heard stories of Larnach family history.

Oak Avenue Weather:16℃—19℃ 6.5mm rain [?]

Today we visited an oak avenue just south of Geraldine, the Hargreave’s place. Hargreave senior is now in a new house on a bluff overlooking the Canterbury plains, designed by their son who is an architect and farms an Angus beef cattle stud. The son and his wife Anna Hargreaves live in the homestead and Karola chatted to her about the avenue. It’s younger than Oak Avenue in Hastings, and in better health, and it encompasses a curve at one end which adds to its charm. We were pleased to see that the Angus stud uses Harry’s electric fencing system.

Anna Hargreaves suggested we lunch at a very good restaurant 50km down the track towards Dunedin, the Riverstone restaurant. We had very very special fish and chips there and looked round their potage garden. Talking to some others also wandering around the garden we were told of the rich dairying family who had made so much that they were able to build the Riverstone restaurant for their son and – oddly – a large house resembling a castle with mote for eccentric wife Dot, just over the back fence of the restaurant. The restaurant and garden also houses several large sheds selling all manner of NZ relics – old signs, machinery, and “kiwiana”.

By this time I’d had enough travelling but we needed to plough on. We stopped for a cup of tea and walk around at the Blueskin Cafe and Nursery then carried on, with me asleep on the back seat, to Dunedin – Port Chalmers and Larnach Castle.

Margaret Barker had done us proud; we had a superb room overlooking Port Chalmers across the inlet. Exhausted from the long drive we had sandwiches from room service and an early night.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—21℃ 3.9mm rain [?]

After checking out of the motel we took a shuttle to the airport where we picked up an Avis hire car – a Toyota “Aurion” – comfortable, fairly quiet, and with built-in iPhone connection.

Fro the airport we went to Riccarton race course to the Sunday Rotary market – like a farmers’ market but bigger and with wider range of wares. As planned we looked up Mike Brown, Heritage Showers. His hobby is restoring old locks and Karola had brought 5 old locks with her from the cottage for him to restore.

Then on southwards towards Geraldine, stopping at the Meads Tea Rooms, very old watering hole on the south side of the Rakia bridge – the longest bridge in New Zealand. After a brunch at the tea rooms we went on through Ashburton and then struck westward to Geraldine and the Scenic Lodge Motel.

After we’d settled in at the motel we went back up the road to the house Ro and John Acland were renting while they built themselves a modern, spacious three-bedroom house on an acre of land overlooking a stream, designed by architect son Paul. They were expecting us and took us up into the hills to Mount Peel – their New Zealand ancestral homestead. We had a guided tour of the grounds, chapel and graveyard with special attention to their old fine trees. Their son now occupies the house and runs the high-country sheep station.

The sheep station’s chapel was damaged quite badly in the recent Christchurch earthquakes. The main stained glass window above the alter had popped out and broken to smithereens; it’s cost over $70,000 just to put the pieces back together. There was more damage to the chapel interior this morning, according to Ro, and it turned out there’d been another aftershock around mid morning.

The Mount Peel sheep station until recently had a New Zealand high country pastoral lease covering thousands of acres. This has recently been converted, under the government’s new plans for rationalising these large land leases, into a freehold for the grazing and cropping land and transfer to Department of Conservation (DOC) of the rest as public reserve. Compensation for the DOC component of their original lease has given Mount Peel a huge windfall, millions of dollars, hence the new house they’re building down in Geraldine.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—25℃ no rain [?]

A later start this morning, thank goodness, given the quite late evening meal and AGM last night.

First off, the Christchurch Botanical Gardens. Deiter Steinegg guided us through the gardens and gave passionate and informative commentary as we went. He has a long history of expert tree management and is responsible for the Christchurch council’s trees throughout the city, in addition to advising on the running of the Botanical Gardens.

Two of his memorable quotes were:
a) When asked about the best time to plant he is said to have replied “Twenty Years Ago”, and the next best time, he said, is “Now”.

b) “If you want to be happy for a day, drink a bottle of wine. If you want to be happy for a year, get married. If you want to be happy for ever, plant a tree.”

Then on to Banks Peninsula via Avonside Drive for a picnic lunch. We could see clearly the significant upheavals rent by the 2011/2012 earthquakes along the river Avon – roads left like roller-coaster rides, trees sliding into the river or toppling over, and battered, derelict bungalows. We also drove briefly through a severely damaged part of the city with its mixture of brand new buildings and huge heaps of rubble. Shipping containers had been made into a giant’s staircase to hold up historic shopfronts; there being nothing but rubble behind the shopfront facades.

After lunch in a small grassy park surrounded by recently regenerated bush we set off for Prices Valley, a tiny remnant of original podocarp forest, now a QE II Covenanted reserve, tucked up a narrow, winding, gravelled no-exit road. We were shown round the reserve by Alice Shanks, another most passionate tree advocate who works with the QE II Trust.

Late afternoon the bus took us to “Kinloch” for afternoon tea and to look round this magnificent old homestead set in large lawns rolling down to a lake and with neatly clipped hedges and colourful borders surrounding the house. The owner, Deborah Sellars, served tea and biscuits for 58 while we strolled around the grounds admiring the many old, tall exotic trees.

Bussed back to the motel to prepare for another evening of food and conversation. Same restaurant, the Rosendale Restaurant, and this time the entertainment before, between, and after the meal was a tree auction; a rowdy affair with lots of good humoured jesting between members. Karola sat next to English emigrants Christine and John Nichols. They had authored a well regarded reference book “Climbing Plants of New Zealand” and Karola bought a copy at the auction then had it signed by the authors. I sat next to Janet and Andrew Geddes, regular and popular IDS members.

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—21℃ no rain [?]

Breakfast in the room – milk provided but the rest we’d brought with us. Off onto the tour bus at 8:00am along with most of the 56 others – including 13 Australians from the Australian branch of IDS.

Our first stop was at the Riccarton Bush in the grounds of Riccarton House. The house was closed due to extensive internal earthquake repairs. The outside had survived almost unscathed but inside brick chimneys had collapes and walls shifted and it was a mess, we were told.

The bush is protected by a predator-proof fence topped with electric wire to keep out local hooligans. The striking thing was the thick undergrowth so untypical of unprotected bush. Seedlings of all sorts were flourishing making it pretty much inpenetrable whereas normal modern NZ bush has been so depleted by possum and deer that you can walk freely almost everywhere. The Chief Ranger showed us round and, after a picnic morning tea, we wandered round the large tree collection in the main grounds, including the largest pear tree in the world, allegedly.

Riccarton Bush

Karola was most taken with a small cottage in the grounds of Riccarton House

Deans Cottage – Riccarton House

On to Lincoln University and the “amenity tree planting area” used for tuition by the horticultural classes. We were shown round by Roy Edwards who began the plantings decades ago and has been a lecturer and gardener there ever since, through thick and thin. He was an enthusiastic guide, able to tell us when and why the many species of conifer were planted and about his comprehensive collection of Magnolias.

Picnic lunch was at “Otahuna Lodge” a house built for Sir Heaton Rhodes and now a luxury lodge. Sir Heaton was an avid horticulturalist and the lodge is famed for its cuisine and the recently restored garden. AT $1200 a night you’d expect something rather special. Steve Marcham, head gardener, guided us through the formal gardens and trees. We then strolled around the garden including a large stone-walled “dutch” vegetable garden where much of the food cooked for guests was grown.

Otahuna Lodge

The bus returned us to the motel and later picked us up again for our dinner and AGM at the Rosendale Restaurant, a modern, faintly germanic restaurant with good food and just enough room for all 58 of us. It was the fastest AGM on record, being held between courses. Karola was delighted to sit near and talk to Laurie Metcalfe, a very well known NZ botanist. I sat near Mavis and Graham Dyers, growers of kiwifruit and ginkgo leaves in Tepuke.

Bus back to the motel quite late and so to another comfortable night.

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—23℃ no rain [?]

Bramble was taken to the kennels “Pets 2 Us” in the morning; she was fairly relaxed about it all being intrigued by the other occupants.

We flew directly from Napier airport to Christchurch after lunch, a flight of about 80 minutes, leaving the Subaru in the long-term car park for our return. Henare will look after the place while we’re away, ensuring the sheep have food and water.

Landing in Christchurch we didn’t immediately see much in the way of earthquake damage. We took a shuttle to the motel and after settling in walked to a nearby Speight’s Ale House. The restaurant part was fully booked – later we found out it was a “graduation” party. We tried to find a space in the noisy, crowded bar food area and had no sooner found a small round empty table when some complete strangers barged in and said they would join us – there was barely room for two. A stroke of luck but just after this we were summoned to a small quiet table back in the main restaurant due to a cancellation and we had an adequate meal there at least out of the noise and crowding.

Walk back to the motel and a good night’s rest.

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—19℃ no rain [?]

SwimGym

Then a very relaxed day with some packing for tomorrow.

We used the tractor and its forks to move a few oak logs from along the driveway where the tree surgeons had left them to the stump dump in the extreme south east corner.

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—18℃ 0.1mm rain [83.1]

Quiet day at first. Midday I topped the Front paddock – the failed hay paddock of last spring full of stalky reminders – and Harry says it’s a mass of unpalatable Browntop grass. Just a couple of hours later the rains came and are still falling as we speak. Couldn’t have been better timing.

Karola put her ewes in the orchard for some extra tucker, retrieving them as dusk and rain fell. Karola also removed electric fence from around the lawn and weeded the narrow mulch path along the top of the ha-ha – again just in time for the late afternoon rain.

We got a hand-delivered letter in the mail today from Alan Ladbrook saying he would not be renewing his lease of Karola’s orchard when it comes up for review on 20th May. So we have some planning to do, quickly.

Henare came round and Karola gave him coffee and a sandwich – he’ll look after the place while we’re away in the South Island starting Thursday.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—21℃ 16.3mm rain [82.4]

SwimGym after missing several sessions due to our jaunts.

All the clocks I could find are now back on New Zealand standard time. Also we’ve turned on the heating as the nights are definitely chilly.

Arthur Ormond and son Chris came and chainsawed up a load of old apple wood for us and another load for them, for firewood.

I left a gate open after taking the little trailer over to the place of sawing and after a while the lambs noticed and rushed into the garden. Thankfully Karola was around and saw them. I came downstairs when Bramble went into a frenzy of barking – she actually broke her dog clip in her excitement to rush off and herd those naughty lambs back in their paddock.

Ewes on the lawn. After lunch, lambs in the orchard under the picked apple and peach trees.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—20℃ no rain [82.4]

Over 16mm of rain fell while we were away, well over 1/2 an inch, so the grass is greening up as I write.

An extra hour as the clocks went back last night. Strange to be getting up in daylight when we’ve been used to it getting light soon after we rose. Henare called by on his way to work, apple picking, just to let us know all was well. One night he saw a light over near the orchard drive, investigated but found no-one. Next day he couldn’t see any of the ewes which worried him. However they were just out of sight in the Orchard paddock – having the run of the Front, One Acre, and Orchard paddocks.

Back to a more normal routine, and it’s Sunday so the weekly tasks beckoned. Anna is beating me soundly at “Words With Friends” – she is quick on getting those interlocking sequences. Karola got back into the swing with most of the day out weeding after first putting electric fence round the lawn and letting her ewes and the ram onto it for the afternoon.

Going through e-mail I found a note telling me someone had added themselves as a new User to an old weblog I was keeping as backup – a copy. I had a moment of panic. I shut off all access to that weblog except from the computers here at Karamu and poked around to see what else might have been done. Odd that a smart hacker could break into one of my weblogs yet allow the system to notify me when he made himself an authorised user.

I chatted for ages with Bridget and we established that s/he was not just any sort of user but an “Administrator”. Administrator users can easily do harm; they can totally mess up that weblog and get out into my other weblogs. With Bridget’s help we found how he probably made himself a user without needing to break into the system. If you knew the right file to access on this particular weblog it would allow anyone to register as a user and they got Administrator privileges automatically. I certainly didn’t make those settings consciously but something I did during the weblog set up must have caused them to be set this way.

Searching on Google I found that many people had had the same experience – unknown people adding themselves as users on a weblog. I found that by default, unless you specifically turned it off, every weblog started out allowing anyone to register as a user. I did not find out how the default privileges became Administrator but assume, for the sake of a good night’s sleep, that it was a consequence of something else I did. Otherwise it indicates a much more serious attack, a real break-in.

I couldn’t see any new files or folders, nor were any files changed since I’d installed the weblog.

If it was an experienced hacker breaking in then it’s very unlikely that I’d find out where s/he’d hidden any malicious code – the only safe thing to do in that case is to copy each message and photo out of all the weblogs, completely wipe the space clean and start again. Someone that skilled could have contaminated all and any of my weblogs and files on the whole web space that I rent. However there is a more probable explanation and I have decided to accept it. There are programs written to coopt web sites – software robots that probe thousands of weblogs and web sites looking for easy targets. I’m assuming it was one of these software robots who made the new user. The robots see if a site allows them to register as a user and then write new messages (“Posts”) and comments to the weblog. The robot owners sell the user names and passwords to spammers. I hadn’t received any spam so perhaps reacted in time. This took a lot of time and was a tad stressful.

Just to see how hard it would be, as an Administrator user, to add/delete files anywhere on my system – on any of the weblogs – it took me 10 mins to find a way to write a file into the most protected part of my web space. Too, too easy. I hope most fervently that the “probing software robot” explanation is right.

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—17℃ no rain [82.5]

We packed up and set off for Hastings mid morning. I was uncharacteristically unwell for most of the trip but cannot lay this entirely at Karola’s feet – her driving was calm and efficient. Too much chocolate at Bridget’s last night; too many coffee takeaways, and too much travelling. Two “away game” parties in two weeks, and now another weeklong adventure with the Dendrologists in Christchurch beginning next Thursday.

It has rained while we’ve been away, enough to actually make the ground look damp. So the drought seems well and truly broken. Grass greening up.

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—18℃ 1.5mm rain [?]

Arthur Park, civil engineer, came out late morning as planned and inspected the underside of the Days Bay flat. It urgently needs some cross-bracing across the front of the basement but otherwise needs nothing more than ordinary maintenance on the beams and supports. It might not cost a fortune, thank goodness. No reason for repiling or massive underpinning.

To Mary for afternoon tea and on to Bridget’s for an evening of babysitting.

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—18℃ 6.4mm rain [?]

We visited Mary briefly, after dropping off Karola’s gift of Hawkes Bay raspberries for the party, and went on to the party proper around 7:00pm.

Three tables of 8 people, exquisite food, and enough naturally gregarious people to keep the conversation flowing. As parties go, most enjoyable.

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—17℃ 2.5mm rain [?]

We go off to Wellington later today. Apples are being picked in the orchard. Ewes are with their ram; lambs are in a separate teenager group, frolicking.

Out here in the wilderness of rural Hawkes Bay we have no mains sewage or water but provide our own. So, we have a well for the orchard, regulated by resource consents for watering the apples and peaches, and a domestic well used for the sheep and gardens and our personal water needs. All watering described below is from our domestic well – not from tanks or mains supply – coming from deep underground, and that comes from the mountains far to the west.

The New Grass Takes Off – With A Lot Of Watering

The Raised Bed Vegetable Garden – With A Lot Of Watering

Bramble Looks Out Over The Front Paddock – With Not A Lot Of Watering

Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—28℃ 6.4mm rain [83.3]

Brief foray into town in search of a replacement for an apparently failed short fluorescent light in the cottage broom/coats cupboard. The old one was just glimmering at one end. The replacement one did just the same so presumably it’s not the tube. On a later trip, Karola went looking for raspberries for Marina’s party in Wellington on Thursday evening – she retrieved the old tube assuming it is actually quite alright. I spent an hour or more taking the fitting down; the cupboard is very cramped and I don’t know how the electrician managed to wire it up in such a confined space. I turned the light circuits off in the cottage mains box and hoped it wasn’t wired to a power circuit by mistake.

In this same cupboard Karola and I put up a coat rail several months ago. The rail consists of tubes that slide into each other and a strong spring which pushes them apart thus holding the ends of the pipes firmly against the wall. Not quite firmly enough for our outdoors coats. So for many weeks Karola has been hoping I’d get round to putting up something more substantial. Well today I did. Using an old broom handle bought a while ago for the purpose from White Traders at the end of the road and a piece of Kauri T&G board salvaged from our large heap of discarded building materials the new rail took shape. The 15mm thick piece of Kauri was sawn into two rectangles and a hole drilled in the centre using one of those circles of teeth that cut a plug out the board. This was rather more difficult than anticipated because the Kauri was so very hard – I had to change batteries on the electric drill twice. Finally it was done. Karola washed the wooden holders and the rail and I superglued a couple of places on the holders where the wood was splitting away. Karola instructed the placement and measured the level and we put it up. That’s something achieved today.

The day was quiet on the whole; a couple of technical queries from Bridget, another turn of “Words With Friends” with Anna seemingly in the middle of the night in Ealing. One more solid soaking of the vegetable beds and the newly grassed cottage lawn, and an hour of pruning Ngaios on the orchard drive. Shane Hay called and offers to come over tomorrow to continue his pruning work on that same long hedge.

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—25℃ no rain [83.5]

Easter Monday – no SwimGym,

Watering of vegetable garden and newly planted lawn completed.

Late morning Harry and his son-in-law Peter came for a chat. A while later Chloe and her daughters Tessa (Peter’s repregnant wife) and Laura arrived. They’d all been to a big society wedding at Cape Kidnappers over the weekend.

So quite a social day for our recovery day from Julia’s party.

Late afternoon I helped Karola get her sheep out of the orchard and separate them into ewes and lambs. She then put the ewes and the ram together, it being the beginning of April.

To our surprise Henare and son Scott arrived just as I was about to serve up our dinner – which we ate regardless, Henare and Scott had already eaten, twice they said – so they were obviously doing the rounds of relations while Scott was down from Hamilton.

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—27℃ no rain [82.9]