Monthly Archives: October 2015

We watched the Rugby World Cup runners-up battle it out.

Later I went off to buy paint stripper from Mitre-10 in Napier. Luckily I asked for help and avoided the mixtures that are more expensive and cover a surprisingly small area – I have about 4 square metres to strip.

On the way home I dropped into Hohepa for Karola and bought fire-lighters and Cumin cheese. Aside: Charlotte Jackman manages the Hohepa shop several days a week.

Karola put the ewes and lambs into the Middle paddock, switching with the hoggets and “drys”.

Bridget made our day – she posted Karola one of her small digital cameras which has been missing for weeks. Karola has mislaid two of these cameras over the last few months and has been spending too much time trying to remember where she last had them, so it was a great relief.

See The Veneers On Either Side Of The Core

Inside Front Corner Showing Lifting Veneer

The Cabinet Top, Four Coats Of Paint Stripper Later

Back and Sides Have One Coat of Paint Stripper So Far

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—19℃ no rain [84.0]

SwimGym

Raining much of the night and so outside work delayed until it dries off a bit.

Cynthia Chalmers came for morning tea.

I did Friday shopping and, after consultation with Mrs Google and Bridget, bought a small electric sander to help with the map cabinet.

Lawyer Richard Small emailed to say that the Horrocks had signed the purchase agreement and two copies are now on their way for us to sign and return.

Experimenting with the sander I found that it was just going to take too long to get the heavy white paint off so, again after consulting with Bridget, I bought a heat gun and scraper. That is a bit more effective.

However, as I persevered it became clear that much of the cabinet, excluding the solid wooden drawers, was veneer, not “solid rimu” as advertised.

Henare dropped in as we were starting dinner.

I dropped Mike Armstrong, who sold me the cabinet, a note explaining my findings.

Trade-Me Advertisement

The Map Cabinet Upended

Signs That “Solid Rimu” Is In Fact Veneer

French Lavender Growing In Gill’s Garden In Seatoun

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—14℃ no rain [83.7]

Karola continued with her tree guard maintenance, stitching and sewing the shade netting to her circular high-tensile wire netting circles. Karola stands on a box to ram in the metal standards used to hold the circles in place.

In the afternoon I went to Greenleaf Nurseries and bought four replacement bay trees. I also wanted a French Lavender shrub – to see if its reputation for frost and drought resistance, and its aromatic perfume and attractiveness to bees and butterflies, is warrented.

Before A Bit Of Weeding

Weeding Well Underway

Concrete Heritage Sheep Trough – New Ballcock, Clean Water

That’s Not Rabbits – Slugs Maybe?

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—24℃ 5.8mm rain [83.5]

SwimGym

I spent a while fixing leaky trough connections and exploring why Karola’s favourite heritage concrete trough isn’t working.

Karola was on tree guard maintenance again.

My map drawer cabinet finally arrived – I bought it on Trade-Me. The drawers are good and the inside looks fine but the outside is pretty rough. I suspect the top is laminated not solid rimu. It has cost $900 so far but I suspect one done up for decorative use would be well over $1000.

The Seven Map Drawers

Inside The Cabinet – The Good Part

Karola’s Concrete Trough – The Broken Water Valve

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—16℃ no rain [83.3]

Off to Hastings after breakfast to pick up the bread due last Friday along with one of the Bostock organic chicken. We took Bramble with us and one of us stayed in the car with her at each stop.

I spent some time on my programming coursework but needing a break late afternoon I started the task of weeding the bay tree hedge in the cottage garden.

Karola continued her tree guard maintenance programme.


A Lady And Her Tree Guards

The Wild Flourishing Of The Raised bed Vegetable Garden

Those Docks Are Doomed – Start Of The Bay Hedge Weeding

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—23℃ no rain [83.1]

First thing this morning was to watch the second semi-final of the Rugby World Cup between Wallabies and Pumas (Oz and Argentina). The Wallabies played like All Blacks.

Then we went to SwimGym, a couple of hours later than usual.

Spent the rest of the day just puddling about. I did manage to get Karola’s GST return in. And I found that although I’d paid the GST for June/July the IRD said they’d not received it. Will need to sort that out after the holiday, tomorrow.

Late afternoon it rained quite heavily.

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—17℃ 5.2mm rain [83.5]

We watched the Rugby World Cup semi-final this morning. A cliff-hanger and I was pretty sure the All Blacks were doomed, but no, they somehow scrambled to a small winning margin.

I did emails and other Sunday chores. Karola did maintenance on another tree guard and then in the afternoon worked on organising her cuttings and other family papers.

A lamb went through the electric fence round the Liriodendron on the homestead lawn and started eating the low-hanging leaves. When Karola noticed this I hurriedly electrified that loop of fence round the Liriodendron and the predation stopped.

Karola roast a leg of lamb for dinner and the weather cooled down a bit so was delicious.

The leaky pipe along my runner beans had broken at a join but it must have been not long before I found it so damage was minimal. Reusing old leaky pipe is risky; it gets brittle and the connectors tend to fall apart.

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—21℃ no rain [?]

Rain in the early hours persisted till after breakfast – delightful sound. Too wet to be pleasant doing gardening stuff today.

I went into Hastings for the bread, delayed until today because it was Hawkes Bay regional holiday yesterday. But the bread hadn’t arrived so I’ll have to wait till Tuesday. Would have to happen in the very week where I’d run my freezer supplies of the bread down to nothing – I usually have a couple of spare loaves.

Karola did emails and worked on her old papers and cuttings, sorting them out – this is a very long project.

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—14℃ no rain [83.5]

SwimGym

It is forecast to be a hot day in Hawkes Bay today – 27+ degrees so before it heated up, and while there was hardly a breeze, I sprayed the weeds with Roundup: in front of the homestead garage, on the homestead hard stand, along the drive to the 133 entrance, and in front of the cottage garage.

After lunch we went to the Hawkes Bay Show at the show-grounds so that Karola could see the show jumping. This event is world-class because it is part of a series of venues on the equestrian circuit for the World Cup – or so they said.

We bumped into Ade White in the crowd and then again later he was with Helen Gilbertson and, later Jenny Price joined them and then us.

After the show jumping Karola and I drifted through the rest of the show although by then many of the stalls and exhibits had shut up and gone home. We saw sheep and poultry, lots of cards and tractors, and had whitebait fritters before going back to the car and home. It was hot.

Showjumping At The Hawkes Bay Show

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—26℃ no rain [83.3]

No sign of “Ken” today. Perhaps Karola’s reminder that he owed three hours work put him off.

Karola did more tree guard maintenance today – much banging in of standards and use of the old mulch I’d put in the little old farm trailer. She weeds the circle inside the guard, re-sites any standards that have begun to lean or seem out of place, and gives each tree a good layer of weed-supressing and moisture-retaining mulch.

I followed up the cottage lawn mowing yesterday with mowing of the little lawn in front of the homestead garage and around the washing line.

I pegged out the possible placement of the new barn. Karola thinks there may be a better position.

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—20℃ no rain [83.6]

SwimGym

“Ken” – I think that’s his name – dropped in looking for work. I guess he didn’t remember, or thought we’d forgotten, that Karola gave him $50 to buy petrol and visit his sick uncle last time he came. Anyway, he has 3 hours to work off first and he’s expected back tomorrow to wash down the outside of the homestead garage.

Karola and I looked up the riding holiday place in Poland, the “Polish Country Estate”. I suggested it a few weeks ago as a possible destination for Karola and me and Anna and family. Anna has taken the idea up enthusiastically – it’s for next year’s UK summer school holidays. The vacation place is “Pałac i Folwark Galiny”, about 3 hours by car east of Gdansk.

Karola and I also discussed building a barn at Karamu, to complete the quadrangle with the homestead, homestead garage, and cottage on the other three sides.

We’ve been thinking about some sort of barn for ages and suddenly Karola says she wants it to store hay in this summer. Well I did say that in all likelihood there’ll be a major drought this year due to the predicted ferocious El Nino – going to soak the west coast and starve the east coast of North Island, fill the South Island lakes to the brim. So we’ve got in touch with our builder, Paul Libby, who came round this afternoon and we discussed what we’d like. He’s going to get his draftsman to draw something up.

The current idea is for a weather and bird-proof concrete-slab-based lockable centre section very like our cottage garage – but not so tall, not lined, manual garage door and no electricity, same colours and roofline. On either side a lean-to with open sides. Shape often called a ‘heritage barn’ or ‘American barn’. In the centre bit we’ll store all the outside tools. lawn mowers, garden tools, vet cupboard, paints and petrol etc. In the open wings, with removable hurdle sides, we’ll keep things dry: hay, firewood, and sheep – either sheep about to be shorn when rain threatens or sheep needing special help at lambing time.

The current idea is to have it be facing north-north-east like the homestead but just inside what we used to call the goose paddock – about half way between the cottage and the homestead garage set back about 20 metres from the driveway edged with flax.

Most afternoon was spent mulching the pruning and blackberry from the west side of the homestead garage.

I watered the runner beans for about 2 minutes. In a day or so I expect to rely on the leaky pipe.

Tackling The Over-Growth On West Side Of Homestead Garage

Spot The Bramble, Spot Her Mistress

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—22℃ no rain [83.1]

Today’s highlight was to be the application of a liquid called Magnum on all the sheep, including the ram, hoggets, and lambs, to repel flies and kill any lice over the coming weeks. One 17mm dose for lambs, 2 for the hoggets, and 3 for the rest. (Magnum withholding for meat of zero days).

After breakfast I watered the runner beans for a full 5 minutes. I also put in little pegs pinning back the leaky pipe so that it didn’t touch any of the plants.

Mid morning that we went shopping – we’re always going shopping – for more food and for the Magnum for this afternoon’s fun.

As fate would have it, the night after the sheep were shorn, yesterday, it’s the coldest night in October with wind machines going in the orchards much of the night. It’s tough to be a sheep.

Karola did some more on her tree guard maintenance – weeding and mulching and re-seating the metal “standards” holding up the wire netting circles.

Late afternoon we tried to get the sheep and lambs into the yards but they were having none of it. After mucking about for a while we got Bramble to give a hand and that did the trick. Without any formal training Bramble does her very best to figure out what we want and, mostly, to obey.

It’s like one of those flat puzzles where you shunt round little tiles to get them all in the right positions. We had to get the ram into the yards, the rest of the sheep through the yards and dosed, and then the ram safely back in the Long Acre through the holding paddock without mixing with the others.

Ewes Looking Very Bare After Shearing

Lining Up To Receive The Pour-On

George I Waits His Turn For The Pour-On

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—17℃ no rain [83.1]

SwimGym

More blessed rugby – heartbreaking and very unlucky for the Scots. Usual skin-of-the-teeth stuff for those Ozzie bastards.

In the afternoon Karl and his missus came and shore all the adult sheep including the breeding replacement hoggets and the ram.

Karola has been continuing her cut-and-poison action against thistle and also today started weeding and mulching her young trees around the big oak.

I lashed up a little netting gate for the rabbit-proof enclosure and thus completed the construction of that runner bean growing area.

Box Plants From Bridget Have Quadrupled In Height Nine Years Ago

The Rabbit-Proof Runner Bean Enclosure

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—19℃ no rain [83.6]

I watched the Welsh-South African game and then the surprisingly positive All Blacks game versus France this morning. Anna was TXTing us from the UK to make sure we were watching.. Grandson Felix – who is quarter French, quarter English and half New Zealand – was watching in San Francisco. He’s on a school trip to various places in the USA; they didn’t have that sort of thing in my day.

Bruce Richardson rang to say they’d come and shear the sheep tomorrow mid afternoon and so Karola put all the ewes and lambs and hoggets in the holding paddock for the night.The ram hasn’t been shorn for ell over a year and s he’ll be glad to get a bit cooler.

I set up the permanent leaky-pipe irrigation for the runner beans. Karola went out with a bottle of Vigilant and her long shears and attacked some of the Scotch thistle.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—24℃ no rain [83.5]

Cloudy but mild day; wind getting up as the day wore on.

Karola is sorting out some of her parents papers, particularly around the time she was born, 1946. She alternates between sadness and happy thoughts.

After midday dinner Karla took the recycling to Flamer where she also called on Laurie and Enid.

Meanwhile I had a full afternoon, I took down the electric fence round the homestead lawn and mowed a strip where the fence was to go before re-erecting it including cordoning off the Liriodendron which is just coming into leaf and bud. Given a chance the sheep will strip the lower branches.

If At First You Don’t Succeed …

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—23℃ no rain [83.8]

SwimGym at the beginning of a hot day.

Late morning we went into Hastings for my main meal and to do the weekend shopping. I got a couple of plastic WOF holders from the VTS (the trailer’s old one had become brittle and shattered), and a couple of blank ear yellow tags from Farmlands so that I can complete the hogget tagging. I mucked up two of the tags which meant they were joined, but not through the sheep’s ear. If I sacrifice one half of the tag I can reuse the other half.

We got the bread and more thin leeks and some gluten-free spaghetti from Cornucopia before going to New World for the meal. I had GF lambs fry with mashed potato and onion gravy; Karola had a salmon and avocado quiche. After doing the food shopping Karola took an electric blanket into Hector Jones for testing – Gill had mentioned it seemed to get very hot. Finally we went to Office Max and Karola got a new Brother label maker.

Sheep had another couple of hours under the big oak.

Siesta in the early afternoon. Then I finished the construction of the rabbit-proof runner bean enclosure and, as night was falling, planted the 18 runner bean plants.

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—25℃ no rain [83.5]

Karola took two of the old lawn mowers into Hawkes Bay Lawnmowers – one to be serviced and the other to be donated for spares.

I did a little more on the rabbit-proof fence but otherwise had a quiet day. The ewes and lambs did spend a clue of hours under the big oak.

In the evening Karola and I went to a talk in Napier:

Dr Marie Brown of the Environmental Defence Society and co-author of “Vanishing Nature – Facing New Zealand’s Biodiversity Crisis” lead an evening with Dr Amelia McQueen and Dr Mike Joy at the National Aquarium of New Zealand in Napier at 6.30pm on 15th October. They highlighted the declining state of our biodiversity. The evening is jointly hosted by Forest & Bird Central Hawke’s Bay, Hastings-Havelock North and Napier branches.

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—20℃ 0.1mm rain [83.5]

SwimGym

Karola unpacked the car and stored the pictures. books and a chest of drawers – somewhere, I suspect in the already overflowing store room.

Apart from a short walk with Bramble I had a quiet day. We did all go out to Greta’s green grocers nearby in Omahu Road for a few vegetables, paper, and milk.

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—14℃ 0.7mm rain [83.3]

Late start but then quite busy.

Karola left Bridget’s place and went out to the Days Bay flat where she sorted and selected stuff packing the car with stuff to bring back to Karamu. She set off back for Hastings at lunchtime, stopping for lunch in Greytown and afternoon tea in Norsewood. Karola arrived home around 5:00pm – the roads were clear but it rained most of the way.

Meanwhile I deconstructed the electric fence along the 121 driveway and then mowed a clear strip round the edge of the grass under the big oak tree. I put up a nice tight electric fence and ensured it was well electrified. The ewes and lambs rushed in to see what was new. An hour later they drifted out again – obviously it wasn’t that exciting for them. Ewe #328 jumped through the wires several times – she is a pest.

As I was taking down the electric fence along the driveway I heard a squaring and noticed this poor kingfisher trapped inside one of Karola’s extra-tall, extra-thin tree guards. It was exhausted and its bill was bleeding from attacking the wire netting of the guard. I gently lifted the guard and carried the kingfisher out – I’ve no idea how long it had been in there but am not sure if it will survive. To my delight it had enough strength to fly out of my hands and onto a low bough of a nearby fir tree. There is sat, motionless, for about three hours, then it was gone – I hope somewhat recovered.

Later I did the mowing that got forgotten on Sunday and then Karola arrived home.

Kingfisher In Tree Guard Trap

Sheep Under The Old Plum Tree Next To The Big Oak

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—22℃ 2.9mm rain [83.1]

Watched the France-Ireland rugby match while I had breakfast.

Then, SwimGym, but not Karola who is in Wellington.

I took three full tractor scoops of mulch up to the rabbit-proof fence and then put a couple of scoops in Karola’s second-best little trailer.

Meticulous Maids came late afternoon. The older maid who’s been here many times was stroking Bramble – she likes dogs – when Bramble snapped at her, drawing a little blood. Bramble does this every so often, for reasons unknown, when you stroke or touch her hindquarters. She’s done it to Karola a number of times, usually when being groomed.

Dd a little more on the netting for the rabbit-proof fence.
Just after 9:00pm tonight there was quite a strong earthquake – later I found out that it was 5.8 quake out to sea east of Paiatua, about 100km from here.

Current State of the Rabbit Proof Fence

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—22℃ no rain [83.5]

Another quite interesting rugby match – Australia versus Wales, recorded at about 4:30am. Quarter finals begin a week today, thank goodness.

Karola let her ewes into the 121 driveway again and I ushered them out for the night late afternoon after doing a bit more on the rabbit proof fence. Karola took off for Wellington around 1:00pm, had afternoon tea with Val in Masterton and was with Bridget and the grand-daughters for supper.

The swarming bees, seen near the big oak yesterday afternoon, are attempting to make home in a big rotten branch of the oak tree. I can see the worker feed lines to and from the hole and a lot more bees buzzing about the entrance.

Coincidentally, a bee sat on the little wooden gate out by the runner bean enclosure and as I tried to shut the gate it stung me in between my small and next fingers of my left hand. I haven’t been stung for years. I didn’t swell up and stopped even itching by supper time.

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—19℃ no rain [83.6]

Cold start to the day but hot after lunch.

Watched the darn rugby – All Blacks versus Tonga. Tonga played far better than the final score would indicate. AB’s had a rubbish first half too.

Karola put up electric fence on the 121 driveway. I put the ram in the yards and the ewes and lambs in the Long Acre. When the fence was up Karola let them into the driveway for a couple of hours. Karola drafted out ewe #328 and her lambs as she makes a habit of going through the electric fence and until the sheep are shorn they’ll not feel much.

Henare called round at lunchtime – he’d finished work for the day – and he helped me place the long piece of netting around the inside of the runner bean enclosure. As we were having afternoon tea Henare noticed a small swarm of bees going past the cottage garage and towards the big oak.

Later I nailed / stapled it up – it’ll not be pretty but I think it’ll stop the rabbits – if not the pukekos, possums, and slugs.

Today’s Progress On The Runner Bean Enclosure

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—17℃ no rain [83.8]

SwimGym

Quail families, pheasants, rabbits in addition to the usual crowds of smaller birds – teeming with wild life.

Late morning we went into Hastings for weekend shopping and lunch at the New World cafe.

Late afternoon I did a little more on the runner bean patch.

Rabbit-Proof Fence – Under Construction

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—16℃ 0.1mm rain [83.1]

Karola saw a possum come out of the opening next to the homestead back door that gives access to the wall cavity. Tsk, tsk. She also saw a quail family near the cottage – mum, dad, and about five youngsters.

Karola spent the morning on various appointments and shopping. Bramble and I kept a low profile. Lovely day.

After lunch I did some more on the runner bean enclosure. Also we restricted the ewes and lambs to the Middle paddock and let the hoggets into the Front paddock.

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—18℃ 0.1mm rain [83.7]

SwimGym

Cool start but then a hot day – so much so that we had mostly a long siesta until around 5:30pm when I did a bit of work on the runner bean plot – taking the turf off the rectangle that is to be enclosed with a netting fence.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—27℃ no rain [84.4]

Post today included a new cordless phone for the cottage and yet another set of printer ink cartridges.

Patrick & Lis Cooney called in mid-morning and we chatted and had morning tea.

Peter called after breakfast and we agreed to meet up for lunch.

Karola had back-to-back appointments with the dental hygienist and dentist this morning.

We met Peter & Charlotte and Peter’s sister Annette at the “Milk & Honey” cafe on the waterfront at Ahururi – just the other side of Napier. We had a good lunch and chatted till late afternoon.

On the way home Karola bought me a new possum-merino dark grey ribbed crew-neck jersey and bought Bramble a little rabbit skin – both from the Wool Shop in Napier.

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—22℃ no rain [83.9]

SwimGym

Karola had a doctor’s appointment late morning.

I mowed the cottage lawn, lawn in front of the homestead garage, strip between the drive and the cottage, and around the washing line. It complemented the mowing Henare had done on Sunday.

Just after 2:00pm Jenny Price arrived in her car and the Smiths arrived in their red diesel LandRover.

The Smith party, relatively recent immigrants from England, comprise Rev. Craig Smith, his wife Sheila Smith, and son James. Another son is at university in Wellington and their daughter, the eldest, is back in the UK also at university.

Jenny had connected us to see if we could help with accommodation for Sheila and James while Jams finishes his secondary school – a year and a term to go.

The Smiths came out from England a decade ago and spent the first 5-6 years in Culvaden, North Canterbury. They then moved up to another parish in Waipukarau and essential economies have forced this this position to become part-time – so not enough to sustain a family. Craig has since applied for and accepted a position back in Manchester, UK and the plan is for Sheila and James to follow once James finishes school.

Sheila seems a practical, well-adjusted sort of person, trying to hold together a family under stress. We wished we could help short of having strangers become part of our little tranquil private world here. Karola thought long and hard about it and we decided to offer that Sheila and James could stay here rent-free with no obligations except today for electricity and Internet usage until 11th December when Bridget and family are coming up for a pre-Christmas visit. That at least would give them breathing space to find longer term solutions. Karola also rang a few contacts to explore other options.

I expect that now they’ve seen how much Karamu is full to the brim with our stuff – books, pictures, furniture and so on, it would not be easy to fit in there with their own possessions and so on.

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—15℃ no rain [83.9]

SwimGym

Karola had a doctor’s appointment late morning.

I mowed the cottage lawn, lawn in front of the homestead garage, strip between the drive and the cottage, and around the washing line. It complemented the mowing Henare had done on Sunday.

Just after 2:00pm Jenny Price arrived in her car and the Smiths arrived in their red diesel LandRover.

The Smith party, relatively recent immigrants from England, comprise Rev. Craig Smith, his wife Sheila Smith, and son James. Another son is at university in Wellington and their daughter, the eldest, is back in the UK also at university.

Jenny had connected us to see if we could help with accommodation for Sheila and James while Jams finishes his secondary school – a year and a term to go.

The Smiths came out from England a decade ago and spent the first 5-6 years in Culvaden, North Canterbury. They then moved up to another parish in Waipukarau and essential economies have forced this this position to become part-time – so not enough to sustain a family. Craig has since applied for and accepted a position back in Manchester, UK and the plan is for Sheila and James to follow once James finishes school.

Sheila seems a practical, well-adjusted sort of person, trying to hold together a family under stress. We wished we could help short of having strangers become part of our little tranquil private world here. Karola thought long and hard about it and we decided to offer that Sheila and James could stay here rent-free with no obligations except today for electricity and Internet usage until 11th December when Bridget and family are coming up for a pre-Christmas visit. That at least would give them breathing space to find longer term solutions. Karola also rang a few contacts to explore other options.

I expect that now they’ve seen how much Karamu is full to the brim with our stuff – books, pictures, furniture and so on, it would not be easy to fit in there with their own possessions and so on.

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [?]

Almost a summer’s day- warm sunshine and a gentle breeze.

More rugby – this time the Wallabies vanquished the English who were understandably rather put out. After all they are the host nation for this year’s World Cup and are, in their eyes, supposed to win.



Later, Henare and Karola put the old, picturesque totara battens on the bit of fence Henare and I re-assembled yesterday. I bought fish & chips for lunch – ordinary F&C for Henare, grilled grouper with home cooked fried boiled potatoes and salad for me and Karola.

After lunch Henare took a first pass with the mower over the very long grass in front of the homestead and down the east side – places that the sheep have not grazed and where the grass is long and lush.

Then we continued working on the fortification of the runner bean patch.

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—23℃ no rain [83.9]

… and so the All Blacks are playing in Cardif – playing Georgia. We watched the early morning (for us) lacklustre game which had very few glimpses of greatness. Overall not worth the time spent viewing it.

Henare came after he too had been watching the game on TV. First we disassembled the runner bean structure and retrieved a big roll of chicken netting – the small stuff, not the 50mm (2”) ordinary stuff – from where it’’s lain for decades. This will become a rabbit-proof surround for the runner beans.

Then, as Karola has requested, Henare and I worked on the fence that goes from the small gate through the planting area to the big shed south to the wide gate entrance also to the orchard big shed. By the end of the day we’d replaced the sheep netting fence with a seven-wire wire fence and Henare expects to put on totara battens tomorrow.

I also did a bit of online retail therapy – bought an old rim chest comprising seven shallow, wide drawers for holding maps or plans. It was rather expensive but Karola suggested I try to find one to house my seldom-used array of electronics supplies and tools. I also bought yet another phone, this time a cordless with large buttons to be the main phone in the cottage.

Bridget called and discussed her imminent purchase of a new iPhone 6s-plus and a new iMac. Must be something in the air.

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—16℃ no rain [84.0]

SwimGym – Another Friday already.

After breakfast I had a haircut and did the weekend shopping – and bang, there goes the morning.

Emails thick & fast concerning the sale of the Days Bay flat. All seems to be well.

I spent far too long browsing for stuff and not finding it. A sweater to replace my favourite one that accidentally got shrunk while being washed. Just like the previous “favourite jersey”. Found one I liked but it was in a sale in Australia and only in a size way too big. I emailed the shop and they replied very quickly – that line of sweaters has been discontinued.

I also looked for a cabinet which could be used for maps or plans – several slim drawers able to hold A2-sized paper and 2-3 inches tall. The one I found is on TradeMe and priced to sell at $800, sigh. A map cabinet is Karola’s solution to my unsightly array of electronics and tools – the Arduino project, and I have to admit that combines “out of sight” with me being able to see everything laid out rather than jumbled together in tool boxes.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—22℃ no rain [84.0]