Monthly Archives: February 2016

SwimGym

At home, packing mainly and thinking hard about what we might have forgotten.

Airnet man, Julian, came and fixed our Internet connection, again. This time it was strands of oak leaves that were hanging down in the way of our transceiver so he just lowered the dish and off we went. Such a pity that we didn’t know about this and get it fixed before Roger (Hughes) arrived – his Internet access here was dismal.

Posted Roger the pen drive back again so he can put a couple of missing Father Brown episodes on it and mail it back.

Worked on the Farm Shed specification and will drop it off with Ruth Vincent tomorrow on the way to drop off Bramble at the kennels.

Lambs Wool – Our Very Own

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—30℃ no rain [82.1]

Checked Bramble who was licking her injured leg and the screw had popped out again so took her to the vet’s first thing and she stayed there until Stuart could re-do the screw and stitch her up again. Back home with a bandage on her leg tonight.

Sorted out the sheep shearing. Bruce called to cancel but I called him back and he relented. Karol turned up shortly afterwards and Karola got her ewes crutched and lambs shorn and all, except the ram, given an autumn dose of Magnum (withholding for meat of zero days)

Sorted out the bed legs problem – then Karola went into Napier and got the longer legs. Still a tad too short but when we took off the sliders – like metal bottle tops – off the legs of the headboard and footboard all the legs touched the ground.

Complained to the ISP about lousy Internet. They said nothing wrong their end. I disconnected my network and plugged in just one laptop to their router and still got problems. They then did some real tests and admitted all was not well. Sending a man – but will he come before we leave for Tasmania.

Did a first initial preliminary draft of the specs for the Implement Shed.

Took some more photos with my Sony WX350 point-n-shoot camera.

Muehlenbeckia Climbing

French Lavender – Planted Only A Couple Of Months Ago

Old Swarm Still Hanging In There

Golden Himalayan Cedar

Oak Avenue Weather:21℃—31℃ 3.1mm rain [81.8]

SwimGym

A little gentle rain.

Spent far too long writing an email explaining to Julie Jeffrey (house minder whilst we’re in Tassie) how to use the TVs and Internet and phone. Karola is going to keep a copy for her own reference – it only skimmed the surface you understand – the 101 of Ian’s cottage audio-visual setup.

I dashed in to town and picked up the replicated key from Goddards and four new pairs of shorts from Farmlands – and some fish for tonight’s dinner.

Bay Beds brought us the repaired Chapman-Taylor bed with new mattress. Their truck got a flat battery so I jump started it for them.

Janet Scott called in to talk to Karola mid afternoon. Joan Philips called for a long chat in the evening.

At last I watched the tutorial I bought on Apple Pages – it really has an awful lot of function in there and looks very easy to use – I am impressed.

Oak Avenue Weather:19℃—27℃ 5.1mm rain [81.8]

Mucked about with the voicemail arrangements this morning, anticipating I’d change to using Vodafone despite their 17 cents a call to your mailbox. However I ended up just adding features to the one we have. The mailbox now sends me a TXTwhenever a voice message is left. Also, if the phone drops through to voicemail, a caller can be redirected to my mobile phone by pressing zero.

Karola found the homestead back-door key I’d mislaid – it was inside a box of tissues next to the bowl which is the home for our keys.

A sightseer or prowler came up the drive in a bright metallic blue car, quickly driving off when Bramble went out to meet them. No chance to get a numberplate photo. I then spent half an hour taking photos with the Sony WX350 camera, taking things around the cottage and using different settings to see if I could tell the difference.

Karola went into town late morning, returning early afternoon. Meanwhile I tried to install my new small toy, a gadget the size of a camera memory card that can be pushed into the corresponding slot in the side of my Macbook Pro and doubles the permanent storage to 500GB. After following the instructions very carefully, including doing a complete backup of the current system, I found that it just wouldn’t work. After much fiddling around to no avail I realised that the model I had of TarDisk, as they’re called, was the wrong one for my model of Macbook Pro. I can exchange it but not in time for the holiday beginning on Saturday.

Henare dropped in for a short chat early evening.

Large Swamp Cyprus – Red & Green

Rusty Bath – Potential Goose Mini-Pond

Lichen On Bark

Flax Seed Pods – Not Yet Ripe

Geese At Rest

Pasture In Late Summer

Oak Avenue Weather:18℃—29℃ no rain [82.2]

SwimGym

I then went into town to see if I could get my watch cleaned in time for the holiday.I also went to Gothard’s and asked them to create a duplicate for the back door key. It will be ready on Wednesday and cost $25.

I had hoped to get some replacement transition spectacles in time for the holiday but unfortunately it takes about seven days to create a new pair of spectacles.I went to farmlands to see if I could get some new shorts for the holiday and they will ring back if they can find the right size somewhere in New Zealand in time.

Returned home and picked up Roger and Anne and took them to the airport for their midday flight back to Wellington. The three of us had a bite to eat in the airport cafe.

In the afternoon I did Karola’s GST and paid a few bills ready for our holiday beginning on Saturday.

Oak Avenue Weather:17℃—28℃ no rain [82.8]

After breakfast we all, including Bramble, went on a tour of Karam and of Karola’s orchard, the sights included:

• Evolving courtyard effect for the buildings clustered near the homestead
• Elm railings at the 133 entrance and how the posts, which rotted through, are now supported from behind using pine tantalised half-round posts
• Big lime tree with its peaceful canopy
• Place where the English beech was until two days ago
• Grass bridge and culvert overpass next to the roadside fence
• Australian Section of plantings next to the Eucalypts
• Our first planting, in the North-East corner, natives planted by Karola and Bridget
• Water pipes going round the boundary, for water troughs and irrigation
• Disused entrance off the orchard drive, from the north, and the struggling Swamp Cyprus trees
• Runner beans, past the end of their production for this year, in the north-west corner of the One Acre paddock
• Karola’s fruit tree corner with Quince and Crabapple trees prominent
• Manuka hedge along the west boundary between Karamu and Karola’s orchard
• Karola’s orchard of grafted and new organic apples
• Neighbour Brian & Louise Cope’s new house
• Flax corner , railed off, in the north-west corner of the orchard
• Next door orchard, was owned by Max Douglas, now owned by John Bostock
• Karola’s big orchard shed
• Big Shed gutters and tank on a stand with soak-away and feeding concrete trough through the fence
• Small hay shed under the trees – to be superseded by the new farm shed
• Sheep yards
• Casuarina shelter belt on south boundary
• Sheep cemetery (hole) in the Long Acre
• Stump dump in the Long Acre
• Karola’s several bunds under the oaks along the road boundary from the 121 to 133 entrances
• Homestead garage
• Summer house
• Site of the proposed farm shed

Midday we had lunch at “Milk & Honey” in Ahuriri, then visited Beaty & Forbes at their new shop also in Ahuriri. After that strolled around down-town Napier admiring the art deco and seeking coffee to drink in the shade, preferably outside. Eventually we settled for a takeaway coffee from a repurposed AirStream – an American caravan with aluminium cladding, made in California and popular in 1960s. After that Karola and Anne strolled along the foreshore to the Maritime Museum. Quiet drive home via Clive, again, and later a lovely roast chicken dinner cooked by Karola.

Milk And Honey in Ahuriri

Takeaway Coffee On Napier Foreshore

Oak Avenue Weather:16℃—27℃ no rain [83.3]

Saturday morning and all’s well. Internet connection still playing up but not quite as badly as yesterday.

Off to the beach after breakfast, equipped with folding chairs and morning tea stuff. Anne and Karola expect to swim; Roger and I to read and chat. Pleasant in the park or Domain just behind the dunes but quite rough on the beach itself, a brisk cross-wind and high tide.

Later we wen to to Bay Expresso on Karamu road near the golf course and had a splendid brunch. Leaving the car park Karola had a small altercation with a parked car and “insurance companies were exchanged”. Car owner is Janine Currie, 027-255-3488 (insurer AMI).

Then on home for quiet time while Karola went out foraging for meat for the next two days. She returned to cook us lamb chops. Followed by more relaxing chat made easier now the temperature has dropped. In the meantime I finished the very long “second half” of the Nielsen questionnaire and I imagine I will be a major disappointment to the Hawkes Bay advertisers whose blandishments I just throw away or ignore. I am decidedly not a good consumer.

I set the irrigation going for the Bay trees, the Runner Beans and half to the lucerne under the big oak.

Little Ding In Parked Car At Bay Expresso

Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—26℃ no rain [82.9]

SwimGym

The tree people arrived at 8:30am and were ready to start by 9:00am. It took them until 4:00pm to complete the job of felling the old beech tree and cutting down two trunks of a private on the road boundary, leaning towards power lines.

The beech was more rotten at its extremities than we’d feared and was more robust at the trunk, but that’s all history now. We have a small mountain of chipping and many firewood rings for splitting later.

Karola and Anne went off to the heated pool on the Napier foreshore mid morning and returned in time for us all to go to lunch at Taste, next to Cornucopia in Hastings.

I have mislaid my driving glasses (transitional lenses) and one of the keys to the backdoor of the homestead – so not a good day. Also Roger and I spent hours on computers trying to get a VPN to work and to download the Windows drivers for my new printer. For reasons unknown the combination of network and computers just didn’t work today although we tried repeatedly and in various ways to make it so. Quite frustrating.

Late afternoon I was interviewed by a Nielsen marketeer, Mary Murnane (06-870-1375, 027-694-5520). A 40 minute questionnaire sitting on the cottage kitchen verandah with most of the questions being about my use of the diverse visual means advertisers would try to get my attention and persuade me to buy stuff. I’ve agreed to do a second half and post it in.

The Old English Beech Tree

Just A Skeleton

Only A Trunk

Mere Stump

Count The Rings

Rings And Chips

Enjoying Lunch At Taste In Hastings

Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—29℃ no rain [83.3]

Rolled up the rest of the electric fence, making it tidy for Roger and Anne but more importantly for the house-sitter while we’re off in Tasmania.

Haircut in town and then visited property Brokers to see if they could offer a service to be the backstop in the unlikely event that there was a break-in or other incident here while we are away. No dice but Sheila??? Martin suggest that we ask Havelock Hills Security, 500 Karamu Road in in Hastings. (06 877 6209)

Picked up Roger and Anne from Napier Airport and went directly to Clifton Cafe for lunch, joined by Patrick & Lis Cooney.

After dinner we all went into Hastings to spy out The Common Room, a dive that sells Chris Ormond’s beer but also has loud jazz music. We popped in then popped right back out again. We ended up at “Down The Road” in Queens Street for a quiet drink.

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—27℃ no rain [82.5]

SwimGym

New printer arrived today, an HP OfficeJet Pro 8620 – it prints, it prints in colour and black-and-white, it prints front and back, it copies and scans in colour or black and white, single copies or multiple pages, and so on. It seems very fast to print or copy, holds a lot more blank paper than my old printers, and unlike my old HP 2510, it just configured itself to operate via WiFi on our local network in a few seconds. It prints from iThings without tricks so Goodbye Printopia app that was needed for older printers to mediate between iThings and the printers. As long as I remember to register for my $100 cash-back from HP it will have cost $166 – totally, absolutely amazing.

I prepared the Front paddock for the sheep; they’ve done a good job of trimming my lucerne under the big oak. Took down the electric fence to make the place more inviting for Roger and Anne tomorrow. Picked a desultory few runner beans – they still taste good though.

Struggled to pick up enough Google Sketchup skills to do the Farm Shed model, borrowing heavily from the quick model Bridget did with me watching last week. The model is done.

Karola has rejected the rather handsome blue waterproof case for her iPhone 4S but has so far not rejected the iPhone itself. I’m in discussion with Vodafone because on their web pages describing their Voicemail offering they contradict themselves. At the beginning it states that you have ten days after listening to your messages before they are deleted automatically. Later it says that the messages are only kept for ten days whether you listened to them or not.

Called the delinquent tree man – he claims equipment issues and says he’ll be here on Friday.

Pam the accountant called and delivered the shocking but not unexpected news – her team have finished our 2015 tax and we owe the tax man rather a lot, and the accountants made a mistake in our favour a year ago which they’ve now found and corrected, and we’ll have several thousand dollars more tax to pay because of that. Ho hum. Glad I don’t get all burned up by this.

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—27℃ no rain [82.4]

Henare came this morning and spent another day mowing the homestead lawn – which is much improved in looks now he’s finished. And then I got Scott a bus ticket back to Hamilton online, so that he can see his girlfriend, “Dr Who”, on Valentine’s day.There’s a bit of a tug-of-war going on between the oriental, well-off, hard-working student girlfriend studying to be a doctor, and Scott’s mother, Denise. “Dr Who” – well we don’t know her name, she’s just the girlfriend, so we say “who?”, the girlfriend who is studying medicine, so “Dr Who”. Silly really.

I fiddled about for another hour or so with getting the flex into the two stems of the two-shade light fitting that has been plaguing me for a week or so. Karola rather likes it even though it’s old and dated – brass with fluted shades hanging down. The path the flex takes is narrow and includes a right-angle bend near the base. I tried threading the flex directly. No go. I tried threading a thin wire directly, no go. I did succeed with pushing a thin wire in from one end and snagging it on another piece of thin wire pushed in from the other end. I tried soldering the flex to the thin wire and pulling it through, no go. I tried gluing the flex to the thin wire and pulling it through, no go. I tried splitting the flex into its pair of wires along a third of its length, cutting one wire off at the join and gluing the other to the thin wire and pulling it through, no go. This has been going on for days.

At last I solved it. I used the thin-wire snagging technique to get a thin wire threaded through the fitting. Then I pulled a thicker wire through using the thin wire. Then I glued one of the split wires of the flex to the thicker wire, let that dry, and pulled it through. That worked. First I very slowly pulled very hard on the single wire of the flex and it grudgingly came through, whew, and then pulled some more until the full flex appeared at last on the other side.

Reassembled I attached the fitting back onto the wires in the wall, turned on the switch, and blew the lighting fuses. Spent an hour with a multimeter trying to find where the leak was, to no avail. And this time, when I reassembled and tried again, one light came on, the other didn’t. Carefully checking with the multimeter (for the buzz when I got a circuit – it has a continuity tester) I reassembled it and, with all circuits working that should be, and none that I found which shouldn’t, this time it really did work. Now, with shades re-attached, it is back to its earlier glory.

An interlude around lunchtime was similarly unrelaxing. Henare was in danger of running out of petrol so I emptied the last can of diesel into the tractor, the last dregs of petrol into the lawn mower, and took 2 x 5-litre petrol cans and 2 x 10-litre diesel cans down to the garage for refill. As usual the attendant filled the diesel cans first at which point there was commotion because EftPos had gone down. The pumps stopped working. No petrol for me. Crossing my fingers I rushed down the road to another garage whose credit-card machines were still working and got the petrol. Back in time to ensure Henare’s mowing was uninterrupted.

Then it was back to the first garage with cash to pay for the diesel, then to Hastings to get lunch: one fish and half a scoop of chips for Henare, and a grilled terakihi fillet (NO FLOUR) each for me and Karola. I fried up some left-over cooked new potatoes for Karola and me. We had a little lunchtime feast.

Later I checked the oil and water for the tractor and found it almost out of coolant and totally out of oil. Remedial steps were taken.

Oak Avenue Weather:19℃—26℃ no rain [81.9]

SwimGym

Sheep drafted into lambs (8) and ewes (21). Lambs banished to the One Acre as they cannot be trusted to honour electric fence – too much wool on. The rest get limited grazing of my lucerne under the big oak.

Karola and I started marking the many Privett shrubs and trees we have – all noxious weeds in New Zealand. I trod on a small wasps nest of small wasps and was stung on the leg and nose so retired injured.

Changed a bulb in the security lights on the homestead garage.

Much time fruitlessly trying to thread flex into an old two-shade light fitting.

Henare & Scott borrowed the Landrover and big trailer to fetch a couple of couches that one of Henare’s siblings, Ira, offered him.

I did some work on the Google Sketchup model of the Farm Shed.

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—23℃ 0.1mm rain [82.1]

The rain forecast for last night passed us by.

Overcast and warm.

I put electric fence round the big oak anticipating that Karola will have some  of her sheep have a controlled graze, maybe an hour a day, on my lucerne.

An hour or so fruitlessly attempting to thread flex through an old twin-shade light fitting, I’ve got the flex through to one shade but not the other.

Karola has decided she doesn’t want Bridget’s old iMac computer so Bridget, who can use it for her girls as a dedicated Minecraft system, will get it back. Quite annoying really as it was a clean machine with a big bright screen and I’d spent a lot of time setting it up. Oh well.

Runner beans seem to be over.

Bought a new printer online from Ascent, an HP Officejet Pro 8620 Multi-function printer which is recommended on several review sites. It cost $226 but there’s a promotion whereby, once the printer has been delivered, you can contact HP and HP will give you back an astonishing $100. I wait to be amazed.

The site of the proposed Farm Shed has been re-pegged a little further west and with the lean-to switched to the east side.

Karola yarded up her sheep and attended to one of the hog gets that seemed to have an ear infection – mites maybe.

Oak Avenue Weather:16℃—24℃ 0.5mm rain [81.9]

Next round in trying to liberate some money from Karola’s Australian investment fund, I, or rather Karola, resent the forms with the corrections required. When I tried to take a copy of the forms the printer broke. Sad only because of the several ink cartridges I have that will not be of use in any other printer – these are expensive so rather a waste. I’ve replaced the broken HP 3310 multifunction printer that Bridget gave me a couple of years ago as too old for her needs with an even older HP2510 that languished in the flat in Days Bay for best part of a decade. It too does scanning, copying, and printing, but it is incredibly slow.

Then I wrote emails to Les Clapcott and to Ruth Vincent. To Ruth to ask that she prepare the plans for our Farm Shed; Les to say we’d contracted Ruth (who he’d recommended highly) and that as a result of some practical questions Ruth had on Friday we’d decided to think a bit more on what changes we should make to the homestead.

After lunch I went to Hastings for some thin electric light wire (to mend an old light fitting), some liquid to turn rust into a non-corroding compound (for the orchard mower and the old bath Karola wants to use as a small pool for the geese), a 10-foot plastic-coated wire lead for Bramble (I’ve lost her ordinary chain and this is the modern equivalent), and 15 sunflower seeds.

Later I mowed the One Acre. The sheep have moved on, now in the Middle paddock, and have pretty much easter the One Acre down leaving only thistle and barley grass and other grass stalks. Karola mowed a particularly thick patch of barley grass with the lawn mower and catcher, to avoid spreading the seed.

Nest In A Karamu Shrub, In Clear View

Mowing Just Begun

Now We Wait For Rain – Some Forecast Tonight

Hungry Sheep Have Pruned The Accessible Runner Beans

Oak Avenue Weather:19℃—26℃ 0.7mm rain [82.2]

SwimGym for me this morning.

After breakfast we went and stared at the proposed site of the Farm Shed and Karola decided that it should be moved a bit further away from the magnificent oak on the east side and nearer the younger, spindlier one on the west – only by 500mm or less. Then we both thought that the lean-to might be better on the east side and so we agreed to switch it. We can now have windows in the side facing west as well as the back and the roller door will be on that side making the blank wall to the east have the bulk of the free space. That way tools and shelves attached to the blank wall will be as far from any vehicle in the shed as possible. Also, no windows facing east means less opportunity for strangers to see inside from the 121 driveway. And the access through the roller door is a more gentle curve. Because the magnificent oak is further back, south, than the spindly one, access to the lean-to will be easier this way round too.Lots of advantages

Karola went into town shopping and visiting the library till late lunchtime.

Henare came and spent many hours mowing in the hot sun – nearly finished.

I struggled to edit Bridget’s model of the Farm Shed, to swap the lean-to from right to left, and even pestered Bridget at work and she kindly led me through the vital changes.

Ruth Vincent, potential draftsman for the Farm Shed and the Homestead Improvements arrived as planned at 2:00pm and we had a good conversation for the next two hours. We described our building activities since returning to New Zealand and showed her the model and site for the Farm Shed. We also told her quite a bit about the history of the place and the many tangled family relationships. And showed Ruth the model, also made by Bridget, of the potential changes to the homestead. Ruth had some pertinent design questions concerning the model – how the lower floor would take the weight of the upper one, for example. She then asked to see inside the homestead and seemed to thoroughly enjoy looking round.

Henare’s Twice-Mown Lawn – Looking Out From The Septic Tank

Under The Big Oak The Uncut Grass Contrasts With Henare’s Mown Lawn

Oak Avenue Weather:21℃—28℃ 0.2mm rain [81.7]

Intending to have the cottage lawn and environs, the ones I usually mow, not too raggedy for when Ruth Vincent comes tomorrow, I began mowing around 9:00am hoping to get finished before Henare came to start on the homestead lawn – he’s got a couple of days free in the gap between picking pears and picking apples. By the time Henare came, late morning, I had only the cottage lawn to do having finished the little lawn in front of the homestead garage, the area round the cottage clothes line, the grass driveway from the cottage up to the homestead, the bit between the cottage and the drive, and a band round the grassed area under the big oak.

It was already hot when Henare arrived and he mowed the sides of the 121 driveway and the grassed area behind the homestead garage before I finished the cottage lawn which I mowed with Karola’s venerable Honda self-propelled roller mower which is pretty slow. Henare then began the main homestead lawn and was having to go over the ground twice to get a reasonable finish so it was slow work. A quick lunch and Henare was off again till mid afternoon.

After completing the cottage lawn I used the tractor and orchard mower to flatten the blackberry and weeds encroaching on the front drive, from the 133 entrance to the circle in front of the homestead. I then made inroads near the English beech tree so that the tree people, when they do come, will have an easier time of it.

Just as I was finishing the tractor mowing Paul Libby arrived to chat about the latest thoughts for the shape and placement of the new Farm Shed. He thinks the new position will be OK if we don’t get into too much trouble with shallow oak tree roots.

I went back to finish the tractor mowing and afterwards I discovered to my horror that I’d completely forgotten abut my dental appointment – an hour long session preparing for a new molar crown.

Later I cleaned off the large accumulation of dust and grass on the orchard mower and found that the top cover had some large patches of rust. I gave it a vigorous hose-down, at the same time beginning the task of cleaning up the old bath that’s been sitting half-buried in the ground in the goose enclosure for many years.

Late afternoon after a shower and change of clothes I discovered that my recent attempts to transfer money from our Australian bank to the Australian bank account of our financial adviser had failed. A call to the bank and much time on hold later we knew why and I was able to submit the transfers again. In the mood for more bureaucracy I then tackled Karola’s iPac investment people. As a daring experiment we’re trying to liberate a bit of money from her investment in iPac, and investment that’s been quietly rising and falling and rising again for 15 or more years. More forms to fill in, more misunderstandings but I think we may actually win in a month or two.

After dinner we noticed that the Subaru battery had gone flat – a door left ajar and some lights on. It was quickly jump-started with the Landrover and then Karola drove us all over to visit Peter and Charlotte briefly in Havelock North, to charge up the battery.

Top Of The Ha-Ha Near The English Beech

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—27℃ no rain [82.7]

SwimGym

Bit of a rush as I had to take Bramble to the vets to have her latest set of stitches removed. Vet Stuart Badger says she’s healing very well. Next appointment after we come back from Tassie in March.

Meanwhile Karola was having her hair done in preparation for this afternoon’s attendance at the races, courtesy of our orchardist, John Bostock. As I was not keen to go Karola took our next door neighbour, Janet Scott, who was very pleased to be asked. I was the designated driver to and from the races. Karola and Janet did not make there fortunes this afternoon.

I wrestled with my camera and the Photography video lectures. I’ve determined that the camera does not support manual settings for “Aperture Priority” or “Shutter Priority” and of course it’s a “point-and-click” so no separate lenses.Making the first few lectures somewhat superfluous.

Later I took down the small gate and railings that block the path along the top of the ha-ha, at the Avenue (eastern) end. When the tree people finally do come to take down the English beech it’ll make their job a little easier.

John Bostock called round early evening, returning Karola’s bag which she’d left at the races. Apparently Mick Ormond, Karola’s cousin and the chairman of the Hastings Racing Club, had found it when checking round afterwards. John came to bring the bag and also to see how we were getting on with his orcharding activity. We are very pleased with how things are going, and said so but I did mention how darn noisy the sprayers are at daybreak. But that’s really a widespread evil of pip and stone fruit orchards, not unique to John’’s organic apple trees.

Henare popped round and gave Karola some pears – he’s been picking pears all week and has finished today. Next will be apple picking, after the weekend, because it’s a long weekend, Waiting Day celebration, and the orchard owners hate paying double time on public holidays. Henare will probably come round tomorrow and star on mowing the homestead lawn now the sheep have eaten out the green stuff.

Karola Prepares For The Flies in Tassie – Only 3 Weeks To Go

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—27℃ no rain [82.4]

I have been attempting to listen to the photography lectures (A “Great Courses” course) given by Joel Satori, National Geographic senior photographer. I have at last found a way to run the lectures at 1.5 times normal speed which, he being American, makes the lectures shorter and not much more difficult to listen to. I’ve also printed off the 240 or so pages of my camera’s instruction manual – it has many presets and helpful settings. I cannot imagine anyone actually remembering them all and taking advantage. All I want to know is how to set “Aperture Priority” and “Shutter-Speed Priority”, perhaps tomorrow.

Karola continued tidying the cottage garage and took stuff to the charity shop in the morning. Karola spent the hot afternoon working in the shade at front of the homestead, weeding the bed along the verandah. Bramble was her faithful companion.

Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—31℃ no rain [82.8]

SwimGym

Exchanging TXTs with Anna today I find that she has been using a sleep time app on her iPhone for ages; I had remarked about how Bridget, Gill, and I use Sleep Cycle and believe we benefit.

After talking to Chris Day, our principle financial advisor in Forsyth Barr, I did an online transfer of some Australian funds I recently liberated from its languishing investment into Forsyth Barr’s Australian bank account. It was alarmingly easy.

Karola spent some time tidying the cottage garage and then a more enjoyable afternoon working on the raised bed kitchen garden.

I had a somewhat frustrating afternoon trying to get a series of lectures to run on the kitchen TV from iTunes on my iPad – and to run faster than normal so I could motor through the boring bits. The ability to speed up or slow down a video is available only on videos in iTunes labelled as iTunes-U, not as TV Shows or Podcasts or anything else. And it only works on IOS not on the Mac. And then I find that my old laptop (2009) doesn’t support Apple TV Airplay, it’s too old. And so it went on. Tonight I don’t have what I want but I have a glimmer of an idea how to get it.

This evening Bridget made a model of the proposed farm shed, as re-envisioned by me and Karola in the last couple of days. It took her all of 20 minutes using Google Sketchup.

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—23℃ no rain [82.2]