Monthly Archives: April 2019

Went off to get the GF bread that didn’t come last Friday – because of the pulic holiday on Thursday for ANZAC day. As anticipated the loaf that was supposed to be put aside for me had not been, but luckily there was a loaf in the public racks so I left contented. Then got some coffee and went home.

Cold breeze outside and mostly cloudy with occasional heavy showers. Karola continued ministering to her ram lamb invalid – no change.

I had a most enjoyable day re-writing the third web app of my trilogy for graphing weights. Much progress.

Bought Karola’s birthday present – a most expensive silk/possum/merino jersey – I do hope she likes it.

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—15℃ 0.3mm rain [76.90] IKBOrchard

SwimGym with Karola – very quiet there.

My weight this morning was so distressing that I touched nothing before going to the gym. When I got back I immediately went out and wound up all the electric fence in the One Acre paddock, giving the ewes the run of all of it. There is plenty of lucerne regrowth in the first two tranches they had so can probably keep access to the crop for another week or so. Then, still without food or drink, did the morning shopping, including getting us coffees at Artisan Coffee shop.

Got a call from Karola on the way back – Karola’s cousin Frank Wilson & his wife Marina have been up in Hawkes bay for a few days from Wellington and because the wind was strong and cold out on the Cape Kidnappers golf course they decided to come and have morning tea with us. We were honoured. So I went to Lappuccino in Omahu Road and got them some muffins and afgans to have with their morning tea.

On the way in to do the shopping I noticed a small black car with darkened windows tucked in behind the oaks down the far end of the avenue. Its hazard lights were flashing. An hour later I returned and noticed they were still going so when I got back I called it in to the local police. No info on what was going on but a lovely little glow of righteousness at being such a responsible citizen.

We entertained Frank & Marina for an hour or so, gave them feijoas, lemons, apples.

Karola’s patient, the ram hogget – last year’s lamb – is about the same. So we contacted Karl O’Neale and Karl & Wendy came over and gave the lamb a shot of penicillin and a drench in case it’s severe barber’s pole worm that’s done it. None of us actually knows what the problem is but Karola intends to carry on until he recovers or shuffles off this mortal coil.

Bridget has booked her tickets to holiday in the UK at about the same time as us. So Karola & I talked about what we’d like to do while over there, in particular about the last few days when we plan to be in Scotland with Anna and Bridget and end up with Felix at his university, St Andrews.

Bridget Brackenbury – UK Trip 2019

UK Trip Dates

Leaves Wellington, NZ on Tuesday 3rd September at around 7:45pm arriving in London (Heathrow) the next day at around 8:35pm.

Arriving home in Wellington on Thursday 19th September at around 3:05pm.

Flights

Outbound

• 03Sep: 19:45(arr. 20:50) AirNZ NZ456 WLG-AKL
• 03Sep: 23:45(arr. 07:45+1 day) AirNZ NZ87 AKL-HKG
• 04Sep: 14:40(arr. 20:35) Cathay Pacific CX253 HKG-LHR

Returning

• 17Sep: 22:20(arr. 17:15+1 day) Cathay Pacific CX254 LHR-HKG
• 18Sep: 21:05(arr. 12:10+1 day) AirNZ NZ4994 (aka CX113 ) HKG-AKL
• 19Sep: 14:00(arr. 15:05) airNZ NZ433 AKL-WLG

Record Locators (Booking References)

E52V4H

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—20℃ 1.0mm rain [76.87] IBOrchard

Not cold but overcast day with occasional showers. Karola continues to tend to her sick ram lamb although he’s not showing any signs of getting better, or worse.

Sunday chores and tasks for me. Karola has finished our new book, “The New Silk Road” by Peter Frankopan, and she found it most interesting – a sweep of vision and bang up to date, describing how the author sees China fitting into our future, or rather how we may fit into China’s. We’ve lent Frankopan’s earlier (and much heavier) tomb, “The Silk Road”, to Gaylene and based on Karola’s response I’ve ordered us another copy in case it takes Gaylene a while to get through it.

Mushrooms from the orchard with our beef patties tonight.

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—21℃ 3.2mm rain [76.48] IBOrchard

Quiet day now that the last of the visitors for this month have left. I went to SwimGym today late morning to make up for missing it yesterday.

Karola has been attending the sick ram lamb and he is no worse, but no better. If he didn’t look at me with those “goat’s eyes” I could maybe dispatch him myself. I got some lamb teats this morning and Karola has fed him a little milk, water, and more Ketol.

My lovely new work jersey came today – to replace the similar one which has worn-out elbows. The new one is 60$% merino lambs wool, 30% possum fur, and 10% silk.

As requested, received a pair of very nice photos from Gaylene (below).

Iain Middleton – Éminense Grise & School Friend

Gaylene Middleton – The Heart Of BINZ (Basic Income New Zealand)

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—23℃ no rain [76.77] IBOrchard

Karola has been immersing herself in the exploits of her mother during the 2nd World War, up in Scotland mainly. We hope to retrace some of her steps while in Scotland in the (UK) summer.

I did not go to SwimGym this morning; after a late rising I got so engrossed in banter with Iain & Gaylene that I lost track of time, coming to my senses at 9:40am, with only 20 minutes to dress and get to the haircut appointment at 10:00am.

After that I did some shopping. The usual sorts of annoyances: the GF bread hadn’t arrived because of the public holiday yesterday; Cory’s the big electrical trade supplier didn’t have a replacement bulb for one of our tubes that’d given up the ghost, getting icecream blocks for Karola at Rush Monros took ages, the traffic was unusually unruly in Hastings.

Gaylene said they’d prefer to go home today, she had a lot on at home and would welcome the time to get her stuff together. So we had lunch at Lappuccinos in Omahu Road – where I dropped my wallet on the ground, later retrieved after I noticed it was missing and Karola called them. Iain & Gaylene went from there back to Wellington via Karl Matthys’ place in Taradale and they’re safely back home now.

Karola’s Mum & Dad in Wartime Scotland

Cynthia, Karola’s Mum, With Group Of F.A.N.Y Ambulance Drivers

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—24℃ 0.1mm rain [76.79] IKBOrchard

ANZAC day, a public holiday, and I watched part of the dawn ceremony in Canberra, Australia.

Breakfasted early so that Iain & Gaylene could catch their bus in Napier around 8:00am. They went off to an all-day meeting at the headquarters of a forest an hour or so out of Napier, inland. Iain has some investments with the forestry company and likes to keep an eye on them.

Karola & I had a quiet day, administering to the sick little ram lamb who, despite being ill and alone for several days out in the rain without food, refuses to die and responds to us coming to see him even though he is unable to get up or even sit up properly.

Iain & Gaylene returned around 6:00pm and we all met up at Kilim for dinner.

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—21℃ 0.7mm rain [76.69] IKBOrchard

SwimGym with Karola.

Grand-daughters and Karola had brunch at Lappuchino’s in Omahu Road, (was Bay Espresso); I had coffee. Afterwards we went in search of Ketol, a sweet liquid pick-me-up for sheep & cattle. PGG Wrightsons didn’t have any so I bought a large (20kg) salt lick block for the sheep – one that said specifically it was suitable for Texel sheep.Tried Farmlands and they did have some Keytol.

The Ketol is for the ram lamb who is very ill. He has been lying in the iris in the Goose paddock for a while and is dehydrated, starving, and unable to walk. He is immobile except for his head which is still amazingly alert. We dosed him on Ketol and gave him sheep nuts and grass and hope he makes it through the night.

We took him up to the holding paddock where there’s more grass but I don’t hold out much hope. Don’t really know what went wrong with him – could be poisoning from acorns or other material; it could be he just wasn’t too healthy at the best of times – was one of last lambs to be born this season.

Natalie & Alex broke the combination lock code on the high-quality bike lock chain I’ve had lying around for years – unusable because we didn’t know the combination. Natalie won $50 for this. I reset the combination to 1948.

Bridget’s family left mid afternoon in good spirits, returning 20 minutes later because they’d forgotten to take any freshly picked Hawkes Bay apples. Last I heard gthey were safely in Masterton.

Gaylene & Iaian Middleton arrived around 7:30pm; I went off and got fish & chips for our dinner. They are going off to the AGM of their forestry investment company inland from Napier and will be away all day.

Welcome Swallows Drop In Again – Haven’t Seen Them For Months

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [76.56]

SwimGym at lunchtime – in lieu of yesterday, Monday but a public holiday.

Then the Monday shopping, on Tuesday.

Worked on my Weight-Tracking program most of the day; Bridget “worked from home” for the BNZ; Karola read more of her mother’s letters, and the grand-daughters played Minecraft. There was some issue with the Minecraft program, it didn’t play nicely with the local LAN but between us we sorted it out.

Minecraft Problem: Using “single player world and I want to play with my sister but when I press ‘add to LAN’ I don’t see her computer on the LAN.” – or words to that effect. This assumes the user is at “Open to LAN” in the pause (escape) menu. On MacOS.

• On the sister’s computer open System Preferences=>Network=>Advanced settings for the wireless WiFi connection=>TCP/IP and look for the local WiFi network address for this machine. Something like 192.168.1.24
• Again on her computer, in Minecraft, go to the Pause menu => Open to LAN. Click the Start LAN World button at the bottom.In chat, there will probably be a message that’s something like “Local game hosted on port 66666”.
• On your computer, go to Multiplayer => Direct Connect. Type in the IP address and port number from your sister’s computer. Something like 192.168.1.24:66666
• Finally, click Join Server at the bottom. You should be in!

Orchard Tree Laden With Fuji Apples – About To Be Picked

Karola’s Scotland Research Into Her Mum’s Wartime Billets – Cairnie House

Bridget’s Snap Of A Browned Off Praying Mantis Come To Share A Cheese Snack In The Homestead

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—18℃ 1.6mm rain [76.51]

It seemed that Hastings, in fact Hawkes Bay and maybe the whole country was closed.

Chris & Karola watched more golf in the morning. Outside it rained, very welcome rain.

We all went in Chris’ car to the airport for him to catch the 5:00pm flight back to Wellington, ready for work the next day. Then the rest of us went on to Napier, to Kilim where we had a delicious Turkish dinner. Karola took Bangle round the orchard before we left for the airport.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—16℃ 11.6mm rain [76.36] KBOrchard

Gentle start to the day and a hide & seek game for the grand-daughters with things hidden by Bridget and discovered by the daughters, scored on an app. The highest scorer gets first choice from the mountain of chocolate eggs, chicks, and bunnies. Ugh! All that sweet milk chocolate.

Chris watched golf most of the morning. Karola made us all a splendid and delicious lamb roast as befits the day and the weather.

Using the Grillo I mowed the cottage lawn and curtilage.

Henare & Scott came over to take the big trailer loaded with firewood for his relations. Later they borrowed Karola’s green mower for Henare’s lawn, returning it in the dark around 7:00pm. I paid Henare’s electricity bill online – a convenience he appreciates – and we get a bit of cash without having to go to the bank.

In the evening Bridget, Chris, Natalie, and Alex watched Gill’s DVD of the film Bohemian Rhapsody with me. We all enjoyed it. The larger screen TV in the homestead living room is good for watching films on.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—20℃ 0.3mm rain [76.53] KBOrchard

We’re not sure what the occasion was – possibly the anniversary of the death of Peter Ormond, widow Elizabeth Ormond’s husband, but in the middle of last week we were invited to Peter Arthur’s place for lunch, along with Elizabeth and a recently divorced Donna Nicholson – all crinklies together.

Karola drove us up in the Zoe, Bangle and me, and we listened to a few more “50 Things That Made The Modern Economy”, 10 minute BBC programmes narrated by economist Tim Harford.

Peter laid on a very acceptable meal, gluten free, and Elizabeth created the “pav” for dessert. Altogether an excellent meal for someone with Coeliac, but a terrible meal for someone intending to lose weight or with diabetes. Still, I mused, an occasional wicked meal isn’t going to hurt, surely.

Bangle disappeared part-way through the meal and, as I guessed, went to see Graham & Tracey who also live on Peter’s farm, only a couple of minutes away (even with Bangles little legs).

Chris started the day watching golf on Sky on our TV in the cottage – so his day began well. Then the More family went to Bay Espresso for brunch and then into Napier for the day, returning at dusk with burgers from BurgerFuel.

I drove back from Peter Arthur’s place, as Karola remarked, the downhill run back home always seems shorter somehow.

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—20℃ 0.1mm rain [75.78] IBOrchard

Late night last night but much relieved to get a small piece of programming working before bed. To do with matching up the labels on the bottom line with the days represented by the weight graphs above, “1st”, “2nd”, and so on. But not all months have 31 days, and sometimes it’s a leap year, so a bit fiddly.

SwimGym, albeit at lunchtime.

A Cool day with lots of bright sunshine for Good Friday 2019. Anthony, Mahe, Helen & Bindi set off for Wellington around 10:30am.

Late afternoon Bridget et al arrived and settled in at the homestead – Bridget & I got the assembled throng fish & chips for dinner, followed by copious amounts of Rush Munro ice-cream.

Only Zoe In The SwimGym Car Park

A Host Of Riderless Machines

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—19℃ 0.1mm rain [75.30] KBOrchard

Oh dear, the dish washer in the cottager is on the blink.

Up late, breakfast with the visitors, then what seemed not long afterwards we set off for Birdwood Gallery (and Cafe) for lunch, Anthony’s treat. Pleasant lunch in exceptional surroundings ending with a trip to Rush Munro in Hastings for ice cream.

Upon return I found that there was no hot water in the cottage, in fact no water at all. Some investigation determined that the bore pump wasn’t working. By luck I decided first to check the fuse box in case a switch had been tripped denying the pump electricity. And so it had, the big RCD that protected, among other things, the pump, had flipped. In fact the switch protects the circuits for the pump, the dishwasher, the washing machine, and the dryer so it could be the wiring to any of those that caused the trip. Time will tell. For now, all is good again.

Light supper and off to bed for the visitors. Not a good week for the dieting, too much ice cream and other delights. Better performance next week I hope.

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—19℃ no rain [75.14]

SwimGym after breakfast.

Moved the ewes over to the last tranche of the crop in the One Acre and ensured both they and the lambs had a salt-lick block.

Later, buried the remains of the dead ewe lamb before working inside for the rest of the wintery day.

I spent most of the time weeding out some of the 4TB+ of video programming I’ve accumulated so that it will fit on the 4TB “TV Programmes” drive and also on its mirror (almost) backup 4TB drive. That meant looking up on Wikipedia or IMDB (Internet Movie Database) to see what the film or TV series was about and how well regarded it was.

Anthony, Helen, Mahe, and Bindi all went off to Napier to visit the National Aquarium on the waterfront. Saw the giant squid and other delights.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—17℃ no rain [75.46] IBOrchard

A very quiet day after the excitement of the long weekend in Tauranga.

I tootled into town for my bread, held over from Friday – well swapped for a fresh one couriered up from Paraparaumu last night.

One of Karola’s ewe lambs is very sick so we called in Mark Hendery to dispatch it and take the meat for his dogs. We hope that the copper in the salt lick wasn’t the last straw. Although the instructions advise against feeding it to Texels because of the copper content we’ve not had any problems in the past. The problem is that the small salt-lick blocks that suit us are only made with the high copper content so the alternative is a block eight times larger.

Although we can’t be sure, there are three lambs without tags and the dead lamb had no tag, the dead lamb is most likely #820, the youngest of the three without tags.

Anthony and grandson Mahe and daughter Helen with companion dog Bindi arrived late afternoon. We had a fish & chip supper followed by fruit and ice cream (Rush Monro).

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—17℃ no rain [76.28] IBOrchard

SwimGym, albeit around lunchtime. Included getting a box of mini-salt-lick blocks for Karola’s sheep.

Shopping at New World.

Meticulous Maids came and cleaned the cottage.

Chainsawing, finishing cutting up the big branch that fell on the inner planting area fence where the ha-ha drains out into the roadside monster drain. Karola picked up much of the sawn timber – destined for one of Henare’s relations.

Fallen Branch Almost Cleared – Last Wednesday

Fallen Branch – Completely Demolished – Today

Firewood For Henare From The Fallen Branch

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—17℃ no rain [75.89]

We had breakfast, packed, and were on our way around 9:00am. This time we went towards Rotorua, the road was better, the sun was shining, and all went smoothly. Stopped on the outskirts of Rotorua for petrol and snacks.

Karola drove to Rotorua, I drove from there through Taupo to the Tarawera Tearooms stop on the Napier-Taupo road. Karola took us the rest of the way.

Another splendid kedgeree lunch at Replete in Taupo. Next stop Tarawera Tearooms – looks a little downbeat from the outside but a good place to break the journey. Home at Karamu mid afternoon.

Anna reports, from the Camino – Santiago trail:

[We’ve seen] quite a few [fellow pilgrims], but my idol is a German lady – must be in 70s at least – who covers 10-12kms a day on a zimmer frame with wheels! We have spotted her several times and spoken a few times. She always has a nice cold beer at the of the walk – or two – and she’s always smiling and looking completely sorted with her camera on her wrist and writing up notes. She’s a legend!

Anna & Dave Pick Up Their Pilgrims’ Letter Before Departing Spain For Home

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—17℃ no rain [?]

First stop on the second day was at the property of a honey processor where there was a staggeringly large Norfolk Island pine – except that upon closer examination it turned out to be a group of four huge pines. Graham Dyer continued with his intriguing stories of the trees.

The two buses went to different locations, swapping half way through the morning so it was mid morning when we went to the Tuahu Kauri forest at the end of Hot Springs road. After an introduction by Gavin Smith, (DoC), he shepherded us through the footwear disinfector that is attempting to keep the Kauri Die-back fungus out of that forest – hectares of naturally regenerating Kauri – at its southernmost limit for natural propagation.

A very pleasant bush walk led us to the remaining huge old Kauri tree (called Tuahu) – no-one knows why the loggers spared it.

Lunch at the Pahoia Domain then on to Yatton Park where the council head botanist/ranger gave us an excellent and informative guided walk through the many very large trees in the park, delighting the IDS experts with species names to argue about and unusual specimens galore.

The evening meal and tree auction was at the Charthouse Restaurant at Sulphur Point.

The Amazing Huge Norfolk Island Pine(s)

One Pine Turns Out To Be A Close-Planted Group Of Four

Old Man Tuahu Kauri

Pied Shag Nursery On The Edge Of Yatton Park

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Meanwhile, In Spain, Dave Continues His Ferocious Focus On Diet

Milestones Encourage The Now-Weary Travellers

Santiago At Last

Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—16℃ 0.6mm rain [?]

Off after breakfast at 8:30am to Graham & Mavis Dyer’s place. Graham and Mavis Dyer are the owners of Bay Park Orchard in Ruahihi Rd. The long driveway of tall and wide trees, mature trees from all over the world, yet all planted during or after 1960s – amazing growth. Graham’s main enthusiasm is for trees of the Kauri family and he had plenty of those from seedlings to those of six metres or so – tall but thin compared to the 1000-year old giants of course.

Graham and his sons farm a group of properties and commercially harvest kiwifruit and ginko nuts. Graham’s front drive was pretty special but his groves of Kauri were outstanding.

We had lunch at the McLaren Falls park cafe followed by a long walk through the grounds and along the lake formed by the dam at the top of the falls.

In the evening we went to the “Classic Flying” restaurant and conference centre, next to the airport, where the IDS members held their AGM and we had a feast.

Bay Park Orchard Front Drive – Graham & Mavis Dyer

Some Of Graham Dyer’s Kauris

Overlooking The McLaren Falls Park

“Disc Golf” Weird Apparatus For A Frizbee Game In McLaren Falls Park

Waterfowl Gathering In McLaren Falls Park As Duck-Shooting Season Nears

Is It A Lonely Cannabis Plant We Wondered

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—19℃ 0.5mm rain [?]

Keep looking for Bangle but she’s nowhere to be seen. Packed up, locked the vehicle gates, counted the sheep etc and then we were off around 11:00am.

Lunch at Taupo, the Replete cafe – very nice GF kedgeree meal – Karola had scrambled eggs on toast. Karola drove the first half to Taupo, I drove from there to Tauranga. In the Landrover which has a very firm suspension so it was pretty uncomfortable. Rained on and off all the way, in fact on the way over the Kaimai range into Tauranga it bucketed down. Road very congested as we inched towards Tauranga at about 4:00pm; stop-start for half an hour or more. Finally got onto the toll road – almost everyone else was queueing to avoid the toll road which made things even more congested.

No toll booths, no obvious signs as to how much or how you paid but we trundled along with very few other vehicles into Tauranga. The place was empty and had no signs of any vibrant CBD – hardly any shops at all.

Checked in and then registered for the IDS meeting/trip. All very straightforward – the hotel was very basic, adequate for the 1980s but rather glum for 2019. Views of neighbouring buildings even though we’re close to the sea. Adequate parking. Horrid restaurant – we fled outsode looking for something better.

We walked about four blocks and found a few shops and restaurants – later we found out that there were several restaurants on the waterfront but that it was uninviting/difficult to get to because of the railway which goes along the waterfront and there’s roading construction along there too at present. Still, the restaurant we chose wasn’t too bad – though the atmosphere was like one of the many cheap tourist dives in Napier – dark, noisy, expensive. We lucked upon a night when that restaurant was giving two meals for the price of one. The food tasted OK.

Photos From Anna On The Camino Santiago Trail in Spain

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—21℃ 3.5mm rain [75.31]

SwimGym with Karola

I did a morning of chainsawing of the big fallen eucalypt branch; Karola did a spot of shopping; we both did some prep for the trip beginning tomorrow and got Bangle’s stuff ready for her visit to Graham & Tracey way up the Taihape road.

We went off in the Subaru and Landrover, dropping the Landrover off for its WOF at Tamatea Automotive (Heath Goldfinch’s garage) on the way.

Tracey & Graham gave us a very pleasant lunch and Bangle settled in instantly with the three other dogs in residence.

Karola took me back to Tamatea Automotive at 5:00pm and we picked up the Landrover, WOFFed, and had a fish dinner at the West Shore Fish Cafe as it was almost on our way home. The proprietors have just sold up and are to leave in a couple of weeks after being there for six years. We’ve somehow managed to visit the cafe close to the end of the reign of three sets of owners over the last 27 years.

The Fallen Branch – Day Two – Before

The Fallen Branch – Day Two – After A Couple Hours Chainsawing

Cheerful Plump Woman Found Skulking Round In Her Van Behind The Homestead – Her Number Plate

Spain – Anna & Dave – The Start Of Day 3 – In Porto

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—24℃ no rain [74.48]

Feeling in need of a bit of hard exercise I did a couple of hours with the chainsaw, beginning to chop up the big eucalypt branch that had fallen on a fence under the eucalypts near the avenue in the Front paddock. The branch was massive and could have done much more damage. Karola helped by stacking the firewood in a trailer.

Having made some inroads on the fallen branch, and it having dried out quite a lot since yesterday, I seized the opportunity and, using the Grillo, mowed the cottage lawn and curtilage as well as along the 121 driveway. The Grillo does the work in about half the time with a conventional mower.

Todays Chainsawing Effort

Cottage Lawn Mown

Dave And His Diet -Spanish Light Refreshments

The Camino Trail – Valenca (Portugal) To Santiago de Compostela (Spain) – Last 120km

Some Parts Are Easy Walking

Walking Through Villages & Vinyards

Up Hill & Down Dale, In Rain & Shine

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—21℃ 0.1mm rain [74.45] IBOrchard

Wintery day with occasional heavy showers but the ground is still bone dry under the bigger trees..

SwimGym in good time, not hard seeing as the clocks fell back yesterday.

Karola & Bangle & I went to Napier late morning to see if I could get a replacement for my much loved, and much worn, merino & possum jersey – that is now threadbare at the elbows and has extensive “pilling” (I think that’s the term). No joy as the business has changed hands and has pared back its range and doesn’t sell that brand any more. However, looking online it seems the same brand is available in Norsewood.

On the way home we popped into New World in Green Meadows for provisions and coffee – I had an iced coffee which the New World supermarkets make to my taste – it’s not just ordinary coffee with ice blocks in it.

I let the ewes (not the hoggets) into the third major tranche of the One Acre paddock today.

Anna sent photos of Valenca, the starting point for their trek across Portugal, the final 120km stage of the Camino de Sandiego (or Way of Saint James) pilgrimage trail.

Changing Clocks At The End Of Daylight Saving

Automatic daylight saving timers: iPhone x 2, iPad x 3, computer x 3

Cameras: Karola’s 2 and Ian’s 1 – if they don’t do it automatically we leave them on standard time.

The small carriage clock in the Homestead living room does not work

The Clock List – 2019 – Now Adjusted

• Landrover
• Subaru
• Zoe
• Karola’s office
• Homestead stove (no, disconnected)
• Homestead master bedroom (no, disconnected)
• Homestead above downstairs bathroom door
• Homestead kitchen
• Homestead hall
• Cottage stove
• Cottage microwave
• Cottage bedroom
• Cottage upstairs by bed (no, disconnected)
• Cottage kitchen above door
• Cottage kitchen window sill
• Cottage living room desk
• Honeywell controller for rads
• Karola’s two watches

Karola’s Quinces & Crabapples Almost Ripe

From Anna’s iPhone

Our Go-To Material Is Wood, In Portugal It’s Stone

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—16℃ 5.3mm rain [74.70] IKBOrchard

Cold wintery day with some gentle rain, but not much. We worked inside most of the day but had one good break when Karola suggested taking Bangle to the Clive coastal wetlands – a walk of a kilometer or so along the level, clean cycle track that goes up to the mouth of the Clive estuary along the left bank and then turns right along the edge of the wetlands. Bracing walk and not many fellow travellers – on bikes or also with dogs. Bangle thought she’d gone to heaven.

On the way back we had brunch at the Karamu branch of Bay Espresso where the do, among other things, a mean GF eggs benedict – scrumptious.

Reverted to NZ Standard Time today – it’s autumn so the clocks “fell back”.

Gosh, we’re off to Tauranga for Karola’s annual tree outing with the IDS people on Thursday.

Sculling On The Clive Estuary

Waterfowl In The Wetlands – Ducks & Black Swans

Chooks In A Sunken Garden

Her Ladyship In Battle Dress – Karola Could Have Been A Protester In England With That Clobber

Note The Vibrant Mohawk Haircut

Ian & Karola (on left) Work Hard To Keep The Calories At Bay (Bay Espresso – Karamu Road)

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—17℃ 2.2mm rain [74.26]

Gosh it’s cold today, thank goodness the water radiators are now working really well.

We kept inside all day, me working on computer, Karola reading and doing emails and continuing with her family researches.

Karola did venture out to give her sheep some nuts.

Dave & Anna reported in from Porto in Portugal this morning; Anna is feeding Dave up in preparation for their long tramp – which suits Bridget and me because he has made vast strides in weight reduction that dwarf our modest declines.

Daylight saving ends tonight.

Anna’s Porto Photos As She & Dave Begin Their Pilgrimage

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—15℃ 0.2mm rain [74.32] IBOrchard

Today Karola & I went to SwimGym in very good time, we had finished and were back home soon after 8:00am – which in a couple of days will be only 7:00am.

Well it started with Bangle whimpering gently around 6:45am and me letting her out for an urgent bio-break. Silly dog, she was outside last night till about 11:00pm, must have just forgotten.

Then after her breakfast Karola went off and did the weekend shopping.

Off for the lunch, cooked by Patrick, at their house in Haumoana, by the sea. Another Patrick, Patrick Greene and his American wife, were the other guests. Mr Cooney made a rather splendid rice & mushroom dish which, along with rocket salad, went down very well. He also did a rather more fancy dessert with cream & quince & some raspberries Karola brought – that was a bit too sweet and insubstantial for my taste.

Later when we returned home I remembered Karola had reported a large fallen branch that had done some damage to the road fence in the Front paddock so I photographed that – it could have done a lot more damage, it was a substantial branch.

Large Dead Eucalypt Branch Does Remarkably Little Damage

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—20℃ 1.4mm rain [73.40] IKBOrchard

Most of the day I spent re-writing my program, as is my wont, unnecessarily, mostly, again as is usual. Tonight I had at least got it back to where I began fiddling yesterday with improvements that only I will ever know about.

Late afternoon Karola & I went down to Hastings and picked up the green lawnmower. The boss at Hawkes Bay Mowers & Chainsaws said he’d had to replace the manifold because when the air filter’s fastening fell out it waved around in the breeze, damaging the manifold in the process. Also the petrol tank was full of foreign gunk – that is, stuff that wasn’t petrol.

He, the boss man, showed me a useful trick for when transporting lawn mowers. The handles fold away, that bit I understand, but then I usually have to lash the mower down or drive unusually slowly and gingerly to avoid the mower crashing int the sides of the back of the Landrover or Subaru. What you do is just use the height lever and lower it down until the rim of the casing touches the ground. Very neat.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—19℃ no rain [73.81] IKBOrchard

Left another voice-mail for Ruth. Spoke to Dylan and he is still tussling with the council about the design for the fire-proof enclosure for the two wood burners in the homestead.

A bit suspicious that the old Cydectin drench was actually ineffective and the Vet’s said it wouldn’t help with lung-worm anyway. Looked up the Matrix drench which is what we used for the three worst coughing last week. It is impressively toxic and specifically rids sheep of lung-work and the Barber’s Pole worm. It’s a “vet only” drench or so Farmlands said – perhaps like the difference between medicine you can get only from a pharmacy, not the supermarket.

Karola & I drenched all the sheep, the 21 ewes, the 12 ewe hoggets, and the two rams.

I looed up how to estimate the weight of sheep without actually weighing them. I’ve attempted to make the recipe work for centimetres and kilograms ending up with:

(waist * waist * length) / 10840 = kilograms – which for a representative large ewe came to 75kg – reasonable.

The Two Rams Having Been Drenched

The 33 Female Sheep – prior To Drenching

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—19℃ no rain [74.23] IBOrchard

I went to SwimGym again today, toying with the idea of switching from Monday, Wednesday, Friday to Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday for the gym and my low-calorie diet including fish, and for other appointments when possible to keep the majority of the time on other days free for projects.

I think tonight that I’ll stick with Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

Middle of the night Karola woke me to point out that the waste management system alarm was ringing. I switched the alarm off and went back to sleep. In the morning I rang Alan Copas (plumbing business that did the cottage plumbing & services the system) and he promised to send round a man to fix it today or tomorrow. Today has gone, so let’s hope it’s tomorrow.

Made some calls:

• Called Hawkes Bay Mowers & Chainsaws – they’re waiting for a part from Briggs & Stratton NZ – should be ready tomorrow.
• Called Ruth re building plans and left a message
• Called Dylan re wood burner installation – phone busy
• Called Power Farming and yes they’d be happy to look at tractor re the leaking transmission oil

So I trundled off on the Kioti tractor down to Power Farming, about 2km away. Karola & Bangle set off in the Zoe, zooming past me in the Avenue. I arrived and after quick investigation the tractor is to stay in overnight for a bit of TLC. Went out to join Karola but no sign of Zoe.

Waited, and waited, but no sign. Called a few times but Karola’s phone just dropped through to voicemail. Walked to nearby coffee shop and bought us coffees (they were horrible) and waited some more. Suddenly a pleasant-sounding man from a tractor business I’d never heard of called me “we have your wife here, where are you, we’ll point her in the right direction”. Karola had gone looking for Tractor Dismantlers, about 5km in opposite direction along Omahu road. That’s the place I usually take broken equipment and the place that’s going to fix our mangled metal gate, eventually. Waited and waited. Contemplated ringing the emergency phone in the car, I must have an email with the number in somewhere. Just when I started to get worried Karola rang me and she was only a kilometre away; ten minutes later we were reunited.

After that excitement – well actually waiting in the warm sun wasn’t a hardship, we puddled down to the Vets and got medicine for the three sheep I think have lung worm. Then on to New World and after that Countdown for food. Got proper coffees from Artisan on the way from New World to Countdown.

Mowed some patches of Californian Thistle in the Totara paddock, three 400-litre bin loads, and became more enamoured of the Grillo as I continued.

Karola got her ewes into the yards and I dosed the three sheep with heavy coughs: #439, #511, and an #800 without a tag – therefore either #803, #815, or #820. Matrix Hi Min has a withholding period for meat of 91 days – so is very toxic.

Talked to Bridget in the evening, as we often do these days, and tentatively agreed to plan a combined family dinner for Karola’s and Annemarie’s birthday, preferably at Taste in Khandallah, and inviting Jane Pearce and Anthony Fletcher too. That’s eight diners, probably enough. I hope we can go out for a meal with Gill & Ben too as this is probably the last trip to Wellington before our UK/Poland trip in August.

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—22℃ 0.7mm rain [74.43]

SwimGym

Much progress on the weight-tracking program – an end in sight at last. Amazing how powerful the pre-canned libraries are these days.

Meticulous Maids came and cleaned the cottage in the afternoon – always, well almost always, different faces.

Lyn Sturm, the biographer and champion of her grandfather Freddie Sturm, the plantsman, called and spoke to Karola for over an hour in the afternoon – no surprises there. Then Karola invited her to dinner and she and Karola chatted for another 3.5 hours in the evening. I think they nboth enjoyed it, I went and hid.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—24℃ 9.3mm rain [74.46] IBOrchard