Monthly Archives: July 2019

Photos For Alex – Oak Avenue In Winter

SwimGym – and lucky that Karola didn’t go because the electricity had been off for several hours and the heated swimming pool wasn’t.

Karl & Wendy O’Neale came after breakfast as planned and we discussed how Karl would look in on the sheep every few days while we’re away in August/September. Karl will give the eight new ewe mothers-to-be a 5-in-1 vaccine shot about a month before lambing and then another shot, along with all the other pregnant ewes, about two weeks before they’re expected to lamb (late September). He’ll also crutch all the sheep when giving the second 5-in-1 vaccine shots. The sheep will have the Front paddock and the Middle/Totara paddocks to roam in while we’re away; we want to shut up the One Acre (crop), the Long Acre, and the Goose paddock while we’re away. If the sheep look hungry there’s the pea straw and Karola plans to leave plenty of sheep nuts in the hay shed.

Karola was picked up by Lyn Sturm to go to a mid-day meal at the Tikokino Country Hotel along with a few other members of the Hawkes Bay Founders Club.

Meanwhile I made good inroads on my online programming course.

Later we went out to a winter meeting of the Hawkes Bay branch of the Tree Croppers Association, in Havelock North. Three good talks: by Peter Lo about the top four insect invaders facing Hawkes Bay – the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, the Harlequin Ladybird, Guava Moth, and Granulate Ambrosia Beetle; by Nelson Pomeroy, a world authority on bumble bees, inventor of a clear plastic breeding cup for raising Bumble bees, and, jointly with a Dutch company, BioBest, commercialiser of large factories raising Bumble bees for pollination, mainly in green houses, mainly tomatoes; and by Chris Ryan – local tree man who does a lot or work at the Guthrie-Smith Arboretum at lake Tutira. Chris gave us an update on the work of the local Trees for Bees group.

Karola’s Evening Photos Of Oak Avenue – Winter 2019

Oak Avenue Weather:0℃—16℃ no rain [77.04]

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Landrover Flat Battery

Karola decided to pause her photo album reorganisation and documentation until we get back from our “OE 73” trip. She moved the albums up into the cupboards in the store room.

Two of the geese got out and were on the 121 driveway at lunchtime – either they were out all night, a gate was open for a while yesterday – or they’ve found a gap they can get through. I shooed them back.

A pair of ducks, not at all shy, have been sitting under the big oak all day.

I checked the cat camera and it isn’t performing as I’d hoped. There were only about five incidents where photos were taken and of them only one had the tabby cat moving out of shot. What puzzles me is that the cat is able to arrive, jump up onto planks about two feet off the ground directly in front of the camera, eat the catfood, drink the milk, and be hurrying off when caught on camera. I have the sensitivity setting for the motion sensor on high.

Meanwhile Henare called and asked to borrow the Landrover and big trailer – he’d bought a sliding door very cheaply and needed to get it home. I went to get the Landrover from the garage and hitch it up while waiting for them to arrive. Not thrilled to find it had a flat battery. No obvious reason why.

When Henare & Scott arrived we used the jump leads to start the Landrover from Scott’s car – took less than five minutes. Then off they went, returning the Landrover a few hours later.

Late afternoon, as the sun began to sink, and with the planks being fairly dry after some rain in the night, I extracted the tacks from the inside surface of the three Kauri planks – the bookshelf to be. I then, using my small electric sander, began smoothing those surfaces, aiming to get the few patches of paint off as well.

Was abe to help Gill a little with her website. I didn’t know that savvy website owners actually registered their sites with Google and Bing, requesting that they be indexed. But Gill told me this evening that it’s working.

Tacks Removed From The Three Kauri Planks

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—17℃ 0.1mm rain [76.59] IKBOrchard

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Fence Conversion, Netting To Post & Batten – Completed

SwimGym with Karola today.

Later I went out for the start-of-week shopping and brought back fish & chips for Henare, Scott, and me. Karola really doesn’t feel hungry mid-day so will have her dinner tonight.

I went to check the cat-camera only to find that I’d forgotten to plug the power cable in – leastways that’s what it looks like. I reset it with the power cable in but then had a senior moment and wondered if Id turned it on. Checked, and no it was switched off inside. Switched it on, plugged it back in, and now I wait for another week to see if I’ve caught anything. Cats are still drinking the milk and eating the cat food every night.

Henare & Scott, contrary to expectations, returned today to finish the fence. I worry that Henare is missing out on his real job in the orchards but he said today that his knees and hip (the one not yet replaced) are painful and a few days doing our fence and other stuff is helping – so he’s not in a hurry to go back into the orchards.

And that, apart from emails and photo albums, was that.

Forty Bales Of Pea Straw Safely Under Cover

Netting Replaced With 7-Wire Post & Batten

About 120m – Finished Today

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—15℃ 0.1mm rain [76.39] IKBOrchard

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Gorgeous Morning Sunshine

The usual Sunday tasks – rubbish out, firewood in, lawns checked, and so on.

Karola hard at work on her albums – documenting their contents.

I put up a small shelf high on the wall of the cottage garage to stop the perching Welcome swallows raining down guano onto the doorstep and door knob of the cottage garage. It seems to be working.

Also added a couple more shelves in the twin cheap white cabinets in the store room, the cabinets destined to become Karola’s photo album collection. That went well. The portable cordless electric jig-saw is a very handy tool.

I got quite a lot of my computing course done, the assignments every few days make one do a lot of Googling research for solutions which is good practice and helps in remembering the various techniques.

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—14℃ 0.1mm rain [76.11] IKBOrchard

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Fetching More Hay

As planned we toddled off to Nimon Baling over on Middle Road outside Havelock North and loaded up another twenty bales of pea straw. Karola was concerned her previous twenty wouldn’t last the winter what with rabbits and Pukekos eating lots of grass. They only open between 9:00am and 10:00am on Saturday at the weekends.

Henare & Scott arrived midday and carried on with the fence.

We all had lunch in the sun, sitting outside in the sheltered spot on the concrete off the cottage verandah.

Late afternoon I took some areas of paint off my Kauri shelves, off the top side using rather potent paint stripper. It was somewhat effective but I think more sanding will be needed to make a better job of it. Water blasting with the equipment Bridget bought while up here some months ago did help. In fact on the painted undersides of the boards it took off most of the top layer of paint.

Got another day of my programming online course done. Karola did a bit more on her albums.

Another Twenty Bales Of Pea Straw For The Sheep

Big Oak Branch Must Have Fallen Recently

Water Blasting Kauri Planks For My Bookshelf

Blasted Off Top Coat Of Paint – So Quite Powerful

Henare & Scott In Distance – At The Battening Stage On The Revamped Fence

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—14℃ 0.2mm rain [75.39] IKBOrchard

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Misty Morn

Yes it was a misty start to the end of the week. Karola & Bangle & I all went to SwimGym in good time. I counted 33 Pukekos from the cottage south-facing upstairs window in the Middle paddock, Long Acre, Sheep Yards, and Goose paddock this morning. Lots more over in the One Acre and Front paddocks so I guess there’s at least sixty here – which is about 55 too many.

Henare says they’re here because they get shot at elsewhere so come for refuge – like ducks to safe ponds in the shooting season.

After breakfast we all went off for the week-end shopping and to get a replacement power drill for my very old one that’s got a bad intermittent fault – $200 for just the drill, no battery, no charger, because I have those already. That’s only a tad more than our New World shopping bill today. I prefer two power drills because then you can drill screw holes with one drill and drive the screws with the other. Much faster than switching back and forth, and at my age it’s unwise to try and get all the holes drilled in the right places before putting in the first screw.

We came out of Cornucopia, the organics/health shop where I get my weekly GF bread, and bumped into the woman from Te Aute with a white Zoe – she, Gillian Wilkes, parked right next to us on purpose. Gillian said there was now a Zoe in Esk Valley and another in West Shore I think – at least four in the local area now. She said that she had to get an electric car because she has a severe allergy to petrol fumes and the like – we have no such excuse, just have it because it makes us feel good – and it is very handy as a town run-around car.

We staggered out of New World with not one shopping bag straining at its straps, not two bags, but three bags bulging at the seams.

Henare & Scott carried on with the fence late morning. Karola very kindly made them BLT sandwiches for lunch. All the wires were up and about a third of the running posts stapled before they left around dusk.

So, there wasn’t much of the day left after all that – but I did solve a couple more of the puzzles set by my programming course and Karola did some more on her albums.

Looking North-East – 8:20am

Looking North-West – 8:20am

Looking South-West – 8:20am

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—16℃ 0.1mm rain [74.92] IKBOrchard

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But Not That Cat

A brighter day today, and warmer too.

Checked the cat camera and found I’d caught a cat just leaving after (presumably) scoffing the milk and cat biscuits yet again. But not the black cat I was hoping for but a tabby, probably the same tabby we’ve been getting glimpses of for months now.

Henare & Scott came and continued their work on the fence just before lunch. They’ve started laying out the wires but before that they moved the last of the flax they’d cleared to make a path for the rejuvenated fence and also piles of branches from the middle of the Front paddock and next to the farm shed – oh and a lot of palm fronds from around the octagon – the wooden octagon surrounding the Canary Island Palm, home to our colony of pigeons.

Before lunch I did a little mowing with the tractor, mowing the iris on the perimeter of the band of trees leading to the sheep yards.

I got us all fish & chips for lunch. Karola added some salad.

Then for us it was back to photo albums and programming coursework.

Looking North Along The Fenceline Being Renewed

Two Days Spent Cutting Back This Wilderness Of Flax

Mowed Track From The Cottage To The Orchard

… And Along The East Side Of Line Of Trees Down To Sheep Yards

One Of Two Pukeko Chicks Bangle Sniffed Out In The Long Acre – And It’s Midwinter!

Spot The (Tabby) Cat

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—15℃ 0.1mm rain [74.38] IKBOrchard

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Five More Weeks Before Our UK Trip

SwimGym with Karola

Mid-week shopping

After heavy showers last night it seemed too wet for Henare and Scott to continue with their fencing.

No pictures from the surveillance camera overnight – I think the power lead must need careful, snug fit otherwise it looks like it’s plugged in but it isn’t. I’ll try again tonight.

Mailman came delivering the other two cameras. I set them up, they all seem to work just fine with batteries. After lunch Karola & I put them up. One is on the back of the homestead garage, on the corner facing own the 121 driveway. The other is above the homestead sunporch door facing along the main north verandah.

Other than that, Karola continued with her photo albums and I continued with my programming course.

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—15℃ 0.8mm rain [74.56] IKBOrchard

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Henare & Scott Afternoon Of Attacking Flax

Good start to the day, a faint drizzle outside but not too cold. Karola carried on with her photo albums, I got some more done on my online programming course.

Henare and Scott came after lunch and spent the afternoon enthusiastically cutting back flax that was crowding the fence at the southern end.

Very quiet on the Avenue, like a Sunday really as Karola remarked.

My attempt to snap the eater of the catfood and drinker of milk in the farm shed lean-to was not a success last night. Pictures of the wall and roof – camera was not pointing sufficiently down. Better luck tonight.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—15℃ 1.7mm rain [74.14]

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Bustling Day With Added Schadenfreude

We both went to SwimGym in good time this morning.

Later I did the start-of-week shopping and got a bit carried away. I went to Artisan coffee shop and bought not only our two coffees but a wholemeal chicken rolll AND a berry friand for Karola’s lunch. At “New World” I bought five of those little over-priced Rush-Munro ice-cream tubs, ostensibly for Karola’s evening desserts. At Office Max I succumbed to a robust, metal 3-hole punch – a Rolls Royce of a hole punch – for Karola’s photo album inserts. I meant to get, and did get, a couple of boxes of printer paper as well. Finally, Mitre-10 for some “shelf brackets”, tiny but expensive bits of plastic which, when inserted into pre-drilled holes in the side of a cupboard, support a shelf. Got them but also some paint stripper and tung oil for renovating those three planks of Kauri – my soon-to-be bookshelves, and a couple of quite robust black plastic open-topped boxes, for lugging round photo albums and the like.

I should not be allowed out on Mondays.

The coffee and lunch were appreciated by Karola, and the special organic, no-added-sugar orange marmalade in a strange narrow cylindrical jar – St Dalfour – delicious said Karola but on reading the fine print I see it’s imported from France which is a bit OTT and very food-miles non-PC.

Henare and Scott arrived as expected at 11:00am and started on their project of renewing 100m of netting fence with 7-wire post and batten fence. Karola was so engrossed in her photos that it fell to me to give the workers lunch – a fried egg and baked beans on toast. They didn’t come to eat it straight away so I, in a dudgeon, popped them (the lunches, not the workers) in the oven and went off to get fencing wire and battens from Gold Pine, 3km up Omahu Road.

On the way back I called in at the Henderson Road Transfer Station to see if they’d take the piles of paper in the back of the Landrover for re-cycling. All their recycling bins were overflowing and there is no way to give them bulk delivery, you have to post little packets one at a time through a small slot in the side of a re-purposed shipping container.

Karola called the council and they directed us to the bigger transfer station for Napier, out in the hills near Taradale. So off we went, with Bangle crammed under Karola’s feet in the passenger seat. That did go well, bloke on the forklift went and fetched us an empty big metal bin and helped decant from the Landrover into it.

Back home in time to meet up with the Outdoor Power service man, Craig, who had come to see what was wrong with the Grillo. Now this shows the folly of making assumptions. The scenario yesterday was that Henare, returning from emptying the Grill hopper on Karola’s “bund”, tried to restart the Grillo blades but they would not start.

So Craig checked all the things that i checked, nothing. Then he checked one more thing I had not – the hopper. It was full and all it was was the “I’m full” sensor stopped us starting the blades. MORTIFIED I was. I emptied the hopper and all was fine. Obviously Henare had not just returned from emptying the hopper.

At last I had a few moments to finish setting up the surveillance camera to see who’s eating the cat food.

Exchanged emails with the guy who, via TradeMe, sold me the Bushnell surveillance camera – a discontinued line from Bushnell which only takes photos at 8 megapixels (these days 16 or 20 megapixels is normal), that had the wrong plug for New Zealand and a combined wireless and camera card (SD card) from a discontinued line where the software needed to make it work was no longer available. Oh and it didn’t work with batteries.

Now I really don’t need more than 4 megapixels for telling a rat from a cat – or even for recognising a number plate once we get the camera set up to monitor our driveway. And I can solve the wireless problem by buying a different brand of SD card with embedded WiFi. And I can supply power to the camera I have and it works, through a USA-NZ adapter.

The seller, Nic Burgess, is pretty embarrassed to find his imported shipment of these WiFi cameras have the wrong plugs and their WiFi cannot be made to work. So, as we need about three cameras to monitor our driveways and back doors I did a deal: I buy another two cameras, ditch the WiFi, although the battery power and direct mains power must both work. He’s selling them to me, along with the one I have, for $200 each, down from the $600+ it costs for a new fully functional one. In fact there’s another one for sale on TradeMe asking for $750.

I now have the basics for the surveillance network Karola has been asking for.

Knowing what Bridget and Harry think of the modern fad for all things “agile” – it’s the buzz phrase of the decade, a bit like six sigma and quality circles and “kaizan” were back in the 1980s, I found this comment amusing, using three popular modern buzzwords:

“Our company is agile and lean with a focus on the long tail“.

“OK – the company is actually a hungry possum in our back garden”.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—16℃ 0.8mm rain [74.69]

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One Man (Henare) Went To Mow

Meticulous Maids, the cleaners, are due to come tomorrow afternoon so the piles of paper and manuals and the like will be in the way unless moved. So I piled the recyclable waste into the back of the Landrover (see below) where it can stay until we have leisure to take and dispose of it. The much smaller piles of stuff to keep are now on workspace up in my space upstairs in the cottage.

Automatic rat traps serviced after leaving them to do their thing for several months. The one by the rainwater tanks has run out of gas and lure but its counter registered eleven kills. The one by the door to Karola’s office – part of the homestead garage block – is still active and registered only three kills.

Henare came round after lunch, when the heavy dew on the grass had evaporated off, and did his first stint of mowing with the Grillo. After a couple of hours mowing it stopped – that is the blades would not engage – so I’ll have to get it serviced before there’s any more mowing.

I’ve run a stout piece of electricity cable from a power point on the farm shed workbench, up the wall, along, and down on the other side, in the lean-to. This is in order to run the surveillance camera and find out what is eating the cat food I put out every night. I saw the black cat again this evening, making its way carefully across the paddock towards the lean-to but unfortunately my activities scared it off. It is looking likely that the food is being accepted gratefully by the black cat.

En Route Recycling

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—17℃ no rain [74.86] IKBOrchard

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Throwing My Old Life Away

Marathon day for sorting through old papers – finished at 10:00pm this evening with that large pile on the kitchen floor, waiting to be recycled, has grown by another third. I may trim what I’ve set aside to keep down to what will fit in a couple of filing cabinet drawers. Twelve cabinets and two four-shelf cabinets down to two filing cabinets is a lot – all those bills and courses and events, banished for ever. Even discarded my IBM Managers Manual, good heavens, all 3 inches of it.

Karola had another day on her photos. She has asked to give up her cracked-screen old iPad 3 and matching old keyboard with wonky connector so I’ve brought back her iPad Air and a Logitech wireless keyboard which has a groove at the back so she can put her iPad upright in portrait aspect, as similar to her old system as I can find.

We found out why this keyboard keeps flipping into Chinese, and disabled that feature which put Karola off when first I brought this combination home. As i now find out, pressing the CAPS LOCK key flips it into a different language.

In the morning fed the sheep on half a bale of pea straw and a kilo of sheep nuts. And replenished the dishes put out for the black cat.

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—17℃ no rain [74.92]

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Promises, Promises Camera Man

SwimGym nice and early today, with Karola.

Then I did the weekend shopping fairly accurately and quickly – only bad choice was getting Karola marmalade with, I thought, oranges pictured on the jar, only to find that it was grapefruit marmalade which Karola is advised to avoid.

Good news on the rat front – having dispatched one lining in the cottage, another living in the cottage garage, today i caught one in the homestead garage. Perhaps he is the rat that’s been feasting on mackintoshes toffees in the back of the Landrover.

The rest of the morning was spent trying out the Bushnell camera. Having read and enjoyed the camera manual last night I thought it was going to be easy. We’d already overcome the issue of the power adapter only having UK and USA plugs – I happen to have a few converters from my peripatetic days.

I’d bought four brand new heavy duty alkaline AA batteries for the camera and so was a tad disappointed when, having inserted the batteries carefully as per instructions, and also inserted the SD (camera card), the little LED screen did not light up. It did light up when I used the power wart instead.

In fact, when powered from the mains through its 5-volt DC adapter the camera performed its basic functions exactly as per the manual. I took photos and a little video and decanted them onto my computer – all working as expected.

So, it’s just the battery side of things that’s broken. Well not quite. The camera – well the special SD card that stores the photos inside the camera actually – is supposed to use a local WiFi network to send the photos to your computer. And for that you need to have a free app you download from the web.

Except that Eye-Fi, the maker of the special WiFi-enabled SD, was taken over by Ricoh a year or so ago and renamed Keenai, so the software wasn’t availbale from Eye-Fi’s site but from Keenai’s site – except that site didn’t have it either. Ricoh had stopped that line of business last November.

So there’s no way to use the WiFi function, assuming it works. After some searching I did find a couple of open-source projects that appeared to be working on replacements for the now unavailable software, but they hadn’t been active for many months.

I poured my heart out to the supplier of my camera, in a quiet, conciliatory way, and he does seem to want to fix these issues. The batteries – well he’ll just swap it for another camera. The plug, he checked, and to his chagrin he found his whole shipment were missing the New Zealand plug. The software problem has him worried – he checked himself and agrees.

As Karola continues toiling with her cataloguing I’ve taken my first load of papers into the cottage and tonight sorted them into the obviously dated and useless items and those I still think I might like to have as momentos or maybe even consult some day.

For Recycling (Along With The Expense Claim Envelopes)

Retaining A Few Bits For Nostalgia Sake

Another Beastly Rodent Down – From The Homestead garage This Time

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—16℃ 3.5mm rain [75.36] KBOrchard

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Bushnell Trail (Surveillance) Camera

Postie called in this morning bearing a box containing my newest purchase, a small camera capable of taking photos and short videos day or night abd sending them wirelessly off to wherever I desire – well that’s the promise.

A week or so ago I noticed shredded toffee wrappers in the back of the LandRover. I assumed Bangle had found the wrappers and chewed them up, and thought no more about it. But today I found a lot more wrappers chewed up, and it wasn’t Bangle. It must be a rat.

The only way into the LandRover is, we think, through a slightly open window at the front, but the gymnastics to get in and out would be extraordinary. And where are the wrapped toffees coming from. I took all the rubber mats and removeable carpets out of the Landrover and vacuumed it. There were bits of silver paper liberally spread over the back of the LandRover but I did find a concentration of them in a small compartment under the passenger seat. No toffees, just the wrappers nibbled to shreds.

So our guess is that some younger person who’s been in the Landrover recently hid an unfinished bag of toffees in that little compartment.

Also this afternoon I went up to the big shed and brought back three reasonably clean 350mm x 50mm x 2.5m Kauri planks to make into bookshelves upstairs in the cottage. I tried using the air compresser to clean them which was partially successful, then the small electric sander – but the liberally placed tacks played havoc with the sander. So I washed them down and left final cleaning until later, when I have something to remove the tacks.

Earlier in the week the Subaru carried all Karola’s photo albums from the homestead garage down to the cottage where we decanted them onto the tables and floor. Now it’s my turn to fill the car with manuals and listings and cuttings and bring them down to the cottage, including the envelopes holding each business expense claim I made while at IBM. Karola will, I hope, take them to the recycling depot along with a lot of other stuff once I’ve gone through the piles and piles of historical and mainly out-of-date technical stuff I’ve accumulated.

As you can imagine, Karola spent another day of perusing and cataloguing her large photo collection.

The New Surveillance Camera

Three Kauri Planks From The Cottage Renovation – Destined For BookShelves (For Now)

Thirty Years Of IBM Expense Claims – Being Put To Rest At Last

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—17℃ 1.7mm rain [76.15] IBOrchard

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Photos Take You Back

SwimGym.

Later Karola went to a history talk at Duart House, People & the Past by Gail Pope – local librarian & historical researcher. Peter Offenberger was there – he seems to be involved in almost all thr gatherings we belong to – except Karola’s membership of The Founders group where you need to be a descendent of one of the pioneers.

I did the mid-week shopping after having a haircut. Our trip to the UK is now just one haircut away. Talked to hair stylist Kim, who has close friend, one of the Dupree’s who stayed for several months at Karamu in the distant past, a friend that is the partner of Dylan Findlay. We discussed his dad Rob’s passing and she remarked that “Napier will be full of Harleys for his funeral” (motorcycles and motorcyclists – Rob was well known leader of a local group (gang?).

Present from Cecilia arrived today, a small coffee maker, a thank-you for the bulky parcel (embroidered picture in a frame with glass) she anticipates we’ll take to the UK and deliver to her friend over there. And I received a replacement battery for my camera ready for the UK trip. It has optical zoom which is its only benefit over the iPhone’s camera, but enough to want me to make sure it’s working before setting out.

Karola is deep into the cataloguing of her photo albums. I emptied a couple of rather naff but functional white cabinets in the store room ready for her albums once catalogued. They contained piles of manuals and papers and a few containers of my private effects from decades gone by. Amongst those were some very early photos of Gill and me as pre-schoolers in Nelson. There was also a “lightly foxed” postcard-sized photo of Anna at “the scout hut”. Wirihana in Lowry Bay in Wellington – when she was still an only child as I recall it, very young. The photo has her sitting on a blanket under an old fruit tree with Bracken, the Red Setter, and an adopted white duck in thrall (see below).

Historical Brackenbury Photos Uncovered Recently

The Iconic “New Zealand Childhood” Photo

Anna (baby), Ian, Grandmother Cynthia, and Karola Plus Bracken & Jemima

Karola And Happy Little Papoose Anna, In Her Papoose

Grandparents Michael (left) and Mary (right). Karola’s Mum Cynthia, Karola and Anna

Later, In England

Ian’s Paternal Grandmother Doris (“Eve”) Brackenbury Kept Goats

Ian’s Paternal Grandfather, Doris’ Husband – Graham Aloysius Brackenbury

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—17℃ 1.7mm rain [76.84] IKBOrchard

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To Catch a Cat In The Act

Still recovering from too much late night and daytime TV watching sports. Bridget is still skiing down in Queenstown.

I made a bit of progress on my programming online course; karola began her mammoth task of sorting out her 30 – 40 photo albums, triggered by Anna asking for photos of her childhood.

Bought a trail camera on TradeMe today, allegedly $200 off the normal price and when I checked other sites that appeared to be true. It is a Bushnell 6MP Wi-Fi Surveillance Camera. I chatted to Ben about cameras for photographing animals at night and he recommended Bushnell as the brand his team used – reliable, reasonable quality, but pricey.

I have been putting out cat food and milk in the lean-to of the farm shed for a few days and it does disappear – but there are a number of small furry mammals which could be getting a free snack – hence the camera. The camera can take infrared photos, storing them on a camera card or sending them over WiFi.

Tonight Karola discovered an obituary for Rob Findlay in the local paper – I knew he was ill and having hospital visits but not that it was terminal. Rob is the aging biker with a plumbing business who was installing our wood burners.

Exchanges with Christopher Van der Noot (Julia Bruce’s husband) about the cricket and we heartily agreed that it should have been declared a shared trophy.

Spring Flowers In July

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—18℃ no rain [76.61] IKBOrchard

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All Sportified Out

Well the cricket final began last night (our time) around 9:45pm; we’d watched tennis in the evening – at Anna’s suggestion watched the Wimbledon Mens Doubles Final and the Womens Final. Watched the cricket until the end of the Black Caps batting and went to bed leaving the equipment to record the England batting.

In the morning found that the TV disk became full about 10 minutes into the England batting so switched instead to a repeat on conventional TV. Unfortunately they were still playing the Black Caps batting and we didn’t get to the England batting until after (our) lunchtime. Then spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening watching to the excruciating climax. Late afternoon we paused it to take Bangle for her orchard walk and for Karola to give her sheep some nuts and pea straw.

Sent some more photos of Anna’s early years to her, scanning them and sending them in emails.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—17℃ no rain [76.53] IKBOrchard

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Sports Dominates

Anna TXTed saying that the tennis yesterday was excellent – so we spent several hours watching mens doubles then womens finals from Wimbledon. A few hours later it was the World Cup cricket final – NZ vs England.

Basically not much else happened today – the usual Sunday tasks and some computer housekeeping.

Henare came round so I could pay his electricity bill. He told us of more sad intrigues with the Maori land court and his bands of warring relations, squabbling over the management of farm properties up on The Mahia.

Gill & Ben went out to the Kapiti coast again today and looked round a house which, despite needing a lot of renovation, looks the best possibility they’ve seen so far.

Bridget TXTed from Queenstown – rain and cloud but not much snow and, horror of horrors, difficult to get decent WiFi.

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—20℃ 3.1mm rain [76.25] IKBOrchard

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Wimbledon Tennis

Probably the best match of the tournament – Federer versus Nadal – we watched a replay all morning.

In the afternoon Karola took a load of recyclables to the recycling depot and I mowed the leaves under the big oak.

Heavy Leaf Cover Under The Big Oak

Cleared With The Grillo

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—19℃ no rain [76.02] IBOrchard

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So It’s England To Beat On Sunday

SwimGym (with Bangle) then weekend shopping. The nice young woman in Artisan (well, one of them) who has family of school-age boys said today that there’s a film coming soon about a large group of older people doing some of the Camino de Santiago trail – I’d mentioned that Anna & Dave had recently done the one starting in Portugal.

Put up electric fence between Middle and Totara paddock and completely dismantled the electric fence round the homestead lawn. Let the sheep – now a single mob of 32 – roam over the Long Acre, Goose paddock, sheep yards and holding paddock, and Middle paddock. Despite the cold Karola is hoping the Totara paddock and Front paddock will grow a little bit before we leave in August.

Only watched a couple of hours of the cricket last night – England vs Australia – and frankly it was quite boring compared to India vs Black Caps. Karola watched most of it today and we know that the final is England vs New Zealand – hope that’s more exciting. Starc (Oz) batted well today but wasn’t his usual fearsome bowling demon.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—17℃ 0.3mm rain [76.28] IBOrchard

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Yvonne, Amy, Andy & Ryan

Late start due to being up till well after 3:00am last night, watching a miraculous win by NZ’s Black Caps over India – to their utter surprise and disconsolation, devastation – and our delight.

Another late night tonight but maybe not to the bitter end – Oz versus England semifinal.

Jimmy Rural came and took the ram away after lunch allowing us both to go over to Napier airport for afternoon tea with Yvonne’s family – well part of it. Yvonne’s daughter Amy, husband Andy and baby Ryan came up from Christchurch, up to Gisborne for a family funeral. Yvonne drove them down to Napier this afternoon and we met up at the airprot while they waited for their Christchurch flight.

Great Aunt Karola Cuddles Amy’s Ryan

Niece Amy, Karola, and Ryan

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—19℃ no rain [76.29] IKBOrchard

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Miranda, Michael, and Louis Visit

SwimGym, late, but just in time for me to catch my dental appointment late morning. Huge filling apparently but absolutely no problem for me and I was back by 1:00pm having done the shopping, gone home, stuff in fridge, picked up Bangle and went down to join the visitors at Lappuccino’s in Omahu Road.

The visitors, as expected, comprised Miranda Johnson (Cecilia’s daughter and academic specialising in indigenous peoples around the world), her American husband Michael, hailing from Detroit, very nice bloke, and their son Louis, named after Miranda’s poet father – he died while he and Cecilia were staying with us in Winchester many years ago. (Louis born 23 July 2014)

At Lappuccino’s had a pleasant main meal – I had the pan-fried Terakihi again. And it’s the third time I’ve had that same delicious meal, and each time, after an hour or os, I get the symptoms of eating some gluten. So this time I called them and let them know; it’s mere inconvenience for me but if they are accidentally including something with gluten and a really gluten-sensitive person ate it they could be in 111 territory. I had been assured by the chef that it would be gluten free each time I ordered it – so it’s not deliberate – which some restaurants might do as so few of those who are “gluten-free” are medically gluten-intolerant like me.

In the spare moments of the day I did more on the online programming course. I also helped Gill with some technical problems on her new website – we have a work-around and tech support are trying to find the cause.

Also, Alex More, one of my grand-daughters – has been using “Mobiwise” to create web pages and put them up on her website – a bit of space on one of Bridget’s accounts, which in turn are accounts under my HostPapa reseller umbrella account. Probably, or possibly, hosted in Canada.

Looking forward to the second day of the cricket World Cup semi-final between Black Caps and India – should be a walk-over for India based on current results. First day was cut short by rain.

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—15℃ 0.2mm rain [76.25] IBOrchard

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Black Cat Crossed Our Paths

A very misty start to the day (see below).

Karola spied the black cat going behind the farm shed, quite close to the cottage, but by the time I’d come down to see it’d strolled briskly off to the south boundary, scattering Pukekos and rabbits as it went. I could tell it carried on away from us by the wave of Pukeko getting out of the way down the row of apple trees in the Scott’s orchard.

Out of the upstairs cottage window I counted 25 Pukekos today and about a dozen rabbits.

The geese seem to enjoy their kibbled maize.

I sent a message to Josephine (Ashcroft) Hagan – at least I assume i’s the same Josephine Hagan on LinkedIn and Neighbourly – living in Frimley and working at Unison at the end of the avenue. Message on Neighbourly got no response so I sent another on LinkedIn and she quickly replied on Neighbourly. Sent her family round after lunch to look for Cleo, their black cat – but by now who knows how far Cleo had gone.

Making good progress on my online programming course – but 100 hours over 100 days is pretty daunting.

Going round the orchard I showed Karola where I’d seen the black cat having lunch and Karola noticed there was not just one fresh eaten rabbit carcass but three. There are multiple burrows nearby so Karola thinks it’s the cat’s delicatessen rather than her lair.

I “Grilloed” for about an hour near dusk, beginning getting the leaves off the grass under the big oak.

Heavy Mist Early In The Morning

Oak Avenue Weather:0℃—15℃ 0.1mm rain [76.17] IKBOrchard

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Midwinter Resolutions

Today is Monday 8th July. And today I am turning over a new leaf (again) – time to follow Bridget’s and Dave’s lead and stop succumbing to every delicious meal that Karola makes, every tiny but enticing Rush Munro ice-cream, every scrumptious Artisan Coffee Shop friand. I am hoping that today is a turning point (reference to our ‘cruel but just’ weight-tracking program and our cloud-connected weighing scales – that Dave introduced us to)

Which reminds me: Bridget nudged me into using the Apple “Airdrop”; As a way of copying files from one of my machines to another it is just so easy and quick. Thank you Bridget.

As Dave pointed out when I was last in UK, the reason my iPhone flash doesn’t work is that the phone cover is covering the edges of the lens/light and reflections are distorting the flash. He was right and I can take flash photos if I remove the cover. However, this week when I did this the plastic clip-on base of the cover began to crumble – had become so brittle that bits of it broke off. So I ordered another almost identical one and it winged its way here from Cina, arriving today.

Counted 23 Pukeko in the middle paddock this morning – I’ve been counting between 17 and 24 for the last week or so.

The day began with we three puddling off to the SwimGym – Bangle just snoozes in Zoe of course. Later it was the usual Monday food trip, returning with coffee and a wholemeal chicken mini-roll for Karola’s lunch.

I checked at New World and they say they do stock the ‘pulled pork” pre-prepared meal Gill recommended, in fact the guy said – didn’t we just advertise that in our specials last week. So that’s a quick meal potion for the future.

Bought 20kg of sheep nuts and 25kg of kibbled maize at Farmlands. Wanted to see if the geese were interested in the kibbled maize and yes they are. As winter strides along they are on pretty short rations, the grass has really slowed its growth.

Meticulous Maids came and cleaned the cottage as is their wont every Monday fortnight.

I got on with my programming course.

Took Bangle round the orchard mid afternoon and we spied a small black cat in the planting area, almost invisible against the undergrowth except for its eyes. It was feeding on a freshly caught rabbit – so thats probably the reason for the several rabbit carcases around the place. I have tried to contact the nearby family who were looking for their black cat several weeks ago, but no luck so far. Now if only it would get a taste for Pukekos and rats too.

Late afternoon at Karola’s suggestion – one of her ewes kept going through the electric fence round the big oak – I reduced the grazing area to just the homestead lawn. I’ll be able to mow and catch the leaves under the big oak now.

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—16℃ 0.1mm rain [76.42] IBOrchard

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Gorgeous day in Hawkes Bay

Cold but a gentle breeze and sunny as sunny. It’s the clouds and sharp southerly wind that make it too cold to be outside.

So late morning we all three went off for a 2km walk along the Clive riverbank and wetlands, a lime path that is a cycle trail and walking track.

Karola watered the new Griselinia using rainwater out of the wheelbarrows.

On the way out to Clive we shut the 121 pair of gates but the newly repaired one was dragging on the ground. I doubt the hinges have changed despite the major rebuild of the gate; which cost more than a brand new pair of gates – but they don’t sell patterns like that any more. We shut the gates because the sheep were on the lawn and mainly respected the electric fence out of politeness, they’re so woolly.

I fixed the gate – we figured out that when the heavy branch fell from on high, wrecking one of the 121 gates, it must have moved the gatepost a little. So all it needed was to pull the top hinge in an inch and all’s well.

Little victory, we caught a large rat in the cottage garage so maybe that’ll be an end of rat droppings in the Zoe engine compartment. We’ll reset the traps tonight just to make sure.

Clive Wetlands

View Towards Cape Kidnappers

Six White Spoonbills, Five Black Swans

Spoonbills – Probably From Small Colony Based Near Napier Airport

Buggy Fording Wetlands Stream – “Teenagers”

Oak Avenue Weather:0℃—16℃ no rain [76.97] IKBOrchard

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Food For Sheep

We rushed off this morning to get 20 bales of pea straw for supplementary feed for the sheep over the winter. Karola was down to her last bale of the old lot and has been giving the pregnant ewes quite a lot of sheep nuts. The grass growth has pretty much stopped now so the sheep are needing to eat the older, fustier, stalks and weeds.

Karola and I planted the 13 Griselinia and we hope that whatever killed four of the seven Pittisporum trees on that same corner won’t kill the Griselinia.

Three Days Of Decent Rain – About Three Inches

Twenty Bales Of Pea Straw For The Sheep

The Ewe Hoggets Like It

The New Griselinia Planting on the “121 Cottage Turnoff”

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—12℃ 0.5mm rain [76.60] IBOrchard

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Two Walks In One Day – Lucky Bangle

SwimGym and Karola took Bangle round the orchard as Bangle missed out yesterday because of the heavy rain.

While I was at the SwimGym Karola found a small rat on the cottage lawn – whether drowned in its lair or maybe it somehow escaped from being trapped in the cottage garage. She dispatched it with a spade. Since being advised by the garage – it was serviced on Tuesday – that there were signs of rodents in the Zoe engine compartment we’ve been trying to trap them in the cottage garage.

There’s a large rat, or small possum, or rat family that has been making a terrible racket tween-floors in the cottage. Only in the evening, chewing and scratching and rolling walnuts or similar things about. We hope to put an end to that too. We have no access to tween-floors – can’t get to the intruder but happily there’s no sign of intruder getting into our space either.

Rain became occasional light showers in the early hours and late afternoon the sun emerged.

After breakfast, we three went off to town for the weekend shopping.

In the late morning I spotted four hawks swooping and diving – I’ve not seen four before; whether it’s the plentiful supply of rabbits or Pukekos, it’s hard to say. They (the hawks) did seem to be having mock battles so maybe it’s a courtship thing.

I dug the holes for the 13 Griselinia just before Karola and I took Bangle for her second walk of the day, round the orchard.

My mid-winter challenge is to take a “100 Days of Swift” online course for the new-ish computer language called Swift. I’ve been learning bits of it for the last year or two but think that maybe a more formal course might be useful. There are about 50 days before we go to the UK so I should get some way into it before then – assuming it is fun and instructive. I’ve done the first four days already and it seems very well constructed.

With some Wimbledon and some Cricket World Cup on the screen, Karola is not short of sports entertainment.

Winter Scenes – Hawkes Bay

North-North-West From The Cottage – The Totara Paddock

Eastwards From Gill’s Damson Tree – Front Paddock

East From The Cottage – Big Oak – Towards Oak Avenue

The Kitchen Garden – Resting

Karola’s Pregnant Ewes – Hoping To Get On The Lawn Again

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—11℃ 0.2mm rain [75.96] IKBOrchard

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Rain, Glorious Rain

Oh the sound is wonderful, slight breeze, not so cold, and consistent gentle rain – just ideal.

Apart from squelching out to the postbox with Bangle this morning we’ve hardly ventured outside – oh yes, and Karola took us down to Lappuccino for mid-day dinner – a very nice fried fish meal on salad greens and a little diced kumera.

Got email from Felicity Bagenal in UK and we expect to visit her for a day while over there in September.

James Russell (Jimmy Rural) did not try to pick up the ram today, thank goodness – that would have been a wet and unappealing task.

Finished an online course called “Swift In Sixty Seconds” where a chap called Paul Hudson swiftly (pun intended) guided us through the main features of the Swift programming language, sixty seconds at a time – every video was sixty seconds or less long. Surprisingly good way to learn, actually.

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—14℃ 66.1mm rain [76.60] Too wet so no orchard walk today

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Getting The Trees In

SwimGym with Karola

Mid-week shopping including going to GreenLeaf Nurseries and swapping the ten Rangiora we got yesterday for ten Griselinea – Karola decided the Rangiora were not the right plain green ones but some very purple variant and she did not want them filling in the gaps in her Rangiora plantings down the 121 driveway. Dan Sankey knew they weren’t right when he suggested yesterday that Karola needn’t take all 20 that we’d ordered and Karola plumped for ten.

In the afternoon, knowing that rain was forecast, I planted my three special Manuka bushes, intending to add some vivid white flowering shrubs to the row of red-flowering ones. Unfortunately, as is happening a bit too often for comfort, what I was given was Leptospermum “Wiri Kerry” which isn’t Leptospermum “Kerekere” – the one I wanted. Too late; I’ll have to put up with only vivid reds. For future reference the three vivid white varieties (cultivars) that I’d like are L. “Kerekere”, L. “Wiri Susan” and L. “Wiri Linda” (in that order).

Karola swept up leaves – she’s finished along the cottage railings into the Middle paddock so today it was he leaves and old acorns in front of the homestead garage.

Mid afternoon the rain started but eased off again until disk allowing me to plant the three Manuka and clear the ground for the 13 Griselinia to in-fill between the remaining three of seven Pittosporum trees on the 121 driveway corner, where it turns down towards the cottage.

Entered my bird observations into the LandCare site this evening.

Strip Cleared For The Griselinia

Three More Red Manuka

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—18℃ 6.1mm rain [76.91] IBOrchard

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Zoe Has Her First Service

Took Zoe in to Bayswater European, Carlyle Road in Napier for her first service. Bayswater, where we bought Karola’s second-hand Subaru Outback, seems to have grown significantly and now, according to the receptionist, comprises five sales and service outlets in Hawkes Bay. The one we will be going to is called Bayswater European and the yard is crammed with Jaguar cars, “cross-over” or SUV styled vehicles that look very much like all the other expensive high-end SUVs. Close examination of the bonnet badge shows them to be Jaguars. Oh and a fair smattering of Landrovers too.

We took two cars, obviously, and came back in the “Disco” via Clive, dropping in to Greenleaf Nurseries to see how our order was progressing. All but the Red Beech were there, three Manuka, 23 Rangiora, a solitary Red Beech, and three Griselinia. The Rangiora had very purple leaves and were not what Karola expecged or wanted but we took ten anyway.

James Russell (Jimmy Rural) rang and will collect the ram, possibly on Thursday.

Karola raked up more leaves, but continued sorting out family histories inside most of the day.

In the afternoon I did the hour’s bird counting for the national bird survey. It was cold and occasionally overcast and hardly any birds appeared so our survey seems highly atypical to me.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—16℃ no rain [77.18] IKBOrchard

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Yesterday – A Charming, Happy Film

SwimGym and later the Monday shopping.

As soon as the frost had disappearted Karola continued her raking of leaves. She let the sheep in onto the homestead lawn again and also emailed James Russell (Jimmy Rural) to see if he’ll take the ram off our hands – his time with the ewes being over.

Went to a delightful British film, Yesterday, as recommended by Bridget. It was at Events cinema in Havelock North and we went to the early evening session with Peter & Charlotte and afterwards sojourned to Namaskar – the Indian restaurant across the road from the cinema.

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—14℃ no rain [76.73] IBOrchard

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