Monthly Archives: August 2019

Barney has to stay behind – school next week, but the rest of us, sans Dave, tumble into Anna’s ageing Mercedes SUV and set off for the coast. Anna drives for about two hours, the traffic was surprisingly calm today, and gets to the Eurotunnel Le Shuttle in time to board an earlier train, the one before the one we’d booked.
A quick trip under The Channel and then a half an hour and we were at Barbara’s town house in Boulogne.

After we settled in Anna took us all out to the little village of ?. Anna, Karola, and Barbara stayed with the car, hoping for afternoon tea (the cafe was closed unfortunately) while Felix and I went for a walk along the cliff tops.

We walked along the cliffs to ? where we descended to sea level and walked back along the beach, returning to the cliff top about quarter of a mile from the car. Very refreshing.

The party then drove to another small town, ?, where the cafes were open, and had ice creams and coffee on the waterfront.

Barbara, Felix’ 83-year-old ex-school-teacher grandmother, whom Karola (and Anna) like very much, gave us a pleasant, filling dinner. What an excellent first day in France.

Refreshments In Anna’s Car En Route Boulogne Via Euro-Tunnel

Setting Off Along Cliff Tops Towards ?

Our Goal Is The Far End Of That Beach

Back Along The Beach From ?

Off The Beach, Back On The Cliff-Top Striding Out For Home

A Welcome Afternoon Ice-Cream & Coffee At ?

Oak Avenue Weather:0℃—17℃ no rain [?]

Anna has a new friend who recently started a Persian food restaurant not far from Anna’s house.

We had one day back in Ealing before we went to France and Anna had arranged for us to join a dinner party just down the road, a “Dinner Club” event at the small restaurant run by Anna’s friend who cooks genuine Persian food.

Anna’s friend Jane – who we’d met several times before at Munson’s, joined us so it was Anna & Dave, Jane, Karola and me. The chef, the wife of the proprietor, made a chocolate cake dessert gluten free especially for me. As one who is not fond of pushing the boundaries for foreign food I found it all very pleasant and of course the chocolate cake with cream and strawberries was delicious.

The Persian Dinner – Anna & Jane On The Left

The Persian Dinner – Karola Bottom Right

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—18℃ no rain [?]

Another pleasant brunch after nights in a comfortable bed.

Ewa & Vitek are going on holiday for a week next week, to Italy. They go there every year and are very proud of the wines they bring home.

They have two dogs. One, which is very old and used to belong to Hanka. The other is much younger and recently came from a dog rescue home.

A Bottle Of Italian Wine From The Lesniewski’s Holiday Town

One Of The Lesniewski’s Two Dogs

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—18℃ no rain [?]

Jets flew overhead as we had brunch; Polish Air Force F16s practising for when Donald Trump comes in a weeks time. Lucky for us we didn’t try to come the following weekend.

Vitek showed me the gravestones of the six or seven family dogs buried (illegally) at the back of their section.

Then Vitek took Karola and me to see Vitek’s mother, Hanka, Karola’s half-sister. Hanka is eleven years older than Karola and is now entirely bed-ridden and pretty much out of it, not even recognising her son any more. Karola spent 15 minutes alone with her and it’ll very probably e the last time she’ll see Hanka.

Adam, a friend of the family, took Karola to the Warsaw cemetery to put flowers on Hanka’s husband Alexander’s grave.

In the evening we went into Warsaw proper to a rather good restaurant. Adam came with us which made conversation a lot easier. On the way we passed Vitek’s offices, a corner site overlooking a small square.

Alexander Lesniewski’s Grave – Karola’s Half-Sister’s Husband

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—15℃ no rain [?]

Morning coffee in Munson’s again. Later we took a minicab to Heathrow and flew off to Warsaw, arriving late afternoon at Chopin airport – very modern, spacious, busy.

Anna warned us that the new (2008) terminal five at Heathrow could be confusing at first, especially getting to the boarding gate for the Warsaw flight. Anna had been to Warsaw herself on business only a week before we arrived.

Vitek Lesnieswski, Karola’s nephew and criminal barrister, met us at the airport and drove us back across Warsaw, skirting the CBD. It was so different from our 1989 visit, Warsaw seems just like a modern city, sweeping arterial roads, lots of new and expensive cars, bright, clean, multi-coloured houses.

Sense Of Humour In Munson’s

Inside Munson’s

At Vitek & Ewa’s House Outside Warsaw – Al Fresco Dining

Oak Avenue Weather:-1℃—14℃ 3.5mm rain [?]

Brunch At Gails Bakery In Ealing

Walpole Park

BlokUs In Anna’s Garden

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—19℃ no rain [?]

Walk around Lammas park and back through Walpole park where we stopped for lunch.

Barney left on school trip to CERN. Much excitement because the school party had been booked in for the same dates next year so the party ended up sharing rooms and getting to bed very late.

Munsen’s For Morning Coffee Again

Qwerkle In Anna’s Garden

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—19℃ no rain [?]

With Dave and Anna we had a quiet day, I did my only clothes shopping in Marks & Spencer for a couple of pairs of trousers. Karola & I browsed briefly in Waterstones.

To stretch our legs after the long flight Anna took us for a walk in Gunnersbury park, a short drive away. We had a spot of lunch in their cafe.

Anna & Dave cooked us a glorious roast organic chicken.

Anna had selected family games for us to play, tonight it was Qwirkle

Scene From Munsen’s Coffee, Looking South

Tea Break in Gunnersbury Park

Oak Avenue Weather:0℃—14℃ 0.1mm rain [?]

Anna met us at Gatwick airport; we were so pleased to see her and have finished the long flight.

It took more than two hours to get to Ealing, we quickly made ourselves at home.

We all, including Anna, Dave, Felix, and Barney, had dinner at the Rose & Crown, a short walk down the street.

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—14℃ 3.8mm rain [?]

Tony took us to Napier airport in good time for the flight up to Auckland where we had a long wait until our 8:30pm flight on Emirates to Dubai. The flight to Dubai takes about 17 hours.

The flights were mercifully uneventful, quite boring but reasonably comfortable.

After a four-hour stop-over in Dubai we boarded another Airbus 380 giant passenger plane bound for Gatwick

Ian & Karola’s 2019 UK Summer OE

• Wed 21st Aug: Bangle goes to holiday camp with Tracey & Graham & 5 other dogs
• Thu 22nd Aug: fly from Napier to UK via Auckland and Dubai, arriving the next day
• Fri 23rd Aug arrive in London at Gatwick airport, met by Anna
• Tue 27th – Thu 29th Aug – trip to Warsaw
• Sat 31st Aug – Tue 3rd Sep Anna takes us to Boulogne to stay with Barbara Florent
• Tue 3rd Sep: Bridget flies from Wellington via Auckland and Hong Kong to London Heathrow
• Wed 4th Sep – Thu 5th Sep: Bridget stays with us at Anna’s in Ealing
• Fri 6th Sep – Fri 13th Sep Bridget with Tobi in Winchester
• Fri 13th Sep: Bridget back to Anna’s for the night
• Sat 14th Sep: Ian, Karola, Anna, Dave, Bridget off to Scotland
• Tue 17th Sep: Bridget train to London & flight back to NZ, Anna & Dave train back to London
• Tue 17th Sep: we fly out of Edinburgh, back to NZ via Dubai
• Thu 19th Sep: arrive in Napier
• Fri 20th Sep: Bangle is brought back by Graham & Tracey from holiday camp

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—18℃ 0.2mm rain [75.81]

SwimGym with Karola

Lyn Sturm dropped by. Independently so did Henare.

At some point in the morning we noticed the three straying dogs, previously reported twice to us by Janet Scott from next door, loping through. I ran down and shut the 121 road gates to try and hold them until Hastings Animal Control could get someone out to catch them. It was at that point that Henare arrived and, seeing the main gates shut, came through the 133 gateway leaving it open. He was just popping in briefly to say goodbye, but it was long enough for the dogs to escape back onto the road so that by the time the Animal Control officer arrived they were nowhere to be seen.

Excitement over for the morning, Anthony set off with Lyn, Karola, and Bangle to drop Bangle off with Tracey & Graham, 45 minutes up the Taihape road. Lyn, who used to live up there and drove the School bus, recounted tales of life up the Taihape road many years ago and G & T evidently enjoyed the mass invasion.

Three Stray Dogs Sniff Round Anthony’s Car

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—14℃ 2.6mm rain [75.71]

A day of making lists and starting to check them off. Karola went into town and picked up some bread for me and a couple more metal valves for the trough watering system – I under-counted by two when I bought the main batch.

Graham Linwood, architect, came today and we looked round the homestead and discussed our difference of opinion with Heritage New Zealand. He made several discouraging observations and then suggested that if we wanted to reproduce a whole new two-storey wing on the western end that might go through whereas rebuilding the lean-to part and extending up a floor probably wouldn’t. Karola and I were clear that we were not going to make the main house even bigger by adding the wing originally intended. But that’s architects for you.

Graham is going to talk to Chris Cochran in Wellington later in the month and see what he thinks. And talk to the council. I have very low expectations of this except as a means of getting Graham a little pocket money (little is relative).

I exchanged the remaining plastic valves for metal ones, so that task is complete.

Anthony arrived mid afternoon. We enjoyed a very crisp fish & chip dinner (TakiTimu Fisheries).

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—15℃ 0.8mm rain [75.56] IBOrchard

Karola and I went to SwimGym this morning, cold as it was, and early for us too.

After a hearty breakfast (diet> what diet?) i did the Monday shopping which today included 20kg of sheep nuts and a couple of dozen “Time capsule” zinc slow-release cartridges for the sheep. (called zinc boluses in the trade). I also dropped in at Harris Pumps & Filtration and bought seven metal valves – on/off taps for the water lines to the sheep troughs.

The story behind the boluses is that Karola found an online notice page from our local vets and it said that the risk of facial eczema was high. It needs to be hot and damp for the facial eczema spore count to become critically dangerous so I was surprised by this. It turned out that Vet Services don’t update their web pages when the danger is past and that was actually a warning for late autumn. However, it is a nasty disease and so I got the boluses in case they were needed while we’re away, explaining to Farmlands that I was stocking up early to avoid the usual stampede for boluses when the danger hits, usually at any time after Christmas and unpredictable.

After lunch Karola and I exchanged six of the eleven plastic valves for the new metal ones. I’d done one yesterday and one several months ago – these were actually broken due to sheep trampling on them – at least I have no other explanation for the plastic breaking. Today’s exchanges were to replace a couple that were actually leaking and with a plan to replace them all because the plastic is becoming brittle and will likely fail in any heavy frosts from now on.

I expect to replace them all before we leave for the UK, for a little added peace of mind.

Bangle came along as we went from trough to trough so she didn’t need an extra walk round the orchard today.

Meticulous Maids came mid afternoon and cleaned the cottage; they’ll come and do the cottage for Anthony while we’re away.

After dark Henare came round for a chat, a coffee, and for me to pay his electricity bill. Apparently his brother Puss was delighted with all the wire netting we gave him yesterday.

Oak Avenue Weather:-2℃—12℃ 0.1mm rain [75.76]

Karola went off to a Founders group afternoon tea with her friend Lyn Sturm, returning late afternoon and at my invitation Lyn stayed for supper.

I fed the geese, the cat(s), the sheep and let the sheep also have the Middle paddock as well as the front paddock. That was Karola’s plan and I didn’t imagine she’d be back in time to do it today.

Some months ago I got a couple of metal valves – taps that turn off a pipe but don’t actually let any water out of the pipe. I got them because somehow one of the plastic valves that let me turn sheep troughs on and off had been broken. Its handle was smashed and it leaked.

Now there’s another one doing the same, so I used the spare metal valve to fix it. This involves turning the water off at the first valve upstream of the fault, replacing the valve, and turning the water back on, crossing your fingers that you don’t get an air lock or blockage in the pipes which run for 100s of metres. We have 28 outside taps and 15 valves, 11 of those being plastic. I suspect that the plastic valves which are a decade or so old have become brittle with Hawkes Bay summers and are likely to fail under the pressures of a hard frost.

Henare came mid afternoon with his brother Puss from the Mahia. I’d offered them the rolls of spare sheep netting in the stump dump. Also a few thousand used staples and coils of used #8 wire. They loaded up their large trailer and back of Puss’s ute.

Raked out large quantities of dead leaves and sludge from the goose bath; the pair of geese in the Goose paddock spend a lot of time in and around the sunken bath and its intentionally dripping tap.

Also took another load of my technical books from the homestead to the cottage. Haven’t room for them all as yet, but it’s good to have some old favourites nearer to hand.

Couple Of Bookshelves Of Technical Books – Almost All About Computers

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—11℃ 0.6mm rain [75.23] IKBOrchard

Cold night, bright sunny day. Late afternoon it switched to a bitter southerly with showers.

I observed that the middle plank of my bookcase has a bow towards the floor. So some of today was spent making a third floor support block and one tween-plank upright. I used a strong car jack to lever the bottom and middle shelves apart and slot in the new upright snugly. Worked a treat.

Karola is having a bit of a thing about rats and the food for rats. Not that I should feed them, rather the reverse. Karola wants all goose/cat/dog/sheep food to be away from the cottage, cottage garage, and homestead and held in rat-proof containers. Plastic being tantamount to added protein I set off this morning to find metal containers with lids.

None with lids at Mitre-10, none at Briscoes, but I hit gold at Bunnings and bought two medium-small galvanised steel rubbish bins with tight-fitting lids. These are now in the farm shed with goos, cat, and dog food in them. Karola has taken her sheep nuts up to the hay shed.

Later went to the petrol station, a rare event these days, and filled up the Landrover and four petrol cannisters for the Grillo.

It threatened to rain late afternoon so I Grillo-mowed the cottage lawn and curtilage, instead of waiting for Sunday as I usually do. There’s very little growth at this time of the year.

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—19℃ 7.3mm rain [75.08] IKBOrchard

This weeks GF bread from Paraparaumu didn’t arrive in Hastings today although allegedly it had left Paraparaumu. I have enough until we leave next Thursday and cancelled the order pending our return.

SwimGym.

After breakfast had a hectic morning. I was unaccountably 30 minutes behind in going to my haircut; Kim called at 10:10am and I dashed off for what I had mistakenly thought was a 10:30am appointment. Then on to an 11:00am with the practice nurse and supposedly 11:30am with GP Richard Jamieson. This is a normal quarterly checkup, nothing unusual. Saw the practice nurse at 11:10am, out by 11:20, but hung around waiting for the GP until close to 12:00pm. Picked up my prescription, halved this time because on every metric they tested I am robustly well – including 105/55 blood pressure which I guess means the regular SwimGym is working.

Off to New World for a bit of food for the weekend, then Cornucopia to find the bread still missing in action and to put in my cancellation.

A bit of caffeine therapy at Artisan which happened to be celebrating its fifth birthday as a business – small pieces of chocolate cake all round, including one to take home to Karola.

Rang Ruth around 8:00am and bounced idea off her – that I would contact a local trusted (by Heritage NZ) conservation architect, Ann Galloway, and see if she’d give us an assessment of the Heritage NZ position that we cannot have a second storey to the homestead lean-to. Ruth agreed so I called Ann; she was sympathetic but grossly over-committed so suggested Graham Linwood. (glarchitects.co.nz 029-878-7402). Graham believes he can help and I am to ring on Monday when we’ll agree on a time for him to visit. Meantime he’ll get access to the building plans held by the council.

Carted more computer books from the homestead to my new bookshelves upstairs in the cottage.

Bookshelf Filling Up

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—17℃ no rain [75.03] IKBOrchard

Cold start but beautiful sunny day and up to about 20℃.

We had to set off quite early to get Bangle to Emma for grooming at 8:30am. It takes about two hours and Bangle smells horribly of sweet perfume afterwards – but her coat is shiny and clean, her nails are filed and teeth are clean. All ready for next week’s visit to summer camp.

Then a scrumptious “off-diet” Eggs Benedict & coffee at Bay Espresso in Karamu Road.

Back home and an hour later back to pick up the shiny clean Bangle. Then on to Karola’s hair appointment in Hastings. While that was happening Bangle slept in the back of Zoe, I got us coffees and read the latest Economist on my iPad. Afterwards we dropped by Bay Audio where Karola picked up a nw set of rechargeable hearing aids – apparently her old (well not very old) ones were faulty.

Home for a while then back into town again, this time for back-to-back ear-cleaning appointments (too much information perhaps) then back home again.

As it was a beautiful day and maybe the best one before we go next Thursday we decided to get our remaining Red Beech saplings into the ground. I Grillo-mowed the patch to the south of the 133 entrance – there are ten little Red Beech there from last season’s planting. Then we planted another seven that have been quietly growing from root trainers in one of Karola’s raised beds.

One last Red beech, a solitary one I got from Greenleaf Nursery when enquiring where my next dozen were going to arrive a week or so ago (no, none this year), was planted in one of the existing small tree guards Karola has dotted around just inside and to the north of the 121 entrance.

No walk for Bangle today – enough excitement without it.

The Red Beech “Forest-In-Waiting” South Of The 133 Entrance

Another Red Beech Makes Four In The Patch North Of The 121 Entrance

Oak Avenue Weather:-1℃—14℃ no rain [74.77] KBOrchard

SwimGym with Karola and Bangle. One of the regulars engaged me in conversation about the Zoe – he has an electric scooter (looks like a Vespa) and is hoping his next car will be all electric.

After a hearty breakfast I did the mid-week shopping.

Bangle got a dead rabbit from somewhere and made a mess on the cottage lawn . She ate most of it, I only had to clear away the fur.

Ruth, our achitectural draftsman, sent through the response from Laura Kellaway, Conservation Architect, Heritage New Zealand. At first blush it looked very negative but then reading her comments carefully she was only stuck on one major thing – the making of the upper floor extension over the existing ground floor lean-to.

While reiterating the strict and literal principles that Heritage New Zealand stands by, Laura said we could in fact do the new kitchen, the verandahs, the new french doors at the bottom of the stairs. Laura was very hot on any repairs and replacements be “like for like”, but that is of course what Karola is determined to do anyway – she gets double-hung sash windows and weather boards of the same size and thickness, even down to the rough-sawn markings on the planks. Laura says firmly that we may not demolish the lean-to, but can replace foundations, walls, windows, joinery that needs repair.

After discussing with Karola I asked Ruth to go back to Laura and try very hard to persuade Laura to come and see the homestead at first hand. I’m hoping that if this happens Laura will see the main part of the homestead, the grand reception rooms and spacious bedrooms, are of quite a different quality and finish to the lean-to. She might then change her stance on the upper floor extension.

The Kauri Bookshelf With Elm Separators – Firmly Fixed With Big Screws

The Chapman-Taylor BookCase )Or Maybe A Copy) – With Anti-Earthquake Straps

Oak Avenue Weather:1℃—15℃ 1.3mm rain [75.36] IKBOrchard

Slow start, very slow start to the day.

Tracey & Graham came mid afternoon and we had afternoon tea and chatted. They had two dogs with them, small and fluffy, Alex might have been charmed by them, not much bigger than a cat. Bangle was quite enthusiastic to begin with but she went off to do her own thing later, perhaps worried that these might be more permanent interlopers than she liked.

The Hangman program, homework from my online course, is not only finished but also up on my personal BickaSoft App Store and successfully installed on Karola’s iPad. I expect Gill will give it a whirl for me in a few days time – but right now she and Ben have had fierce colds and Gill’s has worsened to a nasty chest infection.

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—16℃ no rain [74.92] IKBOrchard

SwimGym early then I did the Monday shop, all over and done with by mid morning.

Then on to the chores postponed from yesterday, emails and bills, and Karola’s GST – due at the end of August when we’ll be in France.

Karola continued cleaning the cottage garage; the aim is to remove all traces of rat occupancy before Anthony arrives. Janet dropped in for a chat with Karola and for afternoon tea.

This evening we went to a lecture hosted by the Hawkes Bay branch of the New Zealand Royal Society.

Two materials scientists spoke of their research – one on new porous materials that could capture other molecules in the porous spaces. The other on nano-scale materials where by using the materials in nano-scale sized pieces the dramatic increase in surface area created dramatically different chemical behaviours – not just colours but melting point changes, conductivity changes, all manner of ways in which the nano-scale materials behaved in ways very different from the usual closely-packed solids.

In fact the talks were very focussed on the research of the two teams represented by the speakers. I felt that the talks were tangentially on the advertised topic, interesting though they were:

The flyer said:

EIT Taradale, Lecture Theatre 1 at 6 pm By Professor Shane Telfer and Dr Carla Meledandri The theme of the lecture is along the lines of innovation for sustainability and New Zealand science’s role in offering a greener future for our planet, in areas such as: * Zero carbon technologies, renewables, carbon capture and more – […]

I found the more interesting one was Shane Tefler talking about MOFs

https://sites.google.com/site/telferlab/

https://sites.google.com/site/telferlab/MUMOFs

At the time for questions I asked Shane what were the biggest challenges in applying this porous material filtering technology to agricultural pollution. He said: cost, and the difficulty in that the targeted nitrates etc are in the presence of water, which makes filtering using the new porous materials hard.

Shane is naturally enthusiastic about the idea of using these new materials for separating CO2 from other gasses – the out-flows of industrial processes. He implied that disposing of the captured CO2 was a simple matter of pushing it underground for long-term storage. That way research funding lies, I say somewhat cynically.

One use they have pioneered is producing potable water from humid air. Now if only they could use salt water instead of air as their source …

The idea niggling at me is that, if my initial thought of creating dams of mats of the filtering material to clean up streams and to interpose between farms and their run-offs isn’t a big enough carrot, then someone should perhaps try to get focus on new materials to capture methane.

The (fanciful) idea would be to apply the new porous material by spraying it on pasture. The material would soak up methane in one of a cattle-beast’s many stomachs and eventually excrete it as inert compostable element of faeces. Or it could be a drench – farmers are equipped to administer drenches to their cattle.

Oak Avenue Weather:3℃—18℃ 0.2mm rain [75.13] IKBOrchard

Henare came to continue fixing the fence so that we have no worries that the sheep would get out while we’re away. Karola made a delicious-smelling lunch of baked beans & bacon on toast. I found it irresistible so there went my diet good resolutions for today. Apart from one short shower the weather remained fine and we finished mid-afternoon.

I saw two wild cats at different times today; a black cat by the 133 gateway, and a tabby near the cottage. No sign of Cleo though.

For some of the time that Henare was working on the fence I filled the big trailer with firewood – we do have rather a large surplus at present – and after he’d finished the fence I lent Henare the Landrover and trailer and he took the firewood over to his big sister Aira.

As a bit of variety I’d bought a duck and Karola roasted it long and slow – there seemed remarkably little meat on it and, despite Karola following the roasting instructions to the letter, it was a bit dry – but as they say, “a change is as good as a rest”.

In the evening I finished the Hangman programming homework exercise.

The Finished Fence Repairs

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—17℃ 6.0 rain [75.29]

Henare came at 8:00am and by 9:30am had the hole for the replacement strainer post dug – over a metre deep. We then went to GoldPine and bought the new post. Henare used a swinging foot rather than the conventional cross-bar foot – which saves a lot of digging and saves cutting a slot in the strainer for the foot. It saves digging because the foot is sliced on an angle at one end and is fed vertically to the bottom of the hole where it is rammed horizontal – a wire fed from the foot back up to the surface is fastened securely to the strainer. The strainer is held firm from lifting and from the bottom moving backwards.

Karola tended her sheep and did more investigation of her books.

Late afternoon I saw a black cat scuttling away from the bowls with milk and biscuits. It was quick but I saw a flash of white on one of its legs – so it’s not the tabby and nor is it Cleo.

Bruce Utting emailed me and suggested that as his recent serious allergy to bee stings had dampened all desire to be a bee keeper, his bruce@beek.nz email address was no longer appropriate – so I deleted that email account. I still have beek.nzfor the present.

Late afternoon I spent another hour sanding the elm blocks to form the uprights for my Kauri book shelves. We’ve decided that applying tung oil did not improve the appearance.

Programming went well in that I’ve condensed down a small corpus of almost a million words of 21st century UK English to just 3,700 words, all between 5 and 11 letters long, with no more than 7 unique letters, and all recognised by the iPhone system dictionary. This is my source of words for the Hangman game, the programming homework assignment that I’m enjoying far too much – I should move on.

Henare Digs The New Hole, My Temporary Re-Alignment Of The Fence In The Foreground

Henare With The Swinging Foot

The Metre-Deep Strainer Post Hole

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—14℃ 3.5mm rain [75.17] IKBOrchard

We all went to SwimGym this morning, earlier than usual, it was barely light.

Then Bangle and I did the weekend shopping, back home before morning tea time. Programming till noon then Karola, Bangle & I decided to go back into town and have our main meal of the day out.

I wanted to get another key cut for the homestead sun porch door; I had the master key but Karola wanted to have one for more common use. Of course when we got back and I looked for a key tag for the new key I found not one but two duplicates in the key drawer.

Karola wanted to post a letter to Val McKay in Masterton – I rang Darea Lewington to find out whether Val was still at her old address and this being confirmed the letter had to be sent.

Then it was off to Lappuccino’s for lunch – quite delicious.

Karola wanted Henare to clear the thickets of blackberry around the 121 entrance so I TXTed him and he agreed to come on Sunday. Then he TXTed me saying his work for the day had dried up so he offered to come round this afternoon. I agreed but the job was to repair the fence and strainer post in the Front paddock damaged weeks ago by a fallen branch. I made temporary repairs but the strainer post had popped up about a foot out of the ground and while sheep can’t escape, lambs could get out.

In setting up for re-seating the strainer I found a dozen or so empty beer cans and ditto drink bottles that someone had lobbed over the fence into the Front paddock – annoying but all clean, not squishy or biological so I’m thankful for small mercies.

I pushed the strainer upright with the tractor; Henare banged it down about 8 inches with the sledge hammer. All was going well, and I just had to nudge it a fraction more to re-engage the two stay posts and CRACK, the strainer broke at ground level. So the new plan is to put in a new strainer post near the old one, cunningly positioed so that the longer connected fence remains in line with the roadside fence; the shorter run has to be moved across a foot or so. So we tried to take out the three running posts that needed moving, but all three snapped off at ground level. Even if they were in water all year round that shouldn’t happen – they were defective quarter-round posts and less than 20 years in the ground.

Henare began digging the new strainer post hole and I fixed the fence so that it was sheep proof for now.

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—15℃ no rain [74.83] IBOrchard

At Karola’s suggestion checked the tickets, ever sceptical of the accuracy of Flight Centre staff as both times recently they seemed to have forgotten about us until we contacted them close to the time of departure. My impression is that they have frequent staff changes so we’ve always had different people doing the initial booking and the final printing. Today though I couldn’t see anything wrong – the dates and times matched our expectations.

I made a map with directions of our train journey from Gatwick Airport to Ealing Broadway underground station on 24th August – it takes about 1½ hours.

Mid morning I dashed off to get a bit of food for this evening, an of course coffee and friand.

Karola meanwhile worked on sorting through dozens of books as she moves them back from the cottage to the homestead.

Later I carried on with the programming course, learning a lot today as I over-enthusiastically develop the homework example – the game of “Hangman”

We’ve brought one of the electric oil heaters over from the homestead and my goodness it pumps out a lot of heat – should have done it weeks ago, but essential for house-sitter Tony’s comfort.

Late afternoon, as it was a relatively sunny and mild afternoon, I started sanding the blocks of elm wood – remnants of the big elm tree that fell n the Avenue years ago and that Karola had milled. Some of it is in the handsome wooden kitchen benches, some became the railings at the 133 entrance, and I’ve used offcuts to make the blocks separating the Kauri planks of my new bookcase.

I’ve also tried oiling a couple of the blocks with tung oil which makes the wood darker – still deciding whether this is a good idea.

The Shepherdess

Sanding The Bookcase Uprights (Elm)

Tung Oiling – Not Sure If We Like The Effect

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—_19℃ no rain [74.78] IKBOrchard

SwimGym

Then all three of us went to Stortford Lodge – pick up some dry cleaning, get coffees at Fuse, me to get my quarterly blood test done, All went well, efficiently.

This time I asked for additional blood tests: B12 deficiency, this is because of an article in The Listener (a guest subscription very kindly provided by Gill & Ben) which said Metformin medication for diabetes type II was often accompanied by pins & needle leg sensations due to low levels of B12. I also asked for a PSA test, encouraged by UK friend Dave Mitchell who recently found he had the early stages of cancer – and he only discovered that due to having PSA blood test included in some tests he was having for an unrelated condition. Early detection means much higher chance of successful treatment.

This afternoon while Karola soldiered on with the last several photo albums I took all her books and papers from the cottage sunporch up to the homestead – in Karola’s Subaru. Karola wants them back in the homestead because rats have been living in the sun porch and she is afraid they’ll take to eating the books. I think the ones with leather bindings in particular must be at risk. Karola then began the sorting and placement of the books and papers in the homestead – she has so many book cases and shelves, each with a different purpose, that it’s quite a big job.

Postie brought us two recent purchases. A dozen small but strong bar magnets for the fridge. The magnets you usually get as gifts or from stationary shops are weak in comparison and stuff is often falling off. And another black-and-yellow wheel stop. We have one for the Subaru and one for Zoe. This one is for the Landrover.

Late afternoon, when Karola had finished for today with her book sorting, I cut back the Wysteria that has grown over the verandah and steps at the homestead front door. The vines are tough and one is liable to trip.

Amelia Hallagan (Flight Centre) dropped off our UK tickets on her way home tonight. At karola’s suggestion I’d called to see if they remembered us – barely – as the woman that booked our tickets months ago has long gone from Flight Centre.

Homestead Garage – Swept And With New Wheel Stop (Left) For The Landover

Wysteria Vine Menace Cut Back – For Now

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—15℃ no rain [74.63] IKBOrchard

Karola had an appointment with her hearing specialist today – well it turned out not to be with the specialist but a technician who took her expensive rechargeable hearing aids to send to the manufacturer to see whether the short battery life was due to faulty batteries. Karola has to come back for the actual hearing re-check later.

I was able to get Artisan coffees and friands as Artisan is only a short drive from Audiology’s new premises in the old Noel Leeming building on St Aubyn Street.

After the appointment we dropped off a few dozen of my Scientific American and New Scientist magazines at Hastings Girls High School. Last time we had a big stack of these Karola donated them to Hastings Boys High School so this time it was the Girls High School’s turn.

Around lunch time Karola did the recycling run to the depot in Henderson Road, next to the Transfer (refuse) Station.

After that it was more photo work for Karola and programming for me.

Oak Avenue Weather:-2℃—12℃ no rain [74.43] IKBOrchard

SwimGym with Karola.

One of the two rat traps has gone missing. My preferred explanation is that I caught the plump rat captured on film yesterday but that the cat then rejoiced in some slow protein – well slower than a live rat – and dragged it and the trap off to its lair.

Later the Monday shopping.

Meticulous Maids came and cleaned the cottage.

Karola helped me bring some large old Elm planks down from the big shed – I’m still perfecting my shelving although now that karola has seen my prototype with books in it she admits it is much easier on the eye than piles of books on tables.

Somehow the day slipped away and time for dinner.

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—16℃ 0.1mm rain [74.93] IBOrchard

Rained in the night again but today mostly sunny with much less wind. Most of New Zealand is in throes of a winter storm

A varied and busy day. Using the water blaster Bridget encouraged us to buy I quickly cleaned several months of Welcome Swallow guano from the concrete directly in front of the cottage garage side door. I recently put up a shelf above the door to stop the guano showering down on the door step and handle and it seems to be working, hence the clean-up seemed worth while.

Some better cat camera photos and videos today, in fact it was the videos that gave me the best images (see below). Based on the new evidence I have “taken steps”, see below.

As usual on a Sunday I set Zoe to get charged up. However when checking later I found that the battery charger wasn’t working – traced it to a fuse that had blown so reset it and continued the re-fuelling. We’ll see tomorrow whether the incident repeated.

Walking round the orchard with Karola and Bangle we came across the top gate into the Scotts lying on the ground. Maybe the storm, maybe someone in a hurry, but it looked as if the top hinge (gudgeon) had twisted out of its socket. Karola thought that it’d be nice if we fixed it although it’s not strictly our problem and there aren’t any stock to be kept in or out beween the orchards. The gate entrance is there, is required, to allow the water board maintenance men to clean the big drainjust the other side of our boundary fences – running north-south. Anyway, after the walk we gathered up a few tools and re-hung the gate.

I gave my Kauri bookshelf planks a final sand and later put the bookshelf up in the cottage upstairs room. Books do look a lot better on bookshelves, not just in piles.

Mowed the cottage lawn and curtilage. There’s been so little growth, and the gales have blown away most of the leaves, so it didn’t take long.

Finally, just before dinner, Karola noticed that two lights either side (inside and outside) of the homestead back door were not working. Luckily we had spares of the right sort – one bayonet, one Edison screw fitting.

Feral Tabby – Enjoying Free Milk & Biscuits

But Wait A Minute – Who Or What Is This?

Rat May Be In For A Surprise Tonight – No Free Milk & Biscuits

Gate At Top Of Orchard Into Scotts Had Been Wrenched Off Its Hinges

So In A Brace Of Shakes We Rehung It

… And Despite The Battered Appearance It Swings Just Fine

Guano-Shelf – Top Centre – Works (The Birds Perch Is Directly Above It)

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—16℃ 0.1mm rain [74.85] IKBOrchard

Very gusty winds with intermittent heavy rain overnight.

Got a good shot of the tabby cat that’s enjoying the cat food and milk I put out every night.

I’ve been trying to attract a rather good looking small black cat with a white bib that’s been missing from a family living in Omahu Road for months. I saw that cat again yesterday up in the planting area where we saw her (Cleo) and several rabbit remains a week or so ago.

So, I have purchased and installed a serveillance camera and been feeding something for the last ten days or more. The food always goes, and the milk. At last I have a glimpse of the beneficiary – and it isn’t Cleo.

Bitter cold wind outside despite the lovely sunshine – perfect in sheltered sunny spots. However we stayed indoors most of the day – programming (me) and sorting through stuff and writing emails (Karola).

After our customary walk round the orchard with Bangle I did an hour’s sanding of the Kauri planks destined to become my bookshelf upstairs in the cottage.

Caught On Camera Last Night

Oak Avenue Weather:2℃—14℃ 1.1mm rain [74.63] IKBOrchard

SwimGym

We all went into Hastings for the weekend shop. New supplies of dog biscuits for Bangle – a bag of the protein rich good food (Nutrience) and some bulk filler (Nutro for Senior Dogs). A small amount of the good stuff and twice as much of the bulkig-up ensures Bangle gets a balanced diet but doesn’t get fat. That’s the theory.

Karola & I moved the animal feed bin from the cottage garage up to the little hay shed so that Karl, while we’re away, can occasionally feed the sheep sheep nuts if he thinks they need a treat.

Landrover battery dead again. Scott thoughtfully put the Landrover in feet first; we had wondered why but this morning when having to jump-start the Landrover again it was obvious. Took it straight down to Newbold Auto Electrics where they tut-tutted over the extreme age of the battery and happily supplied a new one.

Karola took the netting and wire from the reconstructed fence along the western boundary down to the stump dump, out of the way.

I moved the cat-camera to see if I can get pictures that capture the cat (or is it really a possum) eating. It’s possible that the proximity sensor isn’t pointing directly at the feeding place and that could be why I have plenty of photos but almost all without a trace of a beast.

Lots more programming.

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—17℃ 0.8mm rain [75.25] IKBOrchard

A very quiet day – nice fire to keep us warm with the wind whistling outside. More programming course for me whie Karola begins to plan for the trip intwentyone days time. Bridget takes her girls to Melbourne to see Harry Potter musical in two weeks – she then comes over to UK a week after that.

Karola found a rather nice photo of her mum Cynthia with a favourite horse, Charisma. Possibly the best eventing horse in the world at the time, Mark Todd (Sir Mark, just retired this week) won Olympic gold in the eventing at Los Angeles in 1984 and Seoul in1988. Bridget tells me that she and Anna were taken By Cynthia to see Carisma at the Dalrymple’s farm, Waitatapia in Bulls, while we were out on holiday in 1989.

Cynthia Weir & Charisma – 1989

Oak Avenue Weather:-2℃—12℃ no rain [75.92]