Monthly Archives: December 2019

The new years honours list was on the early morning news and we were surprised, but not necessarily delighted, to see Ms Jacobi, a previous dean of Napier, collected a gong.

Realising that, like last week, the SwimGym and most shops will be shut on Wednesday, we went in for a bit more food shopping and had mid-day dinner at the cafe in New World. I know they have a GF option I’ve not seen elsewhere, lamb’s fry with bacon and potato/kumera mash and onion gravy so I had that while Karola wolfed down eggs benedict.

Mark came after lunch and spent most of the afternoon finishing putting up the electric fence. The sheep were pleased to see a different piece of pasture – ie the homestead lawn and under the big oak. Several lambs behaved as if the electric fence wasn’t there; hopefully they are wether lambs so will be out of our hair before too long. Mark then began weeding the tree guards under the big oak, not top priority but out of the sun.

Karola and I changed the batteries in the PIR (motion sensor) in the Apple room. I checked with HHS (security firm) and they agreed that the sensor had immediately sprung back into life. There’s still cleaning up to do in the Bee room upstairs and the kitchen, and the kitchen pongs a bit too. We had a quick search but couldn’t find any more possum bodies so opened all the windows hoping to dispel the smell.

The micro-orchard is coming on. Planted in September 2018 we have fruit on all but the Black Doris plum and Ballerat cooking apple. The persimmon isn’t showing much yet but the other four trees have some fruit.

Apple: Cox’s Orange Pippin

Pear: William Bon Chretien aka Bartlett, “The Canning Pear” in USA

Pear: Winter Nellis

Plum: Santa Rosa

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—23℃ no rain [77.68] IKBOrchard Mark=4

SwimGym with Karola in good time.

Then shopping and that’s all done by 11:00am.

Caught a small hedgehog in one cage trap last night, and a possum in the other. Also caught a black possum in one of the Timms traps. The aniseed oil seems to be an irresistible lure whereas the GoodNature rat and possum lures aren’t working for us at present – probably too much food arround and unlike the aniseed oil, the smell is quite muted.

I mowed the cottage lawn & curtilage and the perimeter of the homestead lawn ready for Mark to put up the electric fence. Karola had decided that the sheep should have another go on the lawn and under the big oak because she sees a forecast of endless summer and fears lack of grass for the next couple of months.

Mark came and I first asked him to take up another set of about 30 grass grid blocks along the fromnt of the homestead garage. The block at the west end is a nuisance because the lawn mower blades scrape it, it’s just a bit too far out of the ground, but I didn’t even know the rest of the line along the front was there. We left the blocks in front of Karola’s office, the 6m x 3m room on the west ewnd of the homestead garage, and the blocks leading from there directly across the little lawn towards the homestead.

Mark then spent the rest of the afternoon beginning to set otu the electric fence.

Meanwhile I swapped the tractor tow-bar accessory for the mini-forks and moved the large slate slab into position where Karola intends it be a stable firm platform outside the cottage laundry window adjacent the outside tap on the wall. That slate bench came with us from England in 1999 I think, it was originally a bench below a hatch from a small brick dairy at Yeoman’s Drove in Otterbourne, probably created in the 1600s. Or maybe a mortuary slab, the more ghoulish explanation.

Another Hedgehog – But A Very Small One

Oh I Do Hate This – But Another Possum Must Go

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The Timms Trap – It’s All Over Before I Get There

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—29℃ no rain [77.93] IKBOrchard Mark=4½

Large female possum succumbed to a Timms trap baited with aniseed-coated slice of apple. Must have been well over 10kg. Put it in the outside fridge until Marl comes tomorrow. It had a joey which always saddens me but we really cannot rear them as pets.

Karola said the sink was leaking so I investigated and, to the delight of us both, it was only a plastic screw-up join on the S-bend that had been bumped loose. Not a blockage, thank goodness.

Handle came off a drawer of the large chest of drawers in the cottage sun porch so I re-connected using longer brass cabinet screws.

Checking the homestead for something Karola had mislaid I went into the kitchen to find lots of things thrown onto the floor and amid the chaos two dead possums. They must have come in through the hole high up on the inner wall, a short length of plank removed to allow threading of electrical and other cables. Once in the kitchen clearly they couldn’t escape. I think I’d rather be caught in a Timms trap. Karola started the clean-up and we put both possums in the rubbish for collection tomorrow morning.

I got a piece of left-over kwila decking and filled the gap to avoid repetitions.

Large Dead Possum

Four Doves Sunbathing Outside Cottage Dining Room Window

Homestead Kitchen Vandalised But Invaders Died

Hydrangeas, Despite Savage Pruning, Flowering Better Than Ever This Summer

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—23℃ no rain [77.82] IKBOrchard

Caught another hedgehog today, smaller than the last one, and released it. I see something, presumably a rat, has been diggin in under the cage trap to try and get the bait. Presumably the hedgehog had already sprung the lid before they decided tunnelling was the best approach.

I re-baited and set the pest traps today. I bought a little bottle of aniseed oil online a week ago in preparation, my earlier attempt to buy it from pharmacy or organics shop didn’t work – all I got was a packet of dry Anise seeds and even though I soaked overnight I didn’t get a strong smelling residue. I added the aniseed oil to each of the possum traps – pouring it onto the trap and the apple bait.

I re-set the two GoodNature rat traps, one GoodNature possum trap, two Timms possum traps, and the two cage traps.

As I was trying to take the little tractor into the Middle paddock through the gate by the farm shed the sheep noticed and made a break for it. By the time I’d clambered off the tractor they were all through and fanning out across the homestead lawn. It’s not that they’re starving but “the grass is always greener” as Karola said. With Karola’s help we got them all back in the Middle paddock before any damage done.

Thought I’d make up a small squirter bottle of Roundup so, using an empty bottle, I made up the mixture. The haversack sprayer takes 10 litres while the squirter bottles take under a litre so they’re more useful for the occasional weed. I have one known good squirter but that has Versatil in it – selective on non-grasses like Californian Thistles. This other squirter, containing Roundup, turned out to be useless; it didn’t squirt and just leaked weed killer out of the handle. <sigh>

Karola spent the day nose deep in books and letters about her families’ past and WWII.

Second Hedgehog Finds Old Cat Food Irresistable

As Feared, The Welcome Swallows Are Breeding Again, Already

Oak Avenue Weather:5℃—22℃ no rain [77.70] IKBOrchard

We both had disturbed nights, Karola, as often happens, at least partly because I am not a tranquil sleeper. But we soldiered on – lovely day, beginning cool and heating up to almost 30 degrees by early afternoon. We read, snoozed, wrote emails, and generally took it easy. By late afternoon I was fully awake.

The Welcome Swallow parents appear to be preparing their nest for another clutch of eggs; we were hoping to take the camera down and clean up the mess before Bridget and the girls come up here in January.

I did eventually go and get some food for the weekend and dropped in at SwimGym – which I’d skipped earlier for family solidarity. Attempting to post some more mail for Karola I narrowly avoided putting international mail in the post boxes outside. They, like the ones outside Caltex on Omahu road and the ones outside Postie-Plus, only take local mail. Luckily Postie-Plus, which includes a post shop, was happy to take all the letters.

Spoke to Brian Cope, neighbour on the north side, who was coming home with a gaggle of kids and a puppy. Apparently Oakley, their big dog, has cancer in his leg and will need to be dispatched soon, hence the replacement – a fox terrier I think. Brian opined that Karolas orchard didn’t have very many apples on the trees this year, but, even after the chemical and manual thinning, there looks to be rather a lot of apples to us. Still, as Karola remarked, our income is independent of the crop so while we have a passing interest it isn’t going to keep us awake. Ah yes, full circle back to the first paragraph again.

Bird Table Moved In Front Of Cottage Kitchen Windows – Sparrows Love It

Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—25℃ no rain [77.85] IKBOrchard

Couldn’t sleep last night – too much for Christmas dinner – and I thought I’d solve a simple puzzle in the back of the latest New Scientist. ‘A’ walks up a mountain starting at the same time as ‘B’ walks down. Each walks at their own constant pace. They pass each other at midday. Four hours later ‘B’ reaches the bottom while it takes ‘A’ nine hours to reach the top.

I still hadn’t cracked it, going round in circles, so by just before 3:00am I gave up. This morning it all fell into place, at least I think so.

Continued with Mark II of the bird table today – I’d poured the concrete for the base last night and extracting it from the bucket and inserting the metal standard went smoothly. Cutting the standard to make the table slightly closer to the ground took a while as for some reason my electric reciprocating saw blades just had great difficulty cutting the steel. Then the standard holes for only bolts to clamp the wooden table supports together were too small and none of my drills were happy trying to enlarge them. So that too took a lot longer than anticipated. However finding a solid wooden tray and adding a small wooden lip to reduce spillage went well.

Couple of things make me think that the bird table, ostensibly to avoid feeding rats, isn’t a particularly good idea. Firstly, one dove, very bossy, chases away the other doves from the table – I think of her as “Judith”. Secondly, the feral pigeons living in the Canary Island palm are taking an interest.

Bird Table Mark II – Moveable With Solid Plain Wood Platform With Rim

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—19℃ no rain [77.88] IKBOrchard

Relaxed morning. listening to radio & snoozing.

Made the concrete base I’m hoping to use for the bird table – so it’s stable but can be moved fairly easily.

In the afternoon Karola & I started on a project to rake up the windrows of straw left from mowing the tall Philaris. We may enlist the granddaughters when they come up in a couple of weeks time.

Facetime with Bridget et al in Wellington late afternoon.

In The One Acre Starting Disposal Of The Straw

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—18℃ 6.1mm rain [77.92] IBOrchard

A day of quiet reflection and snoozing.

Karola did go out for a final bit of retailing around mid-day.

At the same time I did some small tree branch cutting. I freed up the small Canary Island Pine that seeded itself and is now about three metres tall, in the Taupata hedge just along from the pump-shed. I also cut back a couple of branches of Kanuka that were shading the fifth of my five Swamp Cypresses, Picked up a few stray fallen branches and took all the debris from the above to a small temporary pile just inside the railings next to the farm shed. The sheep liked the fresh leaves.

Oak Avenue Weather:_13℃—19℃ 0.6mm rain [77.92] IKBOrchard

SwimGym with Karola & Bangle

Early afternoon Karola & I did the shopping for the next four days, to tide us over Christmas. This included a Mitre-10 pitstop for a small galvanised bucket and 15kg of ready-mixed concrete. Karola posted a few more Christmas cards – I didn’t know there was a postal counter in the Stortford Lodge pharmacy now – now that the real post office has closed.

Concrete and a bucket, whatever for? Well it’s an attempt to make a moveable bird feeder by embedding the white metal standard in a small block of concrete instead of banging it into the ground. This may take a few days. Meanwhile the doves coming to be fed has gone up from two to six – that’s six out of a possible ten, the two originals plus my eight imports.

Mark came just before we left for town and his afternoon finished the clearing of wysteria from the north west corner of the homestead – the looks are much improved.

Karola spent a couple of hours next door with Janet Scott, chatting. I dashed down to Caltex on Omahu road to get the diesel and petrol cans refilled.

Another Day, Another Mynah – Or is Yesterdays Bird & A “Slow Horse”

Now How Many Doves?

Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—23℃ 0.4mm rain [77.69] IKBOrchard Mark=4

The day began with a pleasant lie-in and leisurely breakfast. I checked the traps when I fed the geese (maize) and the doves (maize plus “dove mix”) and found an indignant mynah caught by the lure of cat food – more likely the cat biscuits than the wet food I think. One mynah more or less isn’t going to matter so I let it go.

Late morning we all went to Clive to walk along the estuary bank and the the wetlands, ending up where there’s a branch off to the beach. Bangle loves the different smells and trots along energetically. Bangle explored the beach where sea meets sand but was careful not to get more than her toes wet.

On the return, about two thirds of the way to the car, Karola realised she’d lost her glasses. They had been on her head; she wasn’t using them since that seat on a log at the beach (see below). So back we go to the beach again – no sign of the glasses. Then I recalled that Karola had taken off her jersey in a patch of shade by the turnoff to the beach. Sure enough, there were the glasses, well the frames and they had been bent as if someone had trodden on them. No lens glass to be seen. Very strange.

On the way home we stopped at Karamu road Bay Espresso for a hearty lunch, coffes plus Karola’s scrambled eggs and bacon on toast, my “eggs benedict”. We sat out the back in the shade; Bangle had a cool drink of water.

Back home life continued peacefully; the sun was warm but the breeze nicely cool. Among other Sunday tasks I mowed the cottage lawn & curtilage. I happened to notice a pearl brooch of Karola’s on the grass and narrowly avoided mowing it up. Karola hadn’t really noticed the loss.

I (mis)understood some suggestions from Karola about creating a place to feed the doves without encouraging rats and other mammals so I made an experimental bird table at the back of the homestead. Just a standard (metal post) painted white with a flat piece of plywood strapped to the top. So far the doves have not sussed that there’s food up on the table but it’s early days.

Mynah Entrapped – Scoffing Cat Food – I Let It Go

The Clive Wetlands Ocean Walkway – Perfect

Birdlife A-Plenty

Driftwood – Proof Of The Severe Winter Storms

Miss Bangle Intrigued By The Ocean Smells

The Beach – Farthest Point Of Our Clive Wetlands Walk Today

Experimental Bird Table – No Mammals Invited

Dusk – Bangle & I Met Two Hedgehogs Out Foraging This Evening

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—20℃ no rain [77.36] IBOrchard

I continued chasing down some missing ebooks from a technical publisher, “Take Control Books”, and today got quick resolution from Joe Kissell, the owner, series editor, and prolific author of many ebooks. Turns out I had two accounts with different email addresses so he quickly collapsed them and now I have all the books I’ve purchased.

Gill and I are having an adventure trying to test her backup procedure for her website. We are making progress and one day will attempt a backup and restore for real.

Karola spent much of the day on Christmas cards and finding postal addresses – not easy these days, who uses the post except for parcels.

I heard a sheep bleating outside the cottage, from the wrong direction. Looking out east I could see several ewes and lambs on the homestead lawn; looking west I saw the bulk of the flock scampering in the direction of the small gate from the Totara paddock onto the lawn. We both rushed outside, Karola snatching up a little bucket of sheep nuts on the way. Karola went to the little gate, attracting the escapees back and stopping more escapes; I went tpast the escapees and shepherded them back towards the little gate. All over in a few minutes, everyone safely back in the Totara paddock.

I must have left the little gate unlatched on Friday and the wind gradually blew it open over night, otherwise they were really slow to find the escape hatch open. Sometimes we wonder, was that open gate us, or do we have visitors who take short cuts through our place and leave gates open.

Karola saw a tabby cat over by the homestead back door – maybe, we hope, it is the young male cat we had “done” last week.

Well Four Of The Ten Doves Show Up At Feeding Time

Runner Beans Flowering Amongst The Raspberry Canes

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—20℃ no rain [77.49] IKBOrchard

SwimGym with Karola & Bangle

Later I had a haircut and Karola had an eye test. The test was merely to check that the correct prescription for her glasses hadn’t changed over the last couple of years – it hadn’t. While the test was going on I did the shopping and got us both coffees – the last ones from Artisan in 2019 as they are shutting for three weeks.

Mark came at 1:00pm and continued filling in the depression where there used to be a tall palm tree. Rain stopped play so he left after about an hour.

It cleared later so I turned on the irrigation for the weekend, there’s not been enough rain to really soak the ground and next week’s forecast is dry.

Levelling The Spot Where A Tall Palm Tree Used to Be

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—24℃ 4.7mm rain [77.32] IBOrchard Mark=1

Karola went off and had her hair done and a bit of shopping in Hastings – bang went the morning.

Peter Fitzpatrick, the Bostock’s manager of Karola’s orchard, played “Father Christmas” today. Every year Bostock’s managers visit their landlords with gifts. This year it was four bottles of wine from JB’s own vineyard. We thanked him for this and for fixing the damage to the big shed – an employee bashed into the rainwater gutter and barge board at one entrance and we’d mentioned that last year. Now it’s neatly fixed. I wondered if sometime when there’s no rush on that Peter’s odd job man could go round the boundary of Karola’s orchard and repair the broken railings and battens. Some railings and battens and gates get broken when the orchard tractors rush about mowing or moving apple boxes.

Mark came around 1:00pm, just before Peter left, and got stuck into the removal of the wysteria and weeds along the front of the homestead, leaving the hydrangea but taking out the rest. As planned, he cut the wysteria off but didn’t dig the roots so that, when, inevitably, the wysteria regrows, Karola can take cuttings in the autumn. Once she has this specific wysteria flourishing elsewhere we’ll poison the stuff around the house to avoid regrowth.

Towards the end of the afternoon Mark got topsoil from Karola’s first “bund” – she created that long narrow hill of compost ten years ago and it’s lovely fertile soil now – albeit with plenty of weed seeds I’ll be bound. He used the topsoil to smooth over the places he dug out privet an=round the circle and began filling the dip where there used to be a tall palm tree, just off the north-east corner of the house.

Ian’s Runner Bean Enclosure – Mostly Vigorous Raspberry Canes

Mark Clears The Front Of The Homestead

Clearing The Tangle Of Wysteria Vines

The One Acre – After The Rain Still Very Dry

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—26℃ no rain [77.21] IKBOrchard Mark=4

SwimGym then later the mid-week shopping. Lots of lovely rain overnight and through the morning.

Too wet for Mark the Gardener today.

Emails and computer stuff filled the day.

We TXTed and emailed Felix and Dave, Anna’s partner, it being Felix birthday on 17th and Dave’s on 18th.

Mid afternoon I drove over to see Peter Offenberger in Havelock North, to get his signature on a “Certificate of Existence” form that the IBM Pension Trust sends to all its beneficiaries every two years. Seems that they must have found they were sending pensions to people no longer alive so felt they needed to check.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—19℃ 11.0mm rain [77.23] IKBOrchard Mark=0

The forecast rain delayed until evening so Mark was able to come today. Our morning was quiet and inside stuff, no excursions until Karola, mid afternoon, went off to post Christmas mail and to chat with neighbour Janet about her security alarm going off for an hour or so yesterday. It wasn’t the accidental mis-programming of the security alarm that upset Janet so much as all her neighbours who called to see if she was alright, long after the event, and advise her she should not worry, it could happen to anyone.

Mark came and we tackled the tasks left incomplete in front of the homestead. First there were a few more of the old grass grid concrete blocks to lift and store in the stump dump. Mark says there are about 150 of the blocks neatly stacked now. Then Mark dug out the two privet stumps and one bay tree stump that I cut down last week and have watered overnight to soften the soil. Meanwhile I started tackling the wysteria along the edge of the homestead, beginning with the east veranda and then from the south-west corner. It is a terrible tangle and slow going.

Beginning Slaying The Wysteria On The North-East Corner Of Homestead

East Side Done

… And Adjacent To The Front Steps

… Then Beginning At South West Corner

Mark’s Stump Removal

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—26℃ 13.4mm rain [77.80] IKBOrchard Mark=4

SwimGym

Mark spent the afternoon attacking the undergrowth down the left hand side of the 121 driveway. The aim is to have the Tetoke trees as an avenue on either side of the drive and, on the left, to have intervening shrubs, mostly Rangiora, filling the gaps. The ground surrounding the trees and shrubs will be grass, or where it’s too shady, periwinkle.

After lunch we trundled off to see Graham Linwood, architect, to discuss the email he received from Chris Cochran, esteemed conservation architect in Wellington who happens to be on the board of heritage NZ. The upshot of this email, very positive in tone, was that Chris Cochran agreed with the proposed plans for renovating Karamu, including the fairly minor changes made by Graham Linwood. This afternoon we incorporated changes reacting to a couple of Chris Cochran’s comments and Karola negotiated some window placement changes pretty much back to where they were in the original council proposal and Graham seemed quite amenable to doing this. The next step is for Graham to update his drawings based on this afternoon’s discussion and then send the concept drawings together with the original council submission and CVhris Cochran’s email to Laura Kellaway in Heritage NZ for her assessment.

Meticulous Maids came and cleaned the cottage, the last clean this year; we see them next on January 20th.

Janet Scott’s (our southern neighbour) alarm went off and rang for ages. Karola tried calling her on the phone, and her daughter, and Sue Hills across the road but no-one was answering. Just as we thought we should go and take a look the alarm stopped. Karola rang Janet later and it was a false alarm – Janet’s security firm did call in and reset the alarm. In a later discussion about this with Sue Hill who lives alone in a house about 200 metres down the avenue on the other side, Sue remarked that there was ivy growing up our Copper Beech that is on the fence line about 50 metres north of the 133 entrance. So I promptly went out and cut and poisoned it – no need to upset the neighbours with invasive tree-strangling vines.

Stopped watering the two privet clumps I cut down last week so they’re now ready to be dug out, roots and all.

Mark Clears The Left Verge Of The 121 Driveway

… Down To The Juniper By The Gate Into The Long Acre

…. Including The Matching Juniper On The Other Side of The Gate

Oak Avenue Weather:18℃—26℃ 1.2mm rain [77.77] IBOrchard Mark=4

Spent hours and hours in the sun, mowing and re-mowing most of the One Acre to get the slash into windrows, allowing the space between the windrows to breathe. Rain is still forecast in the coming week, but we can’t rely on it. The mowing was terribly dusty and blazingly hot. I had to stop the tractor and clean the radiator grill every ten minutes to avoid it boiling over. And have a shower afterwards.

Karola nose deep in her mother’s old photos and letters from the tie of WWII.

Mowed the cottage lawn, but only the lawn as the rest of the curtilage seems not to have grown in the last fortnight.

Used the compressor to air-blast the Grillo and the little Kyote tractor clean – works well.

Turned off the irrigation.

The ⅔ Of The One Acre Mowed, Re-Mowed, And Re-Mowed Into Windrows

Yes, Well There Wasn’t Much To Celebrate Was There (via Bridget)

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—28℃ no rain [77.79] IKBOrchard

We awoke to the usual Country Life farming programme and then Kim Hill’s Saturday morning radio which began with a couple of interviews with political commentators in England describing the UK election results and the themes and trends they saw.

There was no happy ending possible as far as we could tell, even the Economist had forsaken the main parties.

The Lib Dems seemed on a suicide mission by proposing dropping BREXIT without further debate or referendum.

Labour had a sane policy on BREXIT but had what seemed to me to be an absurdly out-of-touch and oddly anachronistic leader with an uncompromising agenda of returning UK to the good old days when manufacturing was king and the oppressed workers were his to lead. No wonder they referred to Jeremy Corbyn’s influence on the election as “toxic”.

So now we have Boris, acting out of his skin in the role of his life, “Prime Minister of England”. Utterly opportunist and pragmatic to a fault, but is he really that much worse than previous prime ministers. Well, I cannot recall one that was so openly multi-faced, heartless, insincere, ruthless, and charming. Bring back John Major I say.

The rest of the day was quiet with Karola reading and pouring over old books, letters, and photos. I used the little tractor to mow and re-mow the areas of the One Acre that I’d slashed with the orchard mower earlier in the week. The idea is to get most of the cut material into windrows to let the cleared ground flourish with sunshine and, soon we hope, a little rain. At Karola’s suggestion we went to Rush Munro’s mid afternoon and had an ice-cream.

Bridget sent a photo (below) of Natalie (left) and Alex, painting pottery in Nelson yesterday. She said that they will post them once fired, so these are the before images. The colours will look very different when fired. They ended their week’s holiday in the Marlborough Sounds today – had glorious weather all week except that the sea was too rough to go out and whale watch in Kaikora.

Bridget’s Daughters In Nelson, Hand Painting Pottery

Natalie Kyacking In Picton Before Leaving For Home On The Ferry

Alex, Ditto

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—27℃ no rain [77.87] IKBOrchard

SwimGym

Shopping for the weekend

Forgot to get cash for the week so went back into Hastings, got cash plus some cartons of milk for Karola, cornflakes for me, and on the way home another couple of coffees, this time from Fuse not Artisan. Too much caffeine I suspect. Meanwhile Karola had taken the recycling to the depot and bought fresh vegetables from Gagan’s the roadside stall on Henderson road, a bit further down from the recycling station. Cornflakes because New World has ceased stocking the brand I like and this time I went to Countdown.

Mark came around 1;00pm and started by Grillo-mowing the 121 driveway and the lawns in front and behind the homestead garage. Then Karola set him the difficult task of moving the debris left from digging out the palm tree on the edge of the circle in front of the homestead. I cut the palm tree down many months ago, it was about five metres tall. Gareth the plumber then dug out the significant root mass – all fibrous – with his little digger, also several months ago, in the rain. We ended up with a sodden mass of clay, root fibres, and weed mat laid years ago by Karola to suppress weeds around the palm tree. At the time I could not shift it with the Fergie or the new tractor so we left it to dry out and rot down. Now, in an afternoon, Mark, using the new tractor, carted all the debris off to Karola’s bund.

Set irrigation going for the weekend.

Mark Removed Metre-High Mound Of Debris From Site Of Palm Tree North-East Corner Of Homestead

Bridget’s Family – Pelorus River

Pooh & Piglet Off For A walk In The Marlborough Sunds Bush

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—24℃ no rain [77.94] IBOrchard Mark=4¾

Karola woke early and, thinking it was Wednesday, dressed for SwimGym. I, reluctantly went with her and Bangle although I was particularly drowsy.

Upon return I continued mowing and re-mowing part of the One Acre, attempting to reduce the tall stand of Phalaris to chaff and let the lucerne, red clover, and plantain that is supposed to be sharing the One Acre with Phalaris and Californian thistles, flourish. Despite the forecast it did not rain today and in fact no more is forecast until mid week next week.

Mark came early afternoon and Grillo-mowed the homestead lawn, the majority of it, the area that was recently grazed.

Later Mark and I returned to our vehicle gate repairs, rehanging a couple of gates so that perhaps they’ll be easy to open and shut for a year or two.

Karola continued her weeding of the Bay Tree hedge in the cottage garden.

Mark Grillo-Mows The Homestead Lawn

I Fergie-Mowed Most Of The One Acre

Bridget’s Family In Marlborough Sounds – Motuara – Predator-Free Island

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—21℃ no rain [77.76] IKBOrchard Mark=4½

SwimGym quite late in the morning and then on to get mid-week food.

Mark took down all the electric fence round the homestead lawn and big oak, putting it away tidily, which took several hours – as it always does. He then Grillo-mowed under the oak and started on the homestead lawn, the area recently grazed by the sheep.

Together we put up the person gates, first successfully installing the gate for the lemon tree enclosure then the two gates crossing the planting area next to the big shed in the orchard.

I mowed about a third of the One Acre using the orchard mower and Fergie tractor.

Phalaris Clumps Slow Going

Bridget Et Al – Kaikora Wildlife – Too Rough For Whale Watching

Oak Avenue Weather:16℃—20℃ no rain [77.36] IBOrchard Mark=5¼

Karola continued weeding the cottage bay tree hedge with its mix of lavender, Tea Olive (Osmanthis fragrans), and Escallonia “Apple Blossom”) intermixed with couch grass and other weeds. The Tea Olive shrub works well with the bay trees but the Escallonia is just a rambling menace without the profuse blooms and powerful scent promised in the catalogues.

Mark finished making the small wooden person gates, adding the hinges. We then both tried to erect one of these as the entrance into Karola’s railing enclosure for her main lemon tree, but this attempt was not a sucvcess so deferred for another attempt tomorrow.

Mark then set to and dug out the clump of privets intertwined with blackberry on the edge of the circle in front of the homestead, a job requiring a fair amount of brute force and thicj\k gloves. While Mark did that I cut down three other privet saplings also along the edge of the circle.

Mark Tackling Thicket Of Blackberry And Privet On Edge Of Homestead Circle

A Few Hours And Lots Of Prickles Later …

Bridget’s Family Holiday In Marlborough Sounds

Oak Avenue Weather:4℃—20℃ no rain [77.47] IBOrchard Mark=4¼

SwimGym with Karola & Bangle

After breakfast we took the cat, now known to be a young male tabby cat, to the SPCA who got us an appointment with Vet1, a different vet clinic to our usual one who said they were booked up for more than a week ahead at present. Late afternoon Vet1 called to say that, against expectations the cat turned out to be male and that I could pick him up tomorrow morning.

I had mixed emotions when, as dusk fell, I saw a large tabby cat prowling across the Middle paddock – so we have at least two more cats to catch, this large tabby and Cleo, the black cat with a white bib. Mark and I are still sure we saw two jet black kittens with the blue-grey cat but I only caught one, meaning that one of the jet black kittens is still at large, that she had eight kittens, not seven. This is getting ridiculous.

After depositing the young male tabby at Vet1 we did the Monday shopping and I bought a replacement 20mm drill bit, well more of an auger really, over 300mm long, for boring through strainer posts when hanging gates. The old one, despite sharpening by Hawkes Bay Saw Doctors, just didn’t have the bite it used to. You had to press with all your strength to drill through the post.

Taking advice from Karola & Henare I detached the new jockey wheel assembly from the big trailer and used its wheel to replace the totally wrecked wheel of the old jockey wheel assembly. Now it works just as well as ever. Unlike the new assembly, the old one folds up parallel to the drawbar when not in use which turns out to be indispensable. I could have bought just a wheel for the old assembly for $10 less than the new assembly but that wheel was decidedly inferior to the one included with the new assembly, so I think it turned out for the best.

Mark came and first did more mowing of barley grass: around the Canary Island pine, the adjacent big oak tree, and the pin oak adjacent to that. Also round the Coral yree and along that part of the Middle paddock followed by mowing the entire slope down to the ha-ah. Barley grass is everywhere.

The rest of the afternoon Mark worked on the three remaining wooden person gates and we made a first attempt to hang the one for the lemon tree railed enclosure. Better luck tomorrow.

Four Welcome Swallow Youngsters – Hungry Mouths

… Taking A Stroll With Mum

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [77.87] IBOrchard Mark=5

Checked the cage traps and to my surprise we caught a feral tabby cat. Probably the same tabby that I caught on camera on 19th July and a couple of times, at night, in August. My plan is to take it to the vet tomorrow and, if it hasn’t been spayed/neutered, to get that done then release it.

Turned off the irrigation of the runner bean enclosure, the five swamp cypress.s, and the bay tree hedge.

Mowed the cottage lawn and curtilage. Then Grillo-mowed round the perimeter of the One Acre, trying to pick up the detritus from when I used the orchard mower to flatten the tall, dense Phalaris clumps aroubd the perimeter. Grillo with blades set to highest setting did pick up a lot but the feed chute jammed too often so it’s not the right solution for the whole paddock.

Mixed one litre of diluted Versatil weed killer and spot sprayed a few dozen Californian thistles near the cottage railings – out in the Totara paddock. An experiment.

Henare came round at 6:00pm as expected and he and Karola took the big trailer of firewood round to his sister Aira’s place in Tamatea.

Feral Tabby Falls For Our Cage Trap

Doves Outside Cottage Kitchen Window – Coo

One Acre Perimeter Strip – WEST

One Acre Perimeter Strip – NORTH

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—28℃ 3.6mm rain [77.16] IBOrchard

Karola, Bangle, and I went off in the Subaru this morning to take back Emma’s bird cage, the cage we borrowed to bring the first five doves from her place to Karamu. When there we picked up another three doves, as expected, and popped them into a cardboard box for transportation.

On the way home we grabbed a coffee at the Karamu Road Bay Espresso.

I put out dove seed mix for the resident doves and when one came calling I let out the three new comers.

Chainsawed up some large pieces of Douglas Fir, two-metre long chunks of branches that I sawed up many years ago after the branches came down in a storm. Added this to the load on the big trailer from yesterday and TXTed Henare to say it was available. Henare hasn’t been answering my TXTs this week so I’m unsure as to whether he’ll come for the wood or I’ll have to unload it all so I can use the big trailer.

Using the old Fergie tractor and its orchard mower I made a two lane wide track round the perimeter of the One Acre, the paddock with the crop including tall, thick clumps of Phalaris. I set the mower on its highest setting, there are four settings, and it was just able to cut through the dense jungle of vegetation.

Where The Doves Come From – Emma Speeden’s Place In Te Mata

Karola’s Mulenbeckia – Beautiful, Vigorous Climber

My Five Swamp Cypress’s – Vivid Green

Pukeko Chick Sussed Out By Bangle On Walk Round The Orchard

Anna’s Festive Front Door – Ealing, Christmas 2019

Anna Says These Are Not Asparagus Gone To Seed As I Rudely Suggested

Oak Avenue Weather:20℃—28℃ no rain [77.05] IKBOrchard

SwimGym with Karola & Bangle. Later I did the weekend shopping, all very uneventful although it was an unusually hot morning and Hastings traffic was busier than usual.

Mrk came while I was still out and finished off his Grillo-mowing of the barley grass along the top of the ha-ha. He did another three large patches in the Front paddock and, after afternoon tea, another in the Long Acre. There’s still quite a lot to do but for a break we spent the rest of the afternoon trying to rehang and re-adjust three vehicle gates, two between the Front and One Acre paddocks, one, rather less successfully, between the Totara and One Acre paddock. Still, we’re getting the hang of it, (pun intended).

Later Karola took the new gate intended for the lemon tree railings enclosure and temporarily put it in place so that she could let the sheep have the run of the Middle, Totara, and Front paddocks for a while.

Mark On Grillo Vanquishing Swathes Of Barley Grass

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—30℃ no rain [77.71] IKBOrchard Mark=5½

Well it started with finding a hedgehog in the cat trap. I released it unharmed.

Indoors stuff until Mark arrived just after midday then Mark began an afternoon of Grillo-mowing, that is mowing and picking up – the large amounts of barley grass that has suddenly gone to seed and is almost ripe.

Karola was engrossed in old family photos all day, said hardly a word.

I picked up the firewood from chainsawing up fallen oak branches over the last two days.

Turned on the irrigation for the runner bean enclosure, the lime tree avenue, and the cottage bay tree hedge.

Eight Cats, A Rat, Two Possums, Now Mrs Tiggy Winkle

Firewood From Last Two Days Chain Sawing

Doves At Feeding Time

Mark’s Afternoon Grillo-Mowing The Barley-Grass

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—27℃ no rain [77.50] IKBOrchard Mark=4

SwimGym late morning, after the man came and fitted our new honeycomb blinds. John was fast and did a good job – the blinds fit perfectly and are very level. Wonder what we’ll be saying about them this time next year.

I went straight from SwimGym to New World for the mid-week shopping, picking up coffees and a “chia” confection for Karola on the way back. Chia seems to be layers of nourishing stuff, more sweet than savoury, and featuring yoghurt, nuts, and seeds in a plastic transparent cup shaped like a small take-away coffee cup.

Mark came mid day and spent the afternoon creating three new person gates from 4×1 planks, each gate being one metre high and one metre wide. I ran out of wood so went to GoldPine and got three H4-treated six-metre planks. GoldPine said that the usual 4.8 metre planks were no longer available from the mills and the only grade they had was H4-treated. One gate is for entry to Karola’s railing-enclosed lemon tree in the Front paddock; the other two are for the person gates on each side of the planting area next to the big shed in the orchard – our quick way from the cottage to the big shed.

Meanwhile I did a bit of chain sawing, continuing on from yesterday but with a new chain. Making firewood of big oak branches downed several weeks ago ij the Middle and Long Acre paddocks. I also demolished a very dead Camellia in ther Middle paddock.

Later while on our walk round the orchard with Bangle I put Vigilant on every Scotch thistle i could find; they are all coming into flower now.

I trapped another possum, quite small, this morning, and Mark shot it, plucked it, and took the meat for his dogs.

It;s lovely to hear the doves cooing in the big oak, again I saw up to four at a time during the day, pecking around where I’d scattered their seed mix.

Two New Blinds Looking East In Cottage Dining Room

Yes, It Is As High As An Elephant’s Eye – Karola’s Crop In The One Acre

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—29℃ no rain [77.68] IKBOrchard Mark=5

Rain was forecast for a couple of hours late afternoon. It’s been twenty days without rain so we hoped it would come, and it did, a ferocious gale of swirling gusts – equinoctial – and rain blasting horizontally. It came very suddenly and, just as suddenly, the sun was out. Apart from a little dampness it was as if it never happened.

Last week I lost contact with my “Hort Research” weather report – the website which I use to record the daily max/min temperature and rainfall, based on a nearby weather station in Twyford. I began investigating weather stations and went so far as to get an account with WeatherCloud – one of several free sites which allow you to aggregate and save a year’s worth of data from your own weather station – as long as it’s connected to the Internet. I contacted my mate Mike Barley at HortPlus and today he said that it was a temporary outage all made better now.

Mark came and continued weeding the red beech. At the same time our planned meeting with Graham Linwood started here at the cottage.

Graham went over the alterations he’s suggested to make the Karamu renovation more “heritage oriented” in order to sway Laura Kellaway at Heritage New Zealand into approving our building changes. Graham’s changes are modifications to the plans we submitted to the council early in 2019. Karola and I went through the changes carefully and at length and we both agreed to go forward with the changes, that is for Graham to send them to Laura and to Chris Cochrane, a respected heritage architect in Wellington who has been on of Karola’s key guides to heritage approaches and who happens to be on the advisory board of Heritage New Zealand.

The meeting went on for over an hour and, as Karola suggested, I have a voice recording lest there be different interpretations of what we agreed later.

Afterwards Mark paused his weeding and we constructed a replacement gate for the little hand gate that goes from the Totara paddock onto the homestead lawn close by the Chinese Photinia. The existing gate was made of 50mm x 25mm untreated wood whereas the new one is based on the same design used in four other places, roughly a metre square tailored from 100mm x 25mm H3 treated timber. The existing gate must be 30 or so years old. Karola helped hang the replacement after dinner.

Doves came to eat the seed I scattered this morning and again this evening. Delightful.

Gate I Made In 1990s Finally Disintegrating – Needs Replacing

Replacement Gate From Totara Paddock Onto Homestead Lawn Under Chinese Photinia

Karola’s Magnolia Near Cottage

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—29℃ 3.1mm rain [77.83] IKBOrchard Mark=5½

SwimGym with Karola and Bangle

After breakfast, shopping with Karola. Dropped in at Farmlands and got some more sheep nuts plus a 5kg bag of “dove mix”. I was surprised that such a product existed; clearly I’m not the only one with a fondness for doves.

Mark came for the afternoon beginning by using the old tractor and Caravaggi mulcher/chipper/shredder to cut up the larger branches on the bund, to help the bund rot down. That took several hours after which Mark began weeding the younger red beech trees on the south side of the 133 gateway.

Meticulous Maids came and cleaned the cottage mid afternoon.

I chainsawed up a few large branches that have fallen from oak trees over the last few months, got about half done today.

During the day I saw one or more doves on the gravel pecking at the seed mix I’d strewn there. Sparrows also enjoyed the treat. At one point I saw four doves together so there’s hope that the two local doeves and the five new ones are all settling in.

Oak Avenue Weather:20℃—26℃ no rain [77.93] IKBOrchard Mark=4½

Checked where we are on FlyBuys, Airpoints, OneCard club cards today – something I haven’t done for what seems like years. I almost always use my New World, Countdown, Caltex Airpoints, Mitre-10 Airpoints cards and yet have no recorded FlyBuys or Countdown OneCard points. And we have only 38 (Karola) and 75 (Ian) Airpoints dollars. Somehow Bridget seems to have thousands of FlyBuy points and is able to redeem them for useful items. Something wrong here.

Cat cage trap set in the farm shed lean-to catches a mother possum and her joey occasioning another drowning event. I really don’t like doing this but options are limited.

Later I spied the two local Barbary doves eyeing up their comrades in cage so thought it’d be an auspicious time to free the captives so that the locals could maybe give them a few pointers. They all flew high up into the large oak tree next to the homestead garage.

Karola and I crimped up a couple of netting circles that she intends to use for collecting twigs and branches.

Late afternoon we took Bangle in to Napier to the Marine Parade instead of round the orchard. I hadn’t seen the viewing platform before; it’s neither ornate kitsch nor particularly handsome but a bit like a verandah on the beach.

Gill & I talked on the phone – they’ve seen a house that is good enough that they’re going to try and buy it. Ticks enough of the boxers, and if it really is “location, location, location” then it’s a really good choice. Fingers crossed.

Possum In Trap Meant For Cats

Local Barbary Doves Pecking Maize Next To The Caged New Arrivals

Napier Ocean Walkway – Looking Towards The Bluff From The Viewing Platform

Looking North From The Napier Marine Parade Viewing Platform

Passer-By Kindly Took This Photo At Entrance To The Viewing Platform

Oak Avenue Weather:18℃—28℃ no rain [77.32]