Monthly Archives: January 2021

Afternoon Watching Polo

Around lunchtime we set off in Zoe to the Polo Grounds which are next to and north-east of the Hastings Showgrounds. Bangle stayed at home. Not many spectators and we were in the stand on the north side along with half a dozen other old codgers. Most were on the far side amongst the many horse floats and picnic tables and lots of polo ponies.

Upon our return I sawed up a few branches too thick to put through the mulcher and did a few other odd jobs as is my wont on a Sunday. We had meatless sausages for dinner, a new brand I found in CountDown on Friday – they seem to have stopped stocking the BeyondMeat brand of meatless patties. Sausages were alright but not marvellous.

Turned off the watering and then used sprinklers for a couple of hours on the octagon and the raised beds.

Hawkes Bay Polo Championships At The Polo Grounds

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—23℃ no rain [77.01] TdT eggs=2

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Cottage Kitchen Drain Triumph

Much cooler today with a bite in the wind.

Mark came today in lieu of the blistering heat on Thursday and continued Grillo mowing the diagonal pathways for electric fence across the One Acre. He also mowed a track across the Front paddock just out from the fence with the One Acre so that we have a corridor for the sheep when getting to the third and fourth quarters of the One Acre through the two gates from the Front paddock. He erected the electric fence in the One Acre.

Meanwhile, as suggested by Alan Copas last week, I attempted to clean the gulley trap for the cottage kitchen sink and the dishwasher with a hose and water on full blast. While I did get out a lot of gunk the water was still not flowing as it should so I had recourse to my water blaster and that did the trick. A sudden gurgle and the blockage broke, and normal service was resumed. We can only hope that what I dislodged from that trap doesn’t lodge anywhere further down.

Watering systems turned on, it’s still very dry.

Seen From Stop-Bank: Polo Ponies For Tomorrow’s Match

Cousin Tallulah Patterson At South Island Pony Club Championships

Oak Avenue Weather:6℃—21℃ no rain 77.28] TdT eggs=1 Mark=4

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Very Pleasant Day After The Heatwave

Karola had hair appointment today so I took her in and whilst there did a little shopping including coffees. On the way home we picked up the sharpened saws and chainsaw chains.

I let the sheep into the Long Acre which has more green grass than any other paddock at present. They made a dash for the fallen acorns under a large oak tree, cross fingers they don’t get stomach-aches. Counted the sheep and found all present and correct.

Mark came today, it was a great deal cooler than the last two days, and he continued cutting back flax along the inner fence of the One Acre paddock before doing a spot of Grillo mowing. He mowed round the perimeter of the One Acre – with the overhanging trees cut back and mulched, the intruding flax cut back, and the Grillo-wide path mown it’s a pleasant walk in ordinary footwear round the One Acre. Mark began sectioning the One Acre ready for the sheep to graze a quarter at a time.

Oak Avenue Weather:9℃—21℃ no rain [77.46] TdT eggs=2 Mark=4

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Another Scorcher & A Pizza Meal

Mark TXTed to say he’d prefer swap today and tomorrow for the weekend as it is so very hot.

I called plumbers Copas who installed and serviced our cottage waste management system. Alan Copas rang back re Karola’s concerns about the kitchen sink and the damp ground under the cottage near the outlet. I had checked the U-bend for the sink but Alan sensibly suggested I clean out the “gully trap” outside below the sink. That certainly looks like the problem; I’ll clean it out tomorrow.

The kitchen thermometer registered an outside temperature in the shade on 36℃ by mid morning. I spent much of the day dozing; Karola in reading and sending emails.

We attended the annual local Friendship Club’s dinner – 5:00pm – 7:00pm at the Art Room, Keirunga Gardens in Havelock North. I had a GF pulled-pork pizza; the others an assortment of pizzas. There was white wine and watermelon juice to drink and dessert of strawberries.

Seatoun Outlook, From This Morning …

… to This Afternoon

No Possums Trapped, Just A Lucky Little Hedgepig

Charlotte & Peter And Others At The Annual Friendship Club Dinner

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—34℃ no rain [77.49] TdT eggs=1

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Heatwave Begins

Off to town to do the weekly shopping, then pick up GF bread from OMG and coffees from Artisan next door. We also dropped in at Mitre-10 where I bought assorted cotter pins and clips, spurred on by the clip that came off and is lost from the Kioti mower rubber guard. Enough of them for life, I’d say. Dropped off pruning saws and chainsaw chains at the Saw Doctors, got all my pruning saws and chaincs checked and only a couple actually needed sharpening – they should be ready on Friday late morning.

Sheep given another fresh tranche including under a large oak tree. Hope they don’t eat too many acorns. I’m relying on numbers to ensure no one sheep eats too many.

As forecast it was a hot summer’s day, 36℃ in Hastings by lunchtime. Mark came over and began cutting back flax that had pushed out into the One Acre from the planting area. Unlike the tree branches which he cut and mulched earlier, flax just binds up the chipper/shredder machine so has to be heaped on the bund to slowly decompose. By 1:30pm, after 90 minutes, Mark threw in the towel, just too hot. We’re pleased he was sensible as when it’s too hot it is not only uncomfortable to work but your work rate suffers too.

Inside the Dyson fan-less fans are great; that bit of breeze is really most refreshing. Karola and I read inside most of the afternoon.

This evening I watched the final two episodes of the final series of the French Netflix original programming “Ten Percent”, renamed and sub-titled for the English-speaking world as “Call My Agent”; enjoyable viewing.

Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—31℃ no rain [77.96] TdT eggs=2 Mark=1½

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Last Day To Mulch Before Forecast Dry Heatwave

Karola and I took the Subaru to get petrol and diesel for the tractors/Grillo and on the same trip took lots of magazines and paer plus some recyclable plastic and tins to the local recycling centre. As we were nearby we dropped into Gagan’s and got raspberries, blueberries, pears and some cherry tomatoes.

Mark spent the afternoon converting a large pile of branches to mulch using the Kioti tractor and Carravaggi chipper/shredder aka “the mulcher”. The local temperature forecast for tomorrow is 35℃ and there are official warnings to avoid machinery use which might cause sparks as the fire risk is extreme.

More From Sunny Snowy Ealing, UK

Anna’s Excellent Photo Of Karola From 2019 (In Ealing)

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—29℃ no rain 77.61] TdT eggs=1 Mark=5

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Anna’s Birthday Facetime Call

It’s Anna’s birthday today so, as arranged, we had a Facetime call on the evening of her birthday in the UK, our morning the day after here in New Zealand. It was a delight to see Anna & Dave, with a glimpse of Felix and have a chat.

Anna TXTed to say there was snow in Ealing; the first time ever there’d been snow where she was on her birthday.

Trevor brought back the Grillo with its rebuilt engine – their decision to rebuild rather than wait for a new engine from Australia saved time and money. A new engine would not arrive for another month at least and would cost about $1000 more than the rebuild. I was told sternly that we must always check and replenish the oil every time we take the Grillo out for an hour or so’s mowing, checking the level while the engine is cold and the Grillo is on level ground, such as inside the farm shed. And also, at the end of every significant period of mowing we must clean the air filter, taking off the foam rubber sleeve and shaking it clean, shaking the rest of the filter mechanism clean, and then blowing out dust from the inside with my air compressor.

I fixed the leak in watering pipe, an old hole from a previous button waterer. The little plug used to stop old holes had worn and made the hole bigger so I cut the pipe and rejoined it at that point.

Turned off the water to the lime tree avenue, the two sets of red beech saplings, and the bay tree hedge. Used a sprinkler to give the octagon a good watering.

Meticulous Maids came in the afternoon for their regular fortnightly clean – the first in the new year.

Mark came and began by picking three buckets of damsons – Karola says they’re mostly ripe now – and about the same number of plums from the old plum tree. They’re for his extended family, including Jenny Hendery who we spent the afternoon with yesterday. I’m sure Jenny will find a good home for the fruit she doesn’t need.

Mark then finished digging the new dead animal pit and began weeding the octagon. The octagon is damp after its watering and so the weeds come out more easily but there are a lot of weeds. Mark says that some of the Wysteria roots he planted in the octagon are thriving which is good news.

Snow In The UK – Ealing, Walpole Park – On Anna’s Birthday

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—29℃ no rain [77.94] TdT eggs=1 Mark=4

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Karola Attends Napier Cemetery Guided Tour

Sheep given a fresh swathe of the Middle paddock today. I expect to give them fresh sections every three – four days.

In the afternoon I ferried Karola over to the Napier Cemetery which is on the side of the hill they call “the bluff”. The entrance is at the top on the east side of the ridge. I parked and waited until the guided tour moved off. Sadly I inadvertently scraped the front passenger-side wheel against the curb which has made some nasty scratches – poor Zoe, I do seem to be the one to knock her about.

Karola’s tour was from 2:00pm till 4:00pm and it was a hot somewhat overcast day so I asked Noel & Jenny Hendery whether I could shelter at their place, nearby, while Karola had her tour. I had a very pleasant afternoon mostly chatting to Jenny as Noel was out for a while administering to his flock – a service in the dementia ward of a local hospital. At 4:00pm I collected Karola from the cemetery and brought her back to Noel & Jenny’s place with its elevated hillside view south-east across Napier and we continued chatting with afternoon tea.

Watered the raised beds for a few hours – it really is getting dry.

Oak Avenue Weather:_9℃—30℃ no rain [77.79] TdT eggs=1

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Cool Nights, Hot, Dry Days

Turned on watering for the weekend. Fixed a leak in the pipes to the five Swamp Cypresses, There’s another small one in the pipes to the larger Red Beech saplings I will fix later.

Hand watered the Ngaio saplings Mark transplanted from next to the homestead on the east side to the triangle of trees next to the Wellingtonian at the north-eastern corner, next to the orchard drive at 145 Ormond road. Picked up some fallen lemons and a few lemons from overloaded branches on Karola’s old lemon tree in the Front paddock.

Mark started the next pit for deceased sheep on Friday and I dug a little more today.

We watched replay of today’s Prada Cup when Sir Ben Ainslie swept to victory; a tough race but it puts the UK boat into the Prada Cup final.

Afternoon Feeding Time

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—28℃ no rain [77.57] TdT eggs=1

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Iron Kettle Mystery

Seems a bit quiet without Bridget’s Bubble. Caught another possum over-night.

Friday is the day for The Listener to arrive, wrapped up with the Friday issue of Hawkes Bay Today. Got the paper but no Listener, again.

Later when I collected the mail I found an old iron kettle in the mail box. I woner who put it there and if it means anything; perhaps its a swagman’s sign of some sort.

Mark continued with his trimming of the shelter belt planting, almost finished, including releasing the several Totara trees dotted amongst the shorter-lived Lemonwood, Karamu, Five Finger, flax and cabbage trees. Giving the Totara a bit more light and space to grow strong and tall, eventually.

After afternoon tea Mark began digging another pit near the one now holding the remains of #209, several lambs, rabbits, and possums.

Niece Tessa Wier’s birthday today.

Iron Kettle Left Inside Our Letter Box

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—24℃ no rain [77.08] TdT eggs=1 Mark=4

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Natalie’s NCEA Results Out Today

Natalie’s excellent results out today, overall ‘E’ for excellent in her subjects despite Covid 19 and a terrible Algebra paper, bad questions, not bad answers.

We celebrated (low key) with a brunch at Karamu Road Bay Espresso; “L-plate” Natalie drove the five of us there in the Zoe, she’s getting quite confident in the Zoe which is good.

Bridget still “Working from Home” until 3:00pm while the grand-daughters packed up ready for their drive back to Wellington late afternoon.

Overnight we got a big possum and a tiny hedgehog in the two cage traps. Bye bye possum but I asked mark to let the little hedgepig go.

Called Outdoor Power and Craig has done most of the reconditioning of the Grillo old engine and may have it ready for us early next week.

I listened to much of 46th USA President Biden’s inaugural speech at 6:00am; such a relief after the last four years. And that Kamala Harris is a delight too – such a contrast with Hilary Clinton. Later Karola awoke me from dozing to say that there was a dead sheep she could see out of the window so I dragged myself awake and out there only for the sheep to sit bolt upright and stare.

Karola sorted through more of our hundreds of fiction books, mostly paperbacks, in the homestead sun porch, hoping to decide which to keep and which to give away to avoid carting them all off to a temporary location.

I continued reading “Troubled Blood” by author Robert Galbraith, better known as J K Rowling of “muggles” fame.

Ruth (draughtsman) sent me the requested latest building plans for Karamu, the ones signed off by the council, and I forwarded (emails) it on the Stuart of Classic Kitchens.

The wind beeacme really fierce late afternoon, so gusty that it seemed impractical to cycle in it, we went round the orchard with Bangle instead. On the way we saw a broken irrigation pipe gushing out; I called Peter Fitzpatrick (Bostock’s orchard manager for Karola’s block) and he sent someone round to fix.

Karola’s Waving Field Of Lucerne In Flower, Intermixed With Red Clover And Phalaris

Oak Avenue Weather:8℃—26℃ no rain [77.19] TdO eggs=2 Mark=4

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Weekly Shopping Day Again

Rode with Natalie in Zoe as she took Lexi down to The Fruit Shop on Pakowhai road to get ice-creams for a very late breakfast.

Then went alone into Hastings and got the weeks shopping including a double portion of fish as Bridget offered to make us all a fish pie for the evening meal.

Much of the day I read more of Bridget’s Christmas present (or is it a loan) “Troubled Blood” by Robert Galbraith – the latest in the Cormoran Strike series of detective novels – absorbing and quite long.

Dead end in trying to locate a sensibly priced second hand copy of “Old Wairoa …” for Karola. The only copy I could locate online was in Pukera Bay but at USD$280 it really is far too expensive. After some misunderstandings were sorted out it transpired that Cecilia had been quoted $90 on a later, cheaper rare paperback book by the same author, T. Lambert’s “Pioneering Reminiscences of old Wairoa”. That’s the book I then got for half price from Hard-To-Find-Books in Dunedin. But it’s not the right one.

The grand-daughter’s helped Karola move most of the books out of the homestead sun porch up to the large bedroom that used to be my lair but is now the upstairs room to store stuff while the building work is going on. The contents of three bookshelves were taken upstairs, the bookshelves themselves were released from their anti-earthquake straps and refastened against the wall upstairs.

The Fruit Shop – 1010 Pakowhai Road

Oak Avenue Weather:7℃—_24℃ no rain [77.23] TdT eggs=0 Mark=4

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Classic Kitchens Initial Meeting

Pretty quiet day with Bridget “working from home” upstairs in the cottage most of the day and the grand-daughters absorbed with their iThings in the cool of the homestead, only venturing out for buying food. I counted eight small chickens today; yesterday I only counted seven and thought I might have lost one.

Mark continued gathering up pruning waste and mulching.

Late afternoon Natalie did another hour of mowing barley grass in the Front paddock while I tractor-mowed the larger patches of barley grass in the Totara paddock and Lexi raked it up.

Mid afternoon Stuart came from Classic Kitchens in Onekawa, the firm that built the cottage kitchen for us. The older chap we dealt with in 2011, Larry McKenna, has died and Stuart, who worked for him for many years, is now the owner. (stuart@classickit.nz 06-843-6530 or 027-827-7530). Bridget, Karola, and I discussed with him what we had in mind and he will now do a design layout, bearing in mind that they are full up till May which matches up pretty well with our planned start in March.

Early evening there was a power cut; I checked with Janet Scott next door to see if it was just us but no, it was the 400v step-down transformer outside her place showering sparks into the evening air; three trucks and various high-rise buckets were there she said. It was fixed before 10:00pm.

Oak Avenue Weather:17℃—30℃ no rain [77.44] TdT eggs=2 Mark=4

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Dinner At Kilim Turkish Restaurant, Napier

Bridget took her bubble, (without Chris of course) and Karola to brunch at Lappuccino’s.

The council contractors doing a thorough prune of the avenye got as far as our address today so I photographed them way way up in the canopy, cutting off derad branches that might otherwise fall and create an accident. Despite the permission we granted for them to come onto our property to better gain access to the raodside trees along our boundary, they didn’t seem to need it.

Mark and I worked on the cutting back of the boundary planting, focussing on the western boundary from the sheep yards up to the little grove of Totara trees just beyond the big gate into the orchard. As Karola requested we, that is Mark, mulched the branches into the sheep yards as a weed suppressant and in-filling some shallow rabbit holes. Again, at Karola’s request we will not mulch the pile next to the farm shed but instread cart it up the the sheep yards and do it there. It took Mark and me half an hour to attach the mulcher to the Kioti tractor; the mulcher itself is very heavy and while the mulcher was on the flat concrete inside the farm shed lean-to, the tractor was on the slope leading up to the concrete and we think the slope hindered easy connection.

Bridget took us all to Kilim in Hastings Street in Napier for dinner – nice enough but not a patch on what it used to be. Who should walk in but Charlotte and Peter Offenberger. They have recently taken delivery of an MG EV SUV – an electric car to replace Charlotte’s aging small sedan and had taken it up north to relations camping on a beach up there.

Upon our return Natalie and Lexi did more mowing and raking, 1¼ hours for Natalie, 1 hour for Lexi.

Arborists High Up In Oak Avenue Tree Tops

Oak Avenue Weather:10℃—26℃ no rain [77.28] TdT eggs=2 Mark=4

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Chris Goes Back To Work In Wellington

Chris driven to airport by Bridget; off back to Wellington to resume work tomorrow, Monday.

The watering of trees continued today, including the octagon today as it, like the raised beds, gets dry more quickly than level ground.

In the afternoon Natalie and Lexi helped in the fight against barley grass. In the absence of the Grillo we only have Karola’s old green hand-pushed motor mower. Natalie did 90 minutes of mowing in the vicinity of the Damson tree; I used the tractor to outline the areas of worst infestation and Lexi raked up the cut grass that made.

I mowed the cottage lawn with the same small green mower – using the Grillo took so much less time and effort.

Natalie and Lexi made us all a delicious chicken curry with rice. Karola, Bridget, Bangle and I did our daily Tour de Twyford while they cooked it.

Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—30℃ no rain [77.50] TdT eggs=1

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Too Much Food

Got up at usual time , fed avians, got newspaper then promptly went back to bed. Awoke just in time (alarm set) to trundle off to Nimon’s Baling with Karola in the Landrover pulling the big trailer. There we bought two 10-bale cubes of pea straw for the sheep – in case the drought is a long one or the winter is a hard one. Nimon Baling is open to the likes of us from 9:00am – 10:00am on Saturday mornings.

Just before noon we all, except Bangle, went down the road to the Serendipity Cafe, 1421 Pakowhai road. Chris said it’d got high marks on Trip Advisor. We used to go there before Lappuccino’s opened in Omahu road; it was called Pernel’s FruitWorld then and over time the food and service gradually declined so we stopped going and have never been back.

Serendipity had an excellent choice of cabinet food and the coffee was quite good too’ the only drawback was the high prices.

Bridget’s bubble went off to the Hawkes Bay Golf Club, Bridge Pa, where they played 9 holes of family golf.

Meanwhile I unloaded the hay.

As last night, most of the family watched the two Prada Cup yacht races, preliminaries to decide the challenger for the Americas Cup – all playing out in Auckland.

Steak night; Karola cooked us a delicious dinner. Afterwards Karola, Bangle, and I did our daily Tour de Twyford, again cutting it fine with the river gate allegedly closing at 9:00pm.

Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—24℃ no rain [77.62] TdT eggs=2

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James Russell Calls About A Ram; Matriarch #209 Dies

Mark reported that old ewe #209, Karola’s matriarch born in 2012, was just lying down unable to get up so, at Karoa’s request, he dispatched her, burying her in the pre-prepared pit. Mark saved the meat for his animals.

Trevor from Outdoor Power called to say that Craig in the workshop was trying to rebuild an engine for the Grillo out of what spare parts he could muster find plus those salvaged from the wrecked engine. If he was successful the Grillo would be up and working late next week, otherwise we’d still be waiting for the brand new replacement engine from Australia, at least six weeks away. Trevor said he had no pick-up mowers he could lend me having recently sold the one he was advertising for hire a few weeks ago.

Karola is appalled by the barley grass burgeoning in the Front paddock and she says “spray it all” even if it means killing the other grasses around it.

James Russell called to see if we had a “spare” ram he could buy from us. Unfortunately our ram lamb, son of the above-mentioned #209, is too young. And the ram James sold us last year is too expensive for the client asking him to find a young, inexpensive ram. We suggested we’d be happy to share our ram if that would help but if we sold him we’d want the same price as we paid for him – him being in his prime now.

I drove Karola to her fortnightly hair appointment and snagged a couple of coffees from BJ’s in the Hastings plaza – they were exceedingly good coffees.

Bridget took Chris and his inflatable kayak down a local few kilometres of the Ngaruroro river this afternoon.

Mark continued his trimming of the boundary plantings and in the process managed to wrap a good deal of electric fence wire round the tractor – which he fixed pretty quickly. This work was curtailed by the need to attend to dying #209.

A couple of days ago Lexi spent 45 minutes trying to unlock an old attache case of mine, an heirloom I think. It has three wheels each with 0 – 9 positions. I took up the challenge today and, calculating it would take me about 40 minutes to test all combinations, opened the case after trying a bit over half the possible settings.

Pleased with that I spent another half an hour sorting and discarding surveillance photos and short videos taken by our surveillance cameras. Spotted: possums, pukekas, rabbits, sparrows, mynahs, cats, chooks, a hedgehog, Scott Ormond, Anthony Fletcher, Chris More and his boss and the bosses wife, myself. Deleted about a thousand photos.

Looking through the photos and short videos from surveillance cameras operating when we went to England in 2019 I came across a video of Chris More and his boss, and the bosses wife, looking around the homestead from the outside. We knew he’d probably take his boss there when up in the Hawkes Bay on business but he didn’t expect to be photographed while doing it. I also found proof positive that Pukekos are eating the chook food out of the “Chooketeria” which means they’ve learned to stand on the bar to raise the lid. Grrrr.

Pukekos Enjoying Chook Food

Bridget’s Chris Showing Off What May One Day Be Bridgets and His Domain

Bridget, Karola, Bangle, (And Me) At The Start Of The Tour De Twyford Today

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—25℃ no rain [77.77] TdT eggs=2 Mark=4

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GST Finished for Another Couple Of Months

We all went to Bay Espresso again for brunch, with the exception of Bangle of course who has done a lot of “staying at home” this year. In the Hawkes bay heat, under the cottage may be the most comfortable place for her anyway.

Late afternoon we went to Rush Munros for ice-creams. Is there no end to our decadence – but we are supporting local tourism which, post last year’s Covid lockdowns, is a good thing to do.

And in the evenng we all had a very well cooked lamb roast with roast vegetables, gravy, mint sauce, the lot. It’s only worth doing when there’s a family to feed so it was a delicious exception to the normal fare.

I left it too late to go to the Ngaruroro stop-bank after dinner for cycling and walking so instead Bridget & I took bangle round the orchard. The stop-bank area is locked up at 9:00pm in the summer and even earlier at 7:00pm in the winter.

Mark continued where he left off last Friday, trimmming back the perimeter plantation to the inside fence. He also gave the row of young Totara a drink.

GST calculated and submitted by early evening.

A Couple More Ancestral Findings From Gill Brackenbury

Sir Corbet Woodall – our great-great-uncle
(NB: Anne Whiteman and Cornelia Whiteman were sisters)

Sir Corbet Woodall (27 August 1841 – 17 May 1916) was an English gas engineer. He was Governor of the Gas Light and Coke Company from 1906 to 1916. He became recognized as a leading gas engineer.

He was a member of the Gas Institute (later the Institution of Gas Engineers and now the Institution of Gas Engineers and Managers), the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

He was elected president of the Institution of Gas Engineers three times, in 1877, 1897 and 1912. He became a justice of the peace in Bromley in 1911, received an honorary D.Sc. from the University of Leeds in 1912, and was knighted for services to the gas industry in 1913.

https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Corbet_Woodall

Statue of Sir Corbett Woodall, by George Arthur Walker, in Twelvetrees Crescent memorial garden, Bromley by Bow, London.

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Amsden/Whiteman/Woodall Family Tree

Clicking on the portion of family tree below will enlarge it; you use the browser back button to return to this journal entry.

(The gap between the two screen shots represents quite a few other children and grandchildren!)

Dr Mary Woodall: our second cousin once removed

Mary Woodall also known as “Mighty Mary” (1901–1988) was a British art historian, museum director, and Thomas Gainsborough scholar.

Mary Woodall was born in Chelsea, West London, into the “industrial aristocracy”. Her father was Henry Woodall, director of the Gas Light and Coke Company and son of Sir Corbet Woodall, also in the energy business.

She attended Cheltenham Ladies’ College and majored in history and then Somerville College, Oxford. After college she attended the Slade School of Fine Art, under Franklin White and it is there she first studied the drawings of Thomas Gainsborough. She was awarded a Ph.D. at the Courtauld Institute of Art in 1939 with a dissertation on Gainsborough’s landscape drawings.

During World War II Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery had seven galleries bombed. In 1942 Woodall secured a position at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery as Keeper of Art, and under the director Trenchard Cox, who arrived in 1944, helped rebuild the dama. In 1949 she published Thomas Gainsborough: his life and work; this book, in combination with her later related publications, remain key texts for Gainsborough scholars. In 1956 she became the museum director when Cox left.

Woodall retired from the gallery in 1964 and went on to hold positions on various museum/art related boards, including the Felton Trust for the National Gallery of Victoria (Australia), University College London and a trustee of the National Gallery, London.

In 1988 she died at age 87 in Oxfordshire.

Dr Mary Woodall

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Oak Avenue Weather:12℃—24℃ no rain [77.26] TdO eggs=3 Mark=4

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Skyfall

Shopping day again; Natalie drove Karola and me to New World and the three of us amassed a $350 trolley of groceries for the week ahead. And Bridget’s bubble will no doubt eat out a lot anyway as is their custom on holiday up here.

Mark came and mowed a broad strip of grass along the cottage railings, throwing the grass away from the railings. The idea is that this makes us a little more protected from fire in the tinder-dry standing straw that is the pasture now. He then strung the electric fence wires to construct the six swathes of pasture in the Middle and Totara paddocks ready for rotational grazing through the summer.

Bridget, Natalie, and I went towards Napier this afternoon. This morning Bridget and I had enough of the loyalty stamps from New World to get one of their SMEG knives; we already have a couple each. But New World in Hastings was out of all except the type we already had. So this afternoon we went to Onekawa New World. Same story but we were told the shortage was due to backed-up freighters at Tauranga, that all the Hawkes Bay “New World”s are in the same boat, the freighters just can’t get unloaded due to the slow-down from Covid-19 procedures. We also dropped in to Classic Kitchens but they’re still closed for the Christmas break for another week or so.

On yet another shopping trip Bridget and her daughters located a shop selling frozen yoghurt fresh fruit “ice-creams” and brought one back for me and for Karola.

Bridget & Natalie joined Karola and Bangle on our daily walk/cycle along the Ngaruroro stop bank.

The Sky Box Saga – Trying To Export Recorded Programs Stored On MySky

(spoiler alert – this does not end well)

I wanted to export a couple of detective episodes from my Sky MySky disk onto my computer. It’s something I’m equipped to do and have done successfully a few times over the past ten or more years. So I dust off my 15 year old Hauppauge PVR which accepts component video and converts it to H264.

But, oh bother, this seldom used piece of electronics appears to be dead – not a flicker of life. Long story short, a different power supply and it sprang back into life – lucky I had a 5v wall wart hanging around.

Then, oh bother, the component video stream isn’t working, what can be the matter. Long story short – there’s a separate setting in recent MySky firmware updates that defaults to OFF and can be set on by the end-user to enable Component video out. Google can be useful.

Then, I replay and simultaneously export one of the final episodes to a laptop computer via the PVR. Not sure the aspect ratio is quite right but it’s close. I try the recorded audio, which I’d recorded with the computer speakers muted, letting it run overnight. But there was no sound! I wonderdd if muting the computer speakers was to blame – a bit of experimentation said no. I was getting video but no sound using the “component video” connection output from the Sky box.

I dug out an old TV from the garage, a TV with with component inputs and tried that to see if it were the cables or the PVR or perhaps even the old old EyeTV Mac software playing up. The old TV played the picture but without sound. Well not quite. When usingthe Sky remote to move around the MySky menus, occasionally there was a tiny fragment of sound, the correct sound matching whats coming out of the main TV albeit delayed by over a second.

I ran the built-in diagnostics on MySky and it came up with error code 35F. Next day I called Sky and was walked through a reset process. The error message cleared.

Sky do not intend/encourage you to take copies of your recorded programmes via the Component interface and so any conversation with Sky personnel treads carefully. At the next opportunity, given that the error code has gone and sound using HDMI remains bright and clear, I retried playing on the old TV through component cables. Still no sound.

I re-rang Sky Tech Support and explained that while error code had been cleared, there was still no sound via the Component interface. They agreed, it was time for a technician to visit. That was yesterday.

Sky technician arrived on the dot. We had a bit of a dance as to what brain-dead out-of-date person could possibly want to use Component output in 2021, but I stuck to my guns without really divulging the reason. He tried a SCART cable, no improvement. He tried the lower quality Composite output. No change. He tried to say that Sky had deliberately turned off the Component interface but I remarked how odd it would be to allow the picture but just disable the sound, and anyway what were those snatches of sound we both heard when switching menus with the remote.

He was sure it could not be hardware so changing the sky box wouldn’t make any difference. However, I said if he tried another sky set-top box and it had the same fault I’d have to be satisfied with his “it’s disabled deliberately in software” argument. He said it must be your TV. Now I knew it wasn’t because, for me, the TV was replacing the Hauppauge PVR and computer when I first encountered the issue. No worries, I nipped upstairs and lugged down another TV with component inputs. Same problem, so, we agreed, it was not the TV nor the cables – cos he’d been using his own cables.

With a bit of a sigh he admitted he did have an identical unit in his van and went off to find it. Swapped the uints over. Hey presto, the audio worked just fine with a crisp bright component image. He tried the first TV again, success again. Oh, OK, it is the hardware, very very unusual. So we’ll just leave you the replacement unit. You’ll of course lose your recorded programmes on disk.

Oh good, thanks, problem solved. But, shot self in foot because now there’s no recorded programs to copy – they’re all gone.

Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—23℃ no rain [77.51] TdT eggs=3 Mark=4

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Just More Food

Late start to the morning and we tottered off to Bay Espresso in Karamu Road for brunch. Bridget’s bubble then went off to try another “Escape Room” challenge in Napier while Chris inspected the local golf shop.

Mark came and hung the 20-metre retractable garden hose outside the cottage bathroom. He then paced out the five sub-sections of the Middle and Totara paddocks, mowed fence breaks for the five mini-paddocks and the corridor along the back and put out the electric fence posts ready for putting up the wires tomorrow. He also watered and weeded the line of young Totaras along the fence line between the Long Acre and Middle paddocks.

I talked to Sky help desk in the morning and, following her prompts, I reset the Sky set-top box which cleared the error code but, asi found out later, didn’t help with the faulty sound signal via the component video interface. I rang back and now have a Sky technician booked to come at 2:00pm tomorrow.

Fish and chips for dinner. The consensus was : fish excellent, chips pretty horrid.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—_23℃ no rain [77.78] TdT eggs=3 Mark=4

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Chaffle Magic At Lappuccino’s

Slow start to the day and we eventually all toddled off to Lappuccino’s for brunch. Natalie is driving Karola’s Zoe for practice. I tried a Keto Chaffle which was not only delicious but had a waffle made from egg and cheese along with bacon, avocado, and salad. I will have that again and maybe Karola will make some in the future. Chaffle, a gluten-free low-carbohydrate alternative to bread or bun.

We dropped Karola off before Bridget, and I and the grand-daughters puddled off to Hastings in search of new mattresses for the main bed and for Lexi’s bed in the room at the top of the stairs. Our guests had made rather disparaging remarks about the existing mattresses which are quite old. We dropped into New World for a few things, including some special breakfast cereal that Chris liked, and extra milk and cream and cashews etc. Then searched for a place selling mattresses ending up at Mattress World where we tried out and bought two mattresses to be delivered tomorrow. So tomorrow night Chris & Bridget and Lexi will we hope have much more comfortable beds.

A man from the council came to advise us that the council was doing some tree trimming in Oak Avenue and to ask that we let them come in to our property so that their high-rise platform could reach the higher branches of the oaks and plane trees along our road boundary. Driving past into town we saw what they’d already done down near Omahu road and it looks like quite a savage pruning including some massive boughs.

With all this going on I completely forgot about Mark but he was able to contact me by phone and luckily I had the task of adding to the watering system down near the 133 gateway all in hand so he was able to get on with that – which he duly finished before afternoon tea.

Meanwhile the Zoe and its occupants went off to Birdwood Cafe where, according to online information, the little hut selling ice-cream in the summer also sold frozen yoghurt versions. Not so said the student manning (womanning?) the booth when we arrived, so we had ordinary, and quite delicious fresh fruit ice-creams instead.

When we returned Mark and Karola had finished afternoon tea and in the dying moments of Mark’s afternoon – he finishes at 4:00pm – he assembled one of my Christmas presents to Karamu, a wall-attached retractable 20-metre garden hose which is to go on the end of the homestead garage. The chooks having decided to lay mostly in the chook house we’ve been getting three or more eggs a day so we gave Mark a dozen or so to reduce the overflow.

Chris and the grand-daughters had pizza for dinner, we had summer fruit and cream for dessert. Afterwards we played the word game that I played with Anna’s bubble in Ealing over Christmas, the one rather like Call My Bluff. Lexi found sone very unfamiliar words; the rest of us thought up credible meanings for the others to guess which one was true. Lexi then helped me trouble-shoot the equipment attempting to record Midsomer Murders off the My Sky disk onto computer. We narrowed it down not to a fault in my recording equipment, nor the software, nor any of the cables, but a diagnosable fault in the set-top box, code 35D. I have a suspicion tht the newer Sky decoders don’t even provide “component out” outlets so it may not be possible to get a replacement.

Oak Avenue Weather:16℃—27℃ 0.1mm rain [77.58] TdT eggs=3 Mark=4

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Bridget’s Bubble Arrives

Karola did much hoovering and bed making etc ready for the arrival of Bridget, Chris, Natalie and Lexi. Chris had a good game of golf at his home links in Wellington before they set off so they got up here around 10:00pm having had a fast food dinner in a Levin drive-through on the way.

Pretty quiet earlier in the day, the usual Sunday tasks. With the Grillo out of action I mowed the cottage curtilage – the teardrop lawn and uner the washing line – with the little tractor. Not really expecting success I tried to start Karola’s ordinary lawn mower which hasn’t been used for months. Added petrol, checked the oil and air filter and spark plug. Set it in the sun to get warm. Initially not a glimmer of a spark but later, to my surprise, it started and I was able to mow the cottage lawn. I did this without a shirt, judging that the time it took to mow that lawn would be safe and give a decent dose of Vitamin D.

Oak Avenue Weather:11℃—26℃ no rain [77.05] TdT eggs=4

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Once Again, Into The Fray (Video Recording off Sky)

Getting ready for Bridget’s bubble who expect to drive up tomorrow afternoon and stay here for a week or more. Bridget has to “work from home” up here beginning almost immediately and I’m not sure when Chris needs to go back for work.

We did pop into town briefly to get more bags for a vacuum cleaner the better to do a last minute sweep around in the homestead.

I spent the morning on email and reading the news; the afternoon I resurrected old equipment for recording TV off stored programs on the “My Sky” box. At first the Hauppauge PVR (personal video recorder) wouldn’t start – turned out that the power supply wasn’t working but I found another of the same voltage and the PVR lights turned on. I also hadn’t used the software for a decade so it took some searching to find on a backup and to dig out the old license key. So I installed the software, registered it, and connected the PVR. Still no joy.

A little ligth Googling came up with a possible solution. Newer My-Sky boxes, incorporating a disk for storing recorded programs and a set-top box or decoder, do not have the high quality analogue output known as Component Video. So, even for the older My-Sky boxes like mine they had disabled Component Video support by default. Not to worry, using the Googled nformation I re-enabled it and am now recording onto an old MacBook Pro. Later this evening I’ll see whether that did produce a reasonable facsimile of the original program.

Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—22℃ no rain [77.37] TdT eggs=3

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Midsomer In Hawkes Bay

Pleasant day, warm and not too much breeze. Put Natalie on the Zoe’s insurance for their family holiday up here beginning next week. She has her learner’s license and needs every opportunity for practice so she can get a full license soon and be able to ferry herself around, one less client for Bridget’s “Driving Miss Daisy” role.

Karola read most of the day; I did my usual slow programming, but still fun. I counted the sheep, 36 including the lonely ram, they’d like a shot at the lucerne but must wait until it’s finished flowering.

Eight Young Chooks, Surviving Still

Karola’s One Acre Lucerne Paddock In Bloom

Magnificent Medium Sized Swamp Cypress

Oak Avenue Weather:15℃—27℃ 1.3mm rain [77.17] TdT eggs=4

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Gill Unearths More Family History

Very quiet day, reading and programming, and dozing. It was warm so we delayed our Tour de Twyford until dusk.

Postie drove up and delivered the last of my Christmas toys – a wall mountable retractable hose I think – it can wait for Mark next week to assemble it.

Karola continued her weeding under the bay tree hedge and around her many rengarenga (Arthropodium cirratum – NZ endemic “rock lilly”); she’s disconcerted by how quickly the dandelions re-emerge after she’s dug out one lot.

The goings-on in the USA are not pleasant to hear but they seem to be over the uncertainty now, Joe Biden is the next president of the USA.

Gill’s New Findings

I found a note in the papers I’ve got about a Dr Walter Amsden …. And I’ve found him – our great uncle.
I’ve attached the relevant bit of family tree.

British Excavations in Egypt 1880-1980 – Dr. Walter Amsden

Dr Walter Amsden was a physician from Bexhill who joined the 1913 excavation season at Harageh. With his medical background he was put in charge of recording the human remains from the site. A photograph album of his time in Egypt is now held in the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology.

Photograph of Dr Walter Amsden at the 1913-14 excavation camp at Harageh.


Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, UCL, archives

Dr. Walter Amsden was a doctor who worked with Petrie At Haraga and Lahun in 1913-14. Some of his collection went to the Bexhill Museum.

Walter Amsden – Member Royal College Surgeons 1901

Clicking on the portion of family tree below will enlarge it; you use the browser back button to return to this journal entry.

Oak Avenue Weather:16℃—25℃ 0.4mm rain [77.50] TdT eggs=3

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Grillo Engine Ruined

Mid-week shopping for the week ahead. Although we were shopping at about the same time as usual the shelves were sparsely stocked; fresh vegetables and fish had not yet arrived it seemed and some fruit & vege are going off season. As Artisan is still closed we had a cup of coffee and shared a cranberry & apple strudel in the new World cafe before shopping. OMG bread shop was open so I re-fuelled with GF bread. On the way home I got a new safety helmet for myself and new ear muffs for Mark from Farmlands.

A call from Wendy at Outdoor Power was bad news. Clearly the workshop team did not want to tell me the news. Wendy was blunt, “your Grillo engine, the workshop say it’s buggered, completely buggered” she said. So thats about $3500 and long delay to get a new Briggs & Stratton engine from Australia. Of course it was my fault for not checking the air filter regularly but I am so spoiled by Japanese cars that don’t need mollycoddling between services that I basically ignored it when not using it for cutting grass. I did fill it with petrol, obviously, and Mark and I each cleaned it with an air blaster several times. I just didn’t think to check the air filter or the oil level. An expensive lesson. Apparently it’s in the small print in the manual, in dusty conditions the air filter needs cleaning every few hours. We didn’t do that and dust got into the engine and ruined the combustion chamber and pistons.

On a happier note, we took Bangle over to Emma for her six-weekly groom. It takes about 15 minutes to get there and the grooming takes a couple of hours so it very much breaks up the afternoon, this time it was in the afternoon.

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—27℃ no rain [77.45]TdT eggs=4

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Sedentary But Nice

Everywhere is so quiet – I guess it’s the holidays but there’s little traffic on the Avenue nor on the roads to town and the stop bank is pretty much deserted.

Trevor, the owner of Outdoor Power, came this morning and took the Grillo away. If we are lucky it’ll need a new head gasket which, being a Briggs & Stratton engine, may not be too hard to find. However Trevor says we are not alone in being at the mercy of very irregular spare parts from overseas.

Karola reading all day, mostly in the gentle breeze outside on the kitchen verandah. Meanwhile, back at my computer …

Oak Avenue Weather:14℃—25℃ no rain [77.46] TdT eggs=4

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Spiral – French Crime Drama – Too Gruesome But Very Compelling Viewing

Monday, a public holiday in lieu of the usual day after New Yerars Day which fell this year on a Saturday.

Am catching up on my backlog of the French police procedural series, Spiral. Almost too gruesome for me to watch but those segments are very short and the drama itself is very compelling. I’ve seen all series except for S3, S4, and S8. I’m watching S3 now, over the next week or so. Anna suggested there may be another series in the works.

Marcus Ormond and his friend, a builder, Hamish Wilson, dropped in briefly; Hamish wanted to see the homestead, just from the outside.

We popped down to the garage at the end of the road, Omahu Caltex, and replenished our larder with milk and oranges.

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—26℃ no rain [77.55] TdT eggs=3

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First Sunday Of 2021

Some rain, some bright spells, cool and mostly overcast – ideal for walking by the sea.

Karola,Bangle, and I drove in Zoe to Clive and walked along the limestone path towards Haumoana. Starting on the Clive estuary stop bank we walked seawards to the wetlands and then along the wetlands for about a kilometre. According to “Google Maps” Karola walked the first kilometre and then stopped to chat to some fellow dog owners. Bangle and I strode on for another half a kilometre so in total Bangle and I walked three kilometres and Karola two. Bangle was on lead on the outbound journey and free to sniff and scrabble on the way back.

On the way to Clive I went via Hastings and we got to Rush Munro’s spot on 10:00am, their Sunday opening time. A Feijoa ice-cream for Karola and a Chocolate-Orange for me. On the way back home we dropped in at Karamu road Bay Espresso for a couple of coffees. A very relaxing, pleasant morning.

When feeding the chooks this morning I managed to snap a couple of chooks and some chicks (quite large now) feeding from the automatic chook feeder, the chooketeria. At last proof that some of them have figured out how to stand on the bar to keep the lid open.

Chooks & Chicks Feeding At The Chooketeria

Clive Wetlands Walk

Skiffs On The Clive Estuary

Our Walk Today With Bangle Along The Clive Wetlands

Waterfowl On The Wetlands

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—26℃ 2.2mm rain [76.89] TdT eggs=3

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The Un-Boxing Day – Day After New Year’s

Well an extremely unexciting day. After a late start Karola noted that rain was forecast for middle of the afternoon and beyond so we went early down to the Stop Bank for our daily perambulations.

After quite an early evening meal – my “weight-watching” (Yeah, right!) meal of rib eye steak we settled down to watch the last episode of Series 21 of Midsomer Murders which was satisfyingly mind-numbing but not a patch on the early originals. I then programmed into the wee small hours, for no good reason.

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—25℃ 6.2mm rain [76.29] TdT eggs=4

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The New Year 2021

A few fireworks last night but here a very quiet evening.

A very nice day, not too hot, gentle breeze and mostly sunny. Karola got some weeding done and I ploughed on with my favourite program.

Oak Avenue Weather:13℃—22℃ no rain [75.86] TdT eggs=3

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