Monthly Archives: October 2023

Off to a good start, Dave ran me down to Royston Hospital for my ultrasound scan. Once I had retrieved my referral letter, left behind, kindly forwarded by Anna and Dave from my computer, it was all efficiency and smooth operating. I’ll know the results in a few days; they scanned bladder and kidneys and apart from the technician’s American accent it was all trouble-free.

Mark called in a rain cheque due to the heavy overnight rain.

Anna, Dave, Karola, and I did the shopping. Quiet afternoon recovering from the excitement of the holiday in Marlborough and the travelling. ChemWash man called in to say he can do the cottage outside walls tomorrow.

Iain Middleton arrived 5:30pm and Anna and Dave cooked us a delicious fish pie. Followed by ice-cream and fruit salad.

Iain Middleton Stays For A Couple Of Nights

Oak Avenue Weather:14.7℃—18.0℃ 1.2mm rain [?] eggs=0 Mark=0

Only a couple more days to go, sadly. We have photos to share but not quite yet.

— 

 ian@brackenbury.nz      06 879 9065

««« I’d rather be in New Zealand »»»

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

Anna, Dave, and Karola watched the Rugby World Cup semi-final between All Blacks and Argentina which the All Blacks won comfortably.

Anna took all the recycling to the transfer station.

Bridget had a tedious day because Tux munched up her plastic glasses and she has no spare so has to get a new pair before she can drive. Tux just enjoyed the experience, came to no harm.

Dave, Karola, and I went for lunch to “13 Stag” café in the Sports Centre and later we all had fish & chips for dinner/

Much of the day spent packing for our trip to Wellington in the Subaru tomorrow. Bangle is going to stay with Bridget until we come back. Anna very energetic and thorough with our packing.

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [?] eggs=0

Our morning began with a couple of hours helping Joseph from Superior Exteriors use their oversized cherry picker to clear the blockage in the homestead gutters.

Dave partnered with Joseph to tackle the high wire. The blockage turned out to be very troublesome but eventually they cleared it and another on at the back. I hope the leaves were mainly from Gabrielle but Dave laid those large bottle-brush shaped gutter guards over the downpipe openings which I’m sure will help. Perhaps Anna and Dave will now sleep soundly upstairs in the homestead even in heavy rain.

Somehow we accidentally arrived at Rush Munro’s in Hastings and stocked up quite unnecessarily on large amounts of ice-cream. As we happened to be there we felt compelled to sit in the shade, it was a hot sunny day, and eat prodigious amounts of banana splits and the like.

Dave & Joseph (Superior Exteriors) Tackle The Gutter Blockage

Hey Ho, Up She Rises

Paradise Goose Family – Zealandia (courtesy Ben)

Oak Avenue Weather:8.4℃—25.0℃ no rain [?] TdP eggs=0 Mark=0

Marcus, Anna, and Dave were out there penning up the flock and preparing for the docking around 9:00am. Mark and I joined in around 10:00am and we were off. All in all 44 lambs were docked with Marcus Ormond on fearsome gas guillotine and ring-pliers, Mark Hendery on catch and hold duty, and dave Moss on antibiotic spray.

Delighted with our efficient morning of docking the family popped over to Ahuriri where, after a pleasant lunch at Miss Brown’s, Anna and Karola had refreshing hair wash and blow-dry with our special hair-dresser Kim. We dropped Anna off at the dog park and she walked briskly back along the stop bank and home to Karamu.

Dave and i picked up tonight’s MYLK meal and the week’s laundry before continuing a relaxed afternoon.

Mark, Marcus, And Dave In Full Swing

Ouch, This Is Going To Smart A Bit

44 Bonny Lambs

Ian And Karola Look On

Forty-Four Tails Means Forty-Four Lambs This Season

Oak Avenue Weather:11.2℃—23.3℃ no rain [?] eggs=0 Mark=4

Dave and I finally sorted out which device was causing the electrical RCD to trigger; it is the electric motor in the septic tank aka Hynds waste management system. We admit Anna was a help in finding the fault.

Lamb docking deferred until tomorrow because of the overnight rain.

Family lunch at 13 Stag in the Mitre-10 Sports Centre then family walk along the Clive wetlands.

Evening meal at Namascar in Havelock North with Peter & Charlotte. Good gfood, good friends, good time.

Oak Avenue Weather:10.6℃—19.5℃ 2.2mm rain [?] TdC eggs=0 Mark=0

Shopping as usual on a Tuesday. In the afternoon Anna and I met with Angela King at Birdwood café. Later Anna did a long stop-bank walk while Bridget & Bangle & I did a shorter one in the dog park.

Dave fixed kitchen chairs, office blind, porch blind. Much appreciated.

Dave Re-Mending A Cottage Chair, Fixing Ian’s Bungled Attempt

Oak Avenue Weather:11.6℃—26.7℃ 4.2mm rain [?] TdP eggs=0 Mark=4

Old codger and his wife come and spend the morning chainsawing firewood from the big oak blocks along the boundary fence-line.

Mark starts mowing the homestead lawn having checked the sheep – no deaths but no additions either. Marcus offers to help with the docking on Wednesday albeit he prefers to dock tails with a hot iron on basis it’s more hygienic and less painful in the long run for the lambs.

Dave fixed the door malfunction whereby fitting the heat pump had obscured Bangle’s door under the cottage by the bins and we couldn’t shut it. A tidy, minimalist fix.

Henare invited Dave to work with his bees, providing all the right gear to wear, and giving Dave a frame full of honey.

As planned Anna, Karola, and I picked up Margery Cobbe from Stortford Lodge and we had lunch together in the Mitre-10 Sports Facility just across the expressway from us.

Dave and I spend time sleuthing the electrical short which suddenly turned out several downstairs cottage lighes and appliances. Isolated to one circuit off the RCD and everything came back on so we don’t yet know what’s causing the short-out.

Red Manuka, Mother and Child (courtesy Dave)

Dave Joins Henare For Some Hive Maintenance

Dave & Henare At Work

A Frame At A Time

Beekeeper Dave (courtesy of Henare)

Dave Does Dog Portraits Rather Well

Lunch With Margery Cobbe At “13 Stag”, Café At Sports Centre

Afternoon Coffee On The Cottage Kitchen Verandah

Oak Avenue Weather:10.0℃—19.8℃ no rain [?] eggs=0 Mark=4

We all watched the Rugby World Cup quarter-final between Ireland and the All Blacks. Ireland were favoured to win but were just pipped at the post by the All Blacks. At no point was the outcome secure.

Dave and I fixed two farm gates, well mostly Dave of course. He also went for a Wisper bike ride and confirmed its capabilities. All of us walked slowly round the orchard, Bangle in much better fettle today.

Sadly the broody Black Orpington chook hatched her own egg but has left the six Austrolorp eggs to go cold. I had a suspicion that would happen but by the time I came to remove the Orpington eggs the distinguishing pencil marks on the Austrolorp eggs had been rubbed off so indistinguishable. Bother.

Watching All Blacks Match In France

Karola In The Orchard (courtesy of Anna)

Ian (left) And Dave Deep In Thought (Yeah Right)

Rise Of The Olive – An Hour At ToiToi, Hastings Opera House – Anna And Dave Enjoyed It

Oak Avenue Weather:9.2℃—25.7℃ no rain [?] TdO eggs=0

To no avail it seems, Karola and my votes weren’t enough to sway the backlash against Jacinda’s virtue.

As arranged with the shop, we all set off to Taradale and picked up the bike carrier – half the price of the really excellent one we borrowed for the Coromandel holiday but good for purpose we’re sure. We had lunch nearby before going of for walks: Karola, Bangle, and me around the dog park and Dave and Anna along the stop bank from the park up to Ormond Road access point.

I tried to find the traffic camera which trapped us twice on 28th and I think it must be the old one between Frederick and Williams streets on Pakowhai road. There’s a camera box that’s been there for years but they only put a camera in it occasionally.

We then drove down to the Ormond Road access to the stop bank and timed it just right, meeting Anna and Dave just coming under the expressway.

Anna & Dave spent the evening in Napier at “Nuit Blanche”.

Older Ewe With Healthy Lamb

Sister With Twins

Gorgeous Deep Red Manuka Flowers

Farm Shed & Old Fergie Tractor

New Bike Carrier

Oak Avenue Weather:6.1℃—25.7℃ no rain [?] TdT eggs=0

Main thing today was to get to the polls and by good fortune we went to a polling booth in Flaxmere – the one in Twyford isn’t open until tomorrow, the last day – and were assured we were right to vcome today as it would be frantically busy tomorrow. Anyway the process was quick and smooth.

Earlier Dave and Anna had gone into Hastings to Ya-Bon for breakfast and were amused by an unusual way of telling waiters who a coffee was intended for – no numbers on sticks.

Bangle was supposed to be groomed last Tuesday but Emma’s dog had to go to the vet. That was re-scheduled until today but today Bangle has a recurring pain in her front legs so the grooming was deferred and instead Bangle went to the vets for a front leg x-ray. Diagnosis was front legs arthritis.

We had lunch at Brother over by Black Barn, a new experience for us and rather good.

As suggested by our GP Richard, we dropped in at the health Centre to get a growth on the back of her hand blasted with liquid nitrogen. I swear he actually enjoys blasting the bad guys with his little canister. Richard zapped half a dozen other incipient spots as well. So quite an exciting day for Karola.

Interesting Cup Notation Meaning “Boy & Girl, Out The Back”

The Oldies Fulfil Their Democratic Obligations

Oak Avenue Weather:4.4℃—20.5℃ no rain [?] TdP eggs=0 Mark=4

Anna has been doing a major clean-up of the cottage sun porch. Dave and Bridget completed fixing an extra handrail above the fire extinguisher by the cottage back door. Bridget took Tux and Bangle for a morning walk around the orchard and another one late afternoon.

Bridget, Anna, Dave, and I took the rubbish and recyclables to the transfer station then popped into Stortford Lodge for lunch at the Coffee Club. Afterwards Bridget & Tux set off for Wellington.

Anna and I took the Landrover down to the Ormond Road access to the Ngaruroro stop nbank and walked from there down to the far end of the Pakowhai Regional Park, and back.

Good Long Walk Along The Ngaruroro Stop Bank

Oak Avenue Weather:__℃—__℃ no rain [?] TdT eggs=0

Forester Keith called to say he’d be doing more timber work today. He’s also fixed a broken cable on the Fergie.

Lunch with the crew at Bay Espresso in Karamu Road. Then picked up some tubs of ice-cream from Rush Munro’s.

Dave moved to loo holder in the cottage bathroom down about four inches so that it didn’t interfere with hanging on to the hand rail above. He then made an extra couple of feet of hand rail outside the cottage kitchen door so that users did not have to grab the top of. the fire extinguisher in order to steady themsleves. This also involved a trip to Mitre-10 for a couple of hand-rail brackets.

On the same trip we picked up five roast dinners from Hawkes Bay Roast which solved our dinner problem.

Anna has spent the afternoon tidying and spring-cleaning the cottage sun porch. Her job was made considerably harder by the considerable proof of rats living there for a long time.

Bridget et al gave the two dogs a good walk in the orchard this morning and Bridget took them again just before dinner tonight.

Oak Avenue Weather:7.8℃—20.0℃ 9.6mm rain [?] TdT eggs=0

Sorry, but no posts this week so just to note that we went up to the Coromandel for a week’s holiday from Sunday 1st October to Friday 6th October. Anna, Dave, Karola and I stayed at the superb Wairua Lodge – Rainforest River Retreat. A taste of what we did, in pictures, below.

Thursday: Ian & Karola – Hot Springs Beach

Wednesday: Seal Pup Sunbathing On The Ferry Landing, Mercury Bay, Across From Whitianga

Oak Avenue Weather:5.6℃—17.5℃ no rain [?] eggs=0 Mark=1