Its the weekend so as per usual as we hit the NZ winter its raining and cold ... Well cool ... anyway not conducive to gardening and too too wet anyway ...

So here I am at the PC with my monster sized mug of tea and a few Ginger nut Biscuits..... Of course we are supposed to be dieting and getting fit and healthy and so on ...Not doing too well on that front. Though recent efforts have seen us all lose a few kilos ... McD and I are supposed to be going to the Gym tomorrow ....Todays plans are not necessarily tomorrows actions ........

We had the chance last weekend to go to the inlet.. A family of King Fishers live there..Fighting playing calling to each other they work the mud flats for fry and baby crabs ... 

Both McD and I face uncertain time with regards to our jobs ...McD trying hard to secure a permanent position but currently on a fixed term employment through to July sometime... A few months back I was told I would be out of a job come June ......Now its the end of the year ....Potentially I could be there for some time after that as there's more than enough work on. I'm part of a major Government Ministry merger which has enormous complications...I'm now managing two of the Ex government groups as we merge them together... Plus a couple of related projects... It's helping to keep me busy and useful.. but it will end ....





The flower of the native vine tecomanthe speciosa. One the rarest plant known. A single plant found on an uninhabited island north of nz. Apart from the goats of course. Sailors of old left goats etc on such islands in case of ship wrecks.

Jobs are becoming scarce in IT in Wellington ...New Zealand Really ... So we have to start thinking as to whats next ...

We could head up to our largest city Auckland. There are more jobs up there but now many...


The iconic wellington Cuba mall buckets. Also have notoriety for having two hobbits piddled in the water when here filming. Peter Jackson was not amused rightly so.


To be honest it would be little more effort to jump across the ship to Ozz... and apart from Sydney We'd probably be very happy over there.. God Knows we've holiday'd over there enough...




The worst thing at the moment is we cant plan a lot.. Holidays, bigger garden projects ... Just frustrating .....          



Still a fave picture for the summer past. One of K's (McDs Siss) shots from her visit.



White Fronted Tern

Bit of a goings on at the Dinzie back lot....The main bunch of chooks had a falling out - Henny our mother Bantam and the smallest compared to the chicken sized offspring was set upon and pretty much beaten up....


Happened the day I was off and I knew only when I went to let the 3 groups out for a while in the back garden..She was muddied and very quiet....Sad....
However I went to get them water and on my return she had packed and trotted over to the Quiet group...And Moved in !! The quiet guys aren't at all concerned and Henny's now happy again and recovering.....

So the other Treo are now named the Thugs..Penny, Sally and Jo...
The Quiets are Fry, Chip and Dale and now Henny

So the other Treo are now named the Thugs..Penny, Sally and Jo... The Quiets are Fry, Chip and Dale and now Henny

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Nice day today....Bad night with the mobile going off though the night with work issues...We cleaned up a bit more of the front of the house with the help of Penny and Bluey...Bluey found a quiet spot and went to sleep......

We then Went to the inlet and had a lunch and then bird spotted around the shoreline....Heaps of black swans...But highkights were the Spoonbills and 5 kingfishers on a tree stump......

Sun still warm.. 
Nice day today....Bad night with the mobile going off though the night with work issues...We cleaned up a bit more of the front of the house with the help of Penny and Bluey...Bluey found a quiet spot and went to sleep......

We then Went to the inlet and had a lunch and then bird spotted around the shoreline....Heaps of black swans...But highkights were the Spoonbills and 5 kingfishers on a tree stump......

Sun still warm.. 
Nice day today....Bad night with the mobile going off though the night with work issues...We cleaned up a bit more of the front of the house with the help of Penny and Bluey...Bluey found a quiet spot and went to sleep......
We then Went to the inlet and had a lunch and then bird spotted around the shoreline....Heaps of black swans...But highkights were the Spoonbills and 5 kingfishers on a tree stump......

Sun still warm.. 
We then Went to the inlet and had a lunch and then bird spotted around the shoreline....Heaps of black swans...But highkights were the Spoonbills and 5 kingfishers on a tree stump......
Sun still warm.. 
Sun still warm.. 

The Bluey Family - soon to go are Bluey, Huey, and Duey....














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Its been a Record breaking  summer.. Longest, hottest, driest..and so on .... Towards the end a "drought' was declared and then the total water bans... The garden wilted but survived and not long after the rains came....And now its wet wet wet ......

Pictures using my very very old Iphone so a little blurry and poor quality ..... :O/




The tomatoes despite being continually having their roots dug around and exposed by a hungry blackbird family that dug through mulch and soil for the wriggly worms  produced a bumper crop....All heritage tomatoes ...Some, have been  Our gardens record breakers at 683 grams being the largest and a whole heap (small mountain) tomatoes over the 500gram weight...



The yellow one suffered the drought effects.....

Of course a small mountain of Tomatoes means we have had some work to do ... McD made Chutneys of varying types..She's done very well and the Jars we've shared have been much praised.....


Of Course that didn't make a particularly big dent in the mountain ...So we've been stewing them and making sauces and Ratatouille and the like for freezing.... McD took bags of them into her work and they were gone as soon as they arrived along with yellow courgettes and rapicante.... Homegrown heirlooms just taste better...Just look a little ugly at times :O)

This year we grew a decent crop of Egg Plants ....Wish I'd looked after them a bit more now ....  

   
 








The Spagetti melon was a self sown plant from the compost ...They are such rampant growers and even now nearing May (November northern hemisphere) its growing strong and not a hint of mildew on it .........













       
 






 Picked after the rains - It sucked up water so quickly its skin ripped....







Ugly but tasty :O)





Wellington Airport

Summer Rains

 

It Started raining....And raining......And......

The place was dry so it's not a bad thing really..But extended rain means increased risk of blight on my tomatoes....That and the flowers don't get a chance to set.....

The Courgettes(zuccinis) dont seem to mind as yet.....





I picked the Garlic a little early...Needed the room...Probably not a good thing as they fatten up those last few weeks...But still we've more than enough for the year......And some












Pumpkin Leaf Sunhats :O)








 

And its Back to Work We Go Yo Ho

 It be cruel and unusual punishment returning to work....But there you go......

We took a couple of trips while off..Nothing major the first was to see the pohutukawa trees in flower ...Our NZ Xmas trees..








The second was to visit the Waikanae estuary and See what birds we could see there....This year we are bird spotting ...doing a count of how many species we can see in NZ in a year....We are in our 30s so far...A surprising number are English immigrants brought over..... We are not following the accepted approach where if you can identify the bird song but not see them then it still counts.....We are counting any bird free and un-owned.  so the domestic pigeons and ducks that are now wild over here will count ... As will the wild turkeys that we now have..if we can spot one.....


The aim as well is to photograph as many as we can.....











Caspian Terns













 Chicks are doing well...The two mums in a single run fell out with each other so we now have 3 runs populated......We've started looking at building the big run where eventually the can all live ...Will take some time though.....

Some we will have to give away..especially the cockerals.....the rest will be McDs pets and producers of the countries most expensive eggs :O)

Broken Back Gardening

Hope you have all had a good Christmas holiday time no matter what your beliefs :O) and Best wishes for 2013 or 2012 V2.0 if you are a bit suspicious ... personally 13 has been a lucky number for me so I'm hoping 2013 will be good to us.. 2012 was a crappy year mostly and I've no wish for a repeat ....




McD has just handed me a plate of cream scones so lifes already improved immeasurably :O)




We've just come from the garden exhausted tired .... Too warm and after a few days of effort its time for an afternoon to our selves .....  The garden has been a mess.. yards, vegie garden, flower gardens all weed covered and embarrassing .... thats not to say our edible things haven't grown and we have had some good successes along the way...




Our Planned Xmas day dinner was to be a full roast as we had M-in-L with us as well as McD's daughter S... All good and with quail, rabbit, pheasant, duck etc bought the plan was for the big meal and then anything left over game pies were to be made for Boxing day ... trouble was we hit a heat wave right on Xmas day ! reached low 30s C ...Such a shock to the system and poor McD stuck in a hot kitchen .... The meal was awesome with homegrown potatoes, broad beans, cabbage to accompany the meats... Also McD had made an old fashioned Xmas pudding to the request of her mum... !!!! Now I have to say it was a complete surprise as to how good it was ... For no other reason than it was a steamed Xmas pud which brought back mixed feeling from all of us ...>We used a recipe from on of my English cookery books  and it was steamed for 6 odd hours then another 3 prior to eating .... But when we had it it was perfect ...... I've put an order in for the middle of the next  kiwi winter :O)

It was that good :O)

We finally decided to get some Chickens !! Well bantams .. and rescued a bantam hen and a chick a friend of Jills that was no longer wanted. They are now called Henrietta and Penelope (for Henny Penny). We then went and picked up a black(blue) Pekin bantam hen, now called Bluey. The chick didn’t stop growing though and is near to a full sized chicken … and then started crowing really badly. We are not allowed cockerels where we live (council regulations) and so it was becoming a bit of a problem… With the crowing becoming more frequent it was decided Penny would have to face the chop !!! But that very weekend Jill discovered a green shelled egg in the nest box and Penny was spared… The crowing stopped as well so all was good… The three of them laid daily and much money was spent on them in terms of two chicken huts with runs and another run as an extension as we’ve given them more and more room… The eggs we have had from them while nice are some of the most expensive in the country :O)  Jills loved having them though and its been great seeing her look after them …They squat down in readiness for Jill to pick them up ! Which she does and then brings them to the house for a bit of bread or when I’m gardening for some worms …

Anyway more recently all three went broody ….And so back to some strange (eccentric)  chicken people in the area for eggs.. Two different colours of Pekin bantams and some Orpingtons.. Some even hatched Xmas day which was nice..

Jo and Sallee (wet one)


Henny and Penny have a single brood of chicks that seem happy to be kept warm by either mum.. Bluey, we separated as the other two never really accepted her ..She has a couple of chicks who are well behaved and always do as she tells them ..the other 8 are an undisciplined rabble running around like miscreant kids on sugar highs :O)  

Jo and Sallee (in front)









Bertie





Bertie front and Agnes 




Scully the grey one ...The small one is named Fry..Poor fry got trodden on and now has a gammy leg ..... 










Plans are now already afoot to convert and extend an old dog run that was here when we moved in and had never been used. We’re also talking with people in case we do have to move …  fun fun fun….

We had a great garlic harvest this year again with some very large bulbs ... However the one back right is elephant garlic which we've tried for the first time this year ... 
  




Even the self sown tomatoes from the home compost are growing like champions..Hope they friut like champs as well ...... 






Last sunset of 2012 

Still Kickin

With Summer here I've gotten busy with everything..Gardens flourishing - especially the weeds - And we are harvesting and scrumping and foraging and McD is making sauces and chutneys and jams...

And work is - well - work - 

Our south island city of Christchurch suffered a catastrophic earthquake yesterday...So many lives lost and people missing still....The nation is in shock....and those of us watching from the warm comfort of our homes, with our families safe, are humbled by the Bravery, resilience and selfless acts Of the People down there...The city will never be the same. The Cathedral - at the city's heart is lost - the spire that I've climbed before - gone.... But the People will re-build.

Meanwhile - life goes on....   

It's been a while .....

Well - been back at work .. .and Totally lacking in any kind of motivation.. It's not that I have nothing to do either ... I've probably over committed myself again in fact with the work I've taken on ..... But there you go - seems to be my lot at the moment. Hopefully the jobs I'm waiting on some movement in them being progressed and my getting an interview will all start next week .... 



Wellington Harbour



Even then i'm out of practice now in dong the interviews and realistically it's going to take an interview or two to get back to speed on what they are looking for now ..... 



Wellington Harbourfront



Plus I'd rather be fishing :O) 





Put on a little bit of weight over the xmas period ... Not happy about that. So time to stop mucking about and procrastinating and get back into it... Need to get myself another Quack too and go and get tested and get the meds as I've run out .... After some many years I've gotten fed up with the doctor I've had ... So have to change to somewhere closer to town perhaps ..... the Blood/sugar count isn't as good as it should be ...Though within the bounds generally ....



We are keeping the walking going ...but need to make it a daily thing again ... This weeks been hard all round .....



Other than that it's been pretty ho-hum ... Thinking holidays....Thinking hobbies,,,, Thinking anything but work really .......















Pictures are from the garden ... Summer flowers abound ... Pitty the summer isn't ...Pretty cool at the moment and now have the remnants of a cyclone heading for NZ next week .... Won't be bad like Austrailia's Queensland or Victoria though - but had better tie up the tomato vines etc .... 



   

Like this :O)   







Yeh - Bring It ON !!  :O)