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