End of Kiwi year Hell ...........

 
Spare a Thought for McD people ...All this below and She's had to go to interviews and Psychometric and personality tests and all that ....as well as ...




You would think Mondays were bad enough ...but we got home that night to find the house had been broken into ....what a mess ....






First thing I saw was the missing sports shoes of mine that were at the front door ...Year old Asics and Nike shoes I use for casual and walking/gym and so on .... The low life stole a mans shoes for crying out loud ....





And then of course as we went in and up the stairs to the living quarters there was cables strewn along the corridor and the back door wide open .... Straight for the bedroom where the old dog sleeps these days it had been shut ... they'd been through the drawers in there..everything on the floor ...but she'd done her duty and must have barked or made herself known as they had left the room quickly ...passports and American money for Jills trip still on the floor from the drawers......




TV Step Daughters room gone - Bedroom window which is ground floor (because of the hill we are on, was jimmied open ......the catch had sheared off under pressure ...




My PC room and all drawers opened and everywhere .....





McD and my Cameras and camera lenses and bags and External Disc Drives all taken.. along with a portable media storage tank and a few other things .... but the main storage drive, with most of our backed up pictures and our Main Desktop PC left in place ..... Playstation gone from the living room along with medicals




All the kitchen cupboards opened ...Funnily enough the kettle was found in the stepdaughters bedroom...




Tuesday morning and we heard that Stepdaughters father was rushed into hospital over night with suspected heart problems ....A trip across town in driving torrential dark clouded rain to take her to him..  




Then back home - clean up day - and waiting for the bedroom catch to be fixed and for the police who arrived Thursday Morning .... yep - thursday ......




Thursday night and the worst storm in years hit Wellington - Southerly gales hitting the house at record speeds ....the house being on a hill facing south took the brunt of it but came out of it unscathed .....




Veggies are flattened and trees stripped of leaves that scatter the pathways and back garden .... Chooks all accounted for and while not happy all ok :O)






We tried when light to get into work ...Just too much of a mess around ...I've never seen so many trees flattened nor roads green with vegetation......... We took the sensible option and turned back home .....





Winds still blowing a gale... The motorway beside the harbour was awash by the waves and covered in stone and rock ...the railway beside the motorway hanging over where there was once solid ground ........






So Pictures for a while are from my archives.... in Celebration that we still have them 




All of that on the week before the shortest day ... but all pets and humans safe sound and housed....

The Rest Is Just Stuff..........

Matariki is our traditional, Maori New Year... So happy new year to you all :O)









Kohai already in flower


Its close to our shortest day which I guess is as good a day as any for the Southern Hemisphere to have a new year.


Little Pied Shag






Wellington From Across the Harbour


Traditionally you plant Garlic on the shortest day and harvest on the longest, but this year we planted about 6 weeks earlier.. To get a head start... Its perfectly acceptable and with our gardens poor sunlight through the winter I'm hoping we can also harvest a little earlier too... Rather than harvesting  late December its been more late Jan/Feb before the Garlics ready ..Which then is bad timing for the next plantings ....Oh to have more space ......


Chinese trainer plane  







Winters Rose






Its also a good time to start planning the vegetable borders for Spring and Summer.. Its also a good time to reflect on the previous seasons harvest ...What grew well, what didn't ..The Crops and the Flops ..Perhaps an entry in itself to look back on

Red Teal







Female Sparrow







Tree Warbler







Silver Eye





This winter the weathers been far too mild ...But its given the opportunity to get into the flower garden and look at that too .. Plants to move, plants to let go, plants to get... I'm keen to start towards a more cottage garden look...But to be honest after the past 2-3 years of neglect any look will be great...

And then of course there's the back garden the chooks now have ....I want to turn that into a green area with low growing shrubs that will provide an area for them to wander around when McD lets them out but will also look good and break up the hard lines of the chicken runs ... . We've a few more trees to cut down too to allow more light on the area....


I've had a couple of maybes that then fell through on the Job hunt... Frustrating but there you go ... Meanwhile despite the threat of redundancy I'm just getting busier...Theres some talk of me taking on yet another role ... One I'm keen to get into ... But there's a lot of humming and aaahing and politics around it all ....

I'd rather be gardening ......


Henny 










Fry







Chip














        
The 3rd Maddest Chicken Woman North Island New Zealand :O)

For which I blame my sister ......:O)

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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An Autumn Garden Design project

More woes in the Vegetable garden - More changeable weather .. .Stinking hot for a few days then wet and humid for a few days .. .then it'll probably be cold and wet ........ Tomatoes now under attack from moulds and mildews ..... Not much more I can do to protect them .... 





This is the next large project..... Turning this into a garden of interest ... It only gets some morning sun ... So thinking of an interesting green garden with the only flowers being whites or subdued reds ....and lots of NZ  natives .



   



As you can see it's in a bit of a mess - the last part of the garden we haven't touched ...Previous owners had dog kennels here as well as the front of the garden ... 











I think it could look quite good with little effort... There is quite a slope to it though ... I would like to get a level area at the back for a small table and chairs ...It's a nice cool spot in the summer ......















Just need the time, Money and inclination :O)

What we laughingly call a (Veggie) garden (4)

We’ve planted a few Fruit Trees around the garden … I’m ashamed to say two are still in their pots but will plant out this weekend. So we now have Cherry, Apple (Monty’s surprise – said to be the most health beneficial in the world…a kiwi ‘roadside’ discovery), Quince, and Plum… No fruit this year obviously but it’s good to have them. Of course we also have a few other things such as two Fejoa trees in wine barrels. They actually have 2 or 3 flowers on them after 2 years of nothing…. A Pomegranate bush – that flowers occasionally but doesn’t fruit …but is an attractive, viscously thorny bush all the same … A Fig tree also in a wine barrel .. .but doesn’t fruit or grow much really and whose days are indeed numbered…I want fresh figs…         

 

We also have fruit bushes that won’t provide a harvest till next year ….Goose Berry and Black Current bushes line the wall under the kitchen window. Unfortunately the winds knocked them about a bit and a lot of new growth was damaged … but they seem happy enough ….Cape Gooseberry bushes continue to sulk where planted …. And Chilean Guava have just flowered …   

 

But the most vigorous growing and most fruit laden is the BlackBerry bushes that line the fence of the yard all self sown and twice my height … It will be a bumper crop this year if the sun come out and the birds and wasps leave them alone …………. The bees were happy as working the flowers for weeks … What would we do without them ……..    

 

However the blackberry really has to go …. Just not until we’ve picked enough for the pies and jams and booze we want to make from them ……

I picked two large, deep red strawberries this morning … They’ve suffered in general this season and while we get a handful now and then, they’ve not been the bounty we enjoyed last year ….. I might look out for another variety to replace some of them with in later months ……Something more suited to our climates maybe if there is such a thing  ……



Last years picture .......







I bought some wild ‘woodland’ strawberries and planted them in the tub under the fig tree that never fruits … in contrast they have never stopped producing . As kids we raided the wild strawberries where Dad worked. I would be told off from time to time by Dad as the owner liked them as well. I’ve always remembered the flavour of them. Now I have my own strawberry patch and visit it regularly, munching a handful at a time. This time legally ……       

What we laughingly call our Garden (2)

I do have the Square Foot Gardening book. While there are some things I do differently In the main it's a great way of growing vegetables in a smaller sized area ....Some things we grow up trellises , however the problem in our garden is wind ... We are on the side of a hill and anything that gets above a certain height is then subject to (cold this year) winds of varying speeds ....So cucumbers - yes will probably give them a go on the trellising ...Pumkins - no.. they would just get twisted and suffer stem split ....  



 

We are also growing a bed of onions and leeks. Last year was a pretty poor effort with the onions not growing to any size. Well maybe pickling onion sort of size … We still ate them thrown into stews etc …. Same for the leeks that really didn’t grow much bigger than when I had dropped them into their holes ….. This year they are looking much better… and I’m hoping for a good crop from both …. .

Onions to the front....Leeks to the back



Despite my efforts to grow a range of different Chinese cabbage types through the spring, they all went to flower at the same time and instead of ending up on my dinner plate are now at the bottom of the compost bin … I was so hacked off with it I threatened to give up on the whole thing and let the gorse take over ….. We didn’t of course and the beds are now full again with various plants but mainly tomatoes ……I tried another crop of pak choi a few weeks back but they did the same thing …..Will try again maybe now we are past the longest day. They seem to grow better as the days are shortening …

 

I've been so busy I barely noticed the Foxgloves flower ... Now they are near the end and are throwing seeds to the winds .... I had though I would stop them this year and buy some other colours rather than just the pinks ... 



The ‘Bright Lights’ Chard and silver beet kept us going all through the winter and spring until finally, smothered by the broad beans it went ‘triffid’ on us and bolted for the heavens …. It just goes well with everything … on it’s own or with Mash potato, chopped into curries and stews, or as part of a salad…. We’ve planted more …It’s just so nutritious too….. We will plant kale as well this year    

 

I cannot think of the name of this plant .. We have white and these pinky reds come up each year ...They seed as freely as the fox gloves .... bragging rights to whoever tells me what they are :O) 





Having the extra borders has meant we can grow more of a particular vegetable at the same time …. And so carrots have been planted  in succession in 3 different borders …The first panting was well used and mostly eaten raw as first McD, then McDs daughter S, then my Son B all enjoyed pulling them out of the ground and with a quick wash munching away at them raw…… I might have had a few as well I suppose :O) I particularly like the purple variety ..We grow a whole mix from whites to reds to oranges to purples …..

 

Carrots, Beetroot, and elephant garlic