Odd Sods and Degrees of Separation

Today's Photo's: Too cold for taking pictures .. .shots from the Botanic Gardens in Wellington NZ ... We visited them a few weeks back but I never posted anything .... I don't think anyway ....







Weather: The weather is pretty horrible and has been since yesterday. Effin cold southerly winds, rain, hail, and snow again in the high country ... Not looking to good for the rest of the week either which is tragic for me as this was the last week I can work on the garden before starting my new job at the bank ... Damned frustrating ....







Degrees of Separation: Fellow ODer and blogger GypsySpirit started an interesting discussion on degrees of separation between people around the world. KiwiChatter also gave a great example of the connects we have with each other through other friends. The idea that it is only 6 degrees of separation between someone in one part of the work to someone else in another is well known ....Within NZ (and I think with some pride) we believe that there are only two degrees of separation .... It's a cool idea as it does make all kiwis part of a relative close 'extended family' ....







I have a general example of the degrees of separation in the world. I'm on a site called 'Linkedin'. It's a professional network. "LinkedIn connects you to your trusted contacts and helps you exchange knowledge, ideas, and opportunities with a broader network of professionals."







I maintain contact with people I've work with since joining and have 107 immediate contacts ...People who know me directly ....







2 degrees away from me are 6,300 people ... I know someone who knows one or more of them.



3 degrees away from me and there are 595,700 people. I know someone who knows someone who knows one or more of these people ....



And that's with just 107 contacts .... There must be a huge number more I would have worked with over the years .... And that is only work contacts. Add friends, family, aquaintancies, fellow bloggers and its easy to understand the 6 degrees of separation .....







New Job: While concerned about the new role I have taken on, We can only be thankful that I will soon be back in gainful employment again. While the role isn't as senior as I'm used to, There has been little else opened up on the job market ...Had this not come by there would have been every likelihood of my not getting a role for some many month ahead. That would have sapped our resources far too much. It was also becoming apparent in interviews that being out of work too long was a negative against you .... So really it all worked out well and with good timing... I will have had a 3 months 3 weeks break. and much needed it was too .... I'm generally feeling better, healthier, have a bit of a suntan rather than that 'PC monitor radiation grey' IT workers are prone to have. And while I've a number of concerns about the new role I'm quite keen and full of ideas as to what can be done.......







Of course winning lotto and becoming a bread baking hippy would be better :O) But I still fully expect that to happen over the course of time :O)







Oh - did I say ? - the role is with an Australasian bank as an "ITIL Delivery Manager' ... What the Sam is that I hear you ask ...... well to quote from the job description - the role is "Responsible for establishing the ITIL Service Management capability within (bank) New Zealand and providing governance over the services that fall within the scope of IT Service Management."



But what that really means I'll let you know in the coming months ....









The gardening: Damn this weather ...Anyway, we are now filling up one of the new raised borders ...Pea straw and well rotted home made compost with plenty of horse manure, and a rich 'veggie garden' soil sold by living earth. All of it 'walked' up the hill and steps by bag and bucket....







Another two borders are close to finishing as I've pick axed out the rock/clay and laid flat sections into the hillside. I've another small border to put in and discussion as to adding yet another in the corner that will be a rhubarb patch .... love rhubarb :O)







3-months of working on this and other parts of the garden .... To look at the place you would not believe I'd been working so hard on the section ..... .







We've now got various seedling in pots and trays. some are getting too leggy and need to be potted on very soon ... its a lot of work and a little worrying as McD and I are going away next week for another break .....









I HATE BLACKBIRDS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Little sods have raked over my seedlings of lettuce, carrots, and the like ... ruined them ......... I will have to plant again now. And then !!! I spent a while mounding up potatoes (its a pain in raised borders ) anyway - no sooner had I left to get more soil that the blackbirds there scratching feverishly levelling the soil again in search of worms....... They are far too tame of course ...







So now I have netting MWHAHAHAHAH ....MWHAHAHAHAHA :O) Though an air rifle was first in my mind - hell bent on a bloody revenge ........







Another Holiday: Does it sound that bad !! We decided we should have another short holiday before I start work ... It will probably be the last break for a while as I will have to build up my annual leave again ....







So we are going to pack the car and head north and east and visit Gisborne and the east cape - which is on the east cost of the north island. Hopefully the weather will improve. Snowing along the way there at present with people in cars having to be rescued...... Hopefully we will get to see the sunrise in Gisborne... The first city in the world to welcome the sunrise of a new day. Hopefully we will see lots of kiwi-ana and take lots of pictures to bore you all with over the next month or so :O)







The big event!! Of course this break also lets me go away and sulk... I have less than one week to go and then it is the end of my 40s ....Where did that decade go !!! Man, I thought the end of my 30s was bad !! So come Sunday and I will have actually made it to 50 years .... Been very touch and go along the way ... Still have yet to grow up and learn how to look after myself (McD Will vouch for that ....:O) But there you go ..... perhaps I should do a short write-up on this ....from zero to half-century in 10 minutes :O)

Just call me The Master..With Knobs on

A Snippet from an article in an online newspaper

"Killer manure

And not in a good way. Contaminated manure in Britain has not only killed the vegetables it was meant to nourish, the owners of the allotment plots where it was used cannot replant in the affected soil for a year.

A U.S. company, Dow, is responsible for putting an herbicide on the market, aminopyralid, whose deadly power is strong enough to persevere after having passed through a cows’s digestive system and sat around on a stable floor and in piles for months. It’s killed, damaged, and deformed vegetable crops across Britain, but scientists are not sure if it would be unsafe to eat the veggies. The cows aren’t affected by it, apparently.

The herbicide is useful because it kills weeds without affecting the grass around them. A ban has been called for, but as far as I could research, has not been instituted, though Dow is issuing warnings about the product."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++





I’ve been 'Googling' a number of topics for Blogs and Newspaper articles to read ..Mostly around the Vegetable gardening but gardening in general as well …. What I’m seeing developing now is a status thing… A self proclaiming status thing … There was once a time when you were just a gardener ….Sometimes you may be referred to as an expert gardener. This was usually for the elder statesmen of gardening who had made it to TV … They looked like experts …They looked like they’d been gardening for 40 years and knew their plants intimately …..







Then came the fashionable gardening that arose some 20+ years back …Distinctions had to be made as the 80s gardener was a yuppie who had gained a diploma in this or that and played around with artificial structuring of the gardens, forcing plants to comply or die … Titles then were professional gardener and amateur gardeners … And people would call them selves 'Amateur Gardeners' as a self proclaiming 'reverse snobbery' kind of tense ..."Oh I'm just an Amater Gardener really"... Oh that’s right – and the professional gardeners now started to talk about plants by their latin name …..Which of course was taken up quickly by the overly keen amateur gardeners as a mark of their gardening prowess……







So I guess that it should be of no surprise that I now read articles and blogs of so called gardeners self proclaiming their status as "Master Gardeners" …. My father was a gardener for well over 40 years .. “ spose they must be clever people” he would say when they ranted on to him with their latin names ….







And this seems to be more and more the mode for Vegetable gardening now that we are being told to “Dig for Victory” again and to reduce your “carbon footprint” and reduce the carbon miles in getting a sprout from soil to kitchen ….Theres a $$ to be made now in helping the uninitiated set up their veggie plot and nothing helps the flow of the $$ than having a good status title like “Master”



Guru gardeners get announced occasionally ..Gardeners with great knowledge and wisdom and authority who uses it to guide others …..at a price of course. Even a Guru has to make their $$Million …………..



The latest article of note actually stated themselves as an "Advanced Master Gardener"!!! They must really be clever … . Just how far can this go I wonder ??



So – just for the record I’m self proclaiming myself as a "Super Duper Advanced Master Black Belt Gardening Expert Guru Expert" …With Nobs on …….



Beat that :O)



Right I’m off to plant my Vicia Faba before McD decides to plant yet more Brassica Oleracea Gemmifera Group :O)

A black Hole In Life's Story

Another week gone already !!!

Nothing of interest has happened really ...No really so very little that this past week will never be remembered again from a few weeks time onwards ....A non-week... A black hole in the life story .........

 

Depressing isn't it ........ Well Thursday afternoon wasn't too bad I guess .. A vendor manager shouted me and my manager to lunch at "Monsoon Poon" a delicious Malaysian 'Fusion" restaurant..... And while it started off a little 'stiff' and awkard, a couple of bottles of wine between the three of us plus a couple of ports and some great asian style food broke down the barriers nicely .....I found out that the vendor manager does Karate ... And so the conversation turned to some reminiscing  and me getting tickets to the Nationals Karate tournament this weekend ...... 

The afternoon gone ...As soon as I made it back to work with the boss the phone went and McD was telling me she was on the way over to pick me up .....

 

 

"Ello my Darlin!! :O) " I greeted her as I fell into the car..

"Oh great!!" she replied "Just great" .....

 It certainly wasn't a good ride home though and I was flushed, hot and very car-sick-queasy by we reached home .......

  

The next day I was invited by another 2 vendors to meet them ...It was a friday afternoon.. "why not I told them separately ... I invited one of my team members along to the second meeting held in the "wine loft" no less. A very relaxed and pleasant place it was too .....Some very very nice wines on the offing, I had 3 glasses of sav blanc ... "seresin mirimar" a local wine ...... And we chatted on for a couple of hours. Yet another vendor manager was in the wine bar and she came over and gave me a hug and a pat ... Knowing the problems I'm going through at the moment with work and facing some similar issues with my manager we can only share in our misery at present ..... 

By I came out of the wine bar and said my bye's to my team colleague, McD was ringing and txting wondering where the sam I was .......

"Ello my Darlin!! :O) " I greeted her as I fell into the car..

"Oh great!!" she replied "Just great" .....

The week that was

In General

It's been an awful week ...No sooner did Easter Friday come round than I picked up a rotten headachy, sore throated, Phlegmmy, fluey cold...Took 4 days before I resurfaced out of the house and now 6 days later my eyes and nose are still streaming..Had to stop driving this morning at one point as I couldn't see properly from my gungy, streaming, aching eyes ...... I don't do ill well ...But this week from good Friday to the 30th was to be the "finish the vegetable garden week" and I had booked the week off to do so with McD...



We did however get out yesterday and drove over the big hill into the Wairappa... Stopped off in historic Greystown to look at the boutique style shops. Especially the Antique ones and lifestyle shops ...one place sold a heap from other countries such as Afghanistan and India... the woman shop owner (?) said that they had bought a factory in India and had shipped it over here.. A table long enough for 20+ people was pride of place in the shop with a SOLD sticker on it over the price ..McD had a peek at its $10K price tag ..Too big for our house and too big even for the garden you have to wonder who would have bought it. But how awesome it would look set up for perhaps an extended family meal outside on a sunny autumn day ..... Anyway a good day for us really ..Poor McD, fed up with me being ill was slowly going stir crazy at home ...We stopped off at Gladstone Inn and had lunch. Not the best of food unfortunately but very nice sat outside with a cold drink ...






Vegetables Without a Vegetable Garden

We've had quite the little harvest this autumn ... Tomatoes planted in amongst the dahlias have provided a steady crop and are still going strong.. Looking better now than a month or two back we probably will get more from them yet. Though the Autumn sun is much lower now and the sunshine hours in the garden reducing significantly ... It's the major downside of the garden we have. Cherry Tomatoes grown in hanging baskets fruited extremely well and we had about 4 major harvests from them that were used for salads or for our favourite chicken casserole dish ..The flavours were so good. I was picking them and eating them straight off the vine whenever I went past. We've grown tomatoes like this for the past 3 or 4 years and they've never failed us .



With the larger Toms we made Chutney using a recipe I had from some 20+ years ago.. It's an Indian Tomato Chutney recipe without the heat. I'd only made it once before but was well liked by my family at the time. And well liked this time too. It goes very well with meats and cheeses. Sweeter than I would normally go for but very nice ..


Fruits of our not-so-hard labour

And talking of very nice ....At the entrance of our garden where the forest meets the fence line a large Bramble bush has grown .. This season all blackberry bushes have had a bumper copping year ...With a little TLC in the way of a weekly watering when I water my pots around the yard this bush has flowered profusely and fruited regularly with the sweetest of blackberries.... It's a strong willed individual who doesn't eat blackberries straight off the bush .. Even fighting off wasps and thorns we've collected a few bowls of them now .. McD even made me blackberry and apple crumble !! Apart from the fact we can’t buy the old fashioned cooking apples any more, it was delicious .."Just like mum used to make" :O) in those days of my childhood when we kids would be sent off over the fields to collect blackberry fruit by the bag load for pies and wine making ..Of course back then we'd also be picking Sloes (small wild damson) straight after the blackberries were finished and after the first frost to help sweeten the sloes ..(So sour when picked off the bush they would shrivel the inside of your mouth if you ate them raw. The Sloes would also make wine or be steeped in Gin and sugar to make that wonderful Sloe Gin.....Of course we always also kept an eye out for the field mushrooms. I loved them. Some of them grew as big as dinner plates with their jet black undersides ...Mum would fry them up to have with a meal or mixed with bacon to have on toast ...Sometimes she'd add cream to them ............Ok I'm drooling like Homer Simpson right now ... But have to write about this next thing..



With it being autumn my mind had turned to these little child hood remembrances of such bounties. Especially the mushrooms... So With a spare shed in the garden doing nothing I thought about growing my own mushrooms. Duly looking them up on the internet and as quick as that had ordered two lots of Mushroom growing kits.. Oyster mushrooms to be exact ... Easy to set up we have them down in the garage for the time being...

Our first crop was a shared excitement with McD helping in their cultivation. Watching the white roots spread through the straw compost and then finding a precut hole in the plastic bag watching them burst forth into large clumps of ripe mushroom .... So much more mushroom flavour than the white or brown button mushroom we can only get at the superstores locally ....We cooked them up and added a little cream and had them on toast - "Just like mum used to make " ...

So what next - well my two hanging baskets of small Chiles are ripe. I thought I would make a chili condiment .. so will try the Indonesian "Sam bal Bajak"...Definitely not a recipe from my childhood :O). I've also grown two Quince bushes against some trellis in the front garden ... Though not well established yet I have seen that there is a single Quince fruit on one of them ... Back to childhood memories - I always remember autumn at my parents and the smell of the quince fruit still on the bush ... Just love the smell of Quinces .....