A year in my vegetable garden - part 2 (Plus the rest)

Well – doesn’t time fly ….. Not sure what to write about really ….....

the thorns of the Gorse bush ......

In General

In general – both McD and I are working too hard … It’s not just the near 60 hour weeks but the intensity of the day ..>It’s like at the start of the day falling into a fast flowing river and being bounced around crashing into boulder after boulder until the river spits you out at the end of the day and you go home and wait for the next morning to arrive …

Pretty gorse flowers ...scented ... you can make a nice wine from them ...we declined

It’s hell I tell you

And we’ve taken too much on at work and I’m trying to do one project while getting dragged into vendor meetings for this and meetings for that and meetings for yet something else and then having to do site visits for this and that and fly to Auckland and so on …..

"Tea cup" artwork already in place

A classic happened over the weekend …Friday the Chief Technology Officer, my immediate manager, tells me that he require and executive overview of the Service Management Office a new function within my company that I researched and stared to build … And that he had to have it Monday …. Well that’s just fine and dandy says me … what are weekends for uh uh ?? So Sunday afternoon was devoted to compiling this damn report pulling bits of other reports together and struggling with writer block as to how to describe it and by 6o’clock I had it in a pretty good state and ready to email out to the eager CTO … And then it happened as I pulled it from our works document management system into an email I receive the error message “Corrupt File!!!!”

making the rats homeless

WAH !!!!!!!! :O( I felt physically sick ….Just awful … ….But with McD already diving in to type it out again from a a print out I had that had most of the detail on it (whew) but none of the graphics (Mcd types with all her fingers !! after 30 years at a keyboard I still use 1 finger of each hand and occasionally a thumb for the space bar) I despondently rang the service desk for assistance … It’s a Sunday night I had little hope of even getting a techie to respond I thought … So call logged I went into the vendor helpdesk system to watch (a privilege being in the role I have) ..I see it getting logged and then priority raised as they see I was flagged as a VIP in the systems (another privilege of the role) and then the call being assigned to Arnold … 20 minutes later he rang me collected information and went away …1/2 hour after that the phone went and it was my mate Arnold saying he’d recovered it …. Oh Joy of Joys !!!!!!!!!!!!!! But it took over an hour after that to reformat the document , rebuild the graphics and get it finally sent off ….. I felt stressed to the max, sick and very tired after that

and in the very middle - my murdered Poroporo............

Is it my age ?

these days I feel tired …And tired of work as well … McD needs to be planning a holiday for us … Something to get ourselves energized and refreshed again …And of course where we can take pictures – A real photo shoot …..

There’s more to tell on that one ……

McD sings the lumberjack song while grabbing some sunshine while it lasts .......

Diet & Fitness

Well, see below as to what I’ve been doing to keep me fit :O) We’ve not made it to the gym ..But the weekends have been filled with exercise traipsing up and down the bank to the vegetable garden in the making, carting gorse and weed downwards and planks and wet soil upwards …

Weight loss this year – 11kg …..That’s 24lbs …… But no one notices … I know as my trousers fall down without a belt that is also becoming to big ….. A great deal to go but it’s impossible to keep up the dieting ………….. But bit by bit I guess

Pets contemplating the actions of stupid humans

The Veggie Garden

We finally cleared the gorse from the veggie garden plot ..It was piled into the middle of the plot and over another weekend we filled a skip to the max lugging it load by load on a canvas sheet down the hill..McD standing on top of it all in the skip to push it down as much as possible …

McD contemplating the future harvesting of her favourite veggies - Brussle sprouts

When full, we still had enough for another skip …the task was taking too long as bad weather had settled into the weekends spoiling our only chance of doing the work ….. And so we did another search for some labour. We struck lucky. Two blokes keen for a days’ work, we agreed they would bring the rest of the gorse down for us and grub the plot down to the soil… That wouldn’t take them a day we’re told (!) and we had paid for a days’ work albeit ridiculously cheaply… So I said how about removing any residual gorse at the edge of the plot as far as the arm could reach (Worried about them working on the side of the bank) and if they had time they could cut the back lawn etc …..

Water never tasted so good ......

We got back to a mountain of gorse covering the already filled skip with another small mountain of gorse and cut poroporo(My Tree!!!! ) No gorse left on bank what so ever ………and back lawn cut ………..How the sam they did all that in a day is any ones guess …. We paid them a little extra despite the fact that my poroporo and a rhododendron were fatal casualties in the process…. However they’d over filled the skip and the skip man wouldn’t take it that full, so at daybreak the next morning we were up standing on the gorse to knock it down even further and me going around the edges of the skip with loppers taking off the surplus …. Skip man was happy and off he went with the order to return asap ..

We must get more tea cup artwork...you can never have enough am I right ??!!!

By 10am we had refilled the returned skip and cleared the yard ……..

That leaves us with just a pile of grass and stuff that we intend to compost once McD buys me some wood

That’s another story …………………….

Mcd Wondering if we could 'throw it over the fence..."

The weather has been unkind to us … But we’d already ordered the planks for 2 raised beds that arrived the same day as the men created the gorse mountain, and the “green” living earth soil for two raised beds was delivered just the next day and so, we slowly started the numerous treks to the top of the garden ….

What a vegetables garden should not look like .......

Of course we knew our garden is the wrong side of the hill facing south east rather that the sunny north west it should be down here …it’s the only place we have for a vegetable plot. Add to that the plot is on a slant in two directions neither of them good …… . So the only option was to dig into the hill to create a level raised bed ….

A semi-raised vegetable bed .... With pea straw no less

The good thing was the Clay …While clay is clay and nothing Veggie will grow in it what we dug out was sandy and crumbled and will help to level areas off for the next beds ….It’s taken weekend after weekend to dig out the space and then level off (well a slight incline for drainage off the clay base) and build the frame …… and then on advice we roughed up the clay with a pick axe as put down a layer of paper and then 2 bags of pea straw directly onto the ground … and then the work began ..

Filling wheel barrow after wheel barrow up the hill at the side of the house then along the length of the house ….and then shoveling the soil from wheel barrow to large 2 handled bucket to be lugged up overly high steps through the tree lined unsafe path up the next hill to the vegetable plot and the now semi-raised bed …..

We’ve found the secret to losing weight !!!!!

We’ve only filled to the level of the first plank – but we’ve been out and bought seedlings of cabbage and celery and by hell or high water we will have that bed finished and planted if only partly by the end of next weekend ……………………..

McD delerious from too much manual labour contemplates partners demise with a pick axe and reclaiming her weekends back infront of the fire.....

To be Continued … as I tell you about

Rats

Holidays

Compost bins

The high death toll in the making of a vegetable plot

And planting up a semi-raised bed ……….

And the final resting place for the family pets ……….

Talk soon ....:O)

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 .....

Bits and Bobs

It’s still pretty hot in the garden…  A very long spell of Dry weather had resulted in crirtically low water supplies. Grassy hills have turned brown and in some places have turned to the dead grey brown I've only seen in australia.

But this last week the temperatures fell a little and rain came over all parts of the country on and off and the rivers are higher and the plants in the main are looking much releived for it.     

 

In General

Over the Christmas period I had written a newsletter using MS Publisher..Quite successfully really ... Unfortunately have only just gotten around to sending it off to my rellies over seas... Perhaps I should post it and show it off ...As quite some effort was put into it ...

Work is work and no one seems to be happy. It's a sad state to be in but I think we will all start to move on this year ... 

We too a day off last weekend and had 3 days holiday on the north of the south island ... Just for the fun of it we too the 3 hour ferry trip across a choppy Cooks strait to the port of Picton. From there we drove the scenic route to Havelock where we found a very nice cafe specialising in Mussels and scallops and enjoyed every mouthful ... Our next stop was to be at one of the lakes at a place called St Anaud .>We stopped at a comfortable motel there that was nestled into the forest with our 2 level unit being beside a stream ... It was very relaxing listening to the bubbling water in the night and the birdsong in the morning ... Unfortunately the weather turned overnight weith low cloud and rain . But we did manage to do a walk through the native beech forrest along the lakeside. Effectively a 30-40 minute walk with another 10 minutes to read the information posts along the way and a further 2 hours taking pictures .... all good fun :O) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

With the weather failing we decided to drive past the mountains a bit more and drove into an old mining township called murchison....It was here in the early part of the last century that a large earthquake struck causing significant damage. The small Museum was of interest with plenty of black and white pictures of the event. We took a drive that afternoon but the rain found us again and we were unable to do the walking or photography we had hoped for. 

The next day we decided to head for Nelson at the very top of the south island ... We visited the Hoglund glass centre for McD to buy some more glas  ornaments and then we stumbled across a small vinyard that had a cafe/restaurant and so had a lesiurly lunch of anti pasto and steamed mussels before the short and very bumpy plane ride back into Wellington and home .....   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Garden

Our main part of the garden has been a mass of multi-coloured flowers. Mainly dahlias. We have had a great showing. The rest of the garden still needs work on it which we are slowing getting done. As a sampler to having a fully fledges garden vegetable plot we have had tomatoes and potatoes already and last night I was able to pick a bowlful of Black Berries from overthe fence ... With the tomatoes (that were mainly cherry tomatoes) and the potatoes grown in large plastic ductbins we bought for the purpose, I made a chicken dish putting everything into a large roasting pan covered wit htin foil.... McDs Mum and a Neice visiting wellington to play softball had dinner with us and our out of the garden meal. 

 

Vegetable Plot

 Before tackling the main part of my vegetable plot in the making I have to remove a heap of gorse growing on the bank beside it … the bank has a 'step' cut into it where I had originally planted some camellias and rhododendrons and some Ozzy plants that thrive on the clay there … But we’ve not been near the area in two years and now the gorse is taller than I am … So in 28C of heat I’ve been there hacking it down …. Completed about a ¼ of it so far … While working away there a day or three back I looked up and saw a face looking back at me … Just over an arms length away from me ….It was a Rat …Fully grown clean and slinky Rat with a long nose and sharp pointy teeth …. “EEEEKKKK “ I cried out in my usual macho male way as I turned abruptly as I could and stumbled away as fast as I could while perched on a 6” step that has camelia and Rhodos and the like growing out of it … Trouble was there was another slinky brown think coming towards me again from this side …. “EEEEEEEKK””” !! Oh, no it’s micky the hunter cat running past me to take the rat on …… Go get 'im Micky !!!! Both cat and rat disappeared into the gorse forest I’d been lopping down … A bit of a rustle and then I could see micky at the bottom of the bank heading into the house …. Now we’ve been there before with live rats in the house thanks to the cats …But this time Micky was empty handed and empty mouthed too…. So – There are rats in the garden at the top of the bank ….Cats Micky and George are up there often enough for there to be a rodent free zone …. But of course all they do is make a grass nest and sleep the day away … Not that calm now when working on the bank … even a medium sized spider running at me had me doing an about turn before realizing what it was …………………..

Since then the cats have caught and killed 4 half grown rats .. While they are very clean looking country rats we have no desire to have them around our property ..So we may have to get an vermin exterminator in to lay poison around the place ..I don't want to but the cats aint catching mar and par ratus ratus  so thebreeding cycle will continue ... 

This morning at 6am more commotion as micky the cat had brought another half grown rat into the house still alive ...luckily we had all doors shut so it was just the hall way they could get into ... turned out micky had broken the rats back and while still alive was unable to move it's back legs .... So my awakening to a sunny sunday was to dispatch a rat as humanely as possible (which I did) and wonder just how many more are about the property.............   

Fitness

Bit of a disaster really with McDs daughter staying and us having to taxi her around to where she has a holiday job etc .. But walkinmg up and down the back to the vegetable plot and the gardening are definately helping all round ... March will be better

Diet

Again not so good - it's proven to be very hard to do with visitors in the house ... Though I do think I've lost weight. I'm nearly two belt notches down so if no weight loss then I'm redistributing it about elsewhere :O)

 

 

 

 

Hot Work For Some

It’s pretty warm here in my valley … The local weather station, which is coincidently just further up the hill from where our house is, says its 28C … Too hot for this old guy to be hacking down gorse and scrub ……

My latest project is to tame a section of my garden currently covered in overgrow grass and gorse bush and who know what else … And turn it into a vegetable garden … Of course that needs to incluse some small fruit bushes of gooseberries and red current and the like …

I did think the area was larger than it actually is … We’ve not been up there really in 2 + years …. Hard to explain but I live on the side of a hill. That faces the wrong way as in it face south rather than north but the views are nice … We look over the local township of Stokes valley a one way in valley nestled into a U-shape if hills … We also get to see down the Hutt valley and the Hutt river that doesn’t stop until it reaches the Wellington Harbour some 15 minutes drive from us …. We can actually just see the harbour from the house …Just.. Anyway, the house is on a section that has 4 tiers with our two story house in the middle tier (large garage underneath the house) …

So, Bottom section is in Native forest (bush) we have a path now over grown running through it …eventually it meats a tiny stream which is our boundary. Past that and it’s forest reserve and long may it stay that way…

The next tier is where the house is sited. We are at the end of a 3 house right-of-way that leads to our tarmac yard a flower garden to the side (full of dahlias), A garden at the back of the house (also in need of a good tidy up ) and a long pathway beside bank at the front of the house that leads to the 3 tier ..this tier is small and runs along the length of the house … it sits between the house and a 15 foot or so bank that we planted up … This again needs a tidy up … but won’t take much to do it ..

At the end of that tier there is more native trees in a small stand. In the middle of this stand is the circular path way which takes us to the 4^th Tier . the 4^th Tier is higher than the roof of the house and has great views of the valley…It would be a great place to have a BBQ spot and I may well include that into the plans …. This area is where I intend to have my vegetable garden… Raised beds separated my small pathways … A BBQ area in the middle perhaps… It’s the hottest part of the garden and through the summer it gets all the sun … the winter is a different matter as none of the garden gets sun. it is just too low in the sky to show over the hill side …. Having said that we get perhaps 1 0r 2 light frost a year which are gone right after daylight …the hill ensures a breeze most of the time which stops frost forming…..And our winters are June to august only …. The rest of the year is mild… The southerly wind can be a real problem for us … Cold and gale force …But not often … The prevailing northerly never makes it to us due to the hill we are nestled into…..

So My vegetable garden is becoming a reality … All I have to do is clear a forest of gorse, cut down the grass and get it removed piece by piece, fork full by fork full done the woodland path, past the house and into the forest beside us where it can die and compost, but never to return to the garden ….

Bali Memories

No sooner is the Xmas/new year break over than we have a regional public holiday - Wellington Anniverary day.. So the rest of the country is working while we lounge around deciding what to do for the day ...

 

 

 

I took quite a few pictures of the Bali rice fields. As we travelled through one area we were stopped by a villiage toll booth wanting money for the privelage of seeing them ... On that one ocasion we agreed. Too many of these areas are now disappearing

 

 

 

We often rose early in the morning to capture the sunrise..It was cool enough to walk for a distance along the beach and take in the sights ..by Mid-morning we'd be at a beach side cafe sipping coffee and cold drinks .

 

 

 

 

This was at Sunur Beach. One morning we were surprised to find a crowd of school children all waiting for the sunrise ..Then in a single movement they all left for their classrooms

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This fisherman and a couple of others were in the sea up to waist deep in the water hoping to hook breakfast .

 

 

 

Beach boats waiting for the tourists to venture out. We never sailed in the ...Wish we had now

 

 

 

Every evening/morning the sands would be cleaned and raked. The trees provided welcome shelter from the midday sun.

 

 

 

Dogs were everywhere in Bali..All shapes sizes and colours. While moves had been underway to exterminate significant numbers many still survived. Some even well looked after ....

 

 

 

The "Ma and Pa" Beachside stall... Many of them slept beside their stalls at night .. It would have been nice with the sea air and soundsof the waves on the sand...

 

 

 

Fast Food and Exercise

P>

We are getting our exercise at the moment in the garden ... An old lawn at the front is now being converted into a pebble-stone walkway. A large circular border in the centre of the lawn has been created and planted with Dahlia , Fuscia and annuals. 2 1/2 cubic metres of medium sized pebbles are now being Listed from mound into barrow by spade and then moved to the lawn area for spreading over week matting ... Good honest back breaking work ...

The gym has been re-joined for another year. McD had agreed to join me in moring training sessions before work ... The idea being we get it out of the way for the day ratehr than wanting to be doing anything but gym work in these glorious summer evenings we are experiencing now and hopefully for the next 3 or 4 moths into 2008. this starts as a trial run on Friday moning and in earnest come the start of next week ... The 7th will be a big day..Weigh-in, Gym and Work all start then ......

I'm surprised at the quality of the healthy recipes these days. . The recipe below while taking some pre-planning as it requires marinating the meat is cokked very quickly and only around 350 Cals for a serving ... Add salad or cooked vegetables and the meal is complete ....

Miso-Marinated Beef Medallions

2 350gram Fillets cut into medallions

1 Cup Dark Red Miso

1 Tbs ginger, minced

1 tsp Chilli flakes

Drop of Sake or water

Mixed salad greens

Combine the miso, ginger and chilli in a large bowl and thin it with some sake or water until the mixture is pasty. Spread the paste onto the meat and refridgerate for several hours. on a pre heated grill cook for 3 or 4 minutes on each side. Serve on a bed of mixed salad or cooked green vegetables ..