A year in my garden #7.....

 

The weather has not been kind to anyone anywhere in New Zealand ... We've had the wettest winter on record and Wellington where I live has been the wettest main centre in the country (especially at my house) ...

We've had 2 months running where every weekend has had rain..Often downpours... 

My poor veggie garden .... 

On coming back from holiday we found the two planted raiseed borders were little more than muddy ponds .. Full to bursting with rain water and a puddle at a corner ... My fault of course We built the frames on top of clay and me wanting perfection in everything had built the frame onto the clay base with no gap for the water to escape ... Even the corner joins held firm ... You can be a little too perfect in these things apparently ... I had built the borders with a slight slant to let gravity take the water down hill, but then the water couldn't escape ...

I grabbed a pick-axe and drove it into the line between wood and clay and they emptied slowly over 24hrs ...Fortunately we've had some fine days with a dry wind and the soil has returned to how it should be ... The vegetables were surviving ... but we lost a cabbage or two where the water had rottet the stems...    

Bugger

So while building the 3rd border we've been less caring in our construction...  I've not dug into the clay so much and before starting to fill the frame I've roughed uop the clay (more crumbly where the 3rd border is ) .... 

So it will look rather higgledy piggledy  by we've done them all ... But so what - I'd rather have the veggies to eat thank you than a showcase set of raised borders ... In any case by we get the pots up there and the silly ornaments (I think a gnome or two might make their home up there :O)  AND A SCARE CROW McD !!! - YOU PROMISED !!!! 

Ahem...  -So by we have all that up there plus our monster sized vegetables filling raised boders to the limit ... Should look quite good I hope ...... :O) 

 

And then on getting back from holiday I fould the seed potato I'd bought and stored in the garage under the house ....It had sprouted big time .... The Jersey bennie were sporting some pretty impressive shoots and roots on them ... Even the two lots of purple Maori potatoes had taken off .... 

So 3 large buckets and a dustbin later (the borders aren't built yet cause of the weather) I at least have some planted ....The bucket/dustbin trial last year was reasonable successful in producing a good crop.. And tasted fantastic straight from soil to pot within minutes .... Moari potatoes should do very well in buckets needing the warmth .. I hope so ....

And of course what happens having had a fairly warm (albeit wet) winter!!  I plant the spuds and two dats later the weatherman is warning of frosts !!!!   AND - He Was Right !!!!

So there's me and McD tucking in the potatoes and the few Broad Beans just started to show in at night with newpaper Blankets ...!!!! ... But at least the frost was kept away from them ..... A heavy frost too as the neighbours roof and the back of the car protruding out from the carport were covered in frost ....... 

I've a pile of seeds to start planting ... But will have to wait another week or two for that me thinks ....... 

 

And then McD came down with a horrible sore through and Cold/Flu last week.... I got it by Friday... Today (Saturday) it turns out to be a beautiful dry Saturday Ideal for building more raised borders and filling them with compost/soil .... AND WE"RE ILL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So I still got out and did a bit ..McD telling me off and calling me a fool for trying ... And typically my second trip up the steps to deliver a bucket full of soil to the 3rd border and I pull a calf muscle ..... And that put an end to that ...... 

Aprt from the lecture and rolling of eyes from McD as I limped back in of course ..............

yes I know Sweets ... I'm not 25 any more .... .

BUT in my head I still am !!!!!!!!!!!!!! :O)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The villiage on stilts over the river - Brunei

 

From about 10 degrees in Auckland, a 10 hour flight to 35 degrees in Brunei (plus the humidity), about 3 hours sleep in our wonderful hotel (42 inch TV - Oh yeh :O) and straight out with our guide ..First stop to visit the chinese stilt villiage over the water of the river eastury there...

 

Our boat was hand made from a tree trunk!! Large and reasonably stable but none the less hewn out of a log of wood with a sizeable propeller engine attached .... Getting on and off was a saga ... Dangerous really ..no hand rails ..VERY slippering steps and an 80lbs 40kg little chinese girl trying to steady me by holding my hand as I got on and off the boat ....I do biceps curls with more weight than that on one arm ..I'm 3 or 4 times her size ... Plus I have no balance ...My ear problem left me distinctly 'wobbly' at the best of times

"We are so going to die today ..." I mutter to McD as I finally make it to the bench seat on the boat ...

I seemed to use that phrase a few times that afternoon .....

 

There were more modern boats as well .... The eastury being quite a criss cross of boat traffic

On arriving we had to go through the same dangerous exercise in reverse this time back onto slippery steps cameras, bags etc in hand ..This time two 40kg chinese girls trying to ensure I do not take a plunge into the not so clean looking river ...

 

 

 

And then it got worse !! We are now on a walkway on stilts no handrail 12 high that wobbles ..Yes wobbles from side to side as i follow the girls ... It wasn't built for a 6foot 300lb Pom ...Oh no .. Plus in part the wood had rotted away so the walkway had holes in it in parts ... 

"We are so going to die today ..." I mutter to McD as I finally make it to the wooden house we were to visit and (I hadn't known) to have tea and a selection of brunei local cake delicacies ...

Now when travelling I do try to be careful of eating only the safer foods and liquids... Shell fish - I don't think so....Dodgy water - stay well away ... Food from places you are not sure of ...Uh Uh ...

But when we find ourselves invited to someones house and offered food and beverage I wouldn't dream of insulting our guests in not at least trying the foods offered ... Fine if you then don't like it ...A bit of humour a funny face etc and the jokes on us the winter pale strangers ....

 So after a glance to McD who understood my thoughts of "We are so going to die today ..." I  pick up the luke warm sweet tea ..

"It's safe water" the guide tells us ..The Sultan has fresh water pumped over to them.. God bless the Sultan I'm thinking ... The  tea was unusual ...Sweeter than syrup... but very nice and refreshing ..... Our guests speaking no English beamed as we drank it and I nodded to the man of the house .....

 

The cakes were a real assortment  ...Some I had had in Bali...little round dumpling filled with palm sugar, little aquares of spongecake that wasn't sweet as I thought it would have been ..  Prawn crackers. "They are home made" the guide tells us "They dry it all on the roof tops ...Shrimps etc" .. (Uncovered I was to find out a little later...  

"Yum" I say crunching into them ... 

There were about 6 diffent cakes - one was like a coconut macaroon. At the end of the tasting, of which we liked them all, we were asked if we wanted to take some away with us ... "just two from each perhaps ". I said not really sure what the custom was in these circumstances... we were given a little bag of cakes to take away. 

Handshakes and smile and nods all round with the man of the house. The guide told us that many visitors refuse outright to eat the food.  While they get paid for doing it, the lady of the house made the food herself and they all went to great trouble to look after the guests. The food was fine and clean and safe... It was a great introduction to our newly discovered Brunei and its people of the stilt villiage.

McD tried to Blend in with the locals by wearing her around the world "photography hat" A pin badge as a momento of where we have travelled.... 

 

The Sultan tried to move the people a few years back ..Offered them new housing on land ..Dispite the dangers and the dangers of fire (there had been one a few week previously) The residents refused.. this was their home ....

We were told we could walk around the villiage and take pictures ....Well we don't need telling twice about that :O)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of the walk and photo session we came across these small golden headed fish in the brown river water.... 

 

 

Back onto the boat ....More stress but then once settled we were told the next thing was the journey up the river into the jungle to see if we could get close to the Proboscis monkeys that frequent there  ....

 

Not my Picture

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

         

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Brunei and Hong Kong - Bits of Day 1&2

We took off from Wellington in a gale..Arriving at the airport we saw the departures list carrying numerous cancelations all around our destination of Auckland ... But our flight stayed open for us and we were quickly boarded and took off.. The Holiday had started....

 

It was the worst take off I had ever endured .. as soon as we climbed above the surrounding hills of Wellington harbour we hit 3 successive air pockets. Bang bang bang...the woman across the aisle from me  had adopted the 'brace position" they tell you to get into if the plane is to crash .... McD had my hand in a vice like grip that would have made a hardened kiwi farmer handshake pale into insignificance .... 

But we made it to Auckland safe and sound though shaken .... 

 McD had booked us into a motel to rest up and eat a nice evening meal before the main flight to Brunei at 3am the following morning ...

 

12 midnight and we were at the airport all booked in and through customs ... No Alcohol on Brunei Airlines flights ..Nor in the country as they are Muslim..

 

A 10 hour flight to suffer through. While the seats were uncomfortable the airline staff were great and each seat had it's own entertainment centre for your movie and TV choice... 

 

And then we landed in Brunei and the 30+C heat ... Collected our bags and passed through customs ..

"got anything to declare  drugs ??"  Said the customs man 

 

"no" Said we ... 

"do you have any Alchohol??"

"no" Said we ... 

"Off you go then " he says with half a smile 

and that was it !!  

 

We were met outside by our pre-hired guide for our stay, a young Chinese girl who drove us straight to the hotel talking non-stop the whole way to McD ..I was to get to learn quickly that in Brunei the women do not talk to the men ....................... 

 

What Can I say - The hotel was magnificent and comfortable and for a few hours we slept like babies before the first trip out ....  

 

 

 

 

 

 The sequencing went a little astray as far as the pictures here .. .We went out to visit the water villiage (houses on stilts over the river) and boated up the river into the borneo jungle to see the probiscus monkeys and then ate beside the river sampling Brunei delecacies before seeing the lights and the mosques at night .... All on our first day of landing ... Pictures to follow over the next few entries

 

But here ..........

 

 We also took a walk through a park - Just to keep the old man happy :O)  Who ever he was :O)   

 

 (Blurry) Picture below shows our guide and McD getting a foot massage on upright pebbles

 

A Blurry McD Laughs through the pain !!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That night we drove round to see the lights they still had showing from from a festival to celebrate the Sultans Birthday.

 

A mosque looked fantastic lit up and golden ..>Can you believe I took this picture without a tripod !!

 

 

 

 

 

The lights below were chandeliers but the locals called them the angels 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The lights outside the Sultans Palace fell like rain ...Impossible to capture but an amazing spectacle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then visited another Mosque. Prayers were underway with the haunting prayers (I think but maybe from the Koran) being recited from the top of a spinaret across the city... We were to re-vist the mosque in daylight the next day ....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The gold on the gate and the fence around the Mosque was gold inlay ...  

 

 

 

 

 

Were were very tired by this point but stunned  by the beauty of the place.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 More pictures to follow - Sorry the quality isn't too good ...Throughout this holiday I was plagued by low/no light and rain and visciously vibrating boats .... My Camera  helped where it could ...My stupidity in not carrying my tripod around with me shows in the picture quality .... 

But as McD kept reminding me ...I can't spend the whole holiday viewing it from a camera lens ....................:O)