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)

Too Warm For Winter

 Strange Autumn/winter we are having .... temperatures all over the place  ...2 or 3 degrees C one day 16C the next .... Rain, sun, hail, ..Snow on the hills ...Sunny, windy, its all over the show ...





No Sir - I dont like it




Well, To be honest it suites me and the forecast is for a warmer than normal winter ... but the fluctuations and warmer weather have played havoc with my winter veggies ... Brocolli  and cauliflower are suffering having had too fast a growth spurt and then been hit with the cold .... all taken its toll on them ..





That said the Kale and Calvo Nero seems to be coping fine .....If the broco and Caulis done recover I'll pull them and get ready for some conehead spring cabbages ..They are faster maturing and will see us through early spring






Meanwhile the always faithful broad beans are up and growing well ..Silver beet/chard and after a while of sulking even the spinach is growing just fine






Meanwhile - we are still waiting for the Chooks to start laying eggs ...Shortest day in 3 weeks ... and then I reckon a month after that ...... They will be the most expensive eggs in New Zealand .....






meanwhile I'm worried about the effect its having on McD !!! Aided by my Big sister!! Who is also a worry :O)  


 

Its the weekend so as per usual as we hit the NZ winter its raining and cold ... Well cool ... anyway not conducive to gardening and too too wet anyway ...

So here I am at the PC with my monster sized mug of tea and a few Ginger nut Biscuits..... Of course we are supposed to be dieting and getting fit and healthy and so on ...Not doing too well on that front. Though recent efforts have seen us all lose a few kilos ... McD and I are supposed to be going to the Gym tomorrow ....Todays plans are not necessarily tomorrows actions ........

We had the chance last weekend to go to the inlet.. A family of King Fishers live there..Fighting playing calling to each other they work the mud flats for fry and baby crabs ... 

Both McD and I face uncertain time with regards to our jobs ...McD trying hard to secure a permanent position but currently on a fixed term employment through to July sometime... A few months back I was told I would be out of a job come June ......Now its the end of the year ....Potentially I could be there for some time after that as there's more than enough work on. I'm part of a major Government Ministry merger which has enormous complications...I'm now managing two of the Ex government groups as we merge them together... Plus a couple of related projects... It's helping to keep me busy and useful.. but it will end ....





The flower of the native vine tecomanthe speciosa. One the rarest plant known. A single plant found on an uninhabited island north of nz. Apart from the goats of course. Sailors of old left goats etc on such islands in case of ship wrecks.

Jobs are becoming scarce in IT in Wellington ...New Zealand Really ... So we have to start thinking as to whats next ...

We could head up to our largest city Auckland. There are more jobs up there but now many...


The iconic wellington Cuba mall buckets. Also have notoriety for having two hobbits piddled in the water when here filming. Peter Jackson was not amused rightly so.


To be honest it would be little more effort to jump across the ship to Ozz... and apart from Sydney We'd probably be very happy over there.. God Knows we've holiday'd over there enough...




The worst thing at the moment is we cant plan a lot.. Holidays, bigger garden projects ... Just frustrating .....          



Still a fave picture for the summer past. One of K's (McDs Siss) shots from her visit.



White Fronted Tern