The renovations continue (but not for too much longer we hope). The rain falls, the sun shines, the grass grows, the garden goes slightly wild, life continues on….. for most of us. It seems to be the season for some souls to leave this earthly planet. Both human and animal. As I get older I feel the absence of more beings I have known, who used to be, but aren’t anymore. Little spaces in my consciousness. I find gardening to be therapeutic when I feel aware of all those little spaces. It’s a constant cycle of germination, flourishing, senescence, dying down and regeneration in the garden, in a wonderful and inspiring way. I hope that all of you out there, who have lost someone dear to you recently, have something that soothes your soul like gardening does for me.

I love newborn lambs, daffodils, babies and freshly painted rooms! I got to have the most glorious cuddle with a friends new baby the other day. Thank you Annika and family. May you have full enjoyment in that precious new addition to your family. He is so beautiful!

Now in less philosophical mode. Want to see a magic trick?

Here you see a lovely new wardrobe shelving arrangement….

And now you see……. Stuff!

This wardrobe now actually has a door! Zara claims this enables her to leave her stuff in glorious disarray without me having to see it.

The garden is being quite productive when it stops raining long enough for us to get out there and harvest things. We have lots of celery, cabbage, broccolli, mesclun, kale and some peas and beetroot.

The garlic started getting garlic rust (a fungal disease) so we have given up on that and pulled it out. The onion seedlings are doing really well though. We have some beautiful camellias flowering. I love them so much at this time of year. Couldn’t help myself but buy another one at the garden centre the other day as I was so inspired at how well our current ones are doing. I have no clue as to where I can plant it unfortunately. Will have to find somewhere!

We also had a lovely time with my horse Bella’s trainer coming to visit us and delivering Bella’s new saddle. As this lovely lady lives on mainly raw fruit and veges we took the opportunity to eat fresh produce and indulge her with raw food goodies.

And for the horsey crowd here is a pic of the new saddle. Its an extremely close contact dressage saddle made in France. It’s like riding bareback but with the stability of having a rigid tree. I love it. But more importantly Bella loves it. Complete with cat photobombing.

Anika:

Lately is been very wet, and that’s made it very very hard for mum to ride in her new saddle, which has finally arrived and has been named Marcel after its brand. The horses are not too fat for a change, but are a bit crazy from being unable to be regularly worked because of the weather. At the moment we are doing pony riding lessons and Milo is having the time of his life. Once again the garden hasn’t had much attention, but the weeds aren’t growing too fast bless them. The other day one of my friends came over and I took some cool photos. And a couple of days later I took some of the moon.

A few weeks ago my grandparents came up and I helped Nana Kerry wallpaper my room. It was a lot of fun and at times quite messy but it looks awesome now. We had barely enough wallpaper to finish the room so she used her fantastic wallpapering skills to patch the last bits together in one of the corners . So thank you very much Kerry for your help it was very much appreciated. The knitting was fun too.

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Ballet has started again. Zara and I have been doing an awful amount of stretching and it’s much needed. Some times the cat tries to help which is great not but shes losing her marbles so you have to give her a bit of leeway sometimes. A couple of days ago we got our first lambs. They are so cute with their fluffy legs and their little bleats calling for their patient mother, who probably believes in the saying ‘no rest for the wicked’.

Jamie:

Rolling in the mud gets a really puggy paste

You end up to be a little muddy grub

Bendy willow sticks are perfect weapons to smash wet grass down

and get even filthier.

Jamie’s ‘poem’ above encapsulates a lot of what he has been up to lately. The washing machine has been getting a good work out.

On Sunday I went fishing with Dad. Even though Dad may have caught the first fish it was a little bit too small for our tummies. He threw it back, I caught the next one. It was a rock cod. Rock cods may look pretty but they aren’t tasty, so back in it went too. Then my line buzzed again to catch the biggest fish of the night. It was a snapper, with a blue tinge at the end of its fins. That night it was decently rocky rolly but our boat stayed afloat. We went home as I was feeling a bit seasick but we had dinner in the chilli bin. We drove home over the country roads and stopped in at a friend’s cowshed where we hosed down the boat with their high pressure hose.

The garden has had little attention but we have had a meal of my dwarf beans. At least the weeds aren’t growing too fast. My favourite thing at the moment is going to the blood orange tree and picking an orange to eat. The oranges are light red, big and juicy.

This blood orange tree is so amazing that we have planted another one (of a slightly different variety hoping to get even redder oranges) next to it. It is growing well, aided by generous quantities of seaweed, horse manure and comfrey companion planting. Picture below.

Zara:

I thought that blog writing had finished. But no, someone kindly reminded mum of the blog that us kids had done so well not to mention for weeks now. Our only hope of her forgetting it was dashed when she told us to start writing it this morning. Oh well, back into it.

Due to lots of bad weather we have chugged though a fare amount of school work lately. Mum’s currently back finishing the last of the painting in her room. The builder is almost finished as well, I am getting slightly sick of sawdust being absolutely everywhere, including my bed.

The garden has been slightly neglected lately, I did get out there a couple days a go and planted some leek, celery, and cauliflower seedlings. The onion seedlings are also looking good.

You can really start to tell spring is coming with all the daffodils, lambs, and sightly chillier weather. We’ve been pretty lucky being able to get the horses out for a ride most days. I have found out that Leena does not like to work in high winds. If a big gust comes she just stops and puts her butt to the wind and pretends that she is still totally doing what shes ‘sposed to be doing. Little does she know it is not very obedient or helpful.

Personally (the mother in the household) I am not sick of sawdust everywhere. I love sawdust! Sawdust means progress! Same with the sound of hammers and nailguns. Today was Dad’s last official day on the job. We enjoyed feeding him cheese muffins (his favourite morning tea), lemon slice and muffins this week. We will miss the chat during our ‘builder’s morning teas’. Morning tea comes with freshly brewed coffee and afternoon tea was lots of cold water and fruit in summer. Winter afternoon teas were baked items and hot tea. It’s been an amazing process to be part of this building exercise. From drawing plans, putting in the foundations and moving on up from there, we have all learned lots. Especially Jamie, who has been Poppa Ken’s little shadow. Actually a shadow would be quiet, Jamie is not quiet. Jamie comes with lots of conversation and lots of very polite questions that start with, ” May I ask?” Never has an adult from outside our immediate family had to deal with so much Jamie attention for so long. Thank you Poppa Ken for your amazing patience with him. I can only hope that Jamie might one day continue his building training in a more formal manner. Having another builder in the family would be great!

So, on to the last phase of the building process. Where we finish painting, put up shelves, and design and build the library shelves and cabinetry with the help of another talented builder up the road.

Wow its been a while sorry avid blog readers. The holidays were busy and now the ‘finishing the reno’ madness is in swing again in concert with schoolwork and gardening. Just a little bit busy! Changes are afoot with child size bodies being moved into their own rooms. The last furniture reshuffle hopefully.

We had hilarious game of charades with three generations of Nana’s family and cousins in the function room of the Duke of Marlborough hotel. Thankfully they let us hang out there in the rainy hours between checking out of our rooms and the birthday lunch. Dylan Wood would have to be the master of this game. All the ingredients for a great celebration with lots of family and friends in convivial surroundings and complete with a Mid-Winter Swim.

Anika:

Over the last couple of weeks its been very wet, or so changeable that going outside is a definite risk. Mums been able to do a lot of work on our new rooms because of the weather. And that meant I was finally able to move into my new room. The new door to my new room has a square where there’s no wood where you can put stained glass in. I’ve also got a plant for my room which you can hang from the ceiling.

We had a ride yesterday in between showers which was lucky. We also went on holiday at the Miranda hot pools and the Duke of Marlborough Hotel. At the hot pools there were lots of cabins and places you could park your caravans and camper vans. There were little cars that you had to pedal which were fun. The hot pools were amazing and quite large. The smaller one was a bit slippery and I slipped over and skinned my elbow. Hot water bubbled to the surface in the big pool and it was fun to swim over them . It smelled faintly of Sulphur and in the mornings when no one was around all you could hear were people getting up and the soft sounds of the water as the people moved around. I also rode on the mountain bike track so much that it was hard to sit down when I got home. I took my little cousin who is only one on the flying fox and he liked it so much he reached for the seat after I took it back to the top. We also went on a walk and bike to a place where you can see birds. It was a great holiday. When we got to the Duke of Marlborough Hotel we said hello to Nana as it was celebrating her birthday after all. Then us kids got settled into our room next door to our parents. While we were there we watched a movie.

Jamie:

We went down to Miranda Hot Springs for 2 nights. It was very cozy, we were all sleeping on one wall in triple bunk beds. There was only about 60 cms to move around in between each bunk. I was happy because lots of my cousins were there and it had a very large hot pool. I liked to put the pool noodle between my legs and swim around to find the shoots of hot water.

We went on the BMX tracks and the flying fox and the trikes. Miranda is known for its hot pools and it’s great bird-watching facilities. It is really fascinating to know about how the banks of shell and sand move in the Firth of Thames and how the birds feel so at home there as there is lots of food and places to wallow (?!?).

When we got home we started getting the place shipshape. We made a bike holder so our bikes wouldn’t get left all over the ground. I got home and I couldn’t wait until the night because it was my first night in my new room. We mowed like fury, weeded like the wind, and mulched like lightning while the weather was fine!

Then we went away again for one more night to the Duke Of Marlborough hotel in Russell.The trip down was cool because we listened to a Terry Prachett audiobook and went on the ferry. The next morning at 9 o’clock we went for a swim. It was like running out into a thunderstorm with ice cubes on your back. It was so hard to swim as I was so cold that I was struggling to breathe.

Since we have got back I’ve ridden Leena, Zara’s horse and we have had lots of wet weather.

Zara:

I cant believe it’s almost been a month since we wrote the last blog. Time flies. I only really realized that it had been that long when I started making a list of all the things we’ve done since the last blog. A lot has happened.

Us kids are all in our new rooms which is absolutely awesome. My wardrobe is finished; apart from the door. I even got to paint the shelves purple. The one and only thing mum let me paint that colour has a door so you can’t even see it.

As part of one of our cousin’s fifth birthday celebrations we stayed at Miranda hot springs, and also visited the sky tower. The hot pool was amazing. We also had great fun on the bike trail, BMX track , flying fox, and trampolines. I managed to teach myself how to do a back flip which was cool. Looking at the photos it felt way better than it looked, but fun all the same.

Going to the sky tower was pretty cool. I absolutely loved the lift. You could look out the sides and through the glass paneling in the floor. It was great fun watching people jumping off and then just disappearing down the side of the building. In that trip we also fitted in a visit to the zoo with our other five year old cousin. The new orangutan enclosures were pretty impressive. But as always the little South American monkeys were my favorite. They’re just so cute!

Then it was back home for some more painting.

Then we got to go away again. This time down to the Duke of Marlborough for Nana’s birthday. It was such a cool place. The highlight for me though was definitely the mid winter swim. It was so cold it was like getting into a triple ice bath, but worse. It was lots of fun though and I’m glad I did it.

We then had the mission of trying to get home with the torrential rain and flooding. Coming through Kerikeri was like driving through one very large puddle. Needless to say we made it home in the end. Some back roads were taken to avoid the worst of it all. We were all extremely annoyed to have missed all the flooding action at home, and had to make do with playing in all the puddles once we got home.

We are now getting back into all of our school work it’s been a bit of a struggle, but we’re getting there.

Well the hour of the night that this is getting published says it all really. Garth and I are having late nights trying to get the renovation finished while the children sleep thru the sound of sanding and power tools (including a nail gun which I find quite impressive). Finally it feels like we are on a downward slope heading for a finish line. Garth has discovered quite the proficiency at wood work. I think he has been watching the builders carefully and picked up all sorts of tricks. Also my Dad has generously let Garth use all his wonderful variety of saws and a magical little gadget called an electric planer and this has made all the woodworking possible.

When I occasionally take random peeks at the garden (usually on quick missions to collect salad greens while trying to dodge rain showers) it appears to be doing it’s thing out there. That’s one of the marvelous things about gardens. As a collection of living entities they keep growing as long as they have water and nutrients. There is no shortage of water at the moment as it keeps falling from the sky randomly, intermittently and often. Every friggin day. I’m not sure the lawn is going to get mown for the next 6 months. However it’s still relatively warm (sort of… its getting colder) and we need a wet winter to charge the underground aquifer levels and restore the creek and river flow levels. So I’m trying to enjoy looking out on rain as I fill cracks, varnish floors and paint ceilings, walls and trims. Painting gives one lots of time for thinking I am finding although concentrating on not leaving drips of paint in the wrong places features high on the mental play list.

Lots to think about this week with the funeral of a member of the local horse riding community. I have fond memories of pony club camps when we were young girls together. Funerals are always a reminder of our own mortality and never more so than when it is someone fewer in years than your self. Every day is a good day that we wake up breathing. Gone too soon, rest in peace E.D.

Do more of what you love!

Jamie:

Over the weekend I got all excited over getting my hair cut, when we got there I was jumping up and down with joy. Only to find it was closed. Dad and I went to the Hammer Hardware store, but anything that could draw blood was strictly forbidden. Later that day we went goat watching. I spent a little while getting a couple of meters from them. There were goats up on the hill, but we went for the ones on the flats that were surrounded by nothing except fences. I noticed they were heading towards the bush at a steady pace. In my haste at stopping them I ran full tilt and ninja rolled down before getting back up. I managed to stop them and get a good look. Dad said they might be pregnant as they had big stomachs and udders. I’m now off to watch some tree milling.

Anika:

Over the last week or how ever long its been the tilers have finished work and all the tiles look awesome. All that’s left to do is silicone around the edges of them. Its been raining a lot so we’ve been doing house work and watched Doctor Dolittle which was great. We’ve been squeezing in rides when we can and Bridie’s been so exited that Zara’s had to ride her to get rid of some of her energy. My skirting boards went up or should I say down, another thing ticked off the list to getting closer to moving into my room. I’ve also read two books one of which is a Sherlock Holmes mystery. I painted some skirting boards and dug over my garden bed. I picked a bunch of peas before I dug it over though as they looked lush and beautiful.

We went to the beach as well. That was lucky, as the weathers tending to crack up with no notice as to when. Bridie went really well though.

Zara:

With all the wet weather we’ve had lately we’ve been doing lots of inside stuff for a change. Lots of painting, sanding, filling nail holes, and cleaning. Unbelievably we have even vacuumed. Up until now we haven’t bothered because there have been so much building material being brought through the house there has been no point. After the small amount of sanding I’ve done I think I can cross being a painter off my list of future professions.

In between all the bad weather we’ve been able to fit a bit of riding in, We’ve also managed to get the horses to the beach a few times which has been awesome.

Usually when we go to the beach the horses get a bit excited. This time though they were super chilled. Leena likes to go for a paddle in the shallows and kind of jump over the little waves. Its really funny to watch.

A big couple of days at our place this week with the felling of our giant gum trees taking place. As always with arborist work it was fascinating watching for those members of the family who had time. Top Energy, who were doing the work for the council, used a cherry picker to lift an arborist up into the higher reaches of each tree. Over two days they gradually removed the enormous limbs and then felled the remaining large sections of trunk. The local digger driver did a fantastic job leaving the trunk sections well set out for milling in the future and tidying up all the mess. We had thought they might be hollow in the middle but they were solid. The logs look amazing and we hope to get some really useable timber out of them.

Blog writing is at an all time low due to continual time pressure demands at the moment. We will continue to post when we can.

Anika;

Yesterday the contractors started work on our gum trees. They managed to cut all the limbs off both trees and arranged all of them so that cars could get past before they knocked off. At the start it was raining, and they all lined up under the shed’s eves. It was rather funny. The digger pulled out some posts and iron. I thought with amusement that the posts looked like fingers coming off the arm of the digger. Later that day we went down to piano, and got a good look at all the mess they had made on the road.

Today they’ve taken the trunks down and it smells strongly of gum. The noise of the trunks hitting the ground was not as loud as you would think, but even if you were 20m away you could feel the ground shaking as the big tree trunks hit the ground. ( When the largest section fell I felt the whole house shake about 100 m away, while I was up a ladder painting.)

I also built a chicken pen to keep the not so baby chicks out of the garden.

Jamie;

No blog from Jamie today. He missed out on all the action as he was at his homeschool group over the entire time the work was going on.

Zara;

We have had an extremely busy couple of days. As well as the usual chaos we have had the big gum trees at the end of our drive being felled by a team of men and machines. They started by taking all the limbs down. They felled most of them onto the road. Some of the bigger limbs made holes in the road, this was greeted with a whole lot of colourful language. Imagine what would happen if they ended up landing on a tree or person.

Today was the gib stoppers last day. Behind him he left a white world. It looked like it had been snowing, all through the house. I spent a lot of the day sweeping and mopping the floors over and over again while looking part snow man. It’s amazed me how far and wide the gib dust goes.

Well blow me down with a feather. Anika did her descriptive writing beautifully yesterday and totally off her own bat. Inspired obviously by documenting the secret night life of flowers! Our giant gum trees are still up but we are expecting the loggers tomorrow. The tomato house is down, after writing about it in the last blog I thought I really should follow through, so I gave the demolition order. And then I went out and looked at the remaining healthy looking fruit and the Hungarian Yellow wax pepper and basil plants still in full production and almost thought better of the decision. However the demolition had already begun and as I explained to the girls when they complained at removing still functional plants, that it is still warm enough to germinate a good cover crop on the bed.

Zara transplanted the hydrangea out of one of our giant pots on the deck so the Hungarian pepper could live on.

Anika:

Last night I took some pictures of the full moon. It shone like a beacon amongst the trees that surrounded it, gaurding it, as it rose to it’s full power. The multiple fingers of brightness spread their shimmering silvery light to envelop all of the objects that they saw. The soft gentle breeze carried the slight smell of dew, and pine. Under the leafy canopy the pattern was detailed and intricate. The trees that had no leaves left spider webby sort of sketches, the middle filled with green.

Then I decided I better take the salad for dinner inside.

Today we didn’t go for a ride but we did start the horses on a different end of the paddock and you could tell they were pleased about that. Later on Zara and I took down the tomato house. Whilst we were taking it down Zara went to get a ladder. Pffft thought I, and started to walk up the bamboo. Not straight up in though. There were three sticks placed along the sides of the bed. There were two sticks going down from the top of the two sticks at the end of the bed and meeting at the middle one and one over the top. Now you can see how I managed it. (Really ?????). We got a few tomatoes off the vines at the end of their lifespans and we were both glad to finish it.

Jamie:

Yesterday I was doing the job that drives me the most mad. Weed burning. The weed burner I use is like a big gas burner on a stick that burns all the weeds. We burn all the weeds on the drive way and the metal pad by the shed. Later that day the digger man came to measure where all the new septic lines were going to go. We also had lots of fun playing on the zip line with friends.

Zara:

Yesterday Mum got Anika and I to take down the tomato house. We had great fun cutting all the twine and wire of a section and then just watching it collapse. Then unfortunately we had to take it apart properly and take it all away. And of course clear the bed of all the old plants and dispose of them as well.

As we were expecting the ginormous gum trees at the end of our drive way to be felled tomorrow, we brought the cows up to chew all the luscious grass growing where all the trees are going to be felled.

Today I got to ride Bridie and Leena. It’s not very often I get the privilege of riding them both. Today I rode Bridie first. When I got on Leena It felt like I was up a tower. There is obviously more of a height difference than I remember. It probably doesn’t help that my legs only just come off the ground on Bridie (this is not true but it could certainly feel that way). I was very glad that Mum forgot her camera, because if going by how funny it felt I’d hate to even think how ridiculous I would have looked riding her.

Another busy week. While it is raining we do schoolwork and painting. When it stops raining we dash outside to ride the horses or start bonfires! I need to get back out into the garden to plant some more seedlings. I had a realisation when I was talking to a lovely gardening friend as she dropped off delicious mandarins from her trees to feed my monkeys today. It is nearly time to start planting early tomato seeds again (July!), therefore it must be time to pull down last seasons tomato house and turf the plants out. I look forward to this time of year, as the garden looks much more presentable without the ramshackle tomato shelter structure. However the few tomatoes we are still getting are very nice to tide us over, as we won’t have fresh tomatoes again until Christmas time. To each thing it’s season though. It is time. Time to clear the tomato bed and plant a soil cleansing cover crop.

Time also to appreciate each fine day that we are blessed with and make the most of it. Time to celebrate family and friends as my Dad did with two gatherings. One of family friends and another for the tribe that he and mum begun that now numbers daughters 4, son’s in law 4, grandchildren 8, fur babies….. numerous. Here’s to the master builder himself! May this next decade be your best yet! (Not that he will see this post as he prefers to watch TV than ever get near a computer)

Anika:

On Saturday we took the horses to Taipa Beach. It was an extraordinary day of beautiful weather sandwiched between a lot of days of rainy weather. Bridie was a bit full of herself and decided she’d have a leap around to express her joy.

Later that evening we all went over next door to our grandfather’s 70th birthday party. We met up with all our cousins again. After having lunch we went down the hill and lit a bonfire. We also played in the river along one side of the paddock which is about an acre in size. The water was super cold. The bonfire shot up great orange and red flames which reached for the sky. It was difficult to put firewood on a it as it was like standing in a furnace as soon as you got close to the fire. The smell of burning wood is a smell that some people like. I don’t mind it. I find the sound of drying wood amusing because it squeaks, whistles, hisses and many other sounds. On Monday we lit a fire on our southwest facing bank. At night you could see it from the horse grazing. It looked like a circle of light fanning out to grab the nearest bush or tree.

Yesterday Dad went to work so there was no-one to make the huge pile of branches on the fire to keep it going. After a lot of smoke and sweat it all paid off and I managed to make a few decent piles at irregular intervals throughout the day. I managed to keep it going though the night after a lot of hard work to get some big logs on it. I started it again this morning. Dad was very impressed to come home and find the bonfire still going!

Jamie:

Last weekend Dad and I went fishing; hoping to catch a meal. We saw a work up of birds off Coopers Beach , so we slowly bumped our way through the waves to get over there. Our boat cuts through the water like a knife cutting through swiss cheese. We trawled around for about 10 mins. Then we decided to go and anchor at our usual spot. I was the captain cutting the boat through the waves, when buzzzzzzzzz went the line. It was a small lunched sized meal we got. It was a nice medium sized Kahawai.

Quite a while later I caught my first small Snapper. It was big enough to keep (legally), but we decided to throw it back. The snapper broke my line as I lifted it into the boat. Luckily it fell into the boat so we could measure it before throwing it back. The sun was setting and my line was broken so Dad said,”I’ll just use one more bait and if we catch a big fish we’ll stay a bit longer.” The bait was nibbled by a rascally little fish. Dad started the motor and pulled in the anchor. I drove us home.

Later in the week we lit a small fire on our bank. We kept it going for four days, it cleared a whole bank of monkey apple logs.

On Thursday I was specifically woken up to have photos with our gum tree on maybe the last day it might be standing. Disappointly I found getting up early in the morning to be a poor use of my time when the gum trees didn’t even end up getting chopped down.

The load of drainage metal for redoing our septic outflow feilds did arrive however. It is great fun because the truck dumped them in the shape of two hills with a river in between them. You can hide in the valley between them and build castles with stone walls.

The tree felling guys came today to tell us that the trees will be coming down next week sometime (weather permitting).

We have these two amazing giant gum trees on the council owned roadside running along our property. We don’t know when they were planted but they must have quite the years on them. We love them very much as the venerable beings they are. However, we are also scared by them. They lose limbs at random times. When the giant limbs hit the ground the boom is loud and the ground seems to shake. We walk, bike, ride and drive under their long lanky limbs everyday, usually multiple times. Our local arborist pointed out to us the rot in the middle of most of the branches coming down. He suspects the cores of the trees will be rotten also. They have to go before they cause an accident, either to one of us, on to an unsuspecting driver on the road who gets a limb or the whole tree crashing onto their car or rounds the corner and hits a wall of gum tree debris.

We gave the biggest of the trees a hug and said a blessing for it. We look forward to the native trees (including two puriri that we have planted a bit further from the road) growing up into the extra light that will fall once these giants have been felled. We also get to keep the timber from the trees and hope to put this to good use.

Zara:

It feels like years since we wrote a blog. The time just seems to fly by when things are busy. Among some of the many things we have been up to has been taking the horses to the beach, birthdays, building, painting, keeping on top of the gardens, and all the usual stuff.

This was the horses first trip since lock-down, and they were a bit full of beans. Leena certainty keep me on my toes. It was the most amazing morning, the fishermen obviously thought so too because they were boats absolutely everywhere.

We have also fitted in a trip down the line to see some of the other side of the family which was absolutely awesome. We got to catch up with our cousin Benedict. I think he was almost as exited to see us as we were to see him.

Recently we have had a lot of rain which has been good for the grass, not so good for trying to do any outside stuff, and riding has been a bit of a mission. It generally ends up with us getting slightly wet.

Mum has been painting like crazy for the last few weeks now which has meant that we have had to be responsible for getting our school work and chores done on our own (shock, horror!). Dad has been home for the last few days so we have been able to spend a bit of time with him. He has also been taking the new float for a few trips to pick up building materials. It is proving very handy for transporting large items that need to stay dry.

We have had a bit of an unintended break from blogging due to busy factor being very high lately. The kids are having to do a lot of independent school work while I am trying to make progress with the painting. The weather has also been very wet and changeable. Instead of a written blog today I present you with ‘The Vegie Garden’ at it’s sort of tidiest, still plenty of wild plants (a.k.a weeds! in evidence). The Alert level 3 and 4 I must say were a positive thing for getting all our winter cover crops in which the soil is benefitting from now. In this Northland climate things grow fast, well cover crops anyway (other known as green manure crops or carbon crops depending on what stage you harvest them at). I’ll walk you through them in order of their numbers on my very technical rotation chart.

Bed 0 (Zara in charge of)

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Hollyhocks, still flowering away despite being chopped back for winter, bergamot (which refuses to flower), rogue parsnip, parsley, flaxseed, sweet william flowers, marjoram, scorzonia (for seed).

Bed 1 (Anika in charge of)

King seeds Autumn mix cover crop (oats, lupins, peas, vetch, rye + phacaelia, crimson clover and buckwheat). Alpine strawberries, salsify (for seed), rogue parsnips.

Bed 2 (Zara in charge of)

Deka and Port Albert cucumbers, zucchini and crookneck squash, yams (came up from last years crop planted in this bed which I thought I had cleared out!) self seeded parsley forest, marjoram, welsh bunching onions, parsnips (for seed), alpine strawberries, nasturtium.

Bed 3

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Garlic, multiplying onions, calendula, miners lettuce. Blimen cows always get into my winter garden and stomp on my sprouting garlic. They have already achieved this once. I need to put netting over it.

Bed 4 (Jamie in charge of)

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Basil, nasturtium, kale, lettuce, silverbeet, fennel, carrots, parsnips (planted!!), dwarf beans, strawberries.

Bed 5

Cover crops (borage, rye, oats, phacaelia, crimson clover, buckwheat) basil mint, parsley, calendula, chinese forget-me-knots, zinnia, Aquilegia, nasturtium. Spot the cool washing line Garth made me behind the hedge from our old power line. The man from the power board searching for a fault had never seen anything like it!

Bed 6 and 7

Bed 6 kale, cover crop, borage, nasturtium. Bed 7 Broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, silverbeet, nasturtium, miners lettuce, salsify (for seed).

Bed 8

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Basil, chives, tomatoes (pretty much finished for the season), hungarian yellow wax peppers, thyme, oregano, nasturtiums.

Bed 9

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Climbing peas, beetroot, lettuce, miner’s lettuce, carrots, borage.

Bed 10 (Anika in charge of)

Calendulas, lemon balm, cabbages, lettuce, miners lettuce, celery.

Bed 11 (Josi’s favourite bed)

Borage, calendula, minutina, coriander, spinach, miners lettuce (transplanted these to be here on purpose!), Kings mild mesclun mix, Kings traditional mesclun mix, mignonette lettuce, green lettuce, miners lettuce, calendulas.

Bed 12 (quarter of a large square area, split into three smaller beds)

A: yams, salsify, peas. B: cover crop. C: carrots, beetroot.

Bed 13 (Quarter of our square area formed into a keyhole shape).

Sweet peppers of various varieties, eggplants (totally didn’t grow, still at large seedling size!), nasturtium, anise hyssop, basil, red basil, california poppy

Quarter A (had pumpkins over summer).

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Exuberant cover crop.

Quarter B: Had Kumara crop over summer

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Cover crops, plus a bed of flaxseed, dwarf podding peas, fennel and californian poppies. Inka the cat doing a fine job of patrolling for mice.

Other photos.

That folks was the garden lovers blog, next time its all about the latest horse outing. XXXXX

Another turbulent day of weather today. I just thought, “Why do I often start with the weather?” Shortly followed by the thought that the weather conditions for the day often determine largely what goes on in this household. It’s one of the things that I love about homeschooling. We have a different pattern to our day depending on what season it is, and what the day holds weather wise. For the last two days we have been lucky enough to fit in a quick ride in the morning while the clouds hover threateningly above us. The garden is loving the warm drizzle.

It certainly feels like Autumn is drawing to a close (except for the fact it is still so warm!) I have some new plants to get into the ground, so as soon as I can find some time in between painting things that will be on the hitlist.

Bella was channeling her inner Arab today; pricked ears, arched neck and wanting to run like the wind!

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Anika:

This morning I took Bridie for a walk down the road to the intersection with the main Peria road. I didn’t ride her and I reckon she enjoyed not having to work as hard as normal. Not surprisingly her appetite was no less than any other day.

Just after morning tea I took some photos of the cat, and also tried out the panorama setting. I deleted most of them but one which didn’t work as it was meant too turned out pretty cool. Along with those I took some of the Liquid Amber trees. At the moment they are losing their leaves. The leaves are all sorts of colours; dark green, light green, brown speckled, purplish, red and pink. The trees are lots of places. A couple of places are outside of Mum and Dad’s new bedroom windows and over at Nana’s place where they line each side of the driveway. It’s absolutely splendid to look at. We also have them down in our bottom paddock. The leaves look like a glowing hot metal surface covered in glaze. When the tree is in full leaf its pyramidal shape reminds me of Christmas tree.

I went over to Nana’s place and took one photo of her garden and its contents ………. You’re losing your mind if you believe that. I also took more than were required of the donkey ‘Jack’ and the miniature pony ‘Milo’. Nana has great vegies most all the time. Some days when we go over for dinner 99% of the food is from their garden and farm. We absolutely love the garden goodies she drops off.

Jamie:

My second week of Homeschool group (which has a new name – Ra Marama) started with a bit of a disaster. We completely forgot about it in the morning. It was great fun, we enjoyed making a hut with sticks slung in between two privet trees. Our main problem was the bell kept ringing just as we were about to haul a good sized stick and then on the next break we couldn’t remember where it was.

When I go into the subtropical area to feed the chickens I notice how the yellow guavas are disappearing. Behind the yellow guava tree there is a ginger plant and it has about 20 cms of ginger root on it just visible on the surface of the potting mix. The leaves are just starting to die off. I also picked up our first 3 Cherimoya fruit but they aren’t ripe yet. We’ve also got Tamarillo’s on our tree, they are not my favourite fruit but they look very pretty. I also love it when the passion fruit are falling on the ground. I have a bad habit of being in there for a long time scoffing them.

Zara:

Today I noticed our first patch of mud around the cows trough. I think they got a bit hungry last night. Anika did the horses and she generally forgets to give the cows some hay. They get a new break of grass every morning. At night though they look over at you feeding the horses, pretending they are starving, so I tend to give into them and give them a couple of biscuits of hay at night a well.

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Today Mum got me to cut a whole lot of gib-board up to paint the test paints on to. This involved cutting the boards into squarish shaped pieces (I’m not very good at straight lines). I then taped around the outside to stop the dust going everywhere, then painted with undercoat. Next it was time to paint the eight different colours on. It only took me a couple of hours.

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Glorious warm rain for the garden and the grass in the paddocks at the moment. The frantic weeding and mulching on Saturday before the rain came were well timed. My usually already more than adequate standard of delegation has reached an all time high, much to the kids dismay. I am painting the interiors of the small bathroom and Zara’s room. The sooner I get these rooms finished the sooner we can shower in our own bathroom instead of next door at Mum and Dad’s place. We will also be able to move Zara and her stuff back in to her room. Hopefully that will have her sorted for at least a few years. We are all getting totally sick of shifting furniture. In the short term it means I am stuck inside painting while the kids work their way through gardening jobs in between school work. They very much look forward to the rainy days! Anika and Jamie in particular are keen to get back into doing sewing projects.

I must take some photos of the sprouting onion seeds and garlic. They hold the promise of a good crop ahead…. but we have a long way to go yet. One tray of the onion seedlings suffered a slight set back already when I put it outside to get some sun. When I went to bring it in at night it had 3 small doggy shaped footprints in it. I am still carrying two trays out in the morning and back inside at night. I figure this will help as many seeds to germinate as possible and allow enough light for the already sprouted ones to grow well. One large tray has a good spot by the window so it stays put.

Zara has stolen my cool photo of Bella and her mini version Milo. Very cute together. See the photos at the end of the blog.

Anika:

In the weekend I mulched the hedgerow with cardboard and grass. I’m sure the plants are happy. Out the back of our house, we have a chicken run. In the chicken run we have two fig trees. One has purple fruit and one has greeny/yellow fruit. You can see them out of the kitchen window. The leaves of the fig at the moment are yellow and green. The bark is a dark brown giving it the look of a water lily plant. I personally don’t like the taste of them but Mum and Dad do.

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Jamie:

On Saturday I mowed some of our orchard with our self propelled mower. We used the grass to mulch the hedgerows that Zara was weeding. Anika and I also went fishing with our grandparents. Yesterday I was on holding a light for Mum while she was painting. I thought it was a stupid boring job. I got very sore arms. Yesterday we got a call to say that there were scallops washing up on Tokerau beach. To our dismay there wasn’t a shell in sight by the time we got there to check it out.

Zara:

We had a bit of a wet weekend wich was a nice change. The horses had heavier rugs put on, the river came up a little bit, I even got the chance to wear my new rain coat for the first time.

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On Saturday I managed to finish weeding all the hedge rows around the garden before the weather cracked up too much. In the garden we have have completed the unimaginable task of having the garden completely under control. I’m warning you now that this only happens every five years or so. I will appreciate it while it lasts.

The best part though was getting my new room all painted. It looks awesome. While holding a light for Mum as she painted away one night I said ”I would love to help with the painting but, as we all know I would only cause a disaster.” Yeah, I know it’s awful; but I thought it funny at the time. Mum just looked at me as if I was loony. (That was my ‘I agree with you’ face! When not on a horse, Zara often fails to be fully in control of her limbs, well actually any part of her body. She does make up for this by being super helpful and responsible though.)

Another sunny but cold day today. Complete chaos still reigns in the house but at least there is still room for school books on the kitchen table, there is food in the fridge (and pantry and freezer….. and some in containers elsewhere still stocked with lockdown essentials!) We have the fire blazing to keep ourselves warm, and cleaning up the stuff everywhere will wait till tomorrow.

Yesterday late afternoon we were driving home from the coast with our Ceres order. There was the most amazing sunset lighting up the Western Sky. Looking at the glowing golden colours splayed out across the evening sky, seeing them light up the sea and the silhouettes of the pohutukawa trees and the shoreline made me think. I thought how amazing to be right here, right now. Our very existence on this planet is so unbelievably lucky, and the ecosystem that has grown over the millennia is so complicated and magnificent. I feel like humans as a species have a very inflated sense of our own importance in this ecosystem. It’s a privilege to be right here, right now, and its surprisingly easy to forget that for many (including myself occasionally). Every day is a new day, every day is amazing.

Anika:

Today I rode Bridie up our neighbouring farm tracks. She didn’t want to go anywhere, and I had to get off at one point. Zara’s horse Leena who usually doesn’t stop, didn’t want to go either, for the first part of the ride.

Later on I continued my weeding of a hedgerow. This can be dangerous for your mind. Your mind can be damaged from BOREDOM! I finished weeding it though, now all I have to do tomorrow is mulch it with cardboard and grass clippings.

While I was weeding I did notice the comfrey plants. Comfrey is everywhere on our place as it’s a good companion plant. It looks nice and helps the soil. It has leaves similar to the shape of a rabbit’s ears, but a bit longer. It is high in Copper and Potassium. In the old days, it was used in poultices to help heal bones. Another thing it is useful for is its long roots which bring minerals up to the surface of the ground.

I’m looking forward to going fishing with Nana and Poppa on their yacht later today.

Jamie:

Yesterday I helped pick up the first lot of feijoas to fall from our tree (it is a very late feijoa, most other peoples have finished fruiting now). Anika and I picked up a 10 L bucket full and part of a crate. The feijoas were quite often fat but there were trillions of little ones that hadn’t developed properly.

I love feijoas because they are super tasty, they only come once a year, and our ones are big and luscious. Our feijoa tree is about 4 metres tall and 6 metres wide. It is great for climbing and has lots of nice natural seats in the forked branches.

When we had had our lunch of roast pork, greens and alfalfa sprouts we went down and took a whole lot of old building materials to the dump. Mum found some old fish bins, some plastic plant pots and some plants. We kept our eyes open while driving along the road as when Dad was taking the rocking chair down to a workmate with a new baby he lost the cushions off the trailer. We went to Mangonui Haulage to get our Ceres bulk organic food order.

Today I woke up at nearly 9 o’clock and had bacon and eggs for breakfast. Then the gib-stopper came shortly after and said he had a new toy to show me.

Then I went out and picked up some more feijoas. Next I embarked upon taking apart an old extractor fan. It was out of our old bathroom. We had to pull old rivets out so we could get the motor and propeller out. I had a 12 V car battery starter and the extractor fan usually ran on a 200 V power circuit, I soon figured out it probably wasn’t going to work. So I had to go to Plan B. (Watch this space)

Zara:

Over the last few days we have been experiencing some colder weather. To the extent that I now put a jacket on in the morning when I leave the house! Our timetable has also had a bit of a change lately as we have switched to our winter schedule. This means we do a bit of schoolwork before we go down to the horses in the morning. It means you don’t have to be out in the early morning cold, and the horses can keep their rugs on a bit longer. They don’t however appreciate the delayed breakfast. I am enjoying the weather tremendously other than getting yelled at when I leave the doors open to the outside air for more than a millisecond.