Spring Tidying

I am fed up with the wind. It seems never to end up here and the damage it is wreaking is pretty depressing. An ambulance near Dannevirke (just south of here) was blown over and written off, trucks were tipping over and roofs were making a break for freedom. Officially the wind was gusting at 122km although in one area in Otago it was 170km! The other night the whole cottage shook with the big gusts yet I still managed to sleep through it.

Not much you can do in weather like this but wait it out. I did tidy round the back door area yesterday morning and in the afternoon Ian unexpectedly turned up to mow the lawns. He also has begun trimming the hedge but he only had the equipment to do the sides and will have to come back to finish the top. He arrived here in shirt sleeves but I noticed within five minutes he was in his sweats. He told me that at Tiko it was hot as anything but that it was very cold up here. Yep that's what it's like near the ranges.

Also great news that Richard is finally coming on Sunday to collect the old Nissan my landlady gave him SEVEN months ago. It has been parked outside the front of the place ever since I moved in, a wonderful home for rats who have collected their stash of half eaten walnut shells in the engine. I think his friend Tony is bringing a big trailer and they're going to get the thing up on that as it's not road worthy. Finally will be able to see the garden at the front plus I won't have people commenting on it sitting there. It still has its Rolls Royce sticker on the front although he wind has begun to lift it. It's a wonder the whole thing wasn't tipped up the other day.

Local Bank Is Robbed

It was so cold yesterday morning that I lit the fire at 5am. Just as well as when I looked out the window later there was a dusting of snow on the hills at the back of here and the ranges were coated in the white stuff. Put on two jerseys to go to portraiture and was glad I did. Glenys and her sister in law Jenny picked me up just before 9am- Jenny had bravely volunteered to be the model. I had made the chocolate crunch slice the evening before so took some of this down there and everyone had a piece and no one died. That counts as a success in my book!

This morning I heard that the bank I used all the time before moving here had been robbed at gun point. A bit of a shock as I recognise the teller who was involved. The stolen getaway car was left at Omaranui Road Waiohiki also near where I used to live. Not surprising but that's another story. I hope they catch the people concerned but it does seem to have been well organised so who knows.

Blowing Down The House

I cleaned the cottage to within an inch of its life on Monday and then late Tuesday the winds came. And it blowed and blowed and REALLY blowed. Gusts of 130kms reported on the Takapau plans and I think it was as just as bad here. At 3am Wednesday I switched on the radio hoping it would drown out some of the worst sounds but of course it couldn't stop the house shaking. At 5am I could hear the tack shed roof banging. Went out and saw that the wooden palette I'd had weighing it down had blown twenty feet away and was lying under the clothes line! Hoisted it back up there bursting my Foo Foo Valve in the process and then had to go back out there ten minutes later as it had moved again. Weighing it down with an additional rock seemed to do the trick.

In the morning there were branches all over the lawn (great kindling) plus one of my pot plants had been moved along the path and a small ornament in it had broken. The big storm was the major topic of conversation at art group with nearly everyone tired after being awake all night. Then the rain came and so straight after lunch there was a mass exodus of people wanting to get home. On our way back Gaye slowed down to show me how a tree had fallen over in her front yard. We arrived here in heavy rain and I came straight inside and lit the fire.

All this has not good news for the organisers of the Hawkes Bay Show which began yesterday. Apparently one Tiko resident who was driving there at 4am to set up his stand had to stop for a tree which had fallen across the road. Not to be deterred he pulled out a chainsaw and cut it up so he could get past! Yep that's a kiwi male for you. Have chainsaw, will travel.

Today is rainy and cold so I will be inside making my first attempt at baking in many years. Been given a great recipe for chocolate crunch and if it works out I'll be taking some of it to portraiture class tomorrow. If it doesn't a veil will be pulled across the whole incident and it will never be mentioned again!

A Wander Around The Garden

The bluebells are in flower here. A tub with a camellia tree by the back gate was the first to come into bloom and now there are plants flowering along the fence on the front lawn which has been a pleasant surprise. The dentata lavenders out the front have been a great display all winter and now the camellias are finishing other plants are coming into their own.

In the little courtyard where the clothes line is situated the blue delphiniums are in bud and there are four feet high blue cornflowers. This is probably the only place where tall plants have a chance here as the wind would normally flatten them. I have plants some Queen Anne's Lace by the Lavandula Stoecha and more round the eastern side of the house by the silver beet and non flowering broccoli (a big disappointment although the leaves look amazing).

By the garage there is more lavender and a grey leaved white daisy. I have a pot of purple primroses amongst these. Dotted around the whole garden are purple and blue pansies and heartsease plus a few darker blue forget me nots. There are also large poppy plants coming up but I have no idea what colour they'll be.

Although not a religious person there is a poem that I really think sums up having a garden for me.
The kiss of the sun for pardon
The songs of the birds for mirth
You are nearer God's heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.

Bright Ideas That Don't Work

Well that didn't work. Not only did the hen turn up in the garden again yesterday but she brought her daughter along! Nasty thoughts of electrifying the top of the fence spring to mind...


And what a lovely greeting I had from Briar yesterday morning. When I pulled the kitchen blind up there she was looking at me from the field and soon as she saw me she began to bray, and bray, and bray, and bray. She only stopped when she ran out of air.

The Ringleader

It turned really warm up here yesterday. Must have because I'm wearing a summer skirt albeit with thermal vest and jersey on top. I spent an hour and a half outside doing chores and becoming increasingly wound up by the behaviour of one recalcitrant bantam hen. It is the little brown one who becomes madly broody every year, lays a clutch and then abandons them when the first chick hatches. Yeah that one. Since I moved here every day she has determinedly flown over the fence and begun laying eggs under the house where I can't reach them. Usually I can shoo her out the back gate and she won't come back in but yesterday I had to chase her out SIX times! Then she brought two of her little girlfriends in as well to participate in the new game of driving me crazy.

By late afternoon I knew what I was going to do. When I put them in the shed to feed them I grabbed the ringleader and clipped her wing. Now this doesn't hurt any more than cutting our fingernails does as you just cut the tips of the feathers on one wing which effectively makes her lop sided so she can't fly over the fence. Well that's the theory anyway. We shall see! Her little followers also got the same treatment. Hopefully now the garden will be a chicken free zone.

Hen House Makes A Break For Freedom.....Again

I was out at portraiture class all morning and as it was so cold and windy up here I hadn't let the chooks out before I left. Came home and had lunch and decided I'd give them a quick run about before I fed them. Well imagine my surprise when I went outside and heard them by the back gate! When I went out into the paddock the front of the hen shed had lifted one foot up and they were going in and out underneath. As there is a bar running along the bottom in the doorway this meant I couldn't get inside to see what was wrong and although I pulled and shoved nothing would move. I came inside and rang Jeff down the road (he of the wayward cow incident) but his wife said she didn't know where he was but she'd ring the main office at Smedley and ask them to contact him on his walkie talkie. I went back outside again but when I came in there was a message saying there was no answer from Smedley but she'd continue ringing.

Two hours later I had a brainwave (I'd eaten a chocolate biscuit so I think this was what caused it) and went out, propped a concrete block by the door to keep it open and lowered a camping chair inside the shed. I transferred into this and wriggled it along the dirt until I was in the corner and could see a piece of metal had ripped and was holding the shed up on top of the warratah (metal stake) the shed had been wired to. I levered a spade inbetween this and the whole shed fell back to the ground. I wired the warratah back in and was able to come inside and ring Jeff's wife to tell her I'd fixed the problem.

An hour later I heard banging from the back of the hedge. When I went out Jeff was there repairing the shed and knocking more warratahs into the ground at either side and attaching thick wire to these from the roof to hold it down. He said it had been a something or other of a week for wind and it was going to get worse. He went back to the farm for something and when I came out later he'd finished the shed and gone home.

Just as well those chickens have nerves of steel considering how many times that shed has attempted to escape. They even kept their cool while the wind jet propelled them around the paddock and managed to lay a couple of eggs in the process.

And the cow jumped over the...

I almost forgot the big excitement yesterday. During the day I heard lots of swearing outside. Now I've lived in the country long enough to know that's usually emanating from a farmer shifting stock. Looked out to see Jeff from Smedley moving a recalcitrant black cow past this place accompanied by a couple of dogs. Next moment he was opening my front gates and walking towards the cottage. I stuck my head out the window and he looked at me and with a typical Kiwi males brevity said "Wayward cow". Sure enough one big pissed off cow was standing in my backyard and he had to chase her around the cottage, through the garden and down the drive back onto the road. Silly moo had jumped the gates so perhaps that nursery rhyme is not so unlikely after all.

I of course was terribly relieved. There is only room for one wayward cow on this property and that's me!

Dark Nights and Alpaca Days

I haven't blogged in over a week and a half. Not because I haven't had anything to say but because I have been incredibly busy.

The water tank is in and working. Brent did a marvellous job installing it considering it was his first one. It's situated right behind the hedge at the back of the cottage and next to the hen house so hopefully it will shelter that from the worst of the westerlies. He also installed a water filter in the kitchen so a flash new tap arches out of the bench for drinking water. I was away from the property on family business for two whole days last week so missed alot of the installation as well as saying goodbye to Brent on the Thursday. However while I was out he kindly took all my rubbish (including packing boxes I used to move here in late March) to the dump so the back carport looks so much tidier.

Least favourite moment of the week- coming home in the dark on two evenings and having to feed animals in the rain and cold by torch. Especially when the hose was in use filling the tank and I had to take water bottles inside to fill them. On the Thursday night I was outside struggling with a mud covered hose wound tightly onto it's spool and not wanting to move. I think I got inside 10.30 that night and didn't fall into bed till midnight.

Favourite moment was on Wednesday after art group at Otane when Brent's Mum Gaye and I went with her two grandsons to visit three alpacas on a friend's property just outside Waipawa. Stunning older house overlooking a beautiful English style country garden where we sat in a sun porch with a hot drink chatting about ballet with the owner who used to teach it as well as weaving since she makes stunning garments out of her animals' fibre.

I took many photos of Trucie, Winter and Pollonius which I will take into get developed in a week or so. Trucie was a white Suri alpaca so looked as if he had dreadlocks. In fact I had a suspicion that he was such a laid back animal he had a penchant for saying "dude" and "chill out". At one point he came up to me, bent his head down and as I bent mine leaned forward and gave me a gentle kiss on the lips! Have to admit it was one of the better kisses I've ever had albeit a grassy tasting one.

Winter was a white fluffy alpaca and Pollonius a rather noble looking brown animal although not as friendly as their surfer dude brother. Of course I am in love but unless a rich sugar daddy comes my way alpacas are out of my league. However I can enjoy spinning their fibre whenever I can get hold of it and Esther, the lady we visited, as offered to teach me to weave.


Alpacas are the in thing here in NZ at the moment. I pass many lifestyle blocks grazing a few animals on the way into town. I do wonder though if the industry will go the same way as mohair goats, angora rabbits, deer, kiwifruit and avocados which were also the flavour of the year a while back but crashed and burned when the markets weren't as great as they hoped.