King of the castle and princess of everything

My birthday on Friday night and Pete arrived with Billie and Tamai around 8pm so off we went to the farm on saturday am. We walked to the river, and then Ben came over so the five of us headed to the front fence, and picked the apples to make a pie for lunch. The kids had plastic bags each so we filled these with the tiny apples, which taste slighly like cox's orange. Tamai munched through 5 - 6 apples thinking he might eat them all. Back to play on the mound of dirt from the well. and Tamai declared he was king of the castle while Billie declared she was princess of everything. I peeled the apples while Ben chopped them into quarters and the pie was baked and served with icecream. A hit with us all. Dinner was cherios, and not met with great enthusiasm so they were called farm sausages, and down they went. Pete came over by train on sunday and I took the kids in turns for rides on the farm bike amongst squeals of delight from all three of them. Billie, Tamai and I took the train home while Pete and DB headed back by car. Tamai was by the window, on the edge of his seat declaring, 'this is so exciting'. Great weekend.

The earth moved

Some weekends we move mountains, literally and we did this weekend. In frustration after months of not finding the right thing, we bought a mower, with a 1 metre cut rather than 1.5, and a ride on rather than a tow and mow. I arrived 4pm Friday as it was being delivered so had the 'how to ' session, and promptly mowed a third of the front olivery in 40 mins. The castel is agile, slow and noisy. What's good about it is the slowness, no rushing and sitting easy and already I have decided to learn about pod casts so I can listen as I mow. What was also good as I can easily move around he trees, miss the raised laterals so I don't chop through them and dodge the lower branches. Its too slow to cut the mustard on the main property, but for the olives and grapes it will be great. We trial for longer before we decide what next. Sat am I completed the olivery in 1.5 hours and it looks like a park. Not bad for a first try. Cant keep those lines straight though. Waiting for DB, Claire and Bevan, i took to the wild and unkempt apple trees out the front. Paul S drove by and we had a chat, and he came back with his chain saw, and chomped through the big branches in no time, voila. I brushed pruning past over the cuts and we wait to see the new growth in spring. Just as the gang arrived, so did Jock and the digger. When Jock got out I thought, where is your dad! however he proved adept, agile and precise with the digger. so we now have 7 holes 900 x 600cm for the oak trees which i long to see in the ground. And the back of the shearers quarters is bereft of rubble and stumps. Fantastic. It was a delight to see the care and delicacy and care with which Jock worked with this huge machine. Bevan, Claire and I loaded the landi with concrete blocks, pipes and humungous tree stumps and DB and Bevan headed off to the dump on Sunday am. While they did that, Claire and I planted the roses. 9 climbing white icebergs around the water tank, two bright orange bush roses by the septic tanks, deep secret which is a black red, so we can see that from our bedroom window, and three westerlands, rich dark orange climbers along the fence by the shearers quarters. We dug holes, watered, put in the rose soil, spread the roots, and bedded in with top soil and watered, and gave our blessings to proliferate. Then, something of a miracle happened. Bevan noticed lots of the olive trees had olives, not just the one tree by the barn. So Claire and I worked out how to pick. when I say lots, well, some trees had between - 10 olives!! so I drove the farm bike, and when we got to a tree with olives, Claire stood on the back of the bike and picked putting them in the basket. We coverd the bottom of the basket and off course had to head off to Jane and Paul's, and Paul and Margeurite's with the spoils. A quick call to mum for her secret and long time successful recipe and our first 100 olives have been cut and now soak in their first of 10 changes of water, saucer on top so none float. As well as all of this DB mowed some of his vine rows, and added to the irrigation system so we can now water the almost here oak trees and the roses along the front fence. Bevan and Claire completed the mound of soil by the well so we can now sew that with grass, and DB and I unpacked my birthday glass house ready to set up in the next week or so. Somehow, this was a deeply satisfying and even relaxing weekend, and included Robert Carluccio's eggplant, tomato and basil casserole with fresh crusty break for lunch, the dvd crash on sat night, and Claire munching oceans of licorice. On June 1 I am here for 10 days, and can't wait!

Progress and perfection

Perfection, often elusive, visited this weekend in the form of a desert. Both of us were completely pooped when we arrived after a full week. I had left Wellington at 1.00 hoping to stop at the Greytown art shop, before a consult at 3.00 pm with Graeme M on a water system and septic tank systems for the shearers quarters. I'd left my house key behind so had to wait for David to arrive around 6pm. Hmmmm! Meanwhile, had a great meeting with Graeme measured the land, lasered the levels, tested the soil, (and found yet another of those elusive pipes,) to his horror and my delight). He is drawing up a design to submit to the council for a tank to be between the gate and the shearers quarters, and we will collect the water off the barn and pump it over. How cool is that. David later said we will put the pipe inside the barn as it will cross the long side of the barn. Progress. And David has a viticulturalist who we will consult in June. She says it will be two years before our grapes will be productive, this year we will prune, and next year, train them. Great. Meanwhile the autumn colours are gold and red and gorgeous. Big things of the weekend, David has now piped (dug a 45m trench, laid a 25 mm water pipe to the fence, covered it over with soil and returfed, put on a tap, fantastic, and, re-installed the weather system). My jobs were to sand the front door, and finally took all the original undercoat off (3 hours, phew), then sealed it then today put on two coats of dark burnt orange. It looks great, and the door needs one or two more coats. I also weeded the house garden, and planted some miniature blue irises, yes, more dreams coming true.

OK, so now the perfection bit. Friday night, pooped, and I decided we would have desert. Take one Ernest Adams flakey puff frozen sheet and leave in air for 5 mins. Take from your well stocked freezer, four halved frozen omega plums without their stones) Omega plums are the best in the world, dark red, luscious and full plummy taste and from the Greytown orchard and ripe in February/March. Cut the pastry into four equal squares. Score 1cm inside each edge, don't cut right through. Using a sharp zester, zest a ripe orange and put 4 -5 longs strips of zest on each pastry square. Place the unfreezing plum on top of the zest, and one cube or 1/2 tsp brown sugar, and place in 215 oven for 15 mins or until the pastry is crisp and golden brown. Serve with vanilla icecream. Fantastic, quick and superb.