Sunday, July 1, 2007

July 2nd


This last weekend was cold and windy, like the rest of NZ. Arriving Saturday midday after breakfast in Greytown, our first job was to warm up the house. Mid afternoon we headed outside to build the green house. This was DB's birthday present for me. I had to guess what it was. Is it small? No. Is it big? Yes. Can I sit in it? yes? Can I drive it? No. Hmmmm. Can I see through it? yes. Hmmmmm. A glass house? You got it. However it arrived in thousands of bits which have only now seemed possible to assemble. We have three sides up. The instructions aren't helping! More next week. Sunday was blue sky with lots of wind. I headed out around 11am and pruned the side olives. They didn't get any attention last year so cutting away at the shoots at the base of the tree, many big enough to be trees in themselves. The trees look brittle and not too healthy. Hopefully this will focus their new growth. The mastering the weedeater (after many false starts - I hadnt found the primer), and off I went, chopping back the grass at the base of the trees. Very satisfying. The barn door blew open, and took me flying with it. The door buckled and I couldn't close it so Paul S, and Chester who was driving by, came to the rescue. Farm lunches on these cold and hard working days need to be hearty and prepared in a short time, such is the pull to keep on working! Left is the baked beam supreme with farm onions, mozarella and bacon. toasted then grilled, served with a cup of steaming tea. Yummo.