Christmas greetings

This is a year of many firsts, including this e-letter which comes with warm greetings, wishing you a wonderful festive season, full of good friends and heartfelt times and more best wishes for a great year in 2009.

Our year began with the shearers quarters upgrade and including putting in a road and sewerage system. Planning for the future included a second water tank to gather water from the barn roof. Supervising from a distance proved one of the greatest challenges of my life as I discovered trades people promise the earth but deliver in their own time - eventually. However I survived with my hair intact, the completed cottage is gorgeous and we have hopes that paying guests will help us cover the costs of running the farm. Most of the year ‘the farm’ has been running us ragged, however we are now proud owners of a tractor and a sprayer which can apply nutrients into the olive trees, deal to the dreaded peacock spot which has been plaguing the olives, and keep botrytis at bay with the grapes. Our vines are beginning to look like regular vines, and we raced in August to put in a frost system and a second pump for the well. David and his team at work, created magic and when the temperature drops to 2 degrees the water sprayers go on. All the leaves and buds are covered with a fine mist which then freezes over. The water turns off when the temperature is back up to 10 degrees again, and the ice is rinsed off, leaving the buds intact and not burned by the frost. Experimenting before we put this system in had me up one morning at 2am reading outside temperatures at ground level and 10metres up. Yes, devotion - or madness?

We are home gardeners now and self sufficient in lettuces, strawberries, onions, beans, tomatoes, herbs, rhubarb, roses and lavender. Masterton District Council has us recycling so we keep bottles, paper, plastic and inorganic stuff in separate bins and head off to the recycling centre once a month. We both overdosed on mowing this year, with the incessant rain, we could almost see the grass growing, and the trees and vines slowly disappearing. Now its summer, everything has slowed down again, and we are about to as well, at last. We are almost organic, and are rewarded by tons of ladybirds this year. We failed organic under the vines and just had to spray as we couldn’t keep up with the fast growing grass.

Our box hedges are flourishing, including, at last, the ones in the apartment garden. Dianne Hall helped us to re-pot them midyear and they are now a luscious green and growing profusely. This year I made a garden scene, inspired by Paul Bangay, outside our bedroom doors.

I have loved my work this year and found deep satisfaction as executive coach to a number of private and public sector leaders. Next year I plan to expand this work, and I am publishing a small book on moving from silos to collaboration in organisations. David has had his share of dramas and at last the baby identification system designed for Wellington Hospital is being installed on time. Phew. David’s business goes from strength to strength and he has a wonderful team of creative and productive people.

Our life has been governed by a series of lists: here’s one from August 22^nd: Plant the courtyard garden around the Shearers Quarters, put in the frost system, buy the sprayer off trademe, begin the spray regime for the olives, get the gas fire working in the Shearers quarters! (All have been ticked off). Summer list is: swim in the river, drink lots of wine, laugh a great deal, have time with friends!!

Greatest thrills this year has been the growing of a white Romance rose hedge from cuttings rose guru Anne Erwin taught me to do, eating plump strawberries covered by a netting cage Mum made last year, pouring leccino oil over everything from Paul’s olives that Jane and I picked and had pressed mid year, and of course the fab shearers quarters. One of the biggest challenges has been to reconcile our city life with our country life: moving between bright lights, cafes and consultations, to warm winds, shining stars and rustling trees, from meetings to mowing, not an easy transition at times.

David’s daughter Pirimia has been living with us since August as she makes her transition from Auckland to Wellington and from portfolio work to being employed in the public sector. Peter joined us for three months too when he was in Wellington making the docu-drama ‘Until proven innocent’, the David Doherty story, which is compelling. We saw it the other night and fully recommend you see it. It will be shown on TVNZ. So we have had many family dinners and good times.

In between all of this, David and I went to a couple of painting workshops with neighbour and artist Jane Sinclair and we are both thrilled with the results. The experience is frustrating for most of the day and yet in the last hour something wonderful emerges on the canvas along with great feelings of accomplishment.