Nan is 84!

Nan flew in from Gisborne and we headed for the train to make our way over to Masterton. It is s a gorgeous evening and the sun streams into the carriage as we whizz by the luscious green rural scenes. By Featherston most of the commuters are off the train leaving us destination travellors. David met us at the staton in Masterton and we arrived at the farm by 6.30pm.

Next day the birthday treat is a pedicure at Che day spa. Ninety minutes later, Nan's toes are hot pink and sparking! We can't walk far after this as we can't put our shoes on - open toed sandles are needed!

Lunch is whitebait fritters and David has basil and sun dried tomato sausages and we sit out on the patio at the farm on this gorgeous warm day and remember waitbait catches from the Temuka and Rangitata rivers from long ago.

In the afternoon, I cut the lavendar and rosemary and teach Nan how to strip the stems. Nan sorts the lavendar by length of stems so we have 3 or 4 piles of different lengths, and then we tie them in big bunches. They smell gorgeous and will sit by the fire in their big willow basket to dry for the winter. We then graded the rosemary into bunches with 12 long straight branches and tied these with string to dry. these will go to friends to flavour their lamb dishes.

Its a great Wairarapa afternoon with the sun beating down and the air completely still. This autumn is more like summer than our summer was adn this weekend one of the best we have had for months.

Early evening we head out to Solway Park Grill for dinner. The sky was blue, and there was not a breath of wind as we sat by the windows of the dining room looking out onto the trees. It is an idyllic evening. We order our birthday meals. Nan chose corn fed chicken with roasted vegetables; Diana had the blue cod with new potatoes and beans, and David chose the sirloin steak which a heap of golden french fries, which he didn't want to share, although we managed to snaffle one or two.

After watching Master chef during the week and being intrigued by the banoffie pie, we spied homemade banoffie pie on the menu. David chose Banoffi pie, but it was a bit of a let down. The toffee mixture was too sweet, the chef had used a biscuit base instead of pastry, there was no taste of banana, and no cream in the mixture. aaagh. Nan chose the meringue filled with summer berries, which arrived filled with cream decorated with minimal berries and an inedible fern leaf! Ray McVinnie would have had a field day. Where were you Ray! Anyway, the evening was a great and a fun and memorable beginning to Nan's 84th year. Her birthday cake arrived and was a tiny carrot cake complete with icing, and a lit candle. The waiter arrived with a flourish at the table carrying a plate covered with a damask napkin and the knife lying graciously on top. Nan blew out the candle with a wish, and cut the cake into 6.

Hot day, hard work and a hot air balloon

We've been on the go since early this morning. Yesterday, we made several decisions. One was to net the grapes. David had thought it wasnt worthwhile. We had lost so many with the frosts. One of our pumps serving the frost system hadn't restarted after a power surge and we didnt know until after the frost. Damn. This meant 40% of the grapes were lost. With a lot of secondary growth, slower and a lot less sunshine this year, means we have smaller grapes, and no vraison, yet. Vraison is the redenning of the grapes in the sunshine. The continuous rains, has meant the vines are rampant, growing wildly like overgrown eyebrows shading the grapes from the sun.

Yesterday we talked with Virgil. He strongly encouraged us to net, pick and have a vintage, even if its just a barrow full. Then you are in the cycle of production. What an optimist, but after long discussion, we knew he was right. David had given up. I felt a bit miffed, and that our long hours of lard labour in the vines was being wasted.

To prepare ourselves, I make dinner of fried haloumi with lemon, thyme and baby cos and maroccan pumpkin and chickpeas, with cumin and corriander.
Inspired by a glorious sunset, we decided to begin early and net the grapes.

Up at 7.00 am, and out to hedge the vines. This means cutting the top and sides so the grapes have maximum access to the sun. That took us two hours. Fortunately, David had begun this last night so some of hte rows had been done. He then sprayed for powdery mildew. I like to keep out of the way when he is spraying so I went up to the shearers cottage, and dead headed the roses, cut the lavendar and harvested the oregano. By mid morning we were ready to begin netting.

David had rigged a chariot like affair on the trailer. It had a large arm out to the left, with a loop hook and the nets are fed through this high above the vines. Ideally three people do this job. We were two. I drove the tractor and David put the nets over the vines, then we swapped. By the end of the first row we had a system which worked with just the two of us. by noon we had done three rows. We had a break and many glasses of cold water before heading out.

Richard and David had put the nets in their bags after last years harvest and they had done a fantastic job. No knots, pulls or twists, amazing, and their care last year, was to our enormous benefit this year. By 1.30 we had two and a half rows to do, so large bowls of icecream and tinned apricots, then out for the final stouch. Hard work. It is a gorgeous day to day, which we both had hoped after seeing the glorious sunset last night. If it had been windy or wet we couldnt have done what we have. So the nets are up, the birds are foiled, and David is out there pining down the nets in the places where we have luscious grapes, ready to begin their ripening.

By late afternoon, we could hear a dragon breathing, great gasps of breath in and then out. Suddenly over the tips of the willow trees, looms a hot air balloon on its last legs. Wheezing its last breaths it lands in the paddock next door. We race over, and the balloon field guys bring their truck through our property to pick up the basket, the now deflated balloon, the pilot and his three passengers.