A weekend's work and play

We bought this property to relax, read and paint. After 5 years of working most weekends, last year I decided to take a break and headed off to Europe and UAE for 7 weeks. I had a fabulous trip, meeting with friends at various places; Maria in Grosetto, Lance in Milan, then Shahla, Jean and Lois in Milan and Venice, April in Paris, and then April and I headed off to Abu Dhabi and Oman.

This weekend was a typical weekend and I have decided to document some of the action! We arrived Friday afternoon, and immediately David is off to see the grapes, while I head for the glasshouse, vege gardens and tank garden to see what has been growing. I discover scallopini, beans, basil and lettuces are ready to pick, with aubergenes, tomatoes, capsicums, blueberries, figs (can't wait) will be ready next month. And the roses are at their best, still.

Saturday, neighbor Jane joins us for coffee and scrambled eggs with our parsley and chives. I head back into the green house and hack off the leaves of the tomato vines to let the sun in on the still green fruit. I have no idea whether this will kill the plants but I can't see how the sun will reach the fruit otherwise. I weed, pull lettuces, stake the tomatoes and the french beans which are prolific.

Heading inside for a cup of tea, I have a great need to do something creative, so I make soap. I am using our fabulous olive oil which is a deep green color and our well water which is potable and delicious. My first batch has turned out well other than in the looks department. I like large cakes of soap. The first batch lasts well and is wonderfully soft on our skin. This is my second batch. The color is light creamy yellow and I decorate them with tiny dried pink rose buds. This batch looks better than the first. Can't wait to try it, but I will wait at least a week as it needs to cure for the next 8 days.

The north olives need some attention. The grass has grown again with all the rain. An hour and I have mowed the north olives and around 4.30pm join David, who is plucking and tucking the olives. The vines are long and hardy with all the rain and we need to expose the grapes to what ever sun comes their way. We pull off the leaves, take out the laterals and tuck the vines within the wires. It takes us around an hour to do a row - we have 12 more to do.

Evening we spend with neighbors Richard and Mena and their friends Mike and Robin. Richard bbq's steaks and courgettes for us which we have with salads and green beans, lots of wine and sparkling water. We talk late into the night, responding to questions like ' if you had a chance to meet someone from your past again, who would you choose' and 'what is the worst job you have ever done'. A lovely way to get to know new friends.

Sunday - I have been waiting for months to tidy up the bases of the north olives. Water shoots leap out from the base and trunk of the olives trees and need to be taken off. They drain the growth from the tree but we want the trees to put the effort into the fruit. Each wound needs to be dapped with pruning paste. It is one of those jobs that takes a while and is 'low crop work' - Chester's term for having to bend down for horticulture work! In my hour's work, I complete the house olives and two thirds of the north olives. Great, mostly done. My job for the day on the LIST had been to mow the front olives so I do this as well as between the vines. The place is looking good.


Morning tea time: David and I tied up some of the wind break olives. The gales of last week has left many of them on a lean. So you get the drift. There is a lot to do when we are here.

I keep having a vision of the place looking fabulous, which it often is, however a bit of rain and everything is overgrown again.
Meanwhile David is mowing around the house - he did this last week too - and he has shaved the grass! I must say it looks amazing. This is the shortest the house grass has ever been. With all the rain we have been getting I have a feeling it won't last. In between, I have been sorting my photos into albums in iPhoto, and deleting all those photos that aren't great. I have just downloaded picassa so I can upload photos to this blog. (the blog won't let iPhotos upload). I am slowly becoming techno savvy.

Next weekend is the long weekend, hopefully a chance to read and paint. I have some great photos from my recent trip to Brisbane for the AANZPA conference, and I have in mind to make a painting of one I took of some eucalyptus bark up in the Glasshouse Mountains.

We are heading back to Wellington to meet up with Pete, Darren and Pirimia then pick Sandra up at the airport at 7.35pm then home for dinner.