Miracle christmas party

While the Miracle workers were heading to Masterton by train, a flurry of weedeating was taking place. The front olives looked gorgeous. Peter and Fred from Weathermaster had put the final touches on the awning, in case it was hot - and it was hot. Cold drinks all round when everyone arrived and savoured the h'ors d'oevres. David barbequed Greytown filet of beef, lamb chops and lamb, lemon and oregano sausages (!) while we lathered ourselves with suncream and William, Richard, Ian and Brendan set up the tables under the awning. Sam, and Ellen set the table, Mick looked after everyone with a glass of wine, Langston got the basil for the salad. Some of the Miracle workers weren't able to join us so we left one place set ready and sent our thoughts to Linda, Hayley, and Dave.

The crackers had great gadgets - the metre long tape measure was a hit and Brendan had us relating our height to our arm span and Richard let us know that you can predict speed runners by the relative length of ring finger and forefinger. There were apparently a few slow runners amongst us. Langston was feeling the heat so everyone wandered down to the river to cool off. The afternoon flew by. Of course it was strawberries and icecream before heading off to the train again, and Ian and Kate driving back. The sunset was a great reflection of a memorable day.

Early December abundance

Spring growth everywhere. This weekend we were greeted by both the resutls of our hard work of the past year and by the watering we can now do with the well. The herbs in the greenhouse, roses at the front door, the poppies Jane gave me are blooming, and the garden around the water tank is gorgeous. My dream with this garden was to have icebergs all over the tank, and they are half way there!! Claire and I planted these roses in June. And then of course there is the christmas tree lettuce greeting us from the green house. The builders, Russell and James, have begun on the shearers quarters. the lean to has been demolished, the floor is being poured this Wednesday, Robin the pumber came in on Saturday and put in the pipes for water in the bathroom and kitchen. So this is great progress. Our jobs this weekend included mowing the front and side olives, David buried the water pipes around the side olives so we can mow there. Jane showed me how to make a cage for the raspberries, and it looks rather like a barge in our back yard, however we are more likely to pick the raspberries, and not the birds.

Dale and Gilli visit

http://sososimple.blogspot.com/2007/12/wairarapa-olives-and-things.html

Early November

Mum's been here for four days and we worked hard. We picked up some compost from Parkvale mushrooms for the roses, magnolias and camelias. Mum was a complete gem and showed us how to dig around the plant and spread the compost. She practically completed the whole of the hedge in front of the cottage. We can now water these plants from the well and at last they are growing. The olive windbreak we put in a month ago, along the north of the cottage is now established. Chris, David's brother drove down from Palmerston North and he and David mowed the vines, the front olives and the north olives. They look great. The grass grows so quickly at this time of year.
The roses, the vege garden, camelia's, windbreak and hedges are all on auto watering now which is such a relief, not to have to hand water these now. David has established a small native tree nursery up by the barn and installed the old totara engrance post as the tap stand. It looks great. David has completed the landscaping around the spa pool.
We sprayed the olive trees twice with Score, dressed in our white suits, googles, breathing masks and gloves. Spooky. I drive the farm bike while David sprays and then we change over. Of course we can only do this when it is completely still and air movement. Its a long tedious job. And we still have peacock spot and the number of olive trees flowering are a little disappointing although lots more than last year. These trees are taking a bit to recover from their earlier neglect, although we can see them growing.

Welcome visitors

Down at the front gate, one of the oak trees is about to burst into green leaves. Can't wait. I pruned the house olives on friday, cutting out the main branches, trimming off the dead wood. The trees look stressed and lacking in nutrients. We now have our soil report and kilos of lime and other goodies are needed per hectare. We have yet to work out how to get this into the soil, but we now understand why our grapes and olives haven't been producing. Saturday David buried all the lateral irrigation pipes while I mowed the front olives. This is great as I can now mow 'longways' without chopping up the irrigation pipes! Even so I managed to chop two up completely. I think I could hear David muttering. David planted the two bay trees from the apartment, in front of the house as we transplanted the remaining korokias to lengthen the hedge, so our entrance way to the cottage is more attractive. David trimmed the grass from around the hedging plants and fertilised them with plant fertiliser. We are getting the idea that soil and plants need nutrition. Jane and the boys came for dinner, and we talked late into the night. Sunday Peanut the pony arrived and happily munched the long grass from the side olives. She is likely to be our regular weekend visitor. She is around 30 years old, and belongs to Hayley's mother and Hayley has run out of grass. I loved looking out and seeing her there. The roses are now fertilised, and today I bought nitraphoska for the roses, and camelia fertiliser, as they need more lime than roses. The two Graham Thomas roses have been planted up the front, these are the yellow ones Bona recommended and they are at the front corner of the property.

Wow, did you see that

Driving over last night, about 1 km from our place, a deer, startled as me, shot across the road. I braked, and everything slid off the front seat, as the deer hurtled over the road, down towards the river. How amazing. I phoned Paul S and he told me he had heard there were 2 stags down by the river, and this hind was likely to foal in 6 weeks. How amazing is that!
Saturday am I awoke to a 4.8 degree frost and a warm day, totally blue sky. A real Wairarapa day!
Mike was working on the stone fence and is putting in the letter box David had made. The fence is looking great, we are both completely thrilled with it. I gardened in the morning, weeding the house garden, replanting lavendars which are beginning their spring growith, and planting out the red poppies Jane gave me to lift my spirits. The summer garden will be gorgeous. The green house was next and 12 shoots of rosemary, Tuscan blue are in their pots hopefully to plant out in November around the shearers quarters. There are vague hints of green on the orange branches of the willow trees down by the river. I pruned about 5 olive trees this morning too, and cut my finger on the saw. Blood everywhere, all over the secateurs, gruesome looking.
Bloss and Alistair arrived late afternoon and we settled in. Our row before breakfast this weekend was olive trees. Bloss was on the pruning past, covering all the cuts I had made, and Alistair was trimming off the dead wood. Over the weekend we completed 4 rows, 24 trees. Not bad going with both Bloss and Alistair well into the 80's. Bloss had a great eye for the trees and which leaders to saw off. She was hot on taking off all the damaged and diseased wood. With both her and Anne's guidance, I am getting the hang of pruning olive trees. Bloss began to address the aethetics of the trees which I had noticed Anne had done this when she pruned the roses. So from here on I will be noting the overall shape of the trees. 150 trees to go so plenty of room to move on this one! David completed spraying the 13 rows of vines and mowed all around the house right out to the vista! looks fantastic. Alistair took photos, and measured the roof area of the barn so we can calculate the litres per minute rainfall which relates to how large the overflow soak hole will need to be. Hmmm. The MDC want this information!

Early September

After 5 days at the trainer development, time to reflect. When I arrived on Sunday night, Mike had completed one side of the stone fence and it looks amazing! Fantastic. My focus is to have some quiet time...meanwhile, I picked up the remainder of the olive prunings, and took the resource management consent application to Tyler at MDC, photos of the shearers quarters were printed off at Warehouse stationary, a great service. I am hopeful we are granted consent to have this as a second dwelling on the property. Usually there is only one dwelling per property however we are finding our 80 sq metre cottage rather small for our 19 acre property. We need this resource consent before we apply for the building consent to add a kitchen and bathroom to the shearers quarters. Blackrock Rd is an area the MDC don't want further subdivisions which we don't want to do. We want our family and friends to stay here with us. I picked up 6 roses from home and hosed (white romance), ordered them ages ago, and now not sure where to put them!

Pruning the Olive trees with Anne

Anne and Mark were here when we arrived. We'd forgotten to leave the key out. We unpacked the delicious goodies Anne and Mark bought and had beef Wellington for dinner. Next day, out and a row before breakfast. Anne and I pruned the olive trees. Anne is a master pruner of roses and put all her skills and experience into the trees. They certainly looked slimmer.

We pruned over 20 trees. Some hadnt been done last year, we looked at it, decided which branches didnt belong and used the ratchet lopers and the saw with the larger branches, and our secateurs for the smaller ones. Have a look at this. One criteria we used was ' could a bird fly through this swiftly'. If yes, we decided it was enough. We took off all the dead wood, any branches growing across the middle of the tree, and any branches which crossed over others. That was quite a bit for some trees. We took off branches lower than a metre from the ground. For our break we pruned the roses. Using similar principles of opening out the plant, nipping off bugs if more than one came from one node. These are the roses Claire and I planted in June. They are beginning to grow. Anne opened them out, gave them shape, a great teacher. David an Mark completed the watering system for the oak trees and the roses along the front fence and had a few consults with Mike who was working on the stone fence. Now we can water the oak trees for an hour each day while we arent here. Fantastic. I went back to Wellington for Saturday night and when I got back, even more trees had been pruned, and Anne was on the mower between the vines, and then proceeded to mow amongst the olives, it looks like a park!

A row before breakfast

2pm on Friday and Richard and I sped away from Wellington. This felt much better than working until 6pm and heading home tired at the end of the day. We called in at Greytown, bought bread from the french baker, poicked up a coffee from Salute and off to Masterton. I picked up the landrover from Masterton and Rich followed me to the farm. When we arrived he leet me know, I was billowing smoke and discovered I had driven all the way to the farm with the handbrake partly on. I was wondering what the hot burning smell was! By 4pm we tumbled out of the cottage and into the vines. Rich was away, pruning, tying, pasting. I cut the plastic socks off each plant, untied the twisties wound around and around the canes and tossed them aside. We worked until it was dark, not a breath of wind and quiet. David arrived and we went in for a drink and dinner. Richard named the 2009 vintage, Resurection pinot noir. Watch this space. Next day, up and a coffee and a row before breakfast. I went up to the front rows assessing how many were alive, and discovered that 10 plants out of 70 would flourish. Hmmmm. Not so good. David sprayed the first five rows. This means the grass will cease growing and not compete with the vines. And it will be easier to mow. We gathered at 10.30 and feasted on bacon and eggs and tomatoes and toast, then back out again. Richard finished row 12 and row 13 by mid afternoon and then heading back into Wellington after lunch. Richard had us musing on the relationship with this work and drinking lovely wines, seems an unlikley connection at this point in time. David finished putting the 25mm pipe along the length of the fence, got the hoses working for Penny the cow and our new visitors the 5 Carolines - Jinny's 5 black pregnant cows who are feasting in our front paddock. Sunday saw me weedeating under the front rows of grapes and we have decided to pull out rows 14 - 19 and replant. Phew, big decision.

August holiday

• 10 days here and a big plan. Glenis, our viticulturalist has said August is the month to prune back the grapes. Her consultation including lots of laughs as she cut back branch after branch saying 'you'll have some fun with these". We weren't too sure what she meant. We were to find out! More later. Biiig news is the oak trees arrived on Tuesday, seven five year old english (Querkus Robor) oaks we bought in from Ben at Leaflands in Palmerston North in February to go along the front boundary. They've arrived. Paul next door came down with his tractor to help us get them off the truck and boldly took them to their destination along the front, where Joc had dug the holes months ago. (See 'the earth moved) So exciting! The next few days, David and I rolled these huge trees into their holes which we had watered and flung 3 large fertiliser pills, so they had plenty of nourishment. David shovelled the earth back into these huges holes. Using an enormous mallet, bought especially from the Warehouse, he wacked in three 10 feet high stakes deep into the ground around each tree and set up a watering system so we can water then for an hour each day by timer. Off to Martinborough to buy the tape to anchor the trees. Heavy hard work but they look great. So you'll notice there are things afoot at the entrance way, more than the oaks!! Yes Mike the mason has begun work. David and I had this fantasy to have a great entrance way, stately, even though our cottage is tiny, we like the idea of a great entrance. So the oak trees are all part of that, as is the stone fence. We'd had ideas, and looked at books thinking we might make it (!!!), driven in part by the thousands of stones on the property and that most weekends we end the Sunday but picking up large stones from each of the trees or vines in the property. We are about half way there on that one. ONe of the final tasks most weekend is to load these huge stones up on the landi, or now, onto the trailer Chris and Christina have given us and then truck them up to the front of the property and store them by the front fence. Thinking perhaps the stone fairy might vanish them or some such miracle. We'll we found the stone fairy and its Mike. Mike's been building stone fences all his life and I saw him building one down at Piki and John's on the way here and stopped for a chat. The long and the short of it is its underway. We've worked out we are incapable of having a 'holiday', more like a working holiday. Other things we completed in these 10 days include having Esther do the soil test so we know what to feed the soil, we planted 20 camelias around the spa pools to be a secret garden and shelter belt, neighbour Paul S made David a beautiful work bench for the barn. Perfect. This has caused a flurry of activity and we completely reorganised the barn into a working barn with smoko area, ( I will show you that!), complete with fridge, kettle, cups, and cake tins; gardening area; pruning area; poisons area, mowing area......you get the picture. Looks great. This also means that we will no longer have tools in our little cottage and the centre of our work in the fields is now from the barn. And yes, mid winter, cold mornings and gorgeous days - have alook at this. We just weren't here long enough. And we are udneway with the grape vine pruning - a row before breakfast! Up at 8.00, coffee then into the fields, grappling with the vines. Lots are dead, and lots need much attention, and we are beginning to see what Glenis meant, we can only regard this as fun, as we have no idea if what we are doing will produce new growth.
  

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.

Here for 10 days. Mowing 'the vista' and braving between the trees. this means risking chopping the lateral irrigation lines. After walking a few, i worked out many would be under the longer grass and having the mower at a higher cut I decide the risk is worth it. Richard arrives on Saturday and promptly mows right down to the well! Some of the property is now looking like a park and quite gorgeous. And kingfishers arrive and sit on the tree posts, more fantails are flitting around and join the swallows. Jack frost arrives and leaves everything white, and the moon high at 9am, what a sight. Sam Brendan and Fiona arrive on sunday around lunch time, and after having a look around and lunch in the sun, Sam and Brendan prepare the spa site. David and Brendan head for the river on the landi and bring back bins of heavy wet sand. Sam digs out the remainder of the soil and wheel barrows it to the south drive, then spreads the sand evenly over the surface. Precision work. And many rides around the property on the farm bike which goes faster than ever before. on Monday I order the pavers and they are delivered on Tuesday am. Tony willingly places the 50 pavers in piles around the spa area so DB doesn't have to carry them far! On tuesday night Jane and I discover we can pick our neighbour Paul's olives. of course we think we are going to be the best and fastest pickers in the west and plan to do the 200kg in a day. Hmmm. At the end of day one we have three bins over half full. We weight one on the bathroom scales, 15KG. Looks like we have a way to go. thursday is cooler and very windy. Precariously up the ladders, going as high as we dare, the trees are laden and the olives ready. Each picking, we go through the olives and remove the leaves, not wanting a bitter taste to the oil. We are icking leccion olives known for the more sweet oil they produce. After two days of picking, up and down the ladders, we take our spoils to the olive press. Seeing several crtates of 500kgs of olives, we revise our guess, Jane at 100kg, and me at 120kg, a coffee being the winners best guess. bill says come back at 5.30 if you want to watch them be pressed. We do, and watch our lives being tipped, washed, mashed and spun to produce the golden liquid. We discover we have picked 86kg of olives, and this produced 17.8 litres of oil with 18.4 % return on our pickings. this was the highest for the day at the olive press, with the range between 17.4 and ours. Jane and I are mightily proud. Friday night we have a tasting with the three neighbour households, we put out 6 oils ranging from our italian $11 a litre cooking oil, the colonna Gilli gave me for Christmas, and ours of course along with one from crete Jane has, and two local ones. we warm the spoon dip in, and smell, breathe, say what we smell, then taste with lots of air. Ours is smooth, oily, with a peppery bite. Delicious. From there its pizza time, using Jamie Olivers' recipe for the bases and then a mix of toppings. I had come to paint this week, and Friday afternoon was my only chance, so I worked on applying paint and decided to paint the menu for the evening on canvas: Roasted aubergine, red pepper, artichoke, olives and fetta; fresh pineapple, ham, mozzarella; spicey sausage, tomato, caramellised onions, with mozzarella; potato rosemary, and olives, with mozzarella and parmesan; and basil, tomato and mozzarella, yummo.

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.

Work or play?

Its a crazy thing, as each weekend we come here, we work like crazy. How come? For me, its mostly as my work is ethereal, and this is a chance to see the differences I am producing. And this diary will give us a chance to see over time what we have been doing. Our intention was to come and read and paint, however we work on the property as well. Saturday David put in the pantry, Gerry had made the shelves and they were mm too long. We needed a plane. I've been keen we dont replicate all the tools we have from the apartment, however David needed a plane so off to Mitre 10 ( our fav weekend spot - destination shopping), and low and behold, an electric plane was less expensive that a handheld, so we now have a fab electric plane, and a pantry. At last we can see our supplies, what we have and anything we need. I am delighted and no longer have to move many bowls and supplies to find a saucepan. Sunday we placed thick polythene plastic over 3square metres around the well and taped it in place with silver tape (cos we had it). David shovelled earth from one of the piles from the well excavation, and I shovelled earth from another, into our yellow bins, on the trailer and farm biked it over the the well, learning to back with occassional success. Back and forth, til most of the area is covered. Phew, loads more to do. We plonked the large stones onto the back of the landi and trucked them up to the front fence, we now have a stone fence about .5m high, of loose stones about a quarter the width of the front of the property. Hmm, yes that stone fence. I am staying 5 days, including ANZAC day, so am discovering what it will be like to have a holiday here!
Being slightly nervous of being on my own in the country, I phoned Marguerite, and let her know, saying if I was freaked out I'd phone. Around 4am the house woke and began creaking. A cup of tea later and back to sleep. Phew, made it. Up early with a coffee and the stunning view in the morning sun, dew, and the mist making a hasty exit. First thing was to paint the wooden stays in the pantry. This required me to lie on my side on the floor, and paint, 3 coats. Doing this on my right side was easier than on my left! The thought, I am too old for this, crossed my mind. Then off out to the well and painted some irises on the well cover. If you have to have these things then they need to look half way decent! Jane had coffee ready so across Paul's property to Jane's and morning tea outside in sun overlooking the river and the autumn hills. Gorgeous. Then shopping! Most weekends see us in Farmlands, Mitre 10 or the Warehouse, so this time, browsing. Two winter tops and a pair of jeans later, then home to mow around the house. Jane, William and I went up and over Chester's Lockliddy sections and sat on top of the hill in the setting sun, looking out over the valley and river, quiet, calm and the green, golds and reds of autumn, then picking mushrooms on the way home for dinner. A chance to paint with Linda and Jane in the evening, and Jane teaches me how to apply the paint to the canvas. Linda completes a stunning pencil drawing of William capturing his warmth and quizzical look and Jane adds more depth to her glacial painting for an exhibition next week. I like this holiday a lot!

Dreams come true

David continues to be the irrigation detective, coming across mysterious joins and underground pipes and draws together the overall likely picture. We tried prompting Paul W's memory (he set up the initial system), however so much has happened in the ensuring years, what made sense then, isnt making so much sense right now. Each repair David makes, the pressure increases, so much so we had a 6 metre spurt from one of the breaks in the grove. We are now envisioning water features. This weekend, we drew draft pics of the proposed bathroom and kitchen for the shearers quarters, I DASed the weeds in the pathways, David had chopped the grass around the water tank and new hedges, we looked at all the drippers in the vineyard, adjusting the blocked ones and learning how to take them apart and put them together, we measure the water flow from a dripper (2L per hour as indicated) and I made a fresh brew of pear conserve with pears from Lorraine's orchard in Kibblewhite Drive. The recipe is being refined. As we began looking at weekend properties, I kept having visions of sparkling pear conserve on the shelves and growing things in the garden. Dreams do come true. Will you look at this! Great on toast for breakie or with blue cheese and a glass of wine. Raspberries, lettuces, and green beans all from the garden, we are creating quite a domestic scene where we are. Can't wait for the pantry to go in now so we have shelves for these gorgeous preserves. Gerry says the shelves will be ready this weekend!

Finding the wet spots

We'd planned a restful weekend, with a bit of mowing, and seeing if we could connect the new well water supply with the existing irrigation to the olive trees in front of the house, called the olivery. Peter stayed with us on Thursday night and he went back to Auckland on friday so we headed up to the farm around 10.30am arriving in time for lunch. Being lovely and warm we lay in the sun and read. Hireworld saw us at 10am on Saturday, bringing back a tow and mow for the vines, and for me to do the olives and around the cottage, a self powered rotary mower. (yes I am too old for this). With the farm bike David had mowed the 21 rows of vines in 2 hours. I had done around the house, the shearers quarters and the barn. Sore everything! We then decided to make this crucial link between the new well water supply and the existing irrigation system in the olives. David turned it on. I could see a spout in the distance. Fantastic, we can get water to the trees after the three years of nothing. The next few hours we discoverd and fixed many leaks and breaks in the hoses from our shabby weedeating and previous mowing. Yes we had been told! We replaced as many drippers as we could. David spend most of Sunday digging to the main feeds (40mm pipes) , about a metre down through stones trying to find the mains which feed the different areas of the property. Hard yakka. Meanwhile I worked with bike and tow and mow and mowed the side olives, around 3 acres taking an hour and a half. Coming back from hireworld (they know us well), I spotted a wet patch over by the shearers quarters. We went and had alook, water was bubbling up! David dug again. Another pipe, this one chomped through by Telecom when they put in the phone lines! We needed a stopper, and as no one was open, we made a temporary stopper with a metal end Paul S had, and rammed stones up beside it to hold it in place, This didnt last long. Each repair we made, the pressure increased and then fell off again as a new leak became apparent. At the end of the day, David noticed two wet patches in the driveway. This means the contractors building the cottage had chopped through the main (50mm!!) several times. We'll probably have to replace that one.

We completed Sunday by picking up the large stones at the base of each olive tree and tossing them into one of the rows, and on Monday afternoon, loaded these onto the truck and took them to the front fence. One day we plan a stone walled entrance way to the property. We have plenty to choose from. Two loads in the landi, probably 200 stones altogether. Heavy stuff. I planted lavendar, rosemary and poppies around the water tank and getting it ready for the climbing icebergs to be planted in June.
Hopefully by summer the view from the bathroom window will be gorgeous. And I put some daffodils around the mound ready for spring. Marguerite invited us for Easter breakfast and to a sumputous gathering of friends, family and neighbours. Beginning with an easter egg hunt, this breakfast was served amongst many stories and laughs of our lives in the country. I had painted some fresh eggs with acrylics which the kids enjoyed, boiled for 4 minutes. Miraculously, the paint stayed on. Marguerite's piece de la resistance was baked french toast served with orange, cinamon and red wine pears. Divine. Saturday night David and I headed off to Java, a local cafe, and the food was lovely - I had teraki with lime, chilli and corriander sauce, and David had the beef. Only one local wine to choose from and then a 2006, disappointing especially as they had the 2003 on the wine list. And Sunday might with Paul and Jane. Jane had made delicious lasange and then apple pie with her own apples, the best I have ever had. No wonder we dont loose weight even with all our work.