A little bit of this, a little bit of that

The grapes might have a virus! Several have dark red leaves which are not autumn colours, and the bark has peeled from the stem with a nasty looking growth in between. Essentially the roots arent talking with the leaves and the leaves are giving up in disgust. Andrew, our olives advisor, came in on sunday and amongst many other gems, thinks that the growth is solidified sap from severe frosts several years ago. Believe it or not, this is great news and our thoughts of having to pull all the vines up and burn them have moved further back in our minds. Richard had the rest of sunday, tucking in the long arms of the very much alive vines. this was after he had mowed both the vines and the north olives. You may be thinking what were we doing with all this activity. David distressed painted the ceiling of the shearers quarters. He faced some opposition from both me and Jane, however it does make the room a lot lighter. I love the rimu boards, however four sides and the floors may well be enough wood. I am slowly oiling the boards and they are coming up beautifully.

Plans are now afoot to put inthe gas fire and the kauri surround. My brother Doug carefully packed this and ensured it made its way from Christchurch to Masterton and it is in beautiful condition. Meanwhile, my contribution to the weekend? I was on compost again, and managed 30 trees. the rich mushroom compost will activate bacteria under the soil and give the tree more life. Andrew was a great source of encouragement and assistance. We will be planting 200 more trees this November, after most of the frosts, and in the next couple of months, ensure all the small young trees we already have, are given a little sleeping bag at their base to keep them frost free during winter. There is work to do. It has been pouring with rain, much needed. Our grass has gone from white to green in two weeks. and the roses have a new lease of life.

There's been a bit of a gap

A lots has been going on. Its taken some time to recover from David's party, find our feet back at work, and keep the renovation of the shearers quarters on track. I'll do a blog on that when its completed, four or six weeks from now (preview: septic tank in, water tank in, road in, bathroom tiles in. Next is kitchen in, gas fire in, bath in - can't wait). Meanwhile.....there's work to be done. It was dark when we arrived on friday night 8.00pm. We were expecting 4 cubic yards of mushroom compost (yeah I know, new lingo) from parkvale mushrooms to be here, and couldnt find it anyway. Out with our torches, beautiful still evening, and pile of compost anywhere. then we discovered our water was still off (we'd have 5 days over easter with no water, and swimming in the river kept us clean enough. Feeling helpless, insignificant, an early night. at 8am, the driveway alert let us know someone was coming. The compost guy. four cubic metres is a lot of compost, steaming, ripe in the early morning usn. So our work was cut out for us afterall. David made a 600 x 600 x 60 square for our template and proceeded to put compost at the base of each of the olive trees.
While he was doing this, I was on a rescue mission with 15 box trees from the apartment, gasping for life, leaves bright orange, starved of water, and nutrients. So I trimmed their bases, put compost in the freshly dug holes and planted, surrounding the base with compost too. I reckon they look better already. I can hear them breath sighs of relief. By the end of the day he had done 45 trees, and we discovered there are 110 trees in the front olives, not 85 trees, and I counted 5 times when we first bought this property. I think numbers just arent my thing. David found acorns from our very own oak trees so they are destined for the glass house and I am going to see if I can grow little oak trees. Right now these acorns have pride of place on our dining table in a little white bowl. Late afternoon, I mowed the front olives and so they look fantastic with their new black socks on! Andrew Taylor, our olives consultant is have us grow canopy this year (branches and leaves), and hopefully this treatment will mean we will have flowers and olives next year. I was really disappointed when there weren't any olives, again, however reality is, I wouldn' t have had time to tend them, so much on at present.

David's birthday party

The day was glorious, warm and windy. Christina and I cleaned the bbq, David, Paul and Chris, put up lights, Liz joined me and Christina in setting the tables, and we all did all those last minute things needed to be ready by 4pm. We had put a marquee up as the previous days had been cold, wet and windy and we readlly wanted the party to be outside. So we were lucky. Marquarette and Paul arrived with the cake around 2pm and that went secretly into the outside fridge. At 4pm the band, B-side, began playing, setting an inviting upbeat mood.

Neighbours, friends, work colleagues and family began arriving and gathering around the house garden, I looked around and thought, this looks like a pretty good party! Great to have our friends and family and neighbours all together.

Lots of people had travelled over the hill from Wellington and the Kapiti coast, some from down the road and over in Martinborough, others from Auckland, Katikati and Sandra and Ran, all the way from Dunedin, so there was lots of talking and laughing together.

And I got to be with the birthday guy...............

people danced...

The table was set in the marquee, and at 7.00pm, the sides were rolled up and in we went and we sat down to delicious food provided by Entice Gourmet. The tables was decorated with terracotta coloured candles and olive branches. It looked great.

We feasted,
and drank lots of gorgeous local wines, and feasted some more, late into the evening .

Peter, Chris, Pirimia, Tia, Gerry and Simon, all spoke to David and their speeches were warm hearted and touching. David responded. The birthday cake delighted David - chocolate mudcake by Michael from the 10 0’clock cake company and he'd done a fabulous job and it tasted delicious.

We partied long into the night.

We were all a bit quieter the next day. Mike and Liz, Chris and Christina dropped in for morning coffee, then Rocky, Jeannie, Steve and Nikki picked up Pirimia and took her back to Wellington. Mark and Anne joined us for a late breakfast, then Sandra and Ran arrived with rock melon. Pete and Pip headed off around midday. Six of us went down to neighbours Jane and Paul's for a swim in the river, which was cool, clear and inviting. We sat in the shallows and chatted, glided down with the current, then swimming back up the river, reminiscent of when we were kids and knowing how lucky we are.

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.