Drought again

The garden is a confused as I am with the seasons. Sycamore is turning autumn and Magnolia starting to drop leaves. 

Now Magnolia in particular, cannot complain of drought. In her position, she spreads her branches over my new shrubbery, which I have kept well watered. Anyway, the willow family, planted along our never failing stream have not suffered at all and yet they are becoming a golden cloud waving along the gully.

But I am still in summer clothes. I am even going sleeveless and exposing my cellulite to keep cool. Last night was so hot I almost turned on the fan. 

I think that worst of all is the dryness, the dust everywhere.  There’s something about rain. It is way more than moisture. It seems to contain a life force. No matter how much I water my garden, the plants survive OK, but they never thrive and prosper till it rains and then the garden is flush with growth within a few hours.  I’ve tried watering with sprinklers so the leaves are washed as well – as close to rain as I can get but it just doesn't hack it.

Look at poor Satsuma, she is in a wilt.  I am giving her a drink as I write but I suspect a more sinister origin.  Borer is a constant companion to citrus here.  I suspect she has a bit of a dose but she'll be right.  A bit of judicial pruning usually fixes that and the prognosis is good.

According to http://www.sanctuaryweather.co.nz/raintrends.php the year to date rainfall for Auckland is 74mm, the average year to date is 299mm.  That is a drought.

Mushrooming

Easter Monday 1st April 2013

Gordon told us to go get some mushrooms from his paddock down the straight so today's bike ride had us going down there to pick them. The stream under the bridge is very low from the drought but as I thought, the small shower we had last night was just enough to encourage them to pop up.  They are just like the ones my Mum used to describe as edible - dark brown/black on the underside and the skin on the top peels back easily. 

"Don't eat any mushrooms apart from these." she used to warn us. 

 Round our place the mushrooms are white underneath and I wouldn't eat them.  Ed reckons he has tried one or two but he took the opportunity to ask Gordon as he used to own our land and grew up there.

"I was told to leave those ones alone." was his reply.

A Ride in the Forestry

Fri 29th March Good Friday
 We decided today was the day to try to go as far as the Waiuku forest. The ride to the forest was easy but from there we stumbled upon a new road with large gravel stones. A nightmare to ride upon except that it was downhill through the sand dunes and trees. We stopped when we saw the river and went and ate our sandwiches on the beach.  The black sand glistened in the sun which complimented the sparkling water.  Bleached driftwood was scattered along the beach dotted with oyster shells and rotten fish heads.  Only in New Zealand are we able to go to such a beach on a sunny good Friday without sharing it with a single person.

After lunch we carried on down the road and got hopelessly lost. At one point we lifted our bikes over a gate (well Ed did the lifting) and found ourselves in the mine site itself. We had to turn around and go back.  Google maps showed roads and told us which we were on but didn't tell us which we could access and which were fenced off. I was not at all happy at the thought of retracing our tracks uphill on that horrible gravel road so  we found ourselves going up several dead ends, before eventually discovering a beautiful lane overhung with trees which promised to take us out of the forest. At the end we had to lift the bikes over another gate and cut past NZ Steels mine-site helicopter pad to get to the road.  We had been in the forest for about 3 hours and were getting tired and worse for me my battery was threatening to go flat as I only had 2 indicator lights left.  We decided that if anyone from NZ steel were to confront us we would play the stupid old people card and play tired, lost and helpless.  Well I suppose to tell the truth really!

We got home no problems and I still had battery to spare.  As I was turning into the barn I hit the gravel and my back wheel slid out from underneath me ans I collapsed in a heap on the driveway.  Fortunately I wasn't going fast and only got a grazed knee.  We were both so exhausted we had to have a beer to recover.  We estimate we covered about 40km on that ride.

Monarch disaster

31 March 2013

One of our monarch butterflies hatched today. Ed and I stared at it for ages hoping it was ok. Its wing was folded in half lengthwise and wouldn't straighten. We were discussing if we should do anything when Ed said 
"Well we are not going to take it to the spca for their butterfly wing".
Have to draw the line somewhere.

I'm afraid it didn't do well and died. Leaving me devastated that I may have got too close to the chrysalis when I sprayed the spiders under the eaves. :'(

Bothwell Park Rd March 2013

26th March 2013
 Some views of our property taken in March of this year.

The path down to the Dam.  It reminds me of a real English country lane. Abit dry this year but still enchanting

Koru

 The Koru reminds me of walking down the bullock track in Grey Lynn. I decided to take a short cut down the bank to get to the playing fields at the bottom.  I slipped and slid down the bank a little way, but soon got caught by the shrubs and young trees growing there.  I sat and admired the view for a bit and then turned to get up.  And screamed and scrambled backwards as I saw there beside me, a giant hairy insect. Turning to see what it was I realised it was a large Koru.  I had only been in NZ for about 7 years and had never seen a ponga koru before and sat amazed at its size and beauty. No wonder Maori revere it.

This photo is of our top paddock all killed off and half cleared to return it to grass. The hypericum market seems to be diminishing for us as we can't compete with product from Peru where they only pay a dollar a day (or maybe even a dollar a week!). hypericum cause a lot of stress as it is such a large crop for us.  Ed decided to go into semi retirement and cut the crop down for next year to what we managed to actually sell this year.  So we are returning it to grass and I will put a couple of cattle beasts on there.  I am quite looking forward to that I love the cattle they are inquisitive and engaging.

Stray stormy petrel

Thurs  28 March 2013

Rinka found this white faced stormy petrel while he was weedeating this morning. It seemed unharmed but weak and couldnt really fly. We thought about feeding it but both decided we would have no idea what we were doing. So we ended up driving 50 odd km to the spca in mangere who said they would send it on to their bird wing (so to speak). That covered most of the day. All for a bird. A fairly common bird. Hmmmm. It was very cute and snuggled happily on my chest. It had good survival strategies that one

Ed's Birthday

19th March 2013

As usual Ed was decidedly grumpy on his birthday but fortunately for us, he managed to keep it under control for the evening.  We went round to have tea with Cush, Baz and the Kids.  We (including Eamon) had all pitched in for a sax case that he wanted.  Bob came over too and as is normal for this year the weather was perfect.  We sat out on the deck and drank and ate till we were more than full.  Ed got quite tipsy and his usual ornery self.  Poor me had to drive him home the "highlight" of which was when he opened the door of the Jag while we were driving on the motorway "Just to see if it was locked".  He then proceeded to prod and poke every button as if he didn't know what each one did.  I locked the doors from my drivers door and hoped he wouldn't distract me too much.  He wouldn't admit to a hangover the next day

Left to right.  Baz  sitting on stool, Ryan (part hidden) Bob (foreground) Mason Emma Ed

Baz, Cushla Ryan (sitting in front of Cush), Bob, left foreground, Mason Emma Ed

Farewell Patch R.I.P.

We had to put poor Old Patch down Yesterday.  He was  injured in the fight but they were just punctures and lesions nothing serious and to start with the Vet was optimistic but he became alarmed at the extent of his arthritis and we decided that at going on 14 he had had his innings. So it wasn't the fight as such that did it but it was just the last straw and probably only hastened things by a few weeks anyway. He had already lost his "Joie de vivre"  

He was a good family dog and we will miss him. We got the  vet to do a house call as Patch hates the clinic. As hard as it is, he was saved from death row at the SPCA, and had 14 good years with us. It's hard but right.

Just buried him in our little doggie graveyard where Rocket and Sheba are resting - farewell old friend you were a good dog.

.

 

Dog Fight, Lola on Bike

We went to a street party last night. Tied up Sox (age 12) at his kennel, and put Patch on the deck but didn't tie him up - he's nearly 14 with bad arthritis so doesn't move much - so I thought. I gave them their tea and we left with them both munching happily. Came home about 10.30pm to Patch looking like this - Yes, he must have gulped his tea down and gone round to see if he could steal Sox's tea as well. - He couldn't and this is what Sox did to him. Sox, still tied up, was almost unscathed - just tired and sore. Stupid old Dogs - you should know better by now! Vet visit tomorrow I think. More money - we worked out that our old animals cost us $100/week with food and Arthritis medication - let alone vet bills cos the old dogs home erupted into a brawl last night.











Lola is loving our new bikes

Drought

We've had 34mm of rain this year, we normally have around 230mm. I am having to do a watering round daily for all the trees we planted last autumn. I take buckets of water up the drive (which is 500 meters long) and fill milk bottles from them to place around the trees. This way they at least have 4 liters of water a day but that's just survival level! Why is the grass green? cos we're infested with Kikuyu - an Africa grass which can survive drought but smothers anything near it and is a right pain in the A*$#, and almost impossible to eradicate here in Auckland. But looks good in a drought. The grass in the foreground is more what real grass looks like at the moment

While I am writing this North Korea is all but declaring war on the rest of the world.  This new ruler seems to be more gung-ho than his father.  This is how wars start.........

E-bike ride to coast beach

I have to have a bit of a rave about my new e-bike.  I ride along with a big grin on. It’s so much fun.  It has a small electric motor, which assists my pedal power and takes most of the hard slog away.

In this photo, we are admiring the black sanded beach. It is volcanic iron sand. Close up the silicone grains catch the sun and glitter like stars in a dark night sky.  Oh but on a sunny day it is so hot you get blisters even if you sprint from the grass to the sea. Shoes are essential. This is the west coast of New Zealand, just north of the Waikato river mouth. At the Waikato mouth, New Zealand Steel gathers up the sand, extracts the iron with magnets and turns it to steel. However, we must respect the rugged beauty of the hills and shore. Rips regularly take lives and swimming between the flags is essential.

 The bike ride there takes us through undulating farmland, old sand dunes now grazed by sheep and cows, liberally dotted with trees and the odd patch of bush. It reminds me of Hobbiton, which in the guise of Matamata, is only about 150km away.  I am so lucky to live here.