Last for the year

Evening all....yes ,I know that it's a long time since I 'blogged', but life can get busy in the country you know ,and what with it still being daylight at 10pm ,and I haven't decided what to defrost for dinner ! then it all gets a little too much for me ,maybe I'm just a cold weather blogger !! to top it off I've also been a little demoralized ,the spring weather has belted me around like a heavy-weight boxer ,no sooner have my little trees budded out from one frost than the next one hits ,the last one was on the 22nd and that burnt the spuds right back, along with the young oak leaves ,and I DO tend to get a little dispirited [but try not to show it].Then there are the success stories ,the trees that DIDN'T get burnt and are reaching for the sky at a rapid rate , Overall the forest is developing nicely ,I can see the shape now ,and visualize the future ,and it makes me happy .
My mother is still having visitors ,although quite frail ,I shall go to see her at the end of January ,and hopefully catch up with some' jafas'[that does mean FRIENDLY Aucklanders doesn't it ?] Cam is working himself to the bone in Dunedin
serving coffee to dinosaurs in the Otago Museum .Manu and Kim have been around over the xmas and it was great to see them ,Manu has an exhibition in Dunedin next week ,so that is an auspicious start for the year .
Thanks to all those folk out there who make my life so enjoyable ,be it by employing me ,writing to me or just plain being friendly ,as a reward you can all come to my retirement party on April 10th and drink elderberry wine !! hot of course.
I hope that you have had a pleasant xmas and will have a good new years........ all the best for 2010.......Bob

Rural sauna

Well all the water has gone ,the wet towells are all cleaned and put away and the house is back to normal ,well as normal as it gets ,my WWOOFers went back to the outside world and Cambrian is very tranquil,apart from the birds that are giving it "What-O"
[is that how you spell it?]. After all the drama of yesterday my water-race has ended up cleaner than its ever been ,a nice feeling coming into the summer .This evening was full of the smell of elderflowers and lupins ,and flocks of little goldfinches were chasing each other about .Sometimes I don't have a great display of flowers but what I've found is that I can get a lot of joy from a small bit of colour ,tonights photos are an example ,just snippets of incredible colour.

Floods in Cambrian

Lots of drama in Cambrian today .Yesterday we cleared out the water-race and I said to my helpers "now all we need is a good heavy rain to flush all the mud away " baring in mind that "Central " got 1MM of rain last month ,no bull. Well god heard me and she sent down a deluge [another deluge ] this morning and the race was fair roaring ,the only trouble was that it blocked up behind the house and all came down to visit !! I must have found it quite quickly but then didn't know whether to protect the house ,cut off the supply or run for reinforcements ,well I did all three and we managed to confine it to the passageway ,now I have a very clean floor and lots of wet towels ,but no damage .Next WWOOFers job will be to clean out the emergency ditch that generally handles things like this .BUT,it was fantastic to get the rain ,about 12mm,and we now have the cleanest race in the district ,if the sun shines tomorrow this place will be a sauna.

Rainbow territory

By the time it gets to what time it is now ,I've run out of words ,too much talking in the day methinks ! anyway how's this for a shot of a rainbow over Cambrian ,must mean something !

Just a couple of photos today .Can anyone identify this flower for me ,it's growing wild all over my back yard ,I love it ,the colour is just magnificent and it's multiplying further each year

New week ,new WWOOFers

My latest WWOOFers are Kathrin from Germany and Jean-Baptiste from France ,they are hoping to go cherry picking when the season starts ,but in the meantime we are getting lots of jobs done and having fun at the same time .We actually had half an inch of rain here the night before last ,that was welcome ,apparently things are exceptionally dry in Central at the moment and its only the start of Dec . See you ....
PS. I've added the self portrait taken just 5 minutes ago because it blows me away just how up to date these machines can be ,photo of the WWOOFers ,a poppy just past it's best [like me !] and an amazing potato pie that J-B made ,note the little chimney in it .
That's Kathrin up the tree !

Tree planters

WOW ! what a spring we are having ,everything but snow ,last week we had 3 frosts followed by high winds with 27 degrees ,in between were glorious spring days and beautiful starry nights ,sometimes the nights are more dramatic than the days ,especially if you come from a city .
The top two photos are of the French family who have just spent a week WWOOFing here ,I'm a sucker for shots of cute little kids .The lower two are taken from the front door just at sundown ,who needs colour tv when you've got landscapes like these .It rained enough yesterday to wet the inside of the wheelbarrow !!
I had a stilted, but understandable, conversation with my Mother this afternoon ,she's determined to hang on in there .

Cute little WWOOFers

Hot and dry in Central today ....French family staying ..........spent the day watering trees .......Had my first warm tub of the summer ....and dinner al fresco.

Wacky weather .

Sorry folks ,haven't been on for a while ,lots going on .Went to Dunedin to have an end of studies dinner with Cam and farewell dinner with Rupert ,both boys VERY well .Cam has got himself a couple of jobs in the museum for the summer ,could be interesting .
The last week has been brutal on the smaller trees ,frosts and wind ,both of which are very damaging ,most times the tree survives but it knocks them back a few weeks .More winds forecast for tonight ,so I've spent the day giving them all a big drink .
Life in general is fantastic ,hope that it is for you also . see you .

Another frost this morning ! and here we are nearly half way through Nov, but great day all the same .There is lots of wildlife around ,of the small variety,but each time I go outside there is some natural critter to watch ,this evening it was the small trout in the neighbours pond ,and always a couple of rabbits in the lane .I only saw one person today for 5 minutes ,who else can say that ? but I did talk to myself quite a lot !!!

Sneaky frost.

The sun is well up by the time I am ,but sometime earlier in the morning a sneaky little frost crept through and burnt the new young leaves on the smaller oaks ,it makes me so sad ,they'll come away again but it takes another good month to get back to the same point [and I don't have that much time to waste !!!].However the larger ones were ok and none of the other varieties were hit . Apart from that the days are great ,very quiet this week [unless you are called Rodney or Hone !!] listening to Nat. Radio just reinforces my good fortune to live in Cambrian .

Wild flowers in Central

Had a magical day yesterday ,just a drive across to Cromwell,but the weather was so beautiful and the wildflowers are starting to bloom .The thyme is all out and lots of californian poppies [I'd rather call them escochias,but I can't spell it !!] and just before Cromwell are lots of red valerian ,so all in all it was a colourful scene .Rebecca joined up again with her girlfriend,Emma ,and Emma's mother and headed off to the Mackenzie country .My friend Eunace and I then went out to Bannockburn for a coffee ,it must have been 30 degrees .That's when we spotted the alpacas,what do you reckon on the beautiful field of mature trees ? it made me very envious.
The bluebells are at their best so if you want to come and see them ,come now ,but not many photos left to go .