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 .

Roaring Zephyr

Man we had a blast through here this morning ,it just blew solidly for about 6 hrs.I always feel nervous when this happens wondering what it is doing to the poor little trees . Of course by 5pm it's back to no wind at all and a cool evening .Mother nature is SO fickle ,glorious one day and violent the next ,but at least it is not boring !!
Bought my fireworks today for next winter solstice [or perhaps my retirement party]

Talking a lot .

You must be sick of my telling you how beautiful it is here in Cambrian ,so i won't , I'll only add these three photos for you to decide yourself !!My young neighbours got engaged today ,some visitors bought some apple shortcake for afternoon tea and I talked alot as per usual ....see you

Morning light

I am a most fortunate man, the sun shines straight in my bedroom window as soon as it rises above the Hawkdun range ,this forces me out of bed to take some photos in that light ,it's pure magic [the sunlight ,not the photos ] but today we had breakfast outside ,took the neighbours dog for a walk ,killed and plucked two roosters ,planted seeds for the garden and then mowed ALL the lawns ,fortunately one batch of my home-brew is now ready so I finished the day off in the appropriate manner !!!
I did it hard dispatching two such beautiful roosters ,but I have far too many .