Arboreal disaster part 3 [arse-about-face]

Check out the previous two .

Arboreal disaster ...part 2 ...photos only

Arboreal disaster

It never pays to get too smug on this planet of ours ,I have been patting myself on the back for how nicely things have been going ,forest-wise this season ,a nice bit of moisture ,lots of warmth good growth ,what more could I want ?
Who would have thought that SNOW would have been my nemesis in the last week of January ! Yesterday at 2pm I had to knock off work as it was just too hot ,by 10 pm a nice welcome rain was falling ,rain on the old tin roof has to be one of my favourites ,so I was looking forward to bed .As I went to bed ,around mid-night ,I looked out the window and BLOW-ME-DOWN it's snowing ,so I decide to put a photo on facebook before I go to bed ,well BLOW-ME-DOWN the power goes off ,and whose only torch is in the car !Anyway I'm only in bed 10minutes and BLOW-ME-DOWN a huge poplar branch lands on the roof ,so I hide under the blankets ,but it's not long before I hear another crash ,and then another ,the weight of the snow on the fully leafed trees is just too much ! it's a bit like being in Kabul ,but I manage to keep myself in bed and even get a little sleep .About 6 I decide to get up and survey the damage ,unusually the snow has FROZEN ,it is not your lovely chrystaline powder stuff from the winter but hard and course and weighing everything down to the ground ,the place is like a disaster zone ,I would say that 20% of the trees were damaged in some way or other ,the very little ones were OK and the very big ones ,but the middle sized ones were most vulnerable .The evergreens were obviously OK ,but the deciduous just couldn't handle it .My French WWOOFer and I have spent the afternoon cutting the tops out of damaged trees and making bonfires .
Now nobody was killed or injured ,no property was lost ,but I still felt a great sense of loss as I am on first-name terms with most of my trees ,and on those that have a particular owner ,I feel more grief . The good side is ,is that they will grow away again ,with probably MORE vigour than before, and make a more unusual shaped tree ,but it will take that much longer ,and I don't have 'that much longer'.!! I find it most ironical to be punished by SNOW in the middle of SUMMER.All sympathetic words will be greatfully received .Tomorrow the sun will shine and we will picnic in Naseby ,but there will be one less cocky sylvanite in Central Otago .Life is great !!

Continued

A few more photos .Yasoda in the orange shirt ...Two French children devouring my childrens books ...20 litres of cherries is a helluva lot of cherries ! tomorrows work ...

First for the year

Happy new year to you all ,half of it's gone already !! sorry that I haven't been on for a while but the days are so long that by the time it is dark and I've fed myself the old brain has given up ,but I will try to be more productive from now .[new years resolution].
Until last night we had had minimum rain in 6 weeks ,the creek was down to a trickle and I was spending lots of time watering the trees ,then last night ,and today, the skies have opened up and drenched the place ,beautiful glorious rain which should get us through the next month .One shower of rain is worth 5 waterings with a hose ,must be different water .I am starting to see a real difference in the growth now ,in fact I am contemplating which trees to cut out !!!! The Merry-go-round of Sequoias is getting quite spectacular . My hari krishna friend Yasoda has given me a sculpture for the forest ,what's a good name for it .My last family of WWOOFers from France sent me a bottle of whiskey with the mail-man ,look what he wrote on the bottom of their note !!
Today a man arrived with a trailer load of cherries and I just filled a 20litre pail !!! how good can it get ,but this IS the fruitful time of year ,yesterday I picked 3 icecream pottles of raspberries for the winter .
OK that's not a bad start ,here's a few random photos .