New seasons trees .

The local store [30km away] phoned this morning to tell me that my new seasons trees had arrived from Nelson ,so my good neighbour David ran me across to pick them up ,we did a little "Tiki Touring" on the way and visited the old Ida Valley Railway hotel ,those of you who have done the rail trail may recall it,but we also passed this fantastic little farm building ,sadly being neglected .The first picture is of Davids toilet , a bit cold on a frosty night !! The railway hotel is now just a holiday house ,but looks to be in reasonable condition .
Well I don't have to guess what I will be doing for the next few days !!

Sunset on the Hawkduns

Very quiet day today ...I've mulched half the little trees with straw, and got the two water rams going for the season ,that must be an indicator that Spring is surely here .
Each day just before sunset the sun shines through a gap in the hills and hits the Hawkdun range ,it can be VERY dramatic ,but you have to be quick and I'm still learning how to best set the camera !

Dissappearing beauty .

Another glorious day in Cambrian ,as well as being my Mothers 96th birthday !! Lots of the family visited her ,but she is pretty low now. What a mind-boggling change of life she has seen in those years ,even this act of sending out a blog was science fiction 30yrs ago !!
A couple of photos to show you the ice formations after the frost[about -5] They are enough to get you jumping out of bed to have a look ,and then slowly over the next few hours you hear it all disintegrating ,like glass breaking ,there's a message in it somewhere.

Feel-good story

Tonight is even more amazing than last night ,but oh so cold ,I'll put on a couple of shots of the little pump this morning ,it kept pumping all night ,and the ice build-up lasted all day even though it was nice and sunny .The orchardists in Alex won't be too happy though ,this is the crunch time for their crops .My neighbour offered me some old silage for my garden so that should help it along ,adds a certain smell to the place already !!
Now I must tell this story ,if for no other reason than to balance out all the grim stories from the radio : My neighbour was high tailing it down to the Dunedin airport so that his wife could catch a flight .Being a little behind schedule he was quite" booting"it with 30km to go when all of a sudden the vehicle just STOPPED ,no steam ,no graunching,no dramatics ,just stopped .Fortunately he was in the gateway to a farm ,and soon two young lads drove out in their ute,upon hearing of their dillema they said [now remember these are total strangers ] "look you take our ute to the airport and sort your vehicle out later " which they did .
Now isn't THAT a good story ,restores a bit of faith in humanity eh ! anyone else got a story like that ? my faith needs a LOT of restoring ,send them to me by e-mail and I'll post them . cheers

"Evening All"..I just saved myself $936 this morning ,I made 40l of good quality home brew,now if I were to pay for that over the bar at Dunedin airport [which I was foolish enough to do with one 333ml bottle !!!] it would cost me $960 ,take away the $24 that the two cans cost and I end up with BETTER beer at the cost of $1 for 1.5lt !! not a bad saving eh.To balance out the health factor I also made 6lt of roasted muesli,I'll have eaten the muesli before the beer is ready,but give it a month and you get a thirst ,then come on up .
There was a thin layer of ice on the pond this morning ,quite cold ,but otherwise
a beautiful day, after my exertions in kitchen I spent a pleasant afternoon mulching the little trees with straw then blessing them with a bucket full of water ,that should see them well into the summer ! About 9pm I went out to check the length of the grass...not a breath of wind ,you could read the newspaper by the full moon, and a little barn owl was calling out in the distance ...no lights no cars no wind ..I love this place .

Chilly morn, in Cambriorn

Another great day ,I visited each and everyone of my trees today and gave them a little treat ,they were very grateful and told me that they will grow straight and true .It was a little chilly first thing this morning ,see photo,but then warmed up nicely .This little rooster has taken to coming inside for a snack ,so I've decided to adopt him as my mascot [fits the french connection !]
The treat of the day was receiving a box of marmalade and relish in the mail from Auckland ,can't wait for breakfast !

It's SPRING ,and it snowed today !

"Evening all" Funny old day in Central today ,supposedly the first day of spring ,but it was jolly cold this morning and by the late afternoon it was snowing amongst the rain ,so everything is pretty wet ,mind you it's nice to have the ground moist before the summer comes ,particularly if I can manage to get some mulch around my little trees ,where are the WWOOFers when you really need them ? I spent a nervous couple of hours walking around Alexandra whilst the car" doctors "
decided if my car was good enough for the open road ...it was !!!