New pond fixture

Well finally I have the pond full again ,and blow me down ,look what surfaced !! It felt like the first day of winter today ,perfectly clear morning ,slight frost and lovely day .lorna and David donated a couple of old signs to add to the decor ,much appreciated .For the less imaginative amongst you ,it's a yellow submarine !!! and the second one is a self portrait [I've become a prickly old bugger ]

Global warming

Here are five reasons that I believe in global warming ,or something weird going on in the atmosphere ! All of these plants shouldn't be out until SEPTEMBER !!
Snowdrop leaves ,,,,Voilets ,,,Snowdrop clusters ,,,,japonica blossom ,,,,red yarrow .
We haven't even had a decent frost recently and it's less than 4weeks till mid-winter.

The warm before the cold !

Evening all, sorry that it is so long since the last blog ,it is that strange period between autumn and winter ,nearly all the fruit is picked and what isn't the chooks are getting .The days are lovely and warm ,just made for cutting tracks in the broom and planting elm suckers or any other trees that I can re-locate .It has been so moist this year and so fruitful ,seed-wise that I have gathered up SACK FULLS of acorns and just broadcast them by hand into the rougher spots ,watch that space in about 4yrs .I have also planted a certain number to see how they go .Under Antons trees there is just a carpet of seedlings ,but I never find them very easy to transplant .Look at what I am cooking up tonight ,Big Cone pines ,to get some seeds ,you can see a seed in front of the cone ,they are a beautiful pine tree and I'm keen to get a bunch growing .The pond is my big worry at the moment ,getting it built up before the winter ,but it WILL happen ....Cheers Bob

PS does anyone else find a little irony in the juxtaposition of these two Aussie stamps?

Late Autumn

Hi Folks ,,,,late autumn now ,in fact today it rained all day long ,gentle warm rain mind you ,but it is certainly getting closer to winter now .Lots of firewood in and lots of coal ,so let it come !! I have had a great week with a couple of French WWOOFers ,we cut tracks in the broom and had nice warming bon-fires ,then planted a number of cork elms ,so 20 yrs down the track there should be a nice little elm woods ,hopefully .
I always TRY to get the WWOOFers to make themselves a felt hat .Etienne made himself a black helmet specially for the "Rugby World Commerce" and Aurore made herself a chic little No. for the streets of Paris .
Heres a few photos from the last week ,including the chickens that came on May 1..

Mid-Autumn

Well here we are just past the peak of Autumn ,two falls of snow on the mountains ,half a dozen frosts ,beautiful days and hosts of amazing WWOOFers .I literally couldn't survive without my WWOOFers ,I have fabulous friends [besides the facebook variety],
but with WWOOFers you have lots of social interaction and STILL get your work done ! the last man Antoine from the Basque country tried also to give me a few pointers on my camera ,so see if you can spot an improvement .
I hope that you all have a good Easter break ............cheers ........

Only in NZ

Now here is a funny story for you that could only happen in NZ.
I was taking Zhouhui down to Raes Junction ,Sth of Roxburgh ,so we decided to have a famous"Jimmys" pie as we passed through .She decided that she needed some shopping so we wandered up the main st to the supermarket ,whilst she was shopping I was looking in the window of the shop next door ,woolcrafts and souvineers ,it appeared to be closed,then I just stood there with my back to the window and waited .In the distance I could hear a phone going ,then a little old lady ,whom I'd never seen before came out of the supposedly closed shop and said " are you Bob ?" I said yes,because I was ! and she said "you are wanted on the phone " !!!!!!!! STONE THE CROWS !!
It turned out that she was the mother-in-law of the woman that we were going to visit ,and I had jokingly said that if we had time to spare I'd look up her mother-in-law ,she took me seriously ,and needing a parcel bought & rang her up .Talk about freaky !

The big tree

The big tree is gone !! long live the little tree that I planted to compensate .I must say that I was impressed with the arborists skill, strength and professionalism,even if I didn't want them to do it !!