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 .

Photos

Sorry about the two photos the same ,I'll add a couple more to compensate !! cheers

Christmas greetings

Seasons greetings to you all ,especially today which is the summer solstice [it was light till 10pm tonight] I feel particularly guilty at this time of year ,I want to make individual contact with you all ,but there are just so many that I get swamped ,and you are ALL at the top of the list !if you have sent me a card then I am very appreciative and humbled .
Tonight is family night on the blog ,last w/e was Cams graduation and after the ceremony we all went for a lovely dinner at an Italian restaraunt ,a great time was had by all .Where Cam goes from her ,Cam only knows [but I don't think that he knows either !! watch this space ] Cass and Manu are having their baby in April ,close to MY birthday on the 10th .Cam and his brother Rupert are coming here for a couple of days over xmas so that I don't get lonely or have to drink on my own !! Cambrian ,the village is looking beautiful at the moment ,all the young trees have got their clothes on again ,having got them burnt off a month ago .
I hope that you ALL have a great season ,I would love to see you all in Cambrian ,but I don't think that it will happen . Love to you all ....Bob ....xxxxx

Working with WWOOFers

I have a young Englishman from London with me at the moment ,Alex by name ,keen man by nature ,so we have got just an amazing amount of work done ,I have most of my wood in for next winter ,60L of elderflower champagne made ,another batch of beer ,bread baked lawns mown,I'm really quite exhausted ,but he's off next week to run a marathon in Austin Texas ,what's the world coming to ???
What's NZ coming to for that matter !!what's the betting that the rich-poor divide will be a gaping chasm by the NEXT election ,don't say you weren't warned! at least I have my beautiful rhododendron for consolation ...cheers all .

Having fun

Wow,doesn't time fly when you are having fun ..or mowing lawns in the springtime ...My week in Auckland was just fantastic ,had lots of time with Mum ,enjoyed Margaret and Raenas company once again and caught with lots of old army friends after 40 yrs .
But the payback came when I got home and the lawns had grown with a vengence, I have quite a lot of lawn and I see it as a form of exercise ,but I also do Antons and others ,so by the time I get to the end ,it's time to start again !!! However the place does look good even if I say so myself .I'm very glad that I invested in a good weed-eater .
This is probably the time of year that I like best ,after all the bare months of winter all of a sudden everything is doing something ,be it birds ,buds or flowers but it is really satisfying to see everything come back to life ,then god sends a frost to just to keep you in check ,the young oak trees are particularly succeptable,I feel it like a punch in the kidneys .However they do come back again after a couple of weeks .
Overall life is its normal idylic self and if any of you out there want to come and share some of it you are more than welcome ,Cam came home for a week ,that was especially great .
Now on a more serious note ...Think VERY hard before you re-elect this govt. !!! If you do ,expect to be sold down the river by lunchtime ,everything will be sold of to benefit the top 16%,so if you are not amongst them [not many of my friends are !] then vote for someone else ,the Wall St sit-ins didn't just happen on a whim ,nor did the French revolution .Don't say that you weren't warned . Cheers all ....Bob
The photos are just things that I wait for all winter .

Visit North

Hi...it's about 2.30 Friday morning and would you believe that it's trying to snow !!!!I hope that it doesn't succeed ! I've just had the most marvelous week in Auckland visiting my mother who is in a "Home" in Ellerslie ,we went for long wheel chair walks around the streets smelling the flowers and chatting to passersby,cities really are just one big botanic gardens ,or hothouses in the case of Auckland .That took up most of my time but I did manage to fit in a dinner with my old TF pals that I hadn't seen in 40 yrs !!!! it was exciting and frightening at the same time ,from 26 to 66,I'd be fibbing to sat that we hadn't changed at all !!!
Mum is as well as can be expected of someone 98 who is not mobile ,she gets quite frustrated at times ,but can still play scrabble and is quick off the mark with her "tables". She is in a very lovely home called "Mercy Parklands" and Margaret gets to see her frequently so we are all very fortunate .
I am fortunate to have Cambrian home with me for the week ,but less fortunate that the weather is crap and the lawns are a foot high.Once again the place is waterlogged ,but I'm sure that that will save me a lot of watering later in the month ,most of the trees are in leaf now and looking sumptuous ,I hope that the weather doesn't knock them around too much .Here are some photos of the family ,I am always sorry to miss people out in Auckland ,but one day .... love to you all ...Robert