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 !!!

Man,I love the spring

What a fantastic day in paradise today [well until 5 o'clock when the wind started to belt down off the snow], but up till then it was perfect , and very energizing so my day went something like this ....cup of tea dig some garden ...cup of tea ,feed some little trees and mulch ....cup of tea ,paint the sign and transplant daffodils ...cup of tea ,plant out more snowdrops
...BIG glass of home-brew and talked to my old mate Steve,and Jennie, from Kent. What more could one ask for in life ? [well OK]

No excuses [well only a couple]

Sorry folks ,it hasn't been a good week for blogging ,too many great visitors ,too much wind [both inside and out !],always with one ear out for the phone about my mother . However I had a full days work today down at Lauderdale ,David is grubbing out all the elm suckers ,clearing out the undergrowth and then we are going to plant snowdrops and bluebells and in a decades time visitors will come by the busload .The first photo is of Mt St Bathans in the early morning light ,the rest are self explanatory. Cheers .........These are the first daffodils of the season !! 5cm tall !