At last

I told you recently that Summer so far here has been…. pretty crap. But last week, we had a WHOLE week of sunshine and warm weather. I was even out and about in T-shirts. Yippee. Awesome.

That golden window of opportunity opened up and we managed to get our hay cut, baled and stored. And during the boring moments of lifting and throwing bales, I looked up to see my most favourite of things – tree silhouettes. Against the beautiful bright blue sky of North Canterbury, there is nothing better than lime green leaves and elegant branches.

 

Blue skies

Hubs HATES (with a capital H) Sunday drives, whereas I love them. Growing up, it was the thing to do – get in the car with your parents and go for a Sunday drive. We used to drive north of Sydney and end up at some tea room along the Hawkesbury River. Scoff a Devonshire tea or two. Or we’d head towards Manly and walk along the promenade, enjoying an ice-cream.

Now everyone seems to spend their Sundays in shopping malls. If a shopping mall is new to me, I don’t mind checking out all the shops but, once I know what’s what, I really don’t like hanging around.

Last Sunday, the winds were blowing. The horses didn’t like it. The dogs didn’t like it. It was also a bit too warm to work around the property. So hubs suddenly announced let’s go for a drive. I looked at him quizzically because I know how he steadfastly refuses to get in the car and just drive.

But out we went. We packed up the dogs and headed towards Sheffield. Someone told us that if you take the back roads, there are lovely long-distance views. We also thought we’d stop off at Sheffield’s famous pie shop. We’ve been there before but totally forgot to drop in this time because we were side-tracked by the views.

My Nikon D40 battery wasn’t fired up, so along came the trusty iPhone. In Thailand, I snapped up a 1970s Soviet-era film camera – the Zorki 4k with a Jupiter-12 35mm f/2.8 lens. I like Russian film cameras and already have the Smena 8M. They’re sturdy and oh so Soviet.

The problem I’m finding is that what with horses, dogs, cows, sheep and goats plus being in Rome for months last year – well, I just haven’t kicked these cameras into action. It’s also difficult finding film although there is a camera shop in Rangiora that I’m pretty sure has 35mm and 120mm black and white film and can cross-process. I must get the Zorki into action – I’ve even found an old instruction manual for it.

Meanwhile, I know these photos aren’t fantastic but they’ll give you some idea of the wonderful blue skies and scenery that New Zealand enjoys in the Summertime.

 

Mobile lawnmowers

I looked out the bedroom window the other day to see….our flock of sheep in the front yard. They hadn’t escaped from the front paddock, hubs decided to use them as mobile lawn mowers.

As you can see from the photo, the grass is VERY long. We’ve been overseas for quite a bit over the last three months – 2.5 months in Italy and two weeks in Malaysia and Thailand. Hubs was with me for seven of the twelve weeks I was away.

Back in New Zealand, the warmer Spring weather was causing the grass to grow and grow. By the time we returned home, our ride-on mower just wasn’t going to cut it. We also want to landscape the area around the house, including the Secret Garden. So the sheep are kickstarting the whole thing by eating the grass. Zeph and Zsa Zsa were quite stunned to suddenly see a whole bunch of sheep in their yard and stood and stared at them all for quite some time.

 

 

The Avon lives on

I went into Christchurch this week to see the rebuild and I’ll show you that in my next post. I don’t know why but, for some bizarre reason, I imagined that the Avon River that runs through the central business area would be full of rubble. I couldn’t have been more wrong – the Avon River lives on.

It was a bright shiny day in Christchurch and the river looked wonderful. It was so good to see it again and the ducks that are so much a part of the Garden City. So for today’s post, here is a quick snap of the Avon River as it meanders its way through the city.

You’ll be surprised to see in tomorrow’s post how much rebuilding has been going on and how Christchurch is nearly back on its feet.

 

Wintery blast

Whilst I’m sweltering in Rome, my beloved New Zealand has been hit by a wintery blast. It seems to be a rare snowstorm and bollocks – I’ve missed it! Apparently, a strong Antarctic front pushed northwards causing havoc, bringing power lines down, closing airports and disrupting traffic. Snow even fell over Wellington – that hasn’t happened since the 1970s – and for the first time in 72 years, Auckland saw snow fall.

The snowstorm has been described as a once in a lifetime event. And of course I had to be out of the country when it happened. But my riding instructor sent me photos of the property and some of the horses. Because I follow natural horsemanship, I don’t cover the horses in winter. Horses have the ability to regulate their internal temperature and, when it’s cold, they raise the hairs on their coat to create an insulating layer. Horses also grow a wonderful woolly coat to keep themselves warm – Muff and Rosie are like woolly mammoths. So if you cover your horse with a rug or blanket, it makes it impossible for the horse to raise their hairs and create that insulating layer.

All my horses enjoyed the snow apparently, as did the three horses boarding with us for a short time. I can’t believe so much snow fell on the property – about 26 cm/10 inches.

Entrance to property. The farm is called Aroona, which is Aboriginal for "flowing waters" or "place of running water".

Coming down the drive - stables and round yard on the right.

The three horses that were boarding with us during the snowstorm.

Danny waiting to get some hay. The grass, of course, was covered by the snow - so the horses had to be fed hay twice a day.

Muff finding it a little deep in the snow.

 

What a surprise

Here’s a surprise. Sheep in New Zealand! Australians have a fairly large arsenal of sheep jokes we like to throw at Kiwis. My personal favourite has always been: A tour bus full of tourists stops by a farmer holding a sheep. One of the tourists calls out “are you shearing?”.  The farmer yells back angrily -  ‘NO, **** off and get your own!’

If you haven’t heard the New Zealand accent, then you might not get this joke. Let’s just say that shearing would be pronounced like sharing in NZ.

Now that I live in New Zealand, I tend not to tell sheep jokes. Because not only do we have around 28 sheep ourselves, this is the sight I see when I gaze over towards one of our neighbour’s property. Baa!

 

Winter slumber

There are four very distinct seasons in the South Island of New Zealand. I like the distinct seasons and how you can layer what you wear to regulate your temperature. And I like watching all the tress and plants cycle through their natural states. Now that I’ve been here for a year, I’ve seen the willow tree, cherry blossom and golden elm in the front yard bloom, shed their leaves and slumber through a long winter.

At the moment, both the willow and cherry blossom are basically sticks. All leaves and blossoms have long disappeared, to be replaced by spindly branches. They look forlorn, especially when the sky is grey or it’s raining. So whilst it’s a bit sad to see them as nothing more than dry branches and twigs, I know that in a few months soft pinks and vibrant greens will start to appear, signalling the beginning of Spring.

The cherry blossom in its winter slumber.

The cherry blossom in Spring.

The sleeping willow tree.

The golden elm sleeps alongside its two companion trees.

The willow and golden elm just a few short weeks ago - April 30, 2011.

 

Snap du jour

The North Canterbury region, and specifically Oxford, can be very beautiful even in Winter. Usually, there’s overnight frost and so the grass is covered with little bits of ice in the early morning. Then the sun slowly climbs its way up the horizon. It starts off low, with golden sun rays bursting through the branches of the macrocarpa hedges. The day is bright and sunny, with a gorgeous duck egg blue sky.

Alas, sometimes there are days of rain and mud. But usually, when I go out to the paddocks to greet the horses, this is the sight I see in the early morning.

 

Picture this

Picture this – as Sophia Petrillo used to say in The Golden Girls. Here I am on a Tuesday morning, around 8.00am. It is a glorious North Canterbury winter’s day – overnight frost; very cold in the morning; but a clear blue sunny sky during the day. And I get caught out.

To be at work by 9.00am when living in Sydney, I used to get up at 5.00am. This was not because it took me 4 hours to do my makeup. It was because we lived just short of Newcastle and I had to catch the Newcastle Flyer (so-called express train to Sydney) every day. This train ride took around 2 hours each way, on a good day.

So now that I am enjoying a career break (which basically means I have no f***ing idea what I want to do with the rest of my time here on Earth), I REFUSE to get up early. Now, I surface around 7.30am, sometimes 7.00am. My first task is being on dog duty. Get the pups up and get their breakfast. This is followed by pup playtime.

Usually, I’m at least dressed by 8.00am but of all the days not to be…..last Tuesday I was caught out. So picture this – here I was outside in our garden, in my pyjamas, hair a mess, no makeup on. I hear this whooshing noise. I look at the pups who are both running around like chooks without heads. Nothing. Then another whooshing noise.

It took several seconds for me to realise (ie I’m slow in the morning) that the whooshing noise was coming from above me. I look up and there is this brightly coloured hot air balloon slowly making its way over our property.

Yeegads dear reader!! I later found out there are sometimes 12 people in these balloons. I could hear them talking and I could even see someone leaning over the basket thingo that these people perch in. No doubt they were saying: “Oh look down there. Someone who’s not even dressed at 8.00am in the morning. How shocking!”. Well, dear reader: at least I had on my best PJs festooned with cartoon cats.

I did see a camera lens poking over the rim of the basket. If I find my horrid photo on Facebook or some social network, there will be hell to pay. Not to be outdone though – I had my trusty iPhone with me, so took some snaps to show you.

Note to self: when out in garden with dogs in early morning, make sure you are at least dressed.

Is it a bird? A plane? A UFO? NOOOOOOOOO...it's a bloody hot air balloon full of people who can see me in my pyjamas!

I hastily shifted to the front of the house, hoping the roof would obscure me. But no. The hot air balloon suddenly appeared - coming over our roof line. Yeegads!

 

Abundance

One of the things we were really keen to do in living the sustainable life was to grow our own fruit and vege. In selecting a property, we did look for one that hopefully had some fruit trees and enough room for a large vege garden. At the moment though, the vege garden is still a vege patch.

But the patch is now bearing fruit. Well, the quince tree is bearing fruit. The vege patch is stuffed full of different types of lettuce, silverbeet, spinach, chives and carrots. And speaking of carrots – they are teeny weeny carrots. I suspect we’ve planted them all too close together and will probably need to thin out the rows.

At the risk of repeating myself, it’s FANTASTIC to taste organic veges. They actually have amazing flavour unlike the often insipid veges you buy in the supermarket. The quince tree has gone berserk and I’m contemplating whether to whip up quince jelly, quince jam or quince tarte tatin (a variation on the classic apple tarte tatin).

Once we get the hang of what grows in which season, we’ll be planting a large vegetable garden. We have a chestnut tree; blackboy peach tree; two apple trees; and quince trees. Quinces seem to be one of those fruits that have fallen out of favour but not in New Zealand. Quinces are everywhere and I’ve grown to love them.

We are not using any nasty chemicals or fertilizers on the veges. Horse crap is literally all we throw at them, along with a lot of water. The hares that used to be around the property have vanished to the back paddocks and I think this is largely because of Zeph and Zsa Zsa being around the garden area.

Tiny carrots but oh so tasty.

Fresh off the quince tree.

Different types of lettuce growing in their neat rows.

More lettuce.

Silverbeet aka Chard or Swiss Chard or Mangold.