Plum picking

 

Plum time!

The plum tree is loaded and they're coming on fast. It's a lovely time of year.  Plums appear in spring and those tiny green bumps mostly hang on in the spring winds. They slowly get bigger and then a red tinge appears on the highest plums and one day they're edible. Aint nature grand!

Jam making in the near future and plenty for everyone who drops in with a bucket.

We have a beat up old lemon tree beside the plum. The trees are entwined and the small lemon has improved in health and fruit quality every year with some TLC.

The view from the living room.

Summer making a slow arrival

Our pohutukawa is an early flowerer this year, while the plum tree is running late. 

Mish decided she wanted a pomegranate, and here it is going in.

She's been going mad with garden lighting.

The birds are nesting all over the place, especially at the front door. We now have two blackbird nests, a silvereye nest, and a sparrow nest at various places around the deck. Much tweeting.

Road trip to New Plymouth and Taupo

 Marina and Olaf came to stay, so we took them for a drive.

A slow day driving to New Plymouth via Foxton estuary to catch a glimpse of the godwits. And there were a few, feeding madly to bulk up before their long flight back to Alaska in autumn.

Mish found us a great house in NP - sea view on one side, Mt Taranaki on the other. 

The Three Sisters bar on NP's main drag.

Then a drive across the island to Taupo along the green and scenic Forgotten World highway.

Having a swim in the chilly Waikato River, finding some warm thermal bits around the edges and not going out further out as she's a swiftie and you'd be last seen going over Huka Falls.

And home along SH1 and the Desert Road past the three mountains hidden in low cloud. 

Mish and Marina making grain crackers. Delicious.

Strolling Zealandia. They saw NZ's smallest bird, the elusive rifleman!

Michelle's morning shave

The felting has resumed.

Mish is making a vessel in an online course. It has a silk painting component with nuno felting - so merging silk and felt. The shaving gently removes wool fibres to reveal the silk.

The artwork so far:

Broad beans and olives

The broad bean harvest. They took a real beating in spring winds, even breaking the plants and that's unusual.

After a quick boil and a de-skin it's surprising how little remains to eat. But they are delicious.

On our last trip to Australia we discovered the yumminess of smoky olives. So, down to the BBQ shop and back with a wee smoking kit.

Delicious.

Lennox Head and Grassy Head

Had a lovely nine days in northern NSW catching up with Jane and Nicola and Rita and Sandy - ir's been too long!

Beach walks, thunder storm, country drives, cafes, bit of shopping, sight seeing, dinners - great catch up.

Dog library renovated

 It was looking a bit shabby after a couple of years. So,  fresh coat of paint, new wording and artwork, new dog on top, with a stick holder added for stick selection,  and she's back in place.

After the storm

Phew, we had a doozy of a national storm yesterday. Rock and roll in the South Island and very high winds up to the mid North Island. Trees down, rooves peeling off, trucks blown over. Minimal damage at our place but it would have been very exciting at our last house in exposed Newlands. Max wind speed was recorded top of the South Island in Marlborough: 232kph.

Today, totally different. The sun is warm, the sky is blue and the washing is drying in a light breeze.

Mish has gone to yoga and I've been for a walk on the beach. The wind has churned our shallow sea so it's a reddish brown jumble of sand and surf and seaweed.

Our beach access steps:

Dining room bench, a reno retro fit

 In she goes.

More seating at the end of the table and a couple of useful side areas. A Mish production. 

Can't have too much yellow

The summer daisies are everywhere in the yard. They completely disappear over winter and then whooshka! They are back in force. We differ on how many daisy weeds are a good thing. I am currently winning the meadow argument but Mish is charging the mower battery as I type this.

The two spindly grevillea and the little magnolia stood up to some ferocious spring winds and are growing well. The little ginkgo is still a stick but it has leaves now and is hanging in there.

We trailered in 2 cubic metres of lovely mulch yesterday - much shovelling, at least it was light. Getting ready for summer, so we need more.

And lining the drive, the yellow rose is putting on a good show.

The monster oven

Mish struggling to fit the sliding rails in the monster oven. The door is so big it's good to be able to slide the trays right out of the oven to take dishes out safely. It's been quite a drama going all the way back to ordering them.

Well, the buggers are finally in.

Wind and rain

Spring weather.

Beach walk today was a tad breezy, but we made it without getting rained on. Sea all churned up. But 17 degrees out so not too cold.

And a circuit back to the car through Queen Elizabeth Park.

Christmas cake

First one of the season,.

1.5kg of fruit. Stand back.

Beach moment

 Stormy seas and plenty of spume up at Te Horo beach today, weather coming in from the south west. It's cool but warmer temps are on the way from the Australian outback. 

Had to hose the car off when I got home.

City moment

We had a nice moment in the city a few days ago, knocking off some CBD jobs. There was book purchasing of course. We'd settled in on the verandah to check out the booty and Robynne and Diana arrived, so we got photographed. 

And there's Janey's moose that we lugged over the Tasman and Mish spruced up. Moose is quite at home here and is a nice memory for Mish.

French cafe La Cloche on the way home from the city. Busy as, which is nice to see. We've lost too many good cafes and restaurants in the last five years.

Sprucing up the girls

 Mish's metal sculptures in the garden getting a jewellery makeover.

Bedroom view

 Watering the veg on a windy morn. Mish still in bed!

Bathroom views

One of the packages we brought back from Sydney was a Robertson landscape. Janey bought it when she was staying with us years ago and now it hangs in our bathroom/hall area.

It looks great there!

One side benefit is that it can be admired (backwards) in the vanity mirror when you're sitting on the loo.

And here it is in the hallway, not backwards.

 

Mish in her studio

The last time Mish was surrounded by her wool and her felting books was when she had her studio in Wellington city, and that's going back...five years. 

A milestone today!

Seen here doing an online course in nuno felting - painting silk and merging the silk work and wool together into a felted piece.

There will be felting.

Janey's memorial

After a great deal of prep (Mish and Peter) we held a memorial for Janey in Avalon at Janey and Peter's house in Avalon. 

Mish, Peter, and Jason sharing Janey memories and moments.

Janey's youngest: Tom and Claire.

The weather was perfect (after flash flooding during the week), the caterers did a fab job, the AV worked, and the 80-odd family and friends milled about and fitted into the place just fine. A few laughs and a few tears and Janey would have been happy we think.

Mish, Jase and Carol stuck around and helped Peter do a few things. Like tackling the jammed gate.

We gave it a good shot and then called the pros. 

Had a couple of sea pool swims - even Mish went in once at Bilgola - and some delicious meals. But it was a pretty quiet time and it was nice for the four of us just to hang out.

Mish and Jason packing a couple of Janey gifts.

Both had glass and Mish spent hours indulging her passion for packing. We carried them in the hire car to the airport, dropped them at our airport hotel, dropped the car off miles away and headed back to the airport for the night before our morning flight home.

It worked. 

Unpacking at home, and all is ticketty boo.

Walk to Red Rocks

 At the bottom of the North Island there are a few winter seal colonies. The males haul up for a rest, safe from the local population of orca. It's a flat 3.5km walk from the car park and we went on a sunny late winter day with a picnic.

Cook Strait with a ferry coming to Wellington and the Kaikoura Mts in the South Island.  Destination Red Rocks on the right.

Plenty of chunky seals hanging out on the rocks.

We were both limping along with various ailments but we were doing ok until both my soles began to peel off on the way back. Made it back to the car with a teensy bit connecting on each boot. Another reason to travel with a roll of 100mph tape (and a couple of cable ties).

Box Brownie images are in

Surprisingly, no light leakage and pretty good lens action for an 80 year old camera. Somehow I only managed six images. The roll should do eight. Expensive: about $25 for the roll and $30 for the developing. I knew I had mucked up the winding on to begin but the little numbers were a loooong time appearing in the little red circle. Manual ops! Next time I shall be a tad more savvy. 

Photos aren't much composition wise, but the detail and exposure are dandy. There are definite arty possibilities here, and it's fun to go low tech. 

Here's the veg boxes and the island on a grey day. The weird stick is our ginkgo.

It was a gloomy day, which was just right for black and white. This is our track to the beach.