Crab apple harvest

The tree at the front door (planted by us and Jase) has grown very well. The first harvest last year was about a cup and this year we got 2.7kg. Six jars of bright delicious crab apple jelly.

Then there was sorting and taking off their stalks and wee leafy bottoms.

Mish boiled the fruit and we set them up for an overnight drip through muslin. In the morning we had a neat package and a bowl of glistening red liquid. 

Fruit into the compost and liquid into a pot with sugar and crab apple jelly is ready for scoffing.

Pohutukawa time

 Our tree is a muddy red not a glorious red, but it's ours.

Kangaroo paw looking good too.

New Plymouth weekend

 Mish had to pick up some artwork in New Plymouth so we went up for a quick road trip. Detoured around Cape Egmont to have a stroll through Pukeiti rhododendron gardens late in the day. Missed the flowering by a few weeks but it was nice to walk around before arriving in New Plymouth.

We did get a brilliant flower show from all the yellow pohutukawa trees on the coast. These are much rarer than the red trees, NZ's Christmas tree.

On the coast cycling route.

Glorious.

There's a BMX track there and we watched a meet for a while, lots of racers racing. Had a go on the velodrome next to the track but too chicken to go high though. 

And a bit further on we stopped at a food van and enjoyed the music and ambience and view for a while. Lovely day, I'm glad we decided to take the bikes at the last moment.

Even went to the movies - the Hunger Games prequel  which was ok. Drove home in the rain yet again. Every time we do a road trip with the bikes on it rains. We could get a paid gig going to drought areas.

Summer prune plum tree

 New loppers!

Plums!

The plums are plummeting.

We have the most lovely big plum tree - no idea what kind of plums they are: early fruiters, yellow flesh, gutsy flavour. It is loaded.

We've had to tie branches up as it is right over the driveway and almost hitting the house, and those branches have kilos of plums on them. So far we've made jam, chutney, slow cooked plum butter (that's a wowee intense flavour), frozen some, and given buckets of plummy treasure away.

Michelle's lot - baking plums before 10 hours in the slow cooker.

Carol's lot - jars of plum jam on the bench and not wasting the bit on the saucer that I was testing for setting

A bit of bonsai on a wet Wednesday

 Michelle's new bonsai, a baby pohutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa) being draped over a rock and gently wired.

Fig story in March

The neighbour's fig tree is in full fruit. We didn't net it this year as a bossy tui took up residence (on a particular branch) a couple of months ago AND didn't eat the figs and kept all other birds away!

Several days ago the tui left the scene and the silvereyes moved in en masse. Had to act quickly!

Most were too high for me to pick, and the tree arcs over the big veg boxes so using a ladder was too tricky - enter the John Reid extendable flower picker. Couldn't get close enough to pick an individual fig without crushing it so had to take branch chunks. The tree grows like crazy so I knew that wouldn't matter. Got about 33 delicious figs in mint condition. 

Result:

Nikau Valley walk

 Nikau Valley is a locality of farms near us, but we hadn't investigated until today. It's a short drive east of here and up into the escarpment hills. Drove the three roads in the valley and came back to the main road to do a short walk.

Nikau palms are a native and the world's most southern palm.

View from the top looking south west toward the South Island (too hazy to see it today). Our house is in extreme top left of this pic.

Mish coming down. Well made track, pretty steep but only about 30 minutes of steps to the top. Our legs and knees coping well.

Spring bulbs and blossoms

 It's warming up.

The view from the living room window is rather nice. It's our big plum with bright lime green leaves and Persil white blossoms with a boldly red camellia flowering like crazy behind it.

We're standing by for plums in a few months. 

And in the main garden, a patch of daffys just keeps giving. Blackcurrant bushes now in leaf and coming along behind. Freesia bulbs popping up all over.

 

Into winter (still mild)

Had a night in Wellington to celebrate Mish and Jason and Janey finally selling their Sydney home.

First, offloaded bags at the little Ohtel  at Oriental Bay and walked around the corner for margaritas at the yacht club. A repeat performance from earlier this year when we did exactly the same thing on my birthday, halfway between  our two-day move out of Newlands. Only, this time, we didn't have to roar home in the morning to beat the truck coming back to finish loading. 

So we got to enjoy the morning view and a slow cup of tea this time.

Mish playing with a panorama view from the room. That's her red car in the middle, parked opposite for the night. Weird traffic and city on the left.

Looking east and north into the harbour.

Back home and in gardening clothes, we've taken out  five small Christmas trees in the yard. Not our thing, and its opened up the view a bit. The redcurrant and blackcurrants behind them will appreciate the extra sun too. 

Have to justify the monster chipper we bought, so in they'll go, possibly tomorrow if the rain holds off. Will tackle the stumps later. Shouldn't be too much drama to get them out.

Grow your own mulch AND firewood.

Mish still outside, late in the afternoon, pruning one of the big lemon trees. That mulch pile getting nice and big.

Out on the water

Kayaking at Pauatahanui Inlet.  Pleasantly gentle, paddling into a slight breeze with tiddly waves. This is looking north when I wanted to go east, as paddling with the breeze was much more difficult. 

After I'd zig zagged back to the beach, doing some kayak donuts, and  nearly tipping it multiple times, I realised I hadn't put the rudder on. Inflatables aren't very stable without the slide on rudder. 

Back on land and our beach: a sunrise walk. 

As well as a bumper fig harvest (of the neighbour's tree), we have loads of feijoa. One tree drops grenades and the others are a range of sizes, all autumnal delicious.

 

A visit to the highwires and ropes and boards of Adrenalin Forest

Saturday and Mischa's birthday, so off we went for a beach breakfast at Lyall Bay and an afternoon climbing trip.


Mish on level 4. I was gone mid level 3, too tough for me. So I went and got the camera...

On the tricky moving  rope steps.




Spreadeagled! The Reid short arms were really working by the end of level 4. But she got out of it ok.



Safety!





Then it was home for a relaxing wine (Mish) and a pear cider (Carol) on the deck in the afternoon sun. Glad to be a terra firma!

Spring weekend walks on Wellington hills

Had a couple of walks in places we haven't been to before. This is on Te Ahumairangi Hill (possibly meaning 'whirlwind'), looking across the stadium and wharves to Wellington harbour and Miramar peninsula. Tugboat heading out.

 Mish walking up an old radiata pine.

Saturday was calm and quiet and we walked through part of the town's green belt on the Northern Walkway.















Another radiata, looking south west over suburbs.

 

Sunday also calm and quiet and warm and we walked part of the Southern Walkway and Skyline track. Views from here look north to the wind turbines. Gorse in flower everywhere.



These tracks cross paddocks so we had some cow company.  Lots of walkers and mountain bikers around too.

End of the summer holiday

Back to work tomorrow, but not the end of summer hols really. Plenty of summer left for swimming, tennis, bike riding, etc. Even got Mish into the sea at Titahi Bay the day before yesterday!

Our pine planter boxes for veg garden makeover arrived Christmas Eve. We placed in situ, and saw we need another one, so ordered that. But, in the meantime, started to fill these ones and get the beautiful topsoil we've made into the boxes. Then we'll lay weed mat or similar and do gravel paths around them. Fair bit of shovelling there, but they are now full. One even has peas sprouting.



Christmas was calm and relaxing at Rugby Ranch, Norm and Arlene's place. Then we had a few days in Blenheim with Sue and Phil, flying down on a plane that was WAY TOO SMALL, and back on a sunny cruisey ferry ride. Picked some cherries, here's Mish posing with a gas gun - not in use as the rain came at the wrong time and split the fruit - so a poor harvest and lots of mouldy cherries. We still got a couple of kilos, mmmmm.



Sue took us bike riding and kayaking. With lots of lovely food and games of 500. The four of us walked a track out of Picton and admired Marlborough Sounds' scenery





In the vineyard next to the house, rows of just topped vines and ones not yet levelled. There's always something going on in the vines in Marlborough.




Back in Wellington, we've had a spectacular season for flowering pohutukawa trees around town. The one outside our window is the best it has been since we've been here (eight years in a few days). Looking past that bold red to Evans Bay, the airport, and Cook Strait. Orca and dolphins galore down there in the harbour and we keep missing them.




The pohutukawa Mish planted at the bottom of the yard is also having its best ever flowering. This one is a pinky red, with  a plane going over on a new flight path some of them are using (not directly over us).



Jane and Nicola dropped in for a few days and we had a lovely easy time drinking tea and wandering around town, once we got out of our dressing gowns.

 

Walked out to Point Dorset on the Miramar peninsula overlooking Cook Strait. Mish took a panorama  on the point and her clever new phone turned it into a video pan.

Someone has carved a whimsical seahorse on the beach.

 

And a shopping moment in Kathmandu. Jane and I bought swish puffer jackets, Nicola already had one - so, puffer jacket kitchen pic!