RAIN

We have had a lovely, gentle rain today and yesterday afternoon.  More, possibly heavier, is forecast for tonight and tomorrow.  I am not sure if it will  enough to break the drought but it is good that we don't have to water the garden for a few days at least.  

Prior to that I had been looking for some chrysanthemum plants.  I finally saw some advertised at Mitre 10 as well as some Romanesco cauliflower so we went in with the intention of buying both.  When we got there the chrysanthemums were dwarf and sad looking plants so we left them.  We did, however come across some dahlias and came home with 4 dahlia plants, one zinnia and some veg seedlings.  

Then at Saturday's market Doug saw a chrysanthemum plant.   It was pot bound and a bit lanky but we bought it and I have already used the flowers in a couple of vases (one for us and the other for a neighbour).  Everything is now planted and enjoying the rain.

            

  The lovely chrysanthemum flowers

The dahlias before planting. 

There should be more chrysanthemums at Saturday's Market.

FLOWERS

I always like to have at least one vase of flowers in the house, usually on the dining table.  Just as the vegetables we eat change with the seasons so do the flowers in the vase.

This week's vase consists of Buddleia flowers, Alstroemeria, Yarrow, Garlic Chive flowers, Lovage flowers and a dahlia and I am pleased with the result.

KUMARA (Sweet Potato)

 For the first time we planted kumara in half barrels as there was no room in the garden as we had potatoes growing.  (Last year we harvested the potatoes a bit early in order to plant the kumara).

We knew that they should be left growing for a while longer but one was starting to turn yellow so decided to harvest today and check how they were.  

We will leave the rest for about another month but are happy with what we have (Just under 2 kg.)

We removed the tops and could see there were some kumara there so managed to tip it over.

This was our harvest - I mashed some in with our buttercup squash for lunch. No food miles involved.

AUTUMN

On Wednesday we got our second load of firewood and got it stacked away.  It was just over 1.5 cubic metres and is offcuts from a nearby mill.  Various sizes which suits us fine.  Usually we stack together, me loading the wheelbarrows and Doug emptying them but this time I got the smaller pieces and stacked them in containers while Doug dealt with the larger pieces and this worked well.  As usual we stacked it when it was delivered.

We ordered a third load plus some lengths of timber for Doug to make picture frames and were expecting to wait a week or two for that to be delivered but got a call the following afternoon and had the delivery.  As it was late in the afternoon we just stacked a small amount and did most of it on Friday.  We were both tired at the end of it but it was a good tiredness.  The timber delivered for Doug was Redwood.

                                               Just a part of the timber stacked in the shed

The containers of the smaller wood stacked three deep in another shed.  I was running out of containers hence the polystyrene one in the front.  There were also about half a dozen containers of the very small wood at the bottom of the first photo.

It is really starting to feel like autumn and this morning when we got up at 6 a.m. to go to the Market it was quite chilly and dark.  By the time we arrived at the Market it was light.   Our vegetable garden is starting to wind down with only a few beans and tomatoes left now apart from one Russian Red tomato that is just starting to turn colour so we bought quite a variety.

Today we bought leeks, a couple of Buttercup squash, a small broccoli, some figs, a bunch of bananas (we have three bunches on ours but they are not ready yet), a new to us variety of plum, some Asian aubergine, blueberries, Reed avocadoes, 500 gm. tomatoes and a tray of free range eggs.  Our diet has already changed from our summer diet.

FRONT GARDEN.

It must be a couple of years since Doug cleared out the invasive Alstroemeria from the back of the front garden.  Since then we have been moving plants around.  We now have Michaelmas Daisies along the back and the bees just love them.  They are getting a bit past it now but still make a good show.

TAHI

The property that is now called Tahi was bought twenty years ago and as a run down 320 hectare cattle farm.  Since then it has been transformed into a rich ecosystem. Thousands of native trees have been planted, pests dealt with and rare species have returned 

It was open to the public yesterday (Saturday) so we skipped our usual trip to the market and went out there.  It is 27 kilometres away on a very winding road.  There was an article in our local paper which you can read here.  The main income is from honey.

Everything was very well organised and we were able to get on a walk at 10.15 a.m.. which said it was through bush.  Unfortunately, before the bush there was a long walk in the sun and it was really hot  so we only walked to the bush and not through it.  We walked from just by the coast on the right to the blue X.

The pace of the walk was quite fast and I only managed to get these few photos.

We then went on a van tour at 1 p.m. Everyone was very helpful and all so proud of what has been achieved.  

We had just arrived home when the phone rang and it was someone from the walking group who had been out fishing and wanted to know if we would like some fish.  They were willing to bring it to us but that seemed over generous so we drove out and picked it up.  We enjoyed some last night and the rest for lunch today.

MONARCH BUTTERFLIES

It has been a bad year for Monarch Butterflies and Doug has only released about 50 this year so it was great when there were five to release this morning.  

We released them early before heading out and had a busy day but more of that later.