NOT WHAT WE NEED

Ex tropical cyclone Lola is beginning to make itself felt. We have both strong wind and heavy rain warnings for today until 6 a.m. tomorrow.  

This photo was taken just prior to the strong wind warning starting.  We went out and staked the centre foxglove.  A few days ago it was 24 degrees C. and today's forecast is 14 degrees and at 11 a.m. it is "13 feels like 11" although it actually feels a lot less and we have the last of the firewood on the fire.  

I picked a few foxgloves that had been battered.

Looks like rain or showers all week.  I just hope all the young plants survive.  Happy days.

LETTUCE

At the Market on Saturday I bought a punnet of red and green Buttercrunch lettuce (only 5) and a fortnight before a punnet of Red Sails lettuce.  I have planted them out and they are sitting on the potting table Doug made for me out of an old door.  

They are doing really well and we have already had 3 feeds from the Red Sails.  I was worried about the hot afternoon sun on them so, at the weekend, Doug made a shade cover for them.  Hopefully, we will have a constant lettuce supply over summer.

TWO NEW FLOWERS

We have just noticed a new flower on the banana.  That makes it four bunches ripening very slowly plus this new flower on the clump of plants at the moment.

We have also just noticed the first waterlily flower in our pond.  It doesn't take much to make me happy.

Our Garden

 After having such shocking weather all year we are finally getting some fine days and have been busy clearing, weeding and preparing for spring planting.

Last summer I sowed some marigolds amongst the tomatoes and they have self seeded and, once I removed the last of the Italian Precoce broccoli we ended up with beds of marigolds.  I have transplanted a lot into the flower gardens and will leave some around the new tomatoes I am about to plant.

the garden alongside the raised vegetable beds.

The narrow garden alongside the cat run Doug built for Kim when we moved here.

Doug planted Cliff's Kidney and Agria potatoes a month ago.  Hopefully new potatoes for Christmas.

The front garden (other side of the fence to the potatoes). Looking a bit bare.  The pale alstroemerias were taking over so Doug has removed them.  Now to get rid of them completely as they are already shooting up again. I have just planted several new plants in the front part of this garden and Doug transplanted a row of foxgloves that had self-sown under the peach tree.

The garden between the drive and the new fence Doug built before Christmas last year.

The foxgloves are self-seeding nicely.  The banana behind the fence has four bunches.

This echium has self seeded.

It was April when Doug built this pond and moved the poor waterlilies from the tubs they had been in since he moved here.  We also bought 5 goldfish and they vanished over winter.  We were sure they were still alive but no sign of them.  Luckily, they have reappeared (we have seen 3 together anyway).

Reading this it looks as though Doug does all the work in the garden - not so, he does the heavier work.

All photos should enlarge.

NEW TECHNOLOGY

A couple of weeks ago, after a Microsoft update, Outlook that I use for emails suddenly became blank.  I was able to locate my emails on a website but was unable to fix the problem with Outlook.  After asking for recommendations I had a technician to look at my All-in-one desktop. I had purchased it in 2015 and this was the first problem apart from some initial teething glitches.  I had been thinking that when time came to replace it I would like a laptop and monitor.

When the technician left I mentioned to Doug that I might purchase a new one prior to Microsoft no longer  doing updates for Windows 10 and he said why not do it now and get the use of the new technology so I got a couple of quotes and have just received my new Asus Vivobook and Acer Monitor and am still using my wireless keyboard.

It is really much the same as my previous set up.  I only need to open the Vivobook to switch on and can then close it .  There are a few technical differences that I am still learning but I am thrilled with it and it is so much faster. I put the photo of the Hokianga Harbour with latest Kohu Ra ferry in the distance back as my screensaver.

NEIGHBOURS

 Our lovely neighbours have just been away for ten days and we collected their mail for them.  They flew to Paris and then travelled on to Barcelona.  She was giving a presentation at the Barcelona Conference on Education and he went to keep her company.  

What with the long flights between New Zealand and Paris where they spent 3 days and then travelling down to Barcelona they did not have a lot of spare time.  

In spite of this she went to the trouble of bringing a small gift back for us and had, obviously, gone to a lot of trouble to find the right item.

It is the perfect choice as we don't usually have salt and pepper on the table as I use kelp salt from a re-used spice jar while cooking and needed a nice set for when we have visitors.  It already has salt in and I will buy some pepper on my next shop as we only have peppercorns.

WE ARE STILL HERE

 and spring is on its way although it doesn't feel like it today.  The N.S.W. Waratah are in flower and Doug took these photos from our kitchen window.  What's not to like.  

 Following our very wet and stormy  summer we had more wind and rain over winter.  Because of the flooding we had been warned of shortages in vegetables but luckily ours did well even though I had to stake the cauliflower due to the strong winds.  

With some good weather over the last couple of weeks we have started to get ready for summer planting.  Hopefully, better weather will return next week and we can get on with preparing the vegetable beds for summer and planting the few flower plants I have purchased.  Doug got the potatoes in the ground a week ago and they are starting to show above ground.