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. 

THE TOWN BASIN AND CATERPILLARS

Once again we were lucky with the weather for the Parkinson walk and walked around the Loop at the Town Basin.  We started near The Warehouse and walked across Te Matau a Pohe bascule bridge.  The reflection was lovely although the tide was extremely low.

Further around, the boats looked good in the sunshine with the Hundertwasser dome in the background.

We stopped next to the Hundertwasser building for morning tea with a shorter walk back to our cars.

The whole walk is 4.2 kms. 

When we got home I noticed some Monarch caterpillars so collected them to put in the cage.  Not sure how many I ended up with but a lot.  This is just a few of them.  (This week we have been having our coldest weather so far this winter. Down to 4°C in the mornings.)

NEW YORK TIMES WORDLE

Does anyone else who reads this do the New York Times Wordle.  It is addictive and every day I think that my score will go back to zero.  IF YOU DO IT AND HAVEN'T YET DONE TODAY'S DON'T LOOK ANY FURTHER.

Today's Wordle

A MIDWINTER DAY AT THE BEACH

 On Wednesday last week we were not needed to sort the junk mail and so we decided to go to the beach. The first beach we went to was Ngunguru whch is 21 kms away and the furthest was 27 kms, Wellington's Bay.  I took something for lunch but Doug bought a delicious pie and mussel fritter from a cafe in Ngunguru although he could only manage the fritter and ate the pie for his evening meal.

Looking across to the Nunguru Sandspit

We stood on the seawall and watched these gulls below us doing a little dance to bring some tasty morsel to the surface.

A couple of dinghies waiting for their owners.

We thoroughly enjoyed our day even though the clouds started to come in in the afternoon.

PURPLE CAULIFLOWER

I have grown purple cauliflower for the first time this year and they have done quite well.  The photo makes it look a bit smaller and paler.

 Last year we tried cauliflower mash and enjoyed it so have been making it with the purple ones.  It turns out a pretty green and is delicious. We had it with leg of lamb.

MID WINTER IN THE GARDEN

 These are just a few of the flowers blooming in our Mid winter garden.

Lachenalia is lovely and bright and pops up in a few parts of the garden.

I don't know the name of this succulent but it does well and I must get around to getting some cuttings so I can spread it along the front of the bed.

I never know whether these are "yellow red hot pokers" or "yellow hot pokers" but they are doing well.  A very small clump was given to me by a friend. I must get some red ones.

Bergenia - the bottom one I bought at the Quarry Gardens and the top one was from a friend.

This marigold came from a packet of seeds I bought on line.  I sowed them among the vegies and they are coming up all over.  I will plant some out in the flower garden when the weather improves enough to do some proper gardening.

Mexican Marigold.  A few years ago we got a couple of bare cuttings from the Monarch Butterfly Society.  When we pruned it back we have stuck cuttings in all over the garden.  The Monarchs love it and it provides a nice splash of winter colour.

and we have another banana flower. There are 4 bunches and now this 5th flower.  

And last snowdrops. A lady in the next street asked for some Lachenalia bulbs and in exchange asked if I would like some snowdrops and bluebells.  I was thrilled as I always thought we were too far north (not cold enough) for snowdrops. 

Not bad considering all the rain we have had.

RAINFALL

It has, obviously, been a very wet year here. NIWA (the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research) has just released the figures for the first half of 2023. 

They list 11 areas that have had more than the yearly average in the first six months of the year and we are included with 1526 mm of rain.  

Kaikohe which is 87 km from us has had an amazing 2140 mm which is 130% of its normal annual rainfall in the first six months

It is raining again today.  Hopefully the  La Nina weather pattern is going to change to El Nino and the weather should improve.