Summer

Chirimollas and cauliflower too!

First came the sweet peas of spring, next the Matilija Poppies (spectacular!) and then the big dry.  We've had two months without rain... so the sunflowers and tomatillos need daily watering and everything else at least weekly. The plums, apples and figs haven't had much but seem to be coping. My guests from Finland and Liz who has been in the cabin helped with a leaky hose irrigation system on the figs.. whew, soon we'll have grilled figs with feta!

Lisa and Taapani from Finland

Two days ago it rained, today is drizzly so there is hope, and has it been HUMID? Oh boy, I did not leave the desert for dry and I do prefer rain but muggy heat, oh my my my!

Ciao for now, busy day with Christmas parties beginning.  Happy holidays to you all!

On Mally’s passing

On Saturday, September 25, 2010 in New Zealand, at home on his bed, we put Mally to sleep forever.  He decided he’d had enough of his old body which was very crippled with arthritis and he quit eating a few days before.  I couldn’t even tempt him with raw rabbit straight off the bone so I saw that as a sign.

 

Lots of his (our) friends came round to say goodbye.  He bravely walked around the whole property twice that morning, as he usually did, with a few more trip-ups and spills than before.  He stopped at all his favourite spots and breathed the air blowing from the four corners of our rural paddocks with rabbit and cow poo and other peoples’ breakfasts titillating his palate.  He drank muddy water from the puddles and ate a couple of pieces of rye grass and rabbit poo here and there.

 

We made a fuss of him and after Diana came to take away his pain, we buried him on the ridge overlooking our favourite garden and the sea next to TomCat who died 5 years and 1 day before,.  I’ll walk by them often on the way to compost, worm bin and beach and keep them informed of my comings and goings.

 

I remember eight years ago when our darling Hans died and someone said God must have needed a gardener. Well, now God’s gardener has the dog who he helped train while landscaping on earth.

 

May they all rest in peace and I hope Tom  will only tease Mally now, though he kind of tortured us both while he was alive, just to let us know who was boss and on whose land we lived.

 

Love you all and thank you for all the help and joy you’ve shared with Mally and me over very nearly 16 years... and especially to vet Didier who went beyond the call of duty in meeting Mally outside and in the car to prevent his wee panic attacks and hyperventilating to try to get a good listen to his heart.

Mally was so frail... vets say you can put a pet down too early or too late, but I think we got it just right. and then, I went to the pet blessing the next weekend, for St Francis of Assisi Day, at the Ruakaka Anglican church and got Yvonne Judge, who owns a second hand shop and has given hundreds of thousands of dollars back to community organisations over 10 years, to come along. Idabelle, the minister, announced that I had nominated Yvonne for the new Kiwi Battler Northland competition and she won and had donated the winnings of $10,000 to the SPCA in Mally’s memory.... I’m so happy, how can I be too sad? I think I might be if I was alone... but that’s the other nice realisation. I am not alone. I have Ian and his dog Mouse and I’m actually quite happy.

Subtropical drought!

If I'd wanted to live in a desert, I could have stayed in southern California, but truly, this dry summer in Northland has been marvellous for holiday makers!

We've had virtually no rain for months - tinder try and lots of work for the Northland firefighters who are mostly volunteers, awful for farmers whose cows are hungry and thirsty, but terrific for wine makers and beach goers. The water temp is gorgeous and the local Reislings excellently quaffable.

I've had guests from Germany and France, been to concerts, the first Waipu Ride-on Mower competition and spent a lot of time watering my gardens.

I also began making sourdough bread again. When the German Journeymen carpenters complimented my bread, I knew I was on the right track!

My figs are ripening,  the apples are turning red and the feijoas are coming along - in spite of the dry - it's jam and tart time, yum!

Today is the day I begin work on the next quarterly newsletter for the Northland Region Fire Service and tonight is practice time for the Flaming Ukuleles of Waipu so I must away!

See you when you get here.... until then cheers and make today fantastic!
Hasta la vista, Sandra

So much to say, so little time

It's amazing how busy we are... I was going to write about all the frosts we had this winter, even here on the bluff just above the sea. Now it's spring and the NZ Fairy Terns are here and hopefully exhibiting breeding behaviour. I saw two white fronted herons doing a breeding dance, they were beautiful. I've seen some California quail here, the last two years I've had families of them born here...they are gorgeous when the chicks follow the parents around searching for food and learning to be grown up quail. They live in extended family units not just with two adults. Sensible, ay?

I've just created a cause on Facebook, Save the NZ Fairy Tern, New Zealand's rarest bird. My friends Jessie McVeagh and Murray Nathan and I made two videos for YouTube, just go there and search NZ Fairy Tern and they'll come up or follow these links, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yprf9E1wBdY  and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN6pfFEWkvU&feature=related Then go to http://www.fairytern.org.nz/ and buy bunches of calendars for 2010 - they're not expensive and terrific Christmas gifts for a good cause.

Only $13 NZ dollars plus $2 postage in NZ.  Email pjrangi@vodafone.net.nz for more information, they are the women who created the calendar and sit out on the sand dunes looking after these wee birds.  There are some amazing volunteers who help out too.

One of my dreams came true this week when I walked into the Countdown supermarket in Whangarei and saw mangosteen.

Over 25 years ago i first tasted this hard shelled milky white fruit in Bali and had one of my earliest mouthgasms!

As you can see, they (Garcinia mangostana L. ) look like hard reddish brown mandarins and inside they look exactly like a mandarin except the pulp is milky white and each section has a large brown seed. The texture is somewhat lychee-like but the flavour is delicate and exciting, indescrible as it teases your tongue and melts in your mouth.

The tropical fruit is hard to get into, but with a good knife you can either cut a bit of the shell off and then peel them, or slice in half (carefully with a strong arm) and then use a teaspoon to get them out.

I remember researching them all those years ago and finding they only grew in hot humid climates and had to have really deep roots, perhaps the trees needed to be very old before they produced.

From http://www.mangosteen.com/ I found that this is not strictly true:Under ideal conditions (plant nursery), the first fruit can be as soon as 6 years after the seed sprouts but the initial low light period is still essential for about the first two years. They do require a tropical climate however, so my subtropical orchard probably won't allow me to grow these divine fruit trees.

The mangosteen has historically been praised (see History and Folklore) for countless centuries by all who encountered it. The edible interior is renown for its indescribable sweet-sour melting rush of flavors. But apart from the edible treasure inside the hull, the rind (technically a pericarp) has also been part of Ayurvedic medicine and has been valued throughout its native range for its medicinal qualities.

There is much more you can read about this fruit, but I'm just thrilled to have a dream come true, and irregardless of food miles or Carbon points, I'll buy them whenever I can - I hope they are not seasonal. YUM! Can't wait for my next mouthgasm (thanks to my friend Philippa for that spunky descriptive word).

Plenty to do and no where to go - a marvellous day!

It is blowing a gale, showering heavily off and on, cold and wintery - a marvellous day that I started with early coffee and a reorganisation of my closet - moving summer clothes out and winter clothes in. I have plenty to do and no where to go.

I am content.

It has been a busy few weeks with B&B guests from Australia for a mutual friend's wedding, a visit from a new friend who is taking up the position of manager of the Kaikohe Pioneer Museum, more time looking after my old dog Mally whose toe was amputated not quite a month ago, and lots of organisation to do for the next Northland Region Fire Service newsletter and annual report.

It is also, finally, planting time since there has been some rain. It seems like lots of rain, but it isn't. The soil is still dry a few inches down, but there is moisture gathering and frequent rainbows - what could be better?

What is not better is the new google account stuff. My God there is a lot to organise....what blog, where, what user name, which password, do you have a google account, what google groups do you belong to, which do you want to join, how about sharing calendars? Not to mention whether you Twitter and tweet.

I seem to have sorted it for this moment as I was finally able to access this blog and make a post. Fingers crossed I'll be able to do it again.

I know I started another blog somewhere, that was going to be my homourous writing. It is really rather funny because I have no idea where that blog is or what I've called it and now I've reset my password, I'll probably go to both and they'll be confused as they'll have the same account details. Oh well, such is the price of being over 50 in 2009.

I might prefer to sell lemon grass and cut protea flowers, but I won't give up my day jobs or my creative retreat B&B.

Back to work. I hope I can find you all again next time.

Finally some rain is coming

Home is the middle property, which is the third house from the left. you can make out my curving drive way...which is very long and takes a lot of rocks, that have just been renewed at the cost of about half the fare to LA, so I'll be staying home driving on my well shaped and rocked drive this year!

It has been a long hot dry summer and the dirt is dust. we have had a bit of rain and it is said by the almighty, and usually wrong, weather forecasters that we may get 6 inches over the weekend. Fingers crossed, because then I might stay inside and do more work on the computer or in the kitchen. Feijoas are ripening now so it is time for more jam. speaking of which my HUGE brown turkey fig tree has produced unbelievably this year and it is late and beautiful - a dark skin with a bright red interior that is so sweet! The wee wax eyes are going crazy in it and it is a very big tree, so this year they will get many more than I have.

Mally my dog had his toe chopped off last week after four months of infection. It was doing very well, but now I fear he has licked it or it got rubbed so I forced him to allow me to put a sock on it with a plastic bag, which I've now been told I should have done from the start, but I was only told not to let him lick it after I took the bandage off. I didn't even want to remove it since I knew it would keep it dry and clean, but I guess it had to breathe. Now we have to go to the vet AGAIN tomorrow. AAARGH!

I really really don't want it to be infected again. He's been on antibiotics nearly four months, and he's not a fan of yogurt so I don't know how to replace the good bacteria.

It's late, I'm ready for bed and have nearly completed a project I've procrastinated on for weeks, so this is it folks.

Night night and take care!