Ann & Peter

in New Zealand

Kia Ora

The first weekend was busy. We hired a chipper and spent two days mulching a massive pile of hedge/bonsai and tree clippings. Peter reckons we did about 2 tons. On the Monday he went back to work for a rest whilst Ann chilled out for the day.
	We put three trailer loads at the back of the garage as we don't have anywhere to use them at the moment.
The corokia ‘frosted chocolate’ hedge is full of flowers too (the photo really doesn’t do it justice unfortunately).
	Our berry bushes (loganberry, raspberries and boysenberry) are growing madly so we’re expecting lots of fruit this summer – Ann should be able to make berry ice cream as well as berry jam. We’re also hoping for pears this autumn as our pear tree had blossom on it for the first time since we planted it four years ago.

Peter had his performance review at work and received a pay rise!

Our Wednesday bonsai meeting went off without a hitch - the girls enjoyed their hot chips as well.

Half way through the month we had some severe winds and heavy rain. The wind was so strong it blew over two of the screens behind the bonsai trees. Fortunately none of the bonsai were badly damaged although Ann's big wisteria and her larch group did have a few broken branches.
	The upright timbers were 100mm x 100mm and should have lasted a lot longer than this.

Ann had to return to work after her two weeks of ‘holiday’ (actually called non contact time in this country) – still term 4 is only 9½ weeks long and we had Labour day too which meant a long weekend.

One of our neighbour’s chooks had a close encounter with Maxie last weekend. As we were walking down the driveway we could see a pile of beautiful white feathers. Then we noticed another smaller pile then we realised there was a trail of feathers all along the hedge for about 20 metres.  Luckily there was no corpse to be seen. Apparently the chook had flown over the hedge and straight into Maxie’s ‘arms’.  The chook (still alive) managed to get back home and has now had its wings clipped so no more close encounters or adventures for the flying chicken!

Jaz has a new nickname. There was a crowd of bikers outside the village pub as we were walking past one evening and Jaz trotted up to one big burly guy, stood there looking at him and wagging her tail. He looked back at her, smiled and said ‘Hi Killer’. Well – if he only knew that she’s even scared of her own shadow (and little lambs freak her out completely).

Two very happy girls, waiting for their share of the peas freshly picked from the garden.

We finished the month with our annual club bonsai show at the Hamilton Gardens. As it was held on Labour weekend we weren’t expecting too many visitors but we ended up with more than 330 paying visitors. Noel came down from Kerikeri to do the judging and three of Peter's trees were awarded merit certificates.