Kia ora,
The first bonsai club meeting of 2026 was a general workshop combined with a mini buy and sell of club members trees, pots and tools. We took several dozen mostly small trees in but didn’t sell much. Never mind – it will be better at the show in September.
Azaria and Carolien visited on the 11th so Peter was in brownie baking mode on the 10th. Ann had a lovely afternoon with them but Peter had his volunteer shift at the Gardens so missed them.
Last month Ann wrote about how lucky we are to live where we do – safe from earthquakes, tsunamis and flooding. Well she’s not saying that ever again! On the 13th prolonged thunderstorms rolled around for several hours with heavy rain and severe flooding and landslips which closed the two roads out of the village to the south. Flooding and debris washed out the bridge supports on the two bridges. Te Pahu which is just up the road to the north of us also had severe flooding (and that village is situated on the lower side of the mountain). We recorded over 100mm of rain in 24 hours, a farm just to the south of us recorded over 350mm. The river level rose quite dramatically on the Friday afternoon.
It took 5 days for the storm to finally leave NZ after running very slowly down the East coast causing flooding all the way from Hawkes Bay through Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. The smaller (single lane) of the two bridges damaged by the storm is we re-opend on the 27th whilst the one on SH39 will take a while longer to put in a temporary replacement – it is hoped to have one in by mid March. It may be up to 12 months before a permanent new bridge is built. Farmers to the west of the village which use the single lane bridge have had to throw away all their milk, and all traffic wanting to go south has to divert through Te Awamutu or go through Cambridge.
We have even seen evidence of slips on the South East side of Mount Pirongia!. There are also slips on the North side but those can only be seen when driving in from Hamilton.
Ann has begun driving herself – firstly around the village then a trip to Hamilton and back. It’s the first time she’s driven since last May.
We had a lovely lunch date with friends to remember Marshall.
Ann attended a shohin (small bonsai) workshop run by Sandra in Hamilton. This is the first in a series of shohin workshops over the next three years. Then we’ll display our shohin at the clubs”s annual show in 2029. That seems a long way away! Hopefully this little maple will look like like a tree by then.
We both had dental appointments towards the end of the month. Peter needed a filling replacing whilst Ann needed a new crown.
Honey had her annual check up and vaccinations, and the vet also noted that she had arthritic pain in her hind legs so she’s now on monthly injections for her pain.
One of the piles of tree trunks is growing smaller whilst the wood store is getting fuller and the mulch is going down thickly on the garden.
The last of the three items of powered garden tools we bought in 2005 finally gave up the ghost, The brushcutter / hedge trimmer started leaking petrol over the engine! Peter bought a replacement – from a different store than the new mower. The old one now joins the mower and chainsaw in retirement.
< January March >