Kia ora and Tau Hou hari, (Hello and happy new year).
December began with a couple of bonsai weekends. First we had our monthly meeting – which was all about pines but we also had a bit of seasonal fun too.
We also had a ‘bit’ of rain and thunder at the start of the month. Honey hid in the study and the water tank overflowed several times. The water pressure was enough to lift the concrete lid of the tank! One of our friends got delayed by a couple of hours going home from the bonsai club meeting due to flooding – yet when she got home there was nothing in her rain gauge!
Then the following weekend we had our annual “Nobu’ weekend.
And Saturday evening BBQ
On the 10th we had our new water tank installed. This will add 10,000 litres to our water storage to help us with watering all our trees and veges during the summer (and ensures that all summer visitors will be able to have a shower).
After the installation we spent the next week (in between thunderstorms) levelling and re-seeding the grass area where they had dug the trenches for the new pipework.
The girls are still full of life! As soon as Peter approaches Maxie with her medicine she runs away and tries to hide! Honey has most of her medication in her food and doesn’t even seem to notice it as she scoffs her food so fast.
Santa on guard in the village.
It poured down on Christmas eve which meant Peter got soaked chopping down our Christmas tree in the rain. We had a great Christmas day. A long walk around the village (in between rain showers), followed by lunch with Jean and Tim.
The girls enjoyed some leftover steak in the evening.
With two dogs we have a LOT of dog poo to pick up so Ann was very pleased to learn about a new recycling system for dog poo. Invented by a Kiwi the pet bokashi composts all pet waste. As the system was quite expensive Ann went the “Number 8 wire” version and designed her own using an old garden trug which Peter drilled holes in and dug into the ground. Then all we do is drop the poo in along with special composter starter material. You’ll be pleased to read that we don’t have a photo of the dog poo or composter!
Peter continues to chop down trees. This is one of our original Christmas trees that we planted 10 years ago. As you can see it’s a little too big to go in the house as a Christmas tree now – not even the top bit would fit anymore.
New Year’s Eve was quiet – we oldies went to bed and missed all the fireworks that inevitably went off around the village. Still, we shall celebrate tomorrow at a civilised time by lunching with friends.
< November January 2019 >