Nau Mai, Haere Mai, Hello and Welcome,
It’s been a busy and expensive month. The house insurance was due, our water treatment system (eco friendly version of a septic tank) needed a new pump and we had four of our 25m tall trees cut down. These were planted in August 2012 for firewood. Peter now has the job of mulching all the small stuff and cutting the rest up for use over the next couple of winters.
The annual bonsai club show at Hamilton Gardens on the 17th and 18th was the best ever with well over 800 paying visitors. We got a 3rd place and two Merits. Peter spent most of the weekend sitting at a table outside the doors to the show working on trees to encourage visitors to come in whilst Ann was behind the entry table taking money. With the show being so early in the spring many of the deciduous trees were bare, allowing us to show off the improving ramification work being done on the trees.
Over the weekend of the show we had Gordon, Dianne and Noel staying with us. Honey and Sox watched their arrival with interest…..
…..and Sox made herself comfortable on Dianne!
Peter’s railway continues to grow slowly. With the preparations for the bonsai show and hosting guests he did not get much done, mainly adding more customised buildings to the village. These buildings represent families from our family tree and match their profession.
The girls are still racing up and down the hedge mirroring the neighbours’ dog. The problem is they bark so loudly (and make a real mess of the mulch). Peter had to prune back a camellia as we couldn’t see both dogs jumping up at the fence behind it.
So a friend loaned us their electric fence. Sox has touched it once and that was enough. Now when the neighbours’ dog barks and starts running our two briefly get excited before giving up and returning to the house.