Kia ora,
We’re now over halfway through Autumn although the weather hasn’t changed much from Summer – still lots of rain. Many of our bonsai are turning beautiful autumn colours.
We’ve been battling with mice getting into the mower store room when we have the roller door up whilst working in the garden. So far we have caught and released 7 from our humane traps (and two who were unwise enough to go for the ‘Little Snapper’ traps). ‘We’ in this case actually means Peter as Ann has delegated the gory job of dispatching those cute little animals to the ‘man of the house’!!
Peter helped a couple of bonsai friends move their bonsai business to Whanganui. He collected all their better stock (that they could not fit into the 25 foot container) and drove it down for them on the 14th (4 hours and 300kms).
During the 600km round trip to Whanganui via SH3 and SH4, Peter did not have a vehicle in front of him or behind him for over two thirds of the way, which meant an easy drive with the trailer.
After unloading the Ute and trailer, Peter stopped overnight and helped Peter and Pene unload all their smaller stock (over 50 boxes) from the container when it arrived on the Saturday. On the way back Peter stopped briefly at the Raukawa Falls.
Whilst Peter was on his way back from Whanganui, Ann was at the Hamilton Gardens helping sort through all the display equipment stored at the Gardens before the start of the renovations of the pavilion and visitor centre.
Peter’s railway is slowly filling up, the last couple of months have been focussed on adding in some of the finer detailing such as grass, pavements, fences and small buildings to fill in gaps in the scenery as well as renumbering two of the locos to match those that he and his dad, John, worked on in the 1970’s.
We attended out first book fair of 2023 and managed to find 13 books, one of which Peter will read.
ANZAC Day was cold (0.6 degrees when we left the house) but there was a large turnout for the dawn service in Pirongia.
The final class of the current bonsai beginners course was led by Peter. We now have a break until the next course in August.
The school holidays in the middle of the month meant another wonderful visit from Azaria and Carolien. Ann made sure she had the chocolate brownies ready!
Honey and Sox find the rain frustrating as it means shorter (or cancelled) walks. But they do manage to chill out when there’s nothing else to do.
Honey is currently on enforced short walks and antibiotics as she’s got infected cysts on the pads of both front paws, bless her.
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