Kia ora,
Over the month we dug up and either transplanted or potted up a number of red maples, wisteria and olives.
Ann attended the first workshop of a three year programme on trident maples and Japanese black pines, run by bonsai professional Adrian Bird. Her trident maple looks very bare with no leaves or branches, not even any buds so far – but by the end of the three years it should look markedly different.
Peter helped Marion to repot her trident maple.
Ann got to practise her nursing skills again as Tom, our neighbour, asked her to remove stitches from his leg. She also managed to find another 4 books in the local Lions book fair.
We did more repotting of trees to remove the clay balls that our friend Marshall used on her trees. We also had the normal, scheduled repotting work on our existing trees to get through (and still haven’t finished).
We went on a bonsai club trip to Auckland visiting one of the best collections in NZ before going on to buy more pots (this time for Ann). We also got some fertiliser for our trees, wire and a new root hook – also for Ann. The weather was cold and wet but we enjoyed it.
The wet weather continued on and off for much of the month, some nice sunny days and some very wet ones.
The Beginners Bonsai classes started again with Peter leading weeks 1 and 3, he will do the final session as well but that’s in September.
Peter has started on a new version of his model railway. This one will run around the sleepout and allow him to run more trains at the same time as well as allowing different trains to be run more quickly. His first job is to build the baseboards to fit the end of the sleepout and start laying the track.
We have seen (and heard) three Kaka flying around. These large green and orange native parrots have probably come into the village from the mountain as they are forest dwellers.
Sox had a skin tag on her chest that’s been annoying her, so we booked her in to the vets to have her teeth cleaned and the skin tag removed. After her surgery she refused to have a ‘cone of shame’ (e-collar) and ended up wearing a t-shirt to stop her licking and scratching at her stitches. Everyone thought she looked so cute.
At the end of the month we celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary. Ann had 7 books and a rabbit – called Aurora whilst Peter had lots of track for his upgraded railway. Ann definitely had the better gifts!!
A meal out for our anniversary at our favourite restaurant in Te Awamutu. We spent the evening reminiscing about how Ann ended up last in the bathroom rushing to get ready for her own wedding (there were lots of friends gathering in her 9th floor one bedroom flat), how she almost forgot her bouquet and her dad had to go back up to the flat for it – he was gone for so long that the driver of the wedding car was just about to go looking for him (Mike had spent a few minutes fussing Brandy, his dog). Ann also spent time in the morning shopping with Shirley because they needed a white shirt for David who was one of Ann’s page boys, Peter arrived at the church only to find it all locked up and no-one around and, of course, Ann almost forgot her knickers!
