Haere Mai, Welcome,
November has been a tad more relaxed for us both after the craziness of October with all the bonsai stuff.
Peter started off by chainsawing some of the lower branches off a few of our larger trees (he kept bashing his head as he mowed underneath the trees).
This paulownia tree has grown way bigger than we expected – we only planted it 10 years ago!
One morning we heard some weird noises from the garden – and discovered two guinea fowl sauntering around, inspecting the bonsai and the plants, searching for things to eat. Peter managed to chase them from the garden (which is the girls’ domain) into the paddock area. By lunch time they were back in the garden but then flew into a neighbour’s place. Since then we’ve heard but not seen them. Apparently someone dumped half a dozen guinea fowl in the village a few weeks ago and they’ve been roaming ever since.
Ann attended a workshop on Japanese black pines, and ended up with another ‘bonsai’ although it won’t look anything like a bonsai for a few years (so much for trying to reduce her collection).
Peter helped run another workshop for the intermediate group. They all had fun with the carving tools!
Whilst Ann was visiting a friend she managed to trip and twist her foot and knee. Happily there was no fracture seen on the x-ray – just soft tissue damage.
At Ann’s annual rheumatology checkup her doctor decided to order a full MRI of her spine as she’s been having pins and needles in her left leg. Now we wait for the results.
At the beginning of September Ann bought some veg plants and grew them on, on the deck until the last frosts passed. However one morning she discovered the cucumber plant had been chewed to bits. Sox was blamed and Ann bought another cucumber plant. She planted it in a pot to grow and covered it with some netting. A couple of weeks later she discovered it too had been chewed! Sox was told off again. Before Ann could get another replacement plant the courgette plant that she’d planted inside the shadehouse was ripped out of the tub and chewed. However she couldn’t blame Sox as the shadehouse was all closed up. So maybe it was a rabbit sneaking under the shadehouse door (and maybe it was the same villain who destroyed the two cucumber plants – oops)!
With summer almost here and humidity levels ramping up Honey is back into looking for cool places for her afternoon siestas.
We hosted a two day bonsai workshop over the last day of November (and the first of December). Brendon, from the Auckland bonsai club came down to lead it.
Brendon and Sox became BFF’s!
Merry Christmas to all our family, friends and whanau. Take care of yourselves and be kind to each other xxx.
