Kia ora,
February is technically the last month of summer here in NZ and it’s certainly one of the hottest, most humid months of the year. The grass all dies off leaving just weeds for us to mow. The girls spend their days moving from one cool area to another.
Honey has found the perfect cool place to spend her afternoons – in the long bed of grasses against the fence.
February has also been the month of dentist visits. Both of us have had hygiene appointments with Ann also having a filling and when they tried to do a filling on Peter the whole tooth fell apart so now he’s having an implant (in a couple of months).
We’ve also been trying to de-clutter more and take stuff either to the charity shops or the refuse centre. Plus, now that we’re almost pensioners it’s time to start tidying up the house and gardens more – make things easier for us to manage. We’ve had three window panes in the dining area replaced because the seals broke on the double glazed units causing moisture and fogging between the glass.
Ann is finally back on shift at the Hamilton Gardens – but the person she was working with has resigned so Peter went from covering for Ann to now covering for the other lady instead, bless him.
Ann and Sox had cat and chook feeding duties whilst our friends Bev and Tom went away for a week. Sox absolutely loves being in the car!
Sox had her annual checkup at the vets – we call it a WooF – Warrant of overall Fitness.
Peter led the first bonsai club meeting of the year on NZ natives.
He followed this up with the Intermediate group workshop where the large privet was put into its first bonsai pot.
Over the next few years the branch pads will grow and look much fuller.
Our 18 year old chipper was showing signs of distress and too much work so Peter treated himself to a new one. He’ll be using it a lot as more of the photinia hedge is cut back. In the first session of using it he managed to fill the trailer in one morning – normally this takes 2½ days.
We caught a couple of night time trespassers on the camera, a cat and a hedgehog. Maybe we shouldn’t have blamed Sox for eating all the bonsai organic fertiliser cakes!
The CBD area of the village is expanding. A while ago one of the cafes closed and was demolished. Now 4 retail units are being built on the same spot.
Our neighbours had a couple of trees removed and they offered us the wood. We all went round (yes the girls came too for a ride) and collected a full trailer load of large lumps of wood. This is now stacked in the shelter waiting for Peter and his chainsaw to jump into action.
After producing zero fruit last summer our grapevine has done well this year. We’ve been eating bunches of fresh, sweet grapes most evenings.
A post breakfast snooze before walkies time!
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