Sunny spring day

Ok so it's not quite spring but nearly. I had to spend the day in town and George snapped this of the boys having a mid afternoon snooze. The paddocks are basically dry now which is fab - the grass is growing too!

Dante

Dante didn't wait long to take my seat after I got up from lunch. He loves the new table. It's officially a hit.

Brioche

George made raspberry and chocolate brioche today - yummy!!

Lounge art

I forgot to post this the other day - found these on Trade Me - same artist as the one I got for the dining room. Nice hey. My camera has a terrible mark on the lens (see far right middle in each photo) - bummer - think I may need a new one.

Table - voila!

Well we got the legs and George bolted them on - doesn't it look great! Finally if feels like we have everything in place.

We also planted the magnolia trees - it was a bit tricky trying to position them between the water pipes and power in the ground. But they look fab.


George has painted half his workshop and with that we have started cleaning up the barn and turning it back into a barn. It's needs a blimmen good vacuum though.

I caught up with my poo picking while I let the boys have a graze up by the gate.

Legless

Hah - well the table arrived - sans legs - so we have to go pick them up tomorrow morning. A pain - he offered to courier them but being in a rural area it would take 5 days! There are 6 chairs - two are holding one end of the table up. It's 1600x1600 - looks tiny in this room though hey... once we get all the chairs round it will be fine.

Magnolias

Happy to report that the feijoas are looking better today already. Less scrunched up - must say they are pretty hardy!!


We went to the Kumeu garden centre and bought three magnolias to plant between the barn and the house. Don't they look great! $39.95 each down fro $69.95.

Feijoa Trees

I took this photo because the clouds looked cool today - it passed over pretty quick.

I planted the 6 feijoa trees that Julie kindly gave us. They were a bit dry and they have brown spots on the leaves but I am sure now they are planted they will be on the improve pretty quick and next April we should have feijoas!! Yum.

Cilla - for you;

The Feijoa (pronounced /feɪˈhoʊ.ə/)[1] (Feijoa sellowiana), also known as Pineapple Guava or Guavasteen, is an evergreen shrub or small tree, 1–7 metres (3.3–23 ft) in height, originating from the highlands of southern Brazil and parts of Colombia, Uruguay and northern Argentina. Feijoa has been spotted in Georgia and both flowering and fruiting in Louisiana and in South Carolina, and California. It is widely cultivated as a garden plant and fruiting tree in New Zealand, and can be found as a garden plant in Australia and Azerbaijan. The fruit, maturing in autumn, is green, ellipsoid and about the size of a chicken's egg. It has a sweet, aromatic flavor. The flesh is juicy and is divided into a clear jelly-like seed pulp and a firmer, slightly gritty, opaque flesh nearer the skin.

Should make a nice hedge along the wash bay.

Raglan for brekky

We got up at 8am and flew to Raglan for breakfast, another lovely spring like day. The wind got up a little from the East later in the morning which was a bit chilly out of the sun but other than that it was great. Got some more aerial shots. I like this one.

Further south it was a bit foggy - we were above it... wouldn't want to be in it!! A bit chilly I reckon.

On the ground at Raglan (above)

Raglan was as peaceful as ever and as pretty as ever.

There were even some daisies out in flower.

Lovely Spring Day

It's lovely at the moment - very spring like and the paddocks are almost completely dry. The boys spent last night out and will do for the rest of the weekend too - no rain due. They loved it.

So the grass is growing already and I am really happy with my winter grass management.

The house from the private road. Our neighbour has a lt of grass that he spends half the weekend mowing!

Homemade pasta

We dug out our pasta maker tonight and cooked fettuccine. I made the sauce (olives, chilli, capers and tomatoes and red spring onions) and George made the pasta. Just flour and a free range egg- very easy. And very yummy!! Everything was organic except the olives - even the flour and egg!

Aerial shot

We took this at 5pm on our way home. Garbo is in his yard waiting for his dinner - probably looking over at the house! I like the way the sun is creating the long shadows of the ti-tree and the orchard trees.

Garage Floor

George painted (after etching) the garage floor and it looks great!! It's going to be so good not getting dust everywhere.

It looks cool hey!!!

Then I made raspberry meringue bombes (vanilla icecream) for dessert, yummy.

a room with a view

It rained alot yesterday, in fairly short bursts, so it was nice to see blue sky again today. There are a few showers predicted this evening but then fine for the next few days again. The spring winds have definitely started too.

The grass is looking good hey.

This is from my desk in our office.

Matakana

We decided to take a drive up to Matakana this morning to the farmers market. While it wasn't as plentiful as it is in summer we managed to get some nice organic produce and some bread and some handmade soap. Oh and some chocolate and nuts! All grown or made locally.


The weather was lovely too. Very warm for the 1st August. By the time we got home though it was raining. 24mm toady already.

This is the actual 'farmers' market area, always packed! We were going to get some free range eggs but they sold out.

We went to the 4 Square shop - think it's actually called the General Store but their stock was really low but they had this new little nook up in the back which I think Jean would have liked. It had an old record player (the old long rectangular stereos), playing an LP, and all sorts of other stuff from the past.

It only took 45 minutes due to the new road now being open - it's great - it's a toll road so no one is on it!!
Last stop was the Atisan bakery at Matakana for some french sticks and we were off home again.
We were home by lunch time.

The soap

This is the handmade natural soap - 3 for $9 and they are huge!