The New Year Starts Here

No party.  No wild, riotous evening into the wee sma' hours (as if anyway).  No first footing (neighbours are rather too far away without a good walk and we had all done quite enough walking yesterday).  No going into Napier for the midnight celebrations and fireworks and music down at the Marine Parade and on the shore.  In fact it was, by far, the quietest New Year I can remember.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Gaz rang from Scotland during the evening and we had a catch-up.  Later on we all watched the first two episodes of Still Game.  Just before midnight given that there was not a cloud in the sky Martin lit the brazier and candles and everyone went in the spa.  I couldn't be bothered going down to The Cottage for my togs so I poured the bubbly and toasted the marshmallows and thus we saw in 2014.  As contentment goes that scored pretty high on the scale.

This morning I woke to bright sunshine and this scene from my bed:

I had no lemons for my hot water and lemon morning drink so I wandered off to the orchard:

The Cottage to the right and the drive up to The House and the orchard

Looking down the paddock towards the orchard

Lemons

A reminder of Scotland

A neighbour was taking her horse for some exercise with the buggy.  Unfortunately it was a long way off and I had a brief, and only partially successful, opportunity for a photo.

Since then it's been a series of phone calls and a really lazy morning.  The Family's Son 1 has gone off to work to earn some money for life at Uni.  Wendy and Martin have gone to collect Son 2 from Waimarama where he spent New Year camping and when they eventually get out of their beds and wander down I shall feed the younger two with some brunch.  All that and this:

Life's pretty damn good.

The Apple Harvest

It's a bit earlier than usual but this morning a crew arrived and picked a crate or two of apples from the orchard in front of The Cottage.  I'm not sure why because its a couple of weeks until those particular apples are usually ready.

.

Time to Water

The last few summers here in Hawkes Bay have not been dry nor, by the Bay's standards, very hot and sunny.  Although the orchardists have not had to irrigate nor have they had the sun at the right time for really good quality and quantities of apples.  The irrigators in the orchard in front of The Cottage have not been used for several years.  In fact the last time I mentioned irrigation was in 2008.  When I arrived back here at the end of October the hills of the Bay were verdant.  However since then the amount of rain has been small and in many parts of the North Island only 5% of the average rainfall has fallen this month.

So the irrigator which stands like something I imagined from the original War of The Worlds (the one with music by Jeff Wayne - ah, memories) is back in action.  What is striking to me when I look at the following photos is the brown paddocks on the hills behind the orchards.

The water for the irrigators comes from a natural water reserve under the geological bowl in which the orchards and The Cottage are situated.  It's the same reserve that we get our water from.  Fortunately despite the huge amount used by the irrigators it's never run out.... yet.

Our very own rainbow.

Thankful Thursday: Lemons

The Family have an orchard as part of the 5 acres in which The House (and The Cottage) stands.   It's not the sort of orchard that surrounds the property which are cultivated apple trees but an old fashioned garden orchard with a mix of fruits including apricots, plums, lemons and the inevitable hedge of feijoa.  My principle interest is the plentiful and never-ending supply of lemons for my morning cups of hot water and lemon (and the occasional gin and tonic!).

So today I am thankful for the fact that I live amongst such restful beauty and have a plentiful supply of wholesome truly organic lemons.

Choices

It's the time of year again - I seem to blog about this every year - when the crops are sprayed. In this case it's the apple orchards in front of The Cottage. There are choices: spray against pests with chemical insecticides, spray with Bacillus thuringiensis (a spore forming bacterium that produces crystals protein which are toxic to many species of insects and used in organic farming) or do nothing. Doing nothing is not a commercial option because we, the consumer, just won't buy insect damaged products (and they wouldn't last long anyway).   Each year I am reminded, however, that when I eat an apple I am probably eating some residue of the insecticide used:

Young Tearaways!

Youngsters riding quad bikes and trial bikes in the countryside here is NZ is usual and quite common.  But I still find it amusing when a couple of children of one of the neighbours (whose house is completely hidden from me) race around the orchard with apparently considerable skill and at quite a pace considering the youngest is probably only just at school or possibly at pre-school.

The Second Pick

The orchard in front of The Cottage has various types of apples. One type has already had its first pick and a day or so ago the second type had its firs pick. The Highland Cattle in the paddock love the pickers when they are on the row end near the cattle because they get all the rejects thrown over to them. Sweet beef. Except that they are pets. yes, really.

Misty Morning

It's been a superbly warm day with the temperature reaching 35 on the deck of The Cottage. This morning the mist hung over the orchards in front of The Cottage but quickly dispersed as the heat of the sun took control.

That Time of Year

It's that time of year again. Almost to the day (13 March) that it started last year the picking of the apples in the orchard in front of The Cottage commenced again this year.

Its Different This Morning

The orchard outside my Cottage is nearing harvest

When I stuck my nose out of the doors this morning and slid them open to let in the world, I was conscious that things were not as they had been for a while. I just couldn't put my finger on why. The sun was shining again after a night of very heavy rain which started late afternoon. I was thinking that the farmers varied in their views on rain at this time of year. The orchardists don't want it because it reduces the sweetness of the apples and, I think, it's the same for the vignerons. The sheep and dairy farmers will be giving thanks.

However, I digress. Things seemed different. The temperature rose to 24 when it suddenly occured to me that it felt slightly chilly for 24 degrees. And then I realised. Hawkes Bay is not usually humid. But for the last few weeks we have been having unusually high humidity for the area. Today the humidity hsa gone and the air has its usual crisp warmth again. Wonderful.

Morning Living in The Country

This morning I stood in the living room with the ranch doors onto the deck wide open.  Elgar's Cello Concerto (the Jaqueline du Pré recording) was playing.  I like my music reasonably loud which is ok when there is no one to disturb.  As I stood and listened I realised that the noise of the countryside outside was greater than the sound of the music.  I switched off the music and ventured outside onto the deck.  

I'm not very good at bird calls but there are some that I recognise.  Nearest to The Cottage a Chaffinch was vying for individual honours with a Blackbird (the clear winner).  The flocks of Sparrows and Goldfinches were vying with each other for group honours (no clear winner there).  The eerily haunting cries of the Australasian Magpies filled the distance (winners of the eerily haunting class by a wide margin).  The screetch of the Pukeko intermittently butted in (clearly winning the scare-you-out-of-your-pants class).  Two little Fantails twittered as they chased each other through the trees (winners of the twittering class and the can't-stand-still class as well).  The Kingfisher darted around winning the silent class: although they do have a loud and penetrating call and there are many of them around here I'm not sure that I've ever identified it.

I was actually wakened this morning before 0600 by a quad bike in the Orchard.  Johnny was inspecting the insect traps to see what pests had to be sprayed today.  An hour or so later he was back dressed from head to toe in his protective gear covering all and sundry with insecticide.  

This morning there has not been a breath of a breeze and my washing has hung limply on the whirlygig since 0700.  In fact it's a very odd morning because the bright sun after the dawn became hazy and then overcast and now it's bright, though, hazy again.  There's a very unsettling feeling in the air.

There is just something magical about living in the countryside.

Danger of Drought

There is already at this very early stage in the summer talk of drought in Hawkes Bay and the Drought Committee met today: apparently the earliest anyone could recall it meeting.  Certainly the orchard in front of  The Cottage is being watered constantly at the moment.  We get our water from underground using our own borehole and pump into our own 500 gallon water tank and, unlike many areas nearby where there is a very high iron content, ours is wholesome water.

The orchard takes its water from the same underground reserves. They've never run dry yet but....

A Misty Morning

It's been a wonderful day - it still is although it'll soon be dark as the evenings draw in. But this morning was very autumnal. At 0520 when I woke briefly the kettle was clear and the remaining stars were peering out of a clear lightening sky. I went back to sleep. I should add that I don't have any curtains closed and you may recall that one side of my bedroom is completely double glazed and overlooks the orchards. By 0720 the kettle or whatever it was I had decided to call the bowl in which I live had completely filled with mist

which eventually dispersed as the sun came over the horizon giving way to another warm day with clear blue cloudless skies. Actually I suspect that grammatically saying it was cloudless after saying that it was clear blue may be unnecessary and I suspect that there is only one sky. But wotthehellarchiewotthehell.

The Orchard: The High PIck

The hydro-ladders have been doing the 'high' pick of the apples at the tops of the trees.

Picking the high crop.

Go on. Throw me a few.

Emptying the apples into the crates.
Alpha Bull to hopeful young bull "Don't even think about it"

The Orchard

In front of and below The Cottage is an orchard. It has been a place of much interest to me since I arrived at the start of last November. The birds inhabit it. The Australasian Harrier tours over it daily looking for a meal. And of course it is the workplace for the apple grower. Is an apple grower called an orchardeer or simply a farmer? Anyway he works there. I missed the blossom stage and by November the fruit was already well set.

Hello, Hello, what's this up to?

Spraying insecticide. Ugh.

Thinning out.

Beats a ladder anytime!

The crates are coming - picking is about to start.

More crates needed, more go to the packers.