Birth and death

  

30.4.2023

 

We have two new family members.  Pip had an emergency caesarean and produced a healthy little girl (Bay), and Josh is adopting one of Bo’s dog’s puppies. She is a border collie called Sarah, and very cute.  I cannot comment on Baby Bay, who we have not met yet.   But Pip and baby are now home and we plan to visit them next week.   Luckily, Pip’s parents have been able to stay over the last week and helping with the boys.   Bo planned to be there but the baby was early and arrived before her puppies were rehomed so that did not work out as planned.  

 

The weather has stayed fairly good, though we had a frost last night. Josh tells us that his car had ice on the windows and we believe him but the sun pours into our house every day and even with no additional heating our house was 23 degrees C this morning.  It is sunny again today and I have been digging and fertilising in the vegetable garden. I have planted out garlic, lettuce seedlings and parsley. I dug out the last of the cucumbers and egg plants as they do not cope well with frost. The zucchinis will be next to go and then the pumpkins.  Once the frosts start everything has to change.

 

The goats are looking fabulous in their glossy summer coats.  Nine of them are continuing to milk well so I can make cheese twice a week at least. I have made the first two hard cheeses as well as the feta and cream cheese.  I even made yoghurt as I had spare milk now Bo’s puppies no longer need it. The goats have started to cycle but we have not mated any yet.

 

Yesterday, we had a send-off for an elderly couple of locals who had passed away. They had no children so Keith our neighbour organised a do in the old steel’s creek school that is now our community building.  The lady had been an artist and many of her paintings were hung round the room and were given away to any one who wanted one.  A lot of community people, past and present turned up and we all helped bury a box of their ashes and plant a tree by them.  Speeches were kept to a minimum and mostly everyone talked together, catching up after the long covid break.  Wine and lunch were served and I noticed that the catering quality was much better than what we were presented with at Government house when I went there a few weeks ago.  I told the caterers this and we all had a good laugh. I came home with a couple of paintings and the firm conviction that this sort of ceremony is much better than the standardised stuff funeral services provide. 

 

waiting and worrying

  

25.4.2023

 

It is Anzac Day and we have a bank holiday. The weather is actually hot! This week we have had clear skies and sunshine every day. It feels as if the weather is returning to previous patterns.  We hope so anyway.  I have planted out brassica seedlings and broad beans, and actually have to water them every day. The lettuces and other things are returning naturally and I will move the seedlings to new beds when they are large enough.  We are still getting tomatoes, cucumbers and strawberries and I have picked the apples.  The fig tree is super productive as usual and I have been giving away buckets of fruit. Some returns to me as preserves and I get out of that stage of work.

 

We should be super happy but at present we are too worried about Al and family to totally relax. Pip is in the last weeks of pregnancy and is in hospital probably needing a caesarean.  She is having a terrible time. Luckily her parents are able to stay down with them and help care for the young boys. I had them here last Friday and they are mostly really good, but they are also active and need constant supervision.  Bo was planning to be there for the birth, and her puppies would have been at there new homes by Pip’s due date, but with this set back the planned dates are all wrong.  Josh and CB are hoping they can bring their puppy for trips out to the farm so that it she gets used to the separation gradually, but although all the puppies have people wanting them no-one seems in a hurry to take on the responsibility. 

 

There has been a lot of work involved in preparing and freezing all the fruit for winter. To fill the time gaps, I get with this sort of work, I have got out my weaving loom and have been working out how to use it with tablets.  My experiments are improving but my tablet weaving is still at a very novice stage.  The work like most weaving is in the warping not the weaving. Sorting out 40 plus lengths of fibre and getting the right colours into the right holes on each tablet can be challenging.  Bo is still working on her art and producing lovely, large, landscape pictures. I am over awed with the way she has been teaching herself how to do this.

 

A sad death, a lucky find and a day out

 22.3.2023

 

Our dear friend Benie has passed away.  She has fought so hard to stay alive for ages, but there was no happy ending. I am over awed by her courage. She kept working for her university students and her community till the end, and never complained about the disease or the treatments.  Several times a day I hear something and catch myself thinking” I must discuss this with Benie”.  We must have known her ever since we came to the area over 40 years ago.  We met when we joined the local after Xmas trail ride, and she became an important part of our large trail riding tribe.  When she left her husband, she lived with us in the donga until she brought herself a mud brick home up the mountain, but she would come down and join us for curry super on Friday nights where we would discuss everything.  We will miss her so much.

 

Whilst we were phoning the other members of the trail-ride tribe we discovered that another friend had also died that week.   Aunty was a small lady with a wicked sense of humour and a surprising amount of energy.  Perhaps our memories will be ghosts that find our ghostly horses and trek over the mountains for the rest of our lives. 

 

13.4.2023

 

The last stages of summer have past, and the hour has changed.  We finish outdoor activities earlier and we have started to light  fires in the evenings.   I was really worried that there would be no tomato crop as the fruit refused to ripen.  I usually manage to freeze loads of tomato puree for making winter soups and sauces and I began to think that we would need to change our diet this year.  Much to my surprise we got last minute fruit and as it had stayed green so long the tomatoes were huge, so my winter stocks are fine.  We have had wonderful a wonderful pear and nashi harvest, and now we are getting abundant figs and apples. The oldest chestnut tree has also produced an unexpectedly good crop, too.  I need to get in the next season vegetables and have begun digging over the beds ready for planting.

 

We have had a big bed swap session. Our tenant, CB, has started to furnish the donga to her own taste. She has brought shelves, a couch and inherited a new bed from Beth’s house.  We then needed to put the old stuff away somewhere.    Most of it went up to the loft floor that Stevo built above Edd’s shed, but the bed was too heavy to get up the stairs.  It was nothing special but Edd did not want to burn it so we drove round all the local charity shops to see if they could rehome it.  No-one wanted it so we reluctantly decided to take it to the tip where there is a recycling area.  This shop is run by an amazing lady who dedicates her time to saving anything she thinks is still useful.  Whilst we were there, we saw a great wooded bed and brought it for $25.  I have been looking for a bed for Edd for two years and found nothing I liked so this was a great find.  We put it up at home and it looked very much as if it belonged.  Since we moved in here Edd’s pillows have lent up against the lime plaster which tends to shed sand so the bed head has an important function.  

 

The goats have started to come into season and the bucks are smelling dreadful.  We are now milking by hand once a day, but there is still enough milk to make cheese twice a week.  I have not started making hard cheese but I probably should.  There is a lot of extra work at this time of year as we deal with all the fruit and vegetables but I got a break from routine last week when I was invited by my friend P to an award ceremony at Government house.   I shared a lift to town with an artist friend and borrowed some formal clothes and foot wear from Beth.  It turned out to be a nice sunny day and after the ceremony we were all sent out to the garden and served food and drink accompanied by live music. It was very like attending my kids’ university degree ceremonies except some recipients were dead so someone else had collect the award.  The best bit was getting together with new people and old friends.