I have just read Carols blog for the last few weeks. She is such a talented writer. I could never write as well as that!! She seems to be awake more since Karaka (the big thoroughbred sales where they worked 25 hours a day for tuppence ha'penny). Leading up to the sales and immediately afterward she worked even more obscene hours than usual and often drifted in just to say she was too tired to eat and see you tomorrow. And all for the love of horses. Can't quite see it myself. She is really in a dilemma now as the reality of her May return to the UK is hitting home and she so wants to stay here. She moves up to the stud next week as Mom and Daddy arrive on the 20th.
I have spent today working in the garden. Nothing unusual there I hear you say but this was in the flower beds near the house. I had a rethink and decided that the overgrown casual look was basically a mess and have been generally clearing out and tidying up. I have managed about 10m and that took me all day!! My hands are ripped to shreds, mainly due to the rogue roses branches that I keep grabbing on to and I ache all over. I have been burning the rubbish on the drive, or rather trying to as the damned thing kept going out. When Carol said 'I don't have trouble keeping fires going' Eric replied along the lines of her cheating using whole trees!!! We dined this evening on home made burgers from home-grown beef and home made rolls and home-grown, and seriously scrummy, sweetcorn. At the moment we are harvesting runner beans, the previously mentioned sweetcorn and courgettes for Africa, as well as the usual salad veg. I am disappointed at the progress of the fruit trees. Our stock fencing sometimes proves ineffective and the cows have helped themselves to foliage on some of the trees, especially the olives. The weed suppressant is also not terribly effective, the caterpillars and beetle have stripped foliage on some trees AND the nectarines and peaches have leaf curl, despite being sprayed. I am going to have to pay them some serious attention in the future. Along the end of Taotaoroa Rd someone has planted up a paddock with fruit trees and box in rows, quite close together and they are looking much bigger than my trees. It is very disheartening.
Yesterday was a public holiday, Waitangi Day which celebrates the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi between Queen Vic and Maori. The treaty remains highly controversial to this day and the anniversary is often a time for Maori to be rude to the government. Don Brash, our recently elected leader of the opposition, the Nationalists, made a speech recently saying that if elected they would sort all treaty issues quickly then after that end all special privileges for Maori and treat all New Zealanders the same. Maori are up in arms as they get a huge amount of extra government resources. I think he is right though. He says resources should be allocated on the basis of need not race. I do accept that their culture should be respected but a lot of pakeha (European New Zealanders) are resentful of the special privileges given to Maori. Anyway when he went to the Waitangi marae (meeting house) as invited, he refused to enter as the Maori's would not let any 'mainstream' reporters in (only those from Maori stations) and then he was pelted with mud. 'Our great leader' (Eric's words) Helen Clarke also had a rough time when she went later in the day because of the foreshore disagreement (Maori say it belongs to them and Helen says it doesn't). NZ politics is something else!!
On the home front, Alice has decided to give up her piano lessons. I am torn really because I think that learning to play an instrument is important but, she has never practiced off her own back and has hardly touched it at all all through the summer holidays. I am also aware that we have just shelled out a huge amount of money for a years hire of an alto sax (used the money you left for Harri towards it Stan, hope that meets with your approval) for Harriette. She will also continue with the piano as she practices regularly and is making good progress. Alice has always been on about horse riding lessons and we may think about this for her now in as she has dropped her piano. She says she wants to do flute when she goes to Intermediate but I suspect this is because our friend Robyn teaches it! On the subject of Intermediate Harriette has settled in well we think. She is struggling, as she knew she would, with the increased demands on her fitness. She was in tears the other evening saying they had to run round the grounds twice as fast as they could and she just could not run that distance. She has since been 'training' in the pool doing 'laps'. I have also started taking them (well Harriette so far, Alice was left behind as she still had not tidied her room 3 hours after going in there to do it!!!) to the pools in Matamata to do some serious lengths. I also went in as with my new job I am even more sedentary than before!!
Eric has just come in to say he can't find the other 2 pillow cases (I stripped the beds earlier today). I asked him what I needed to report on blog since the lamb episode and he said 'that I ain't got no pillow cases' - so now you know!!!
The cows are hungry still. We still have not got our hay cut, on account of the incessant rain of late. This means we are 3 paddocks of grazing down. We are feeding them the little hay we have left from last winter and scraps from my veg plot (they are particularly partial to silver beet). They are so funny and now come dashing over as soon as I venture down to pick veg or garden. Ermentrude and Twink make the strangest guttural noise, almost like talking, though I'm sure they are just warning the others off 'their' snacks. They do have some grass, just not as much as they would like. I mentioned the rain. We've had heaps of it. The last 2 days have been dry and, Lo, we've even had some blue sky. And this is mid-summer!! I have to say that this afternoon has been very hot in the sun but the temperatures have been quite cool still.
Yesterday we drove to Otrohanga (about 90km away) to pick up golf clubs for Daddy. They have decided not to bring their golf clubs over this time (something to do with the frantic packing and re-packing when they left last time as they had bought so much they were overweight I suspect!) but buy some second hand ones here. They have been checking the local Loot online and sending me details of any they wanted me to check out. The directions these people gave me were rubbish and I had to phone them twice when I was there to find their house. Anyway with the golf clubs loaded up I asked them about the, what I thought was, shammy leathers hanging in the garage. It turned out they were tobacco leaves. I then realised they were hanging everywhere and saw the plants growing in their veg plot. The last time I saw tobacco growing was in Zimbabwe on a friend of a friends farm - I often wonder how they have got on under the tyrannical regime out there. Anyway the guy was retired and had given up golf because he couldn't afford it now (I bet you're choking on your tea Mom and Daddy!) and he was growing tobacco because he couldn't afford to buy cigarettes - I wonder if he didn't consider giving up instead. Mind you looking at the yellow of his beard and his fingers I guess that's a silly question!
Well you lovely people, I'm fit for my bed now. You will be pleased to know that Eric now has pillow cases, only because I went and did a 'Mommy look' and found them, guess where, in the cupboard with all the other pillow cases!!! I'll put it down to the stress of studying!!
Nighty,night.
Michelle
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