Not because of being good in the garden I have to say, but because of stains from hours pulling enormous weeds. Why do they grow better than anything else in my veg plot?! Actually it is looking quite respectable down there at the moment, partly due to me spending almost all today working on it. I have lots of things on the go but only spinach, silverbeet, tomatoes and runner beans that we can harvest at the moment. One pumpkin plant has self seeded and is going bananas in amongst the sweetcorn. I was picking runners a few days ago and bashing the cane wigwam around searching for them when I spotted a nest in the top. On tip toes I was able to see that it had 4 eggs in. I wanted to touch them to see if they were warm but did not and today as I was working near there I saw mom, a pretty finch of some description, flying off. I will watch as carefully as Carol did her nest on the cottage deck 2 years ago and keep you posted.
Eric and I cleared an area to day to plant some more pumpkins but I am going to cover the whole thing with black plastic and plant them in holes in it, not very aesthetic but I can't spend all summer weeding at this rate! We have been eating the strawberries whilst gardening as there have not been enough to make a meal of, but if I keep on top of things (!!!), next year should be great as I reckon I'll have 120-ish plants with all the babies growing at the moment.
We let the cows into the paddock where the veg plot is while I was working as I can keep an eye on the calves to make sure they don't break through the electric fence. Being the curious creatures they are they hang around watching and waiting for 'titbits'. I throw them any brassicas I'm clearing, lettuce, spinch, whatever else is coming to an end. The brassica leaves are eaten by the cows then Rust and Inca spend hours chewing on the woody stems! It was funny watching Inca today, he was chewing on said stem at the front of the barn when Carol (the bovine version) approached. Now long time readers will remember what a wuss Inca is when it comes to cows. Well he held his ground, chewing seriously and watching Carol out of the corner of his eye, barking at her if she came too close. He eventually got cold feet and retreated behind the Mistral (parked in the paddock us we were unloading camping gear into the barn) where he couldn't see Carol and so she obviously no longer existed. Rust was very brave later. He was laying on the slope watching me when Lance (the school steer) approached him. He laid perfectly still while Lance had a good sniff for quite awhile.
Yesterday, Saturday, Mandy phoned to invite us to an improptu BBQ that evening. We went and had a pleasant time. There were several other couples there and quite a few children. Eric and I managed to see some for the World Sevens that has been played in Wellington this weekend. The atmosphere there looked fantastic and you'd have thought that fancy dress was compulsory looking at the crowd. And of course everyone was very happy as the All Blacks (are the sevens called All Blacks? I'm not sure), anyway, they won! The living area of Mandy's house is on the first floor and a small deck overlooks the pool. The kids, aged from 8 - 16 spent hours diving in the pool and having a great time. They then made a whirlpool in the pool by all running round as fast as they could. Now I know that the momentum of the water will carry you a bit once it gets going but I don't think I have ever seen Alice run so fast for so long!!! Yet again we said how summer evenings in the UK would not be spent this way and aren't we lucky to live here. Actually the girls had spent much of the day in the water as, after shopping in the morning we popped into R+R's so I could get some lemons (I had planned to make lemonade) and they ended up staying there for the afternoon. Needless to say they were in the pool within 2 minutes of arriving. Richard is just waiting for the guy to come and tile round the top of the pool and it will be finished. Needless to say they are all pleased to see it recommissioned. We are waiting for the official opening now!!!
Well I'm off to phone Cheryl now. Night night all.
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