Champions

Firstly, and mostest important, we won the rugby. Waikato beat Wellington in the final of the NPC. We have only ever won once before way back in the 90’s and we had the semi’s and the final on home turf to boot. It was an exciting game, the Mooloo’s came out all guns blazing and played at a pace that looked unsustainable. There were some silly errors and scrappy play at times but the scrum was solid and the lineouts awesome. Waikato people are passionate supporters of their rugby and this was on full display. I tried, half heartedly I have to say, to get tickets. I say half heartedly as the weather forecast was not good and Helen and Phil had offered to have us over to watch it on their enormous TV. Anyway, the website was not co-operating when I tried to book and I gave up. We had already watched the semi-finals with Helen and Phil as it coincided with a barbi we had already arranged to have at theirs. I took upper with us, Delias Chicken Basque and a crème caramel. Our chook are laying well so eggs will be a feature of our diet for the next few months. Chooks mean lots of pavlovas, lemon meringue pies and home made lemon curd!! Between Robyn and Mom lemons are nearly always in good supply.

I am so pleased with the progress being made in the veg plot. Eric has almost finished the fencing. Although a relatively short bit on fencing in relation to the rest of the block, about 60m in all, it has 2 gates and 4 corners(!), which means lots of strainer posts. Each strainer post means a hole 1.2m deep and we live on the hardest clay you could imagine. He has worked so hard on this and I am really grateful. I do feel a bit bad as I offered several times to help dig holes but then got distracted with my own work in the garden. I have sorted much of irrigation system and started to weed the strawberries, finding hundreds of fruit in there, a few of them already red. Unfortunately the slugs have also found them!! I am so tempted to use slug bait but this goes against all my near-organic principles (I say ‘near organic’ as I’ll use anything to kill the beetles that have decimated my fruit trees in the last few years, and I use week killer on the drive). The broad beans are looking great but I think I should have planted a second row. I put some warratahs in to put the supports through. I had to fight Eric for them as he is very protective of his fencing stuff and always insists his need is greater than mine! The potatoes are looking good as are the first lots of brassicas and beetroot that I put in. The dwarf beans are looking less than healthy, and I need to look up why. I am now putting in the brassicas that I planted in seed trays. We are going to be so over run with cauliflower, broccoli and broccoflower in a few months!!! I put the courgettes in yesterday and when the chooks have finished eating their way through the weeds I’ll get all the pumpkins in. ALL the peas have germinated but we will see if they grow to descent size. I usually produce pathetic sized plants that manage one pea pod each! I bought some aubergine plants yesterday and several different types of basil. I love the smell of basil. I have also been working in the orchard, watering trees for an hour each and clearing the base of the trees. I have been laying the sheep dags around the base to feed and mulch them. Trouble is the bl***y dogs come along and poke their snouts in through the tree guards and drag out the dags to chew on – disgusting creatures. We have marked off a section in the veg plot to make into a fruit plot. This is in addition to what I have as making the whole plot square meant incorporating a section of paddock not already cultivated. I have put black plastic over it at the moment and will till it, edge it and add more topsoil before planting. I put a raspberry plant in the veg plot about 2 years ago which has sent off tens of runners but I am loathe to dig them up and plant them where I want them as they have yet to produce any fruit. I’ll leave them and see what happens this year.

I didn’t mention that it is a public holiday today - hence it is raining!! Oh well at least it means I have been able to write this. With the longer days now I would have been in the garden (at 8.30am). Labour Day weekend is viewed here as the traditional start to summer (so like an August BH in the UK you can almost guarantee rain). I suppose that means I have no excuse for not doing the household accounts and other boring stuff indoors today!