Spring

Friday 2nd September so by the calendar Spring is here.
I have felt it in the air for at least a week. That lovely warmth, combined with a subtle change in the light. Added to the sub-liminal sound of yellowhammers and chaffinches singing their territories. The willows are putting out exploratory leaves - nothing too daring yet in case there is a cold snap. The pines have left their yellow scum of pollen all over as a tide mark around puddles. The chooks have been laying for a couple of weeks - we are getting eggs off nearly all our 8 hens now on an almost daily basis.

I like spring! I like the manic energy it releases in all the animals and plants. i pick up on that and get manic myself. Today, a Friday, i was up and out at 0630, down in the garden working on the soil. I know from bitter experience that there is a narrow window in Spring that allows the soil to be worked. The soil has dried out enough to be worked with ease. Give it another month and that same soil will set hard like concrete if it has not been freed from its winter compaction.

Now is the time for getting the potato, kumara, bean and root beds redy for sowing and planting. At the same time the summer seeds need to be planted. I put in a whole raft of seeds last Sunday and put them under the polytunnel in the back garden. Tmato, aubergine, zucchini, lettuce, capsicum. It is light at 0615 and dark at 1830 so we must be close to the equinox. It was nice to be in the Uk summer a couple of weeks back when the nights did not start until 10pm and the daylight got going at 0500. The days were long but not particularly hot. I do like the fireceness of the summers here in Northland. It gets so hot in January that we retreat from the cancer-inducing sun for the middle part of the day.

It has been a long strange time since my last post. This would probably be the first Friday night that I have felt in any sort of mood for writing since before we had to go back to England for Dad's funeral.

Lots of things have happened in the mean-time that it is hard to know where to start. Being at the funeral with rellies I have not seen for ages who told me that they read this blog makes me feel a little nervous. Normally I write without thinking too much of the audience. Anyway .... hi there Uncle John and Aunty Barbarah. And Uncle Robert and Aunty Sheila. And all the others in the UK who read. I hope you find something here to interest you. Feel free to add a comment ... or to read without commenting. Blogging is like writing a diary that you deliberately leave lying around for anyone to read. How much does one say. How much does one guard what one is saying. How much to make up?

I shall attempt to go back to my default setting of not worrying too much about these things.

This post cannot really go by without making mention of Dad's passing. That has been the major event of the last few months ... year. Many people I have spoken to have said that losing one's father is a defining moment in life and taht you are not the same afterwards. I guess that is true for me. I don't have a living father any more. My turn is next is the thought uppermost in my mind. I am not a kid any more because I have my own kids and my Dad isn't around anymore. It might not be that long before the next generation thrusts itself into the world at the same time as I shuffle closer to the edge.

Eric and I went for a kayak and a afish last weekend. The forecast was perfect, with low winds for a week. No rain and good sunny weather. The only thing not with us was the tide which was inconvenient. we went to Houhora harbour and put in at Wageners not far from the entrance. We tried paddling out to sea against the incoming tide. Not easy and the anchor would not hold the yak against the force of the tide, so we drifted back to the island close to our launch site. We hooked up in the shelter of the island and cast into the current. Eric could see a shoal of trevally and John Dory underneath our boat. We threw in lots of burley to keep them there and tried to tempt them with a variety of baits. Th trevs were taking small squid baits but we could not tempt the JDs. Had a good fish brought a single one home and had a goodtime.

This week has been like christmas in terms of getting lots of prezzies. On Monday my new glasses were ready for collection and I am part way to having my sight back after a year of being blind in one eye. Also saw the eye specialist and he declared himself very pleased with what he could see with his machine. The car was ready as well that day after nearly a month of having its shocks replaced. There hangs another story! On Tuesday it wa school prezzies with the arrival of a package of seeds from kings seeds along with 20 catalogues. The first purchase of any significant amount of seeds I have made in this country since I got here. Lots of exciting new things to try with the hort classes. I also got hold of the timber to make some raised beds on Tuesday. ne of my Y12 sustainability groups are doing al the work on thsi. I just had to get the materials for them.

Might post some pics to lighten the text.