Another Part Added.

 When it rained  I got a whole afternoon sewing in. All my sewing gear and machine had been having a holiday in the cupboard . Luckily I had thought to write myself a few notes before I packed it all away some weeks ago. At the top of the photo is the latest section  I made and now have pinned in place ready to sew on. ( the width of 4 rows of the small squares ) In front on the table is a small pile of still usable parts for maybe one more section. I am having quite a hunt to find suitable lights for the half square triangles. They are quite essential to make the design stand out.

 The rain we have been having ( thank you ) is boosting the size of the pickings I am getting from my strawberry  and blueberry patch . It is also increasing the number of rots in the strawbs.

 Having recently got a new blender we have been having some interesting smoothies. These blueberries ended up in one last night along with other fruit and some pourable yoghurt and almond milk. and  ground LSA. No 2 ever turn out exactly the same.

 This is an earlier version using yellow fruits ( gold kiwis ,frozen pineapple some orange  almond milk and a spoon of R's marmalade ) ( Coconut milk is also good in them ) 

 Every 2nd  or 3rd day I have to do a lot of bending to pick these dwarf beans called Tendergreen. ( Watkins seeds ) . I don't care for frozen beans much so have been giving some away. 

 The courgettes are being quite generous now ( you know  how closely they need watching unless you desire marrows )  and I have been making various recipes. This one was in the NZ Listener 1 week ago. It turned out nicely but is really just a frittatta.

 The main ingredients were new potatoes and courgettes ( which we have  ) eggs some cream seasoning and cheese. Kumara would work just as well I think.

 I also made a Donna Hay recipe called  Raw Peppermint Slice. It is from her magazine called Donna Hay - Fresh & Light Power Foods. It cost  NZ $ 9.99  and has more yummy recipes in it than any other book or mag I have seen lately.

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 Today we have a gang of 26 workers in to get us up to speed with our kiwifruit thinning. ( That means in one day they can do what would have taken me 26 days to get done. ) It needs to be done now so the fruit that remains can gain maximum size. The rain will help.

 We had fertilizer spread last Friday so that got gently washed in.( twice ) 

 It was a side dressing of 2 ferts and took this driver on his quad bike pulling a little spreader about 15 minutes to do all the kiwifruit blocks.

Living in a Florist Shop.

Thank you all for your lovely comments, Leanne, Jennifer, Molly, Deb, Sal, Nicky and Thimbleanna. Yes Sal, I will certainly send you a photo(s) as soon as the official ones are available. Nicky sadly no rain.....most of NZ is now in a very worrying state of drought. We need it desperately as do most farmers ( more on that later. )
    The reason for the heading, " Living ( happily ) in a florist shop," is that I have been for the past week since the wedding, the lucky sitter of most of the flowers from the tables , my own bouquet from the newly weds and also the spray I wore. Teal or aqua is not a very usual flower colour so the florist did well with additions to the white flowers in my spray. After one week in a blue Hogland glass vase it still looks great.

 The white rose buds have been removed ( and were the first to die in most of the flower vases)  but the white  lisianthus bud blossomed, the greenery is still holding. See how the florist put some touches of blue in it with  2 glass beads wired and a small cut down peacock feather. Cute eh. (  fairly amazing  to still be okay for flowers on short stems and wired. )

 This is one of the vases of table flowers still going strong one week later. This one sitting on my hearth  I have topped up the water in them all ( 6 vases ) daily and today changed it and removed any dying  flowers or debris ( mainly leaves) that were souring the water. Flowers that the florist used in these table centres  were lisianthus; alstromeria; roses; carnations and chrysanthemums; 

 Earlier in the week I couldn't resist thrusting my camera up close to some of the beautiful flowers individually to capture their faces. That Sunflower in the  top photo  was a lovely lemon.( not the usual loud sunflower colour ) 

The lime Chrysanthemum is a true work of art. ( that colour worked so well with the delicate pink flowers - mainly Lisianthus )

 I was so glad to see some of my favourite flower, carnations included. Who trimmed that delicate edge and tipped it in a darker colour  - takes my breathe away.

 The lovely flowers the newly weds gave me are this morning out of their cute vox box and just in a vase. The lilies were the first to go and this fab gerbra will be next.

Considering the hot hot days we have been having the staying power of most of these flowers is impressive. Sadly many of the girls could not transport flowers home  with them so I have been the lucky and nearest  custodian.

 My sister who was staying here last weekend also gave me this lovely potted Begonia, which is delicate as well as having flowers of an impressive size.

 So I have been having a floral week while getting back to normal around here. One final comment about the beautiful flowers would be, " where has all your wonderful perfume of yesteryear gone?"

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 On Wednesday afternoon I moved from 2b to work in block 1 of the Kiwifruit and was alarmed to notice about 3 vines nearest the road end of the block were wilting ever so slightly. I pulled off 50 % of the fruit on them and we managed to string together all our household hoses to reach the vines. With a thorough soaking over many hours on 2 days  I am glad to say we have saved their lives. I hope none of the other vines start doing that cause we can't water them all. ( that was the most likely spot to have a problem) But it means the fruit is no longer sizing up and that will be a national problem for Zespri if the promising season turns into one of smaller than desired / needed fruit. We will have to start inspecting all blocks frequently and may have to consider reinstating our irrigation systems that hasn't been needed for so many summers that it is no longer in working order. We are so lucky to have our own ( now dwindling ) water supply.

 Still on the subject of Kiwifruit I have a little puzzle for you. What happened to these 3 fruit ?

 Leanne you have an advantage here as you know what R gets up to.

 These mysterious  star like little holes travel right through the fruit so they look the same on the other side. Needless to say these 3 hanging together in block 1 had to be removed and are not going on any overseas trip later in the year.

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 I have promised myself a weekend at a slower pace. Yesterday I began pinning the half square triangles together or my zigzag quilt. My sewing machine is going to be reinstated on the dinning-room bench and I hope to sew for at least an hour this afternoon( if I can remember how ) Time will also need to be spent processing some of the wealth of produce we have ready in the garden. Time will also need to be spent moving hoses around all areas of our gardens.

 I know there are other events and weddings happening around Tauranga this weekend but I am now thinking rain, rain, rain. Please.

Also noticed this morning the first walnuts are beginning to fall. Autumn?

Completed Tasks.

Such a hectic fortnight! Ah, we get a weekend to catch up on all the normal tasks.

Photos are some of the things that got completed.

The bag is very quick and is just 2 identical linings of the Bucket bag. I cut 8 rectangles slightly larger than the normal bag and sewed as for the normal lining; only I made 2. ( if you don't know what I mean go back to where I made the quilted Bucket bag). When it is turned through at the end I didn't top stitch it, just ironed it and so it it reversible. I used all the same fabric but it could be done with different fabrics then reversing it would give a different look. Great for shopping or books or keeping folded inside another bag for times when you need more carrying space.Very washable too.

Kiwifruit pollination is almost complete. The young fellow in the photo is applying male pollen using a leaf blower. You can see the canister of pollen sitting on top obscuring his face. Twice we had gangs come through using this method. They very quickly walked along swinging the blowers from side to side blasting pollen into the air. If you are a follower of this blog you may recall a different ( and more expensive ) method was used last year. This was in both cases supplementary to the 15 bee hives - the inhabitants of which have been quietly humming around for the last 2 weeks. When the pollen is blown into the air they get extremely active , so working in the vines is a little precarious, but we know to look carefully and mainly the bees look out for us...if we get a hand to close they just fly off. The fruit set is looking very even and a good number.

The Avocado picking was completed by Thursday afternoon. 48 bins in total. The small fruit was left on the trees and may get picked late Jan or Feb if prices make it worthwhile.....they will have sized up by then. The trees already have next years crop pollinated and are still smaller than a pea. This morning I went through the containers of reject fruit I had put aside when levelling the bins and sorted them into bags to give away. I expect friends and neighbors to come and collect them if they want them, but it is surprising to me that some folk still expect us to deliver. This tough ol girl does not do that any more. DH still delivers to neighbors, cause he likes an excuse to talk. And no before any body asks the freight to send them ANYWHERE is TOO much. These are rejects only.

On Friday lunch time we had a party of English Teachers visiting from Singapore come with a Zespri Rep we know, to look around an orchard. DH showed them around and I met and talked to some when they finished. They were a friendly bright lot with excellent English. Percy Peacock, made an impression on them and featured in some of their photos. Very pleasant young visitors to have .

So far with the property being on the market we have had NIL lookers actually physically here but lots looking on line. It is not the right time to be selling and properties are just not moving they tell us. We are prepared to wait and know we are not ready to reduce the price. Our plan A is to ride it out. If in 6 months nothing has happened Plan B is too look at other options.....sub dividing....or pulling out all the avos and kiwis. I don't think that last plan is ethically sound I really don't, but maybe if we get that poor I might change my mind.

If you wish to look on line go to http://www.nz.open2view.com/search and then either put in ID # 167723 or got to the map and pick out BOP; then Tauranga; then Te Puna on the drop downs and look for a property with that ID #.

I'll be interested to know if you manage to find it , some overseas friends have been able to, including younger son in London who found it and the 35 photos quite interesting.

Another completed task was reading " Louise Nicholas - My Story" by P Kitchen and Louise Nicholas. Kiwis will know what that was about and although I knew all about it before I read the book it was still worthwhile but infuriating to know that all that went on here in the BOP in our country and that one of the blokes involved has just retired and gets a huge golden handshake. Justice was certainly not seen to be done! I think 3 of the others are still in prison for other crimes.

My next read just started is has been on our bookshelf for years and I had never read it...all 1275 pages of it. "Alaska," by James A Michener. I have read most of his other books so should enjoy it and I know I will learn heaps from it. It just might take me a while.
On Friday night we had some much needed rain....kind of it to hold off till all the picking and pollination was done.( warm was good for that! ) .......but lawns are browning and dust is rising so hope we get more. Our new potatoes are just yummy and I am getting quite a few strawberries, The peas are flowering so I guess its Summer! Still lots to do here but we are enjoying being able to decide how to spend our time this weekend.

Part 2 - Kiwifruit Harvest.

Today only the fruit stalks remain. The odd fruit that has been missed will gradually get picked by us , ( they will extra ripe and tasty ) the birds will eat a few. The whole growing cycle will start again.

Kiwifruit Lesson.

How's that kiwifruit crop looking? Good actually....but how far away from picking is it? Well a few weeks at least. One of the jobs I do at this time of the year is keep tabs on how the crop is maturing. It is all looking good but what is going on inside the fruit? The sugar levels are building and so is the dry matter....that means it is starting to mature or ripen. How can I tell this? Well firstly it is the time of year for it to ripen; but also cause I'm Brix Testing some sample fruit using a refractometer.

This is how I do it.

-Go and select some fruit from different blocks of the orchard.( 10 this time )

-Bring them back to the kitchen bench and cut a thin slightly curved slice off each end.

-Squeeze a drip of juice from each of the fruit slices ( 2 drips total per fruit ) onto the prism of the refractometer. (2nd photo )

-Close the upper plate down to spread the juice right across the prism. Hold the prism up to my eye and toward a light source. It's not easy to see but there is a scale printed on the lens which tells the level of soluble solids ( sugars ) in the sample.( the same method is used for grapes in the wine industry )

- read the result for that fruit and record it.

- wipe the prism clean after each fruit sample.

- Add up the 10 readings and divide by 10 to get the average. ( and that the current brix level for our fruit ) ( Ours is progressing towards being ready but is probably about 2 weeks away. Cold nights ( chilling ) will make the levels rise fast. Rain will slow it down and dilute it. Frost will cause a scare cause the crop can get ruined....so we want colder nights but not too cold!

( What I have described is simplified a bit as there are lots of rules about where to pick the sample from; time of day; number of fruit in the sample, but you get the general idea )

At one time many years ago ( 30) the 1st May was when kiwifruit picking started on some orchards but as more was learnt about maturity and taste the industry has used better methods to decide when fruit should be picked. When our crop is ready it will get " officially" tested for Brix levels and for dry matter ( different test using microwave drying ). Then after that we will wait our turn to pick. The packhouse has to allow only as much fruit as they can handle to be picked at any time so it is all organised by the packhouse facility...... often that means a lot of waiting. The waiting is hard as frost or wind could strike and ruin a good crop, so things sometimes get a bit tense. This is our 25 export crop! ( we have lived here 29 years now )

We have been eating some lovely fruit which I picked 2-3 weeks ago that were mower damaged or extra big or flat shape ( I just couldn't throw them on the ground to be mown up ....glad I kept them cause they are ripening up nice and sweet. )

Right now we get to catch up on other jobs like garden and firewood and nut collection and Autumn things...soon there will be leaves everywhere...the colours are great on Viburnums Dogwoods and Hydrangeas; the Oaks are just starting. Lovely still, calm, days. Mellow..... Long may it last. No storms please!