Whoopsy daisy

Oops, haven't written for a week. It does only feel like yesterday though. Very odd.

This week has been fairly uneventful. A bit of hail and some planting when the sun came out. Marty got the broccoli, mesclun and pak choy into the aviary yesterday while mum and I dragged the 2 orphaned plum trees and got them into our soon to be organised orchard. We'll be removing some big trees between the shed paddock and the Toi Tois to add more incredible edibles where we already have a few pear trees. It will also put my mind at rest having the rhodos away from the horses. If they get into them it's all over. They are highly poisonous to horses. It worries me somewhat.

We transplanted all the strawberries in the aviary so now they are all in one place rather than scattered about and this afternoon found a little chaffinch had squeezed its way in there somehow and was having a nibble on the garlic and the bean/pea seeds we planted a while ago but have failed to do anything as yet. So Marty and I tried to coax him out through the open door but the chaffinch got himself into a bit of a state and ended up trying to get through one of the tiny holes in the chicken wire so I ended up catching him and taking him out. His little heart was beating so fast, poor boy. Hopefully he will warn all his friends not to go in there though.

The wood pigeons are back in full force. When we first got here there weren't that many of them but they have appeared out of the forests and are happily getting drunk on the tree lucernes and then launching themselves into the air only to drop to within a metre of the ground before finding the nearest tree and crashing through onto a flimsy branch. They bob away there quite relaxed for quite some time. Both Marty and I have nearly been killed by low flying wood pigeons. One actually hit Marty from behind a while ago. We thought we'd left the low flying objects when we moved the horses away from Whenuapai airbase but apparently we were wrong.

We are still fowl-less but I am hoping to remedy that this week. The chicken coop isn't quite finished but it's very close and I will take a photo of it tomorrow if the weather is nice. But here's a before photo. We have now enclosed the part that is in the front of this photo and added nesting boxes for the girls. I hope they appreciate the work that has gone into it!

And also just a quick photo of the spectacularly coloured rhodo by the shed paddock (but far enough away from our boys' chomping teeth). More and more rhodos are coming out as the weather begins to get warmer (supposedly!) but this one is by far the best at the moment.

We have a busy week ahead of us. Pete and Rach are coming up tomorrow for at least a night but maybe longer depending on what the weather looks like up the mountain and then this Friday Angus is coming back from Canada and spending the weekend with us (as well and Mum and Richard) and Sherry and Roger will be here on Saturday night as well so we'll have a full house. It will be great to see everyone though. I'm really excited about it all!

The boys were in a funny mood today and we had a bit of an incident which has led us to decide that we won't be letting other people ride them just because it's a bit risky. All is fine but I think it's for the best. I think we'll wake up early tomorrow and take them over the hills to tire them out a bit.

Marty has fallen asleep next to me so I think that signals bed time. I will try to keep more up to date though.

:)