Weather Woes

The calm before the storm.

Haven't blogged for a while as it has taken me some time to get my thoughts into cohesive alignment.  What an action-packed 2 or 3 weeks it has been!  Both at work and at home.  We have had visits from the Education Review office at work and visits from friends at home. We have had a celebration party in recognition of our EnviroSchools Silver Award and lots of end-of-year preparations and planning at kindergarten.  

In between all that, we have dealt with Wind Storms from Hell!  It blew for 7 days non-stop, gale force winds.  We watched as the leaves on trees turned brown and branches were wrenched off their parent plants, our fig tree blew down and just when we thought it could get no worse, our plastic German-precision-built hothouse blew over and tumbled into the nectarine tree!  On that Saturday morning, we lay in bed as the wind ramaged outside and I truly wondered whether our house would withstand the fury of Mother Nature this time.

We surveyed the damage and I felt overwhelmed by all the clean up required.  But soon as that thought slipped out, I quickly gave myself a mental lashing - "Don't be such a girl!  This ain't no earthquake!  Imagine cleaning up after that!"  That put my misery into perspective and quick-as set me right!!  So we righted the hothouse again and in the after gusts of wind, lashed the structure down as best we could.  My hot house tomatoes I had gotten a headstart on were ripped out and snapped off!  It was a bit heart-breaking as these plants are my "babies" which I tend with care.  They had green tomatoes on the size of small oranges!  Gone with the wind!  As too, all my seedlings - tipped out in one giant pile of rubble!  Capsicum, eggplant, aster, dahlia, coriander, tomatoes and many more- all damaged beyond salvage.

Our hothouse bears the scars of it's wind-borne travel adventure.

So later in the day, we put on a brave face for the help-exchangers who arrived from the States and they set about helping us around the garden.  Just in time.  They took our mind off all the damage (our neighbour also lost a plum tree which also crashed through our driveway fence).  But at least the house, cottage and shed are still standing.  Plants can be replanted.  I spent most of Saturday doing just that - sowing new seeds.  There is always hope!  Seeds of hope.

Our new helper friends were set to weeding, composting, pruning, thinning, sanding and other jobs which freed us up to "recover" lost ground after the storm.  While Corinne did much of the garden work, Warren set about converting 2 kiwifruit bins into a super rustic daybed!  A week rushes by quickly when you are in the company of friends and all too soon, we farewelled them this morning.  We enjoyed their wonderful musical ensembles in the evening, with both being very accomplished musicians and singers!

A fine place to read the afternoon away................

like this!

The Evening Time Crooners

This evening (Monday) after work, I went out into my garden for a little down time.  It had been raining all of Sunday, a welcome wetting of the dry, dry wind-parched earth.  Gardens are miraculous!  They don't take long to recover!  I delighted in the many colours and shapes of the wildflowers, a-buzz with bees, and while picking my chamomile, I had to smile when I heard this strange scratchy-growly noise coming from one of the hollowed ponga (tree-fern) logs that line my pathways.  I knew instinctively that it was a hedgehog.  We had spied one pulling into our main gate entrance last Wednesday evening, making a sharp left for the garden!  I tried peering into the blackness and then had an epiphany - I pointed my camera inside the darkness and took a flash-photo!  Check out the results!!

Note the snails and the little grass lined burrow, with the hedgehog but jammed in tight!

German Chamomile

So all things considered, there was not so much damage on the grand scale.  Mother Nature wreaks havoc but she also performs miracles!  The garden still feeds us abundantly and this is a pic of last week's haul.  We are still harvesting broad beans, asparagus, kohlrabi, strawberries, artichokes and radishes.  New to the plate is black currants, rhubarb, and green peas.