Wet, wet, wet!

Unbelievable weather!  Should be sunny but am considering whether I should be googling plans to build an ark!  How much water can one little island really soak up??  People further down the line haven't fared so well in this wet wonderland: floods, land slides......

We have limped from wind storms to apocalyptic rain deluges, all this in a month typically linked to sunshine, beach wallowing and surfing opportunities!

In a brief respite from the rain, I managed to sneak out into the garden and take some photos to document the growth and movement of crops.

Elderberry flowers cowering under the distinctive yellow foliage.

Last year I picked enough elderberries to make one bottle of elderberry syrup.  This is truly delicious on top of vanilla sago pudding, or swizzled on home-made banana ice-cream.  We have an Oscar juicer, which makes the most delicious and healthiest banana ice-cream.  I simply freeze excess over-ripe bananas and then put them through the Oscar, along with brazil nuts and dates - gives the ice-cream a toffee-like texture and taste!

The corn is as high as an elephant's eye............. nearly!

 I sent my now-deceased father some of these black Maori corn seeds some years ago, to the Transkei in South Africa. He reported showing them to the older Black folk in the area and that they were really excited, as they remembered their grandparents growing similar corn many years back!  We stand to lose so much of our heritage seeds, which is why I like to grow these unusual varieties unavailable in the supermarkets!

Wildflowers in bloom

The blue of wildflowers abuzz with pollinating bees, which is the
main reason for planting them under our orchard trees.

Such prehistoric-looking buds of poppies..........

This deep crimson flower of a pelargonium.............. I think I might
get into the different hues till the garden is a riot of colour!
Apparently there are 200 different varieties!

The Pohutukawa-like flowers of a feijoa........... the black birds love to
feast on them.  Tend to rip them to shreds but then feijoas are
 pollinated by birds, so I leave them to it!

I was reading an article about feijoas on the net and discovered that this plant was imported into New Zealand in the early 1900's, and is native to Brazil and Uruguay.  In terms of yeild, these trees are prolific producers - Year 3 plant approximately yield 2kg of fruit then doubling each year until 20 to 25kg of fruit.   considering we have 8 of these trees, in our garden, that could equate to 160kg fruit!!

The monkey tail of a baby ponga fern frond

The ponga fern frond is a symbol of many New Zealand sports teams logos and the "koru" shape used in many representations in Maori art.  It reminds me of the Nautilus shell.

The beauty of our natural world

The view from our bedroom window, the chook house visible on
the left, over my newly harvested broad bean bed.

My son Cam's outdoor recycled rimu cottage.  

The kitchen garden, with netted strawberries

So although Mike's garlic crop is ruined,  the strawberries are swollen but not very sweet, the stone fruits will probably develop mould and blight, some tomato plants have succumbed to wet rot, the wildflowers are lying horizontal on the ground, seedlings have damped off and rotted, all due to the excessive rain, mostly, the garden still flourishes!

And we suffer from cabin fever, but this too shall come to pass!
 Christmas presents have all been sorted, so we can relax.  Mike and I decided to share a gift for ourselves which would bring some change to others - you can't change the world but perhaps you could make the world of difference for someone in need.  Oxfam has a programme called Oxfam Unwrapped, where you can purchase a worthy gift on behalf of someone, which then is gifted to impoverished communities.  Our choice was a gift of bees to a community in Samoa.  The humble honey bee does so much.  Not only does it make delicious honey, it helps pollinate fruit trees and vegetable crops.  This gift also provides training for beekeepers to make the most of their hives and earn a better living.  What a great sense of the true spirit of Christmas!  Do we really need another sachet of bath bubbles, a bottle of perfume or another box of  chocolates?

Okay, maybe just another box of chocolates...............