I’m reading Monty Don’s Ivington Diaries, an account of his garden over the years. Best known as a gardener this is the book that showcases his writing. He recaptures moments of time in his garden over a number of years rather than one year giving the book an almost timeless quality. My own Domestic Executive [...]
The natural alternative to mowing
30 December 2009 1 Comment
As I stood at the Butchers on Christmas Eve I overhead another customer telling him that they were staying at home over the holidays as they had animals and were supervising their neighbours animals. The butcher replied “….seems very fashionable this year for people to be staying at home and looking after other people’s animals.” [...]
The upsides to rain – yes there are some!
29 December 2009 1 Comment
If you’re prone to frizzy hair you wouldn’t want to have stayed with us at Kaitoke Acres for the last couple of days. We’ve been shrouded in a blanket of mist, drizzle and rain. If however you’re desperately trying to repair your lawn such moisture is welcome to water in the grass seed. The weather [...]
How would you give away your basset?
28 December 2009 3 Comments
Nothing really prepares you for bringing basset hounds to live with you in your home. Since Fortnum and Mason arrived at Domestic Executive HQ they have caused mayhem and comedy in equal measure. Their adventures have been well documented on this blog. But it’s time for someone else to experience the bassets close up. Well [...]
What happens when you mix mud, spuds and bassets
27 December 2009 4 Comments
Being in the new Kitchen Garden with me is a whole new adventure for the bassets with enormous scope for mischief. I love their company but gardening with bassets is a futile exercise in command and control. There is rarely an offer of a helpful paw but rather an annoying contribution to digging. They are [...]
How are your holiday biorhythms?
26 December 2009 1 Comment
Having asynchronous biorhythms is one of the little talked about impacts of emigrating from the northern to southern hemisphere. High days and holidays bring the differences into sharp focus. It’s why we find it hard to get into the Christmas spirit in summer and ache for a holiday in the middle of winter. I’ve always [...]
Simple Christmas pleasures
25 December 2009 2 Comments
It was almost a rugby scrum at Paws and Claws when I popped in to fill up the bassets’ christmas stockings this week. Hoards of people pushing and shoving to grab the last christmas tree shaped treats or scooping up toys. Not to mention collars and leads in outrageously bright colours and bundles of fluff [...]
A festive view I’ve never seen before – yes summer has arrived!
24 December 2009 2 Comments
The presents are wrapped. The food is stocked in the fridge and the first potato crop is in the ground. As if that wasn’t enough, summer in New Zealand seems to have arrived to bless us all this Christmas. This is our fourth Christmas in the southern hemisphere and the first that we could call [...]
Completed and ready to come to life
22 December 2009 6 Comments
Our new garden construction has been called many things. Vege Garden, allotment, Elizabethan Garden and potager. I’m pleased to announce it’s official name is the Domestic Executive Kitchen Garden. This is the third element of the Backyard Pantry empire – the first being the herb and salad potager and the free range chicken coop. It’s [...]
Hatchet and Botchet Enterprises – ramshackle construction at it’s best
21 December 2009 1 Comment
I’m sure you wouldn’t like it if you were dressed in shorts and sent outside without sun screen or a sweater on a summers day in Wellington. It would be both chilly around the knees and potential for sunstroke in a flash. My vegetable seedlings feel the same. To bring them onto the next stage [...]
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