This is Jim’s tractor.  He’s our neighbour who sold a bit of his land so we could build our dream home.  When I pass this tractor it always catches my attention.  You can’t miss it’s bright red colour.

The tractor doesn’t move far although it does work.  It’s been used for hauling trees that have been felled on Jim’s land and chopped up for firewood.  Seeing the tractor today in the bright spring sunshine certainly cheered me up and all of a sudden I was seeing all the bright colours of Spring.

It goes without saying there is plenty of green around.  Layers of different greens in forestry and bush. It was not the greens that are really dazzling at the moment thought is the bright, and I mean very bright, yellow of the gorse flowers.

Regular blog readers will know that gorse is not my best friend.  In fact, I don’t think anyone in New Zealand loves gorse since it spreads like weeds and it’s incredibly hard to keep under control.  We have hundreds of gorse bushes on our land we are trying to harvest to reclaim the land for more productive use and with something that is more attractive to look.

It became very clear on my dog walk today that I’m hemmed in by gorse.  If you look closely at the top right picture below you’ll see our house peeking in the horizon overlooking acres and acres of gorse.  You just get away from this pesky stuff although you’ve got to admire it’s brilliance, it’s audacity and it’s down right nerve to keep flowering so brightly and then spreading itself another few yards.  Although I might smile at this I’ll not be smiling this weekend as we continue with the marathon efforts to eradicate it from our land.