There’s been a loud ticking sound around the place in the last week. No, it’s not the cicadas arriving early but the sound of jobs being ticked off the list. Well, I confess, it’s actually writing being smudged off the chalk board but I like the notion of a tick which is a cleaner and [...]
With a taste that can be as sharp as their thorns gooseberries are not to everyone’s liking. I love the crisp bite and piquant flavour that livens the palette whether you eat them straight from the bush or wrap them in a luxurious blanket of cream and sugar. Last year the birds raided our pickings [...]
As my bones creak and muscles ache I can only imagine this is how Sisyphus would have felt on his quest to push a boulder up a hill. Whilst much of the rest of New Zealand heads to the beach, the lakes or the mountains we stay at home and make our annual effort to [...]
I don’t know about you but I’m feeling a little short changed by 2011. It’s been a good year in so many ways but it has passed in a flash and I don’t feel I’m done with it yet. But that’s time for you, running away at its own pace. As we end 2011 under a large [...]
Today is the longest day marking mid way in the food gardening season. For once I feel that I may be about on track with all my crops having got seedlings and seeds into the ground in record time compared to other years. That is apart from my garlic which was about a month late [...]
I had hardly walked in the front door when I was out the back slipping on my gum boots and trying hard not to break into a sprint down the garden steps. The chickens ran out of the house in hope of a late supper and clucked with disappointment as I trotted past them and [...]
Once again seasonal schizophrenia has hit me. As we rush headlong into Summer friends and family in the northern hemisphere are buttoning up their winter coats and hunkering down. Christmas is just around the corner but I couldn’t feel less Christmasy if I tried. It’s an infuriating feeling since I love Christmas – the celebrations, [...]
Despite reports earlier this year of the decline of marmalade, news of marmalade making spread across my Twitter Feed a few weeks ago. After someone had posted news of their marmalade making efforts others followed suit and just like a Mexican wave all of a sudden there was a crescendo of interest in where people were [...]
I hesitate to talk too loudly about dealing with pests in the garden for fear that they may reek their revenge. The chickens and I have already had a summit on what’s acceptable scratching and what the consequences will be if they persist in flying the coup and digging up my new beds. The rabbits [...]
Part of a training course I participated in this week we were asked to reflect on an achievement we were proud of. That’s not a notion I dwell on too much, usually because I’m moving on to the next project or task. It was a hard exercise for me to face off with my inner [...]
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