Joint effort

Not sure how this will work but djd and I have merged blogs into on.....are blogs are now living together ...ha!!!

So I'm going to write an entry and see where it ends up.

Just finished reading the book "the lovely bones" by Alice Sebold....interesting book...interesting slant on death....I enjoyed it. I think the movie that Peter Jackson and his wife, whose name completely eludes me.....Fran?....are meant to be making based on this book will ber a very interesting movie...it will either be brilliant or you will walk away thinking its completely silly.

There is a program on TV right now on Nostrodarmus and the year 2012...around his predictions of how the world is going to have a very rough time of it, floods, war, destruction....I could be persuaded to believe some of it...but do I really want to think about awful times just around the corner...hmm...probably not

Diet...time to kick it off yet again...yes we seem to be always starting one...this time we have to do it tough...its got to this point...no more kidding oneself. Today by 3 o'clock we hit the wall....just hungry...I'd like to say we climbed the wall and got over....but we caved in and had an extra meal....what can I say...tomorrow we will do better!! We have to!!!

We are going on a break after djd has stopped working and I have come to the end of a pretty intensive project I am currently involved in. So come the end of July and the first week of August we are heading to the land of the kangaroo...and cassawary!! 'we' are currently planning the flights, booking the car, booking the places to stay.....I enjoy doing this but everytime I think I have found the best place...I find somewhere else and then I begin to doubt and then I bug djd until he has to become involved :-) and even then he still leaves it up to me....I have been known to over engineer our holidays....but at least this way I will make sure we do the things we would like the most. Well thats my story and I'm sticking to it.

Today I was struck by how many wax eye's we have around our house....the tree beside our bedroom seemed to have constantly twitching branches of wax eyes feeding off the insects. There are just so many....beautiful little bird...suppose I should get my camera back into action and get photos. Which reminds me...I need a better photo manager on my pc.

Right back to the grind....nose stuck to the laptop to find those hotel deals and car rental offerings.....I will not cease until I have all things perfect :-)

And besides I want to know where this blog now appears :-)

Acknowledgement

 

 

Today I write to acknowledge my wonderful djd



I do this acknowledgement with all my love



About 18 months ago djd starting to make murmmerings about wanting a vege garden. I choose to ignore these mummerings...hoping they would go away cause what he was planning was a big task. Several square foot frames at the top of our section which was so overgrown with gorse it was taller than me.



About a year ago I realised that his dream was not fading but growing into planning and a lot of talk about vege gardens.



I gave in, I started to get people in to give us quotes to clear the land....the quotes were horrendouse so we started to clear the gorse....boy it was a hard task....we cleared I suppose about half of it when I thought to ask someone else for a quoate...this time much more resonable and they cleared the rest in a day.....and even got the cut gorse down to a skip we had brought in (our second one)....and we needed a third to get rid of the last of it.



Then it was the buying of the planks, the first border built...two planks high....and then we started to haul soil up the hill....bucket after bucket after bucket..after bucket.



Then first plantings made. I still refused to admit this was a great idea...I still refused to acknowledge that djd knew what he was doing...I still refused to praise my djd.



Then the rush was on to build the second border....the garlic had to be planted on the shortest day. And then there were all the broadbeans he wanted to plant....ewwww...I dont like beans.....yuck yuck yuck...only to be proven wrong...they are delicious



Then there was a third and fourth border...and strawberries...hmmm...getting better



Then the fifth and sixth one....and I think we ran out of steam...there should be at least another 3 borders built.



Then two square foot borders in the front yard for tomatoes ...ok ...I thought he had finally lost the plot...and the stress and fretting he went through for these tomatoes......



so what I have here to acknowledge is that djd dream, his idea was brilliant...we have enjoyed the best vegetables ever....and they last for so long...we have had fun experimenting with different recipes...like stuffed marrow...



The tomatoes although not yeilding what djd had wanted have given us plenty of fruit to make chutneys and tomato sauce...we have had such fun in doing all of this.



So what have we had this summer



bok choy

cauliflower

celery

carrots

raddish

onion

garlic

brocolli

red cabbage

potato's

silverbeet

tomatoes

strawberries

broadbeans

leaks

lettuce

beetroot

marrows galore

runner beans

pumpkin - two really large pumpkins



So to you my djd - I acknowledge you are a genius because you dreamed of a vege garden and then it happened. I have enjoyed every last minute of working in the garden, watering the garden and reaping the benefits.



Long may your great ideas keep coming

Gone to chase the rabbits

 Cola

 

She was my dog....I had wanted a beagle many years ago...and when I turned 31 I wanted a beagle puppy for my birthday. I got my way

 

Pepsicola was a bure bred Beagle...she had many brother and sisters and I choose her from a litter of 8. She even had papers...she could have been a show dog...and I contemplated this but never did. Glad I didn’t as show dog life seems rather clicky to me.

 

There were continual arguments about her having pups...I fought that every step of the way...my ex who has no brains...thought we could make money from the puppies...he who at that time worked in another city and was never home. So who would be left to tend to the puppies? Well me of course so ...no puppies.

 

She had very bad habits...some of which were natural to her and some that I never controlled....so for the first 5 years of her life she lived with me and the ex....then we split and at that stage my Cola went with my daughter who lived with her father.....too many details...to many guilt trips played over this time to go into but for the next 5 years I never saw Cola and only occasionally my daughter.

 

And then the ex decided that Cola was all too much....and w took her to come live with us. The second she got out of the car she settled down...it was like she had lived with us her entire life.

 

She was very fat, unhealthy....and didn’t look like she would live to the end of the year....but then we introduced her to walking every morning....to reduced food intake...and my darling wee girl continued to wake every morning and enjoy life.

 

Last October she became very ill...we thought we had lost her...but she bounced back....until last weekend....she was sleeping....a lot....and food which would normally entice her didn’t raise an eyebrow....Monday night we came home to find a garage showing signs of a sick Beagle....Tuesday night we took her to the vet...she had to go back on a drip and stay in.

 

Wednesday......the hardest but the only decision I could make was made....it was time for my darling beagle to go to that place where she could chase rabbits and destroy rubbish bags without being growled at .

 

My sweet darling djd was my rock....he supported me...he stayed with Cola to the end...I couldn’t stay...

 

I guess I am writing through the pain of losing my Cola and I hope that djd will help me once again and share the lighter side of Cola for she had such terrible bad habit which just made her Cola

 

Bye bye my puppy.

my darling sweet wonderful djd

 So as we drove to work this morning strangely our morning talking turned to gardening.....not a topic we normally discuss ...no no no....we normally speak of religion, politics, world issue, how to save the planet...never do we discuss gardening.

anyway my darling sweet wonderufl djd was moaning about how there are no books written about/by nz gardening/gardeners......they are either based on american/english seasons....written by people with degree's but no practical experience...none are written by the good old honest NZ gardener.

So I thought to myself....today I will go out and see if I can find a book that will give my darling sweet wonderful djd what he is looking for....and I could not believe my luck when I found just that....a book not only written by a new zealander but one who also used to write gardening tips for a newspaper...one who used to own his own nursery.....one who has lived a life and knows what is what.

there he was talking about leaf curl.....about flower drop....about all the things that can go wrong with tomato's....how if your toms are in all day full sun you should shade them....how you should shake the plants to help the self pollination

How I couldn't wait to give my darling sweet wonderful djd the book, how I couldn't wait to see the look of adoring love in his eyes as he thanked me for finding such a treasure......how that look would probably turn into a twinkle of glee at the thought that I who call him eccentric...me who laughs at his antics....had just brought him a gift with love that proved him to right in the things he has been doing and saying.

so my darling sweet wonderful djd....i hear by admit to your surperior knowledge....I admit you knew what you were doing...I admit you produce wonderful vege's....I admit that I still think you are eccentric only validated by the book I brought you today :-)

 

The real djd!!

This year so far we have had some wonderful meals out of our garden. I dont believe how much I have enjoyed the food when we put our minds to cooking instead of being lazy with takeaways or a meal out.

Of course I have to acknowledge that really its all down to djd's drive and passion and hard work.....and dare I say it but his eccentric behaviour.... that has made the garden what it has been. And of course it is djd that has given me the most laughs as well.

I have never seen anyone nuture a pumpkin as much as that man has....as soon as he clapped eyes on the pumpkin he began to worry about where it was positioned...would it grow so large that it would squash its own stem....in effect kill itself. We have placed straw under it...now weeding mat...and now he has fretted about the recent rain and if the pumpkin is going to rot on the bottom.....so its newspaper to be placed under said pumpkin.....if I can lift it because he's hurt his back and cant...yes it is that big

And then...out of the blue there is suddenly a pumpkin on our bank from the second plant that we can see from our kitchen window and its just as big....if not bigger....and longer because gravity is making it so...and all without the aid of djd....but that doesn't stop him now worrying about this pumpkin now and what he can build to place under it so it doesn't become to heavy for the stalk that it grows from.....a platform is being formulated in his mind...and I suspect soon it will be sitting under the pumpkin

And the tomato's...well let me tell you...he is out there everyday doing something with those tom's...first its curl leaf...on no...unheard of up until this year in the vocabulary of the dinzie household....put down eventually to possibly its too hot...should we consider putting umbrella's up for the poor toms!!!!!

Everyday as we pull up in the drive djd is out of the car and shaking that tomato frame and wait for it....tickling the tomato flowers...yes he tickles them to stimulate the growth of fruit....and the sad part...it is working!!!!!

Oh and this week...milk powder.....but to make it worse due to his sore back it was actually me who ended up spreading milk powder on the toms.....and then water them with feed as well....and now the big worry....wet rain may cause leaf mold!!!

Then there were the broad beans....the first of the crops to worry him....first they weren't growing high enough...then there were no bee's appearing in the garden to fertilise the flowers...and there just weren't enough flowers....and then a bee appeared....and djd watched it with glee as it buzzed around the flowers which had eventually seemed to come in abundance.

Then there were the potato's in the bins...started ok...then it took a long time for the first shoots to appear...and then once they were up....it didnt look good when the stalks appeared to get a disease...but none the less we did get some decent feeds from the spuds :-)

Ok so you may be thinking he doesn't sound eccentric....just worried about his veges....but this man has lost sleep over the vege garden....he is up to 2am in the morning reading articles on vege gardens....he has endless search engines out there looking for anything that mentions vege's

I'm getting worried........

Oh and have I mentioned how he is already telling me how we will have to go to the local parks come Autumn and have to pick up all the fallen leaves to fill the compost bin up with!!!

and he calls me mad dog mcdinzie!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

He's just damn lucky I love him for who he is...with all his eccentric ways :-)

 

Bits and Bobs

Just an entry with bits and bobs....more bits than bobs

Been damn hot here and with a injured djd..never a good combination

I have moved into a new role for a few months....called a proof of concept.....if it goes well then I will have been heavily involved in setting up a new divison for the bank....one based on giving service to our internal customers instead of trying to complicate their lives in the IT world.....yes I am turning into an IT geek!!!

There was a public holiday here on Friday and we decided to take Monday (today) off as well. Has been a very relaxing not doing much weekend....feeling really great for it too. We took the dogs for a walk today ....yes the beagle is still with us....and no signs suffering from the illness that struck her late last year. While wondering along the path there is a large number of blackberry bramble....and we collect 2kgs (about 4lb) of fresh blackberry.....yummm and with the haul we have been collecting from the bramble at our place...we have huge plans for blackberry and apple crumble and blackberry jam........yummmmmmmy (big sis I bet you were coming to visit now!!!)

We also went for a walk over in the Wairapa.....hot hot hot....but great walks .... attempted to capture a picture of a fantail....damn things move so fast...this is the only one that came out worth while

 And just because its a bits and bob entry....

These three made me laugh

Seems to be a bit of a birdie theme

I took this on our holiday in Hong Kong...its now my wallpaper

Oh and the terrible fires over in Australia...have been watching the ozzie news and it just saddens me to think that there has been such a high lose of life...up to 128 now...people are telling stories of how fast the fire moves....saw the speed on the TV and it just blew me away at the speed...no wonder people just could not out run it...

Well thats it for now...till next time...keep well and safe everyone