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