Spring is underway and the garden is getting more colourful.
Trees have fresh green leaves and the lawn is growing at quite a fast pace. Rafa is also growing at a fast pace. We have just changed our clocks so it is getting dark after 7.30pm.
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| Rafa and the garden, springing into action |
I
have completed my first term at work, which was 11 weeks long. I went to a
conference in Wellington on the last 2 days of term. Lisa came too and did the
touristy stuff, while I sat in a conference room. I did manage to get to see a
bit of the city and we enjoyed the change of scenery as well as some nice food.
We flew from Nelson to Wellington with a local company called Sounds Air. It
was the most relaxed way to fly. We entered Nelson airport through a side door
and walked over to the Sounds air ‘check-in’ desk/customer services desk / any
other enquiry desk, where a sign read ‘if we are not here, please wait as we are
out loading baggage’. A person did
arrive at the desk in a few seconds and asked if we were Lisa and Nicky(before
we could say anything). We were told to wait in the general area and we would
be told when to go to the plane. I went to get coffee, and as our coffee was
being made the other (9) passengers were rounded up and led to the gate. I was
told by the barista not to worry as they would wait at the gate for me. They
did and we strolled out to the plane. At no point was ID etc ever asked for. We
put our bags in the hold as we boarded the flight. The flight was full, so all
11 of us got on board and the pilot welcomed us and told us our flight would
only be 30 mins long and not to worry about turning off our phones (which was
just as well as ours were in the bags, in the hold) I sat behind the pilot and
got a great view of all that was going on as well as the magnificent scenery
below. Air travel is easy in NZ, but this is the most relaxed way to fly, even
by NZ standards.
Lisa has taken a week off work from the restaurant, which
means the chook house may get built! The veggie plots are getting planted out
and our newly acquired wine barrel (from the winery across the road), which was
cut in half and delivered to us the other day, will get planted out with
lettuces. Our herb garden has taken off, due to Llama poo in the compost. We
may have overdone the poo, as some plants are growing too fast and too tall!!
Speaking of llama poo, demand has increased dramatically, so we have had to
purchase a garden vacum/blower. The poo now gets vacumed up in a fraction of
the time and it gets mulched into a compost/powder texture. This new ‘product’
is proving popular, so we have to collect and bag even more. A couple of
weekends ago we hired a log splitter and split large pieces of chopped gum
trees into fire sized pieces. We then had to stack them all into the wood shed.
It was a big effort, but now our wood is just waiting for next winter!!
I have two weeks off from work. Unfortunately I don’t get
paid over the holidays. I am in Wheelie Fantastic mode, going to the wharf and
hiring bikes as well selling some winery tours. If the weather stays sunny and
dry we hope to get a few customers. We have purchased some kids bikes so we can
cover all ages. We now claim “small to tall….we’ve bikes for all”. The mapua
ferry has just been bought over. The new owner has got some bikes to hire, so
he put out a sign to that effect. The first day of trading was Saturday and we
had a good number of locals coming up to us offering their support for our
business. Without us saying anything, he later removed his posters. He may have
found out that we are the only ones licenced to advertise or hire bikes at the
wharf!!! It is great to know that the locals view us as ‘locals’ and our
business is very much part of the community.
Thinking of local businesses, I saw a haulage business
advertise in the local paper. As businesses do they state how long they been
around for, eg since 1920. This one stated “been here for ages”. Wheelie
Fantastic has been in operation for 1 year now. Our first hire happened at 11am
on the 11th month in 2011. Let’s hope we continue to grow and
someday claim that we have been around “for ages”.
