A Weather Bomb to Remember

OOPS! The driveway is blocked

 Last weekend saw the official end of Summer, the definite arrival of Autumn and for most of New Zealand the arrival out of the Tasman Sea of a so called weather Bomb. We were fortunate in Northland that we only had minor damage compared to the middle districts, but the wind was very strong here and the rain that did fall, came down in heavy sheets of water that made everyone duck for cover. Lyn and I were invited to a local 60th birthday party and we had to drive through the branches of a large liquid amber that had fallen across the drive. Fortunately it was caught up in the willows opposite and high enough for us to pass. Not so when we returned as the wind had blown it down onto the driveway, so I had to park the car and walk to the house. We spent some time this morning clearing the debris. Funnily enough the Sunflowers weathered the storm quite nicely and not one single stem was broken.

A Summer Bounty

Although Summer has finished (and it was a dreary Summer too) we are still enjoying the bounteous crop of fresh vegetables from our garden. Herbs, tomatoes, lettuce, corn (yum!)

Beetroot, courgettes, peas, beans, grapes etc. The damp Summer weather was beneficial for the beans in particular and all the freezers are overflowing with frozen bags. The very windy weather was very strong on Wednesday and one bean rack snapped, so I guess that crop won't progress any further. Tomatoes have been processed into soup stock, pizza base, sauce and ice blocks , so we should get through until next season ok and the onions, garlic and shallots are tied up to the shed rafters. Later this week we hope to pick our Pumpkins, Agria potatoes and butternut squash. We have had some baked squash this week and I am pleased to report it is nice and dry, with plenty of flavour. Just a knob of butter and fresh ground pepper is all that is required and the meal was complete!

We are freezing large quantities of passion fruit pulp and we now have three large freezers full of produce, meat (managed to get some bulk lamb) and bottles and freeflow packs of all sorts of fruit. Peaches and pears are also ready although the codlin moth has been very bad this year. I have set pheremone taps nice and early in the hope I can stop them Wintering over. Our grape vines are about 25 years old and this year have produced a huge crop and in fact the birds haven't made too much of an impression yet either. I spotted another bunch of bananas forming and I need to get them in a blue bag pronto.

A sunny sunflower & bee

Firewood will loom large on the "To Do List" this week and the chainsaw will get plenty of use in the coming weeks as the shed is quite empty. Makes me feel tired just thinking about it!