As the Orchard requires a certain amount of chilling hours during the winter months to produce fruit, it was a pleasant surprise to awake to a minus two frost this morning.
Hopefully we will have many more frosts as a warm winter will begin the process of ‘bud movement’ and this is something none of us orchardists/growers want to see during the month of June!!!

On a nostalgia note, it’s 50 years since The Beatles landed in New Zealand
Such excitement!
I remember the rural Petrol Station across the road from where I lived having Posters of them on the counter with many plastered over the Forecourt windows.
The memory of me venturing across the road to have a long look at them is vivid in my mind.
The man behind the counter was rather bemused by my adoration of these young gentlemen; so much so that he handed me a couple of posters for free.
I thanked him profusely and ran home to pin them up on my bedroom wall.
They travelled with me for over twenty-five years and then during one of my shifts, they disappeared.
I was heart broken as they represented one of my moments of happiness during my childhood.

Here are some photos from May/June.

 

 

 

 

 

Two years ago; a few months after Alex died; Sam decided a deck needed to be built off the sunroom as the memory of Alex walking into the backyard was simply too much for me when I sat in my chair as it constantly brought back the memory of him staggering in the back yard towards the house, calling for me, after his fall.
It is only now I can write of this as it has taken this long to start the process of healing my heart as he was the love of my life.
A deck and a solid wall blocking off ‘the area’ was going to help me insisted Sam so he purchased a ranch-slider door to fit the window space and then organized a builder to do what he couldn’t which was very minimal as he is a jack of all trades!  Sam then spent days taking out the mature shrubs which were in the way of the deck-to-be and dug out the foundations for said deck.

The end result is stunning as he stained the woodwork.

It has transformed my back garden into a new paradise so old memories no longer haunt me because new memories are being made constantly.