Two months of gardening, according to our backs

It feels like we've been gardening since we got to our home in Russell, although deep down we know that is not true, but our backs seem to think it is!!! We've spent a lot of time in the garden with fairly defined traditional roles; Brian does the digging, usually with a pick-axe in the clay, and Dawn does the planting, after filling the hole with potting soil. We've been warned that it takes a while for plants to get established because once the roots reach the clay they struggle because they don't have the benefit of a pick-axe. Dawn believes she has found the answer in "Mulch" so Brian is now devising a competition for how many bags of mulch you can get in the back of a Subaru.

Just noticed that the opening part of the blog has shifted from a weather report to a gardening report. We expect that's what happens when you're 'retired' and it's always warm and the sun just seems to shine all the time. One of our retirement activities is keeping track of the weather in other parts of the world, such fun. Snow looks so pretty in pictures......., but personally we prefer the view from our deck. It looks really nice when we go out in the morning to stretch after exercising, as you can see from the photo.

Now for the big news (no Dawn isn't!!!!). We've bought the boat, partly with the money that so many of you kindly gave at the wedding(s). It's a Reflex, about 5 mtrs long and is driven by a super fuel-efficient 90hp outboard motor. We've named it Habibi.
With Brian being a towny and Dawn's experience being on rivers in water ski boats (or on the skis) it's all been a bit terrifying...... Brian found that if you push the excelerator too far forward too fast you feel you're about to go flying rather than boating, not a good idea.

Of course that fear comes after you have got through the terror of getting the boat off the trailer and into the water! We've never checked weather reports so thoroughly (I know that's hard to believe), but tides, plus wind speed and direction are critical factors for when the "inexperienced boaters" should launch.

Luckily, for the first few attempts we had Uncle Dick with us. He was on holiday and convalescing from serious illness, but had lots of boating experience, so we thought we'd help his recovery by having him wade into the water to hold the boat as it slid from the trailer. Early boating lessons that have been learned by Dawn and Brian.

• Get shorter shorts, especially if you can't wear nylon (Brian gets a nasty rash....).


• Get shoes that grip on slippery boating ramps


• Don't wear cotton underwear, Dawn says it never dries....


• Put on lots of high factor sun screen


• Get a wide brimmed hat


• Empty your bladder before you leave


• Don't let Brian check off tasks against the "check list" (you'll lose things...)

The other shock was the waves, even on a calm day. It's necessary to learn how to "cut" through or "ride on top of" the waves, otherwise it's hard work on the back and neck. Dawn reckons Brian has a lot of work to do acquiring this skill!

The positive news is the other day we launched successfully, just the two of us. Brian seems to have got the hang of backing the car with the boat trailer attached. Dawn has taken Dick's job of wading in the water (note 3rd bullet point above) and securing the boat. We went to a quiet bay, anchored and had a picnic. Dawn quietly panicking the whole time because the boat continued to drift while anchored, much to the alarm of people on other boats which all seemed secure at anchor. Brian reckons we need to get a heavier anchor, but if any of our "boaty" readers have other ideas let us know. Below is a view on one of the islands and one reason we got a boat.

Brian has also constructed a seat for the cushions we bought in India so we can sit on the covered part of the deck on the cooler evenings with the outside fire. Very cosy and a great place for drinks and snacks.

Our guests Dick and Karen, who both came at the same time, seemed to have had a good time and are keen to come back. Karen took some film of the scenery,

something to do with business expenses, while Dick recuperated (as you can see from the cushion pictures above).

Karen very kindly spent some time instructing Dick on the art of Yoga, as you can see below he has a little more work to do.......

A trip we took with Dick was to Cape Reinga at the tip of the North Island. It's isolated, you don't see a house for miles, but well worth the trip. It's where the Tasmin Sea and Pacific Ocean meet and is very sacred to the Maori (see blog 11th May 2009 for details of Cape Reinga).

Another event was the famous Bay of Islands swim ( 3.3 kms from Russell to Paihia - you must have heard of it.....). Brian thought it was nice that the macho swimmers who set off first were given pink swim hats. Like most events in this part of the world it was fun and not spoiled by bureaucratic rules and regulations, note that someone left their boat right in the middle of the course. Swimmers were informed at the start that they could go either side.....

Dawn's just come in from the garden really excited because some more of our plants have achieved flowering status. The miracle called mulch is working wonders. Just so we can feel some stress, the latest thing to tingle our nerves is water. You may not know this, but we get ALL of our water from rainwater - collected off the roof in 2 huge water tanks.

It's only rained once for a short time since we've been here and we've already emptied one of our huge rain water tanks (must say we were extravagent with long showers and not thinking about conserving water). Little rain is forecast for the near future so we've started taking actions to conserve water (Brian reckons he might have to spend more on deoderant), but if no rain comes soon the next blog may contain photos of us doing a native American rain dance (after research on Google of course).

I'll write about our fun (sunny and warm) Christmas and New Year in the next blog, meantime we wish you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2010.

Dawn and Brian