Green, green grass of home

Spring is well under way here – the flowering cherry is looking spectacular this year, its best display to date at now four years old. All the stone fruit trees are coming out with blossom too – the apples won’t be far behind them. We are enjoying some rain after a long dry spell, and it has washed away the dust, making everything seem brilliantly green – the grass is growing in the fields and the cows are happy. I'm thrilled to say that the Californian Quail have been resident in the garden for the past few weeks.  I often hear the male's distinctive call and have seen him almost every day grazing on the lawn - his plumage is wonderfully fetching.

Lots of hard work has gone into the veggie garden – my lovely friend and neighbour came to lend a hand with the weeding – it was very overgrown, a casualty of my busy life. Once it was weeded and dug over Dave and I added ten x 40 litre bags of compost and 20kg of gypsum to break down the clay, and continued to cultivate the soil every few days. Now we have a flourishing spring garden of lettuces, bok choy, tomatoes and onions. The cucumbers and courgettes aren’t doing so well – some type of bug has been eating the leaves but I can live with that for now. In my raised bed, and under the rabbit proof covers that Dad built last year, I have a thriving crop of broccoli, celery, beetroot, and oak leaf lettuce. The new Dilly Dilly lavender (Augustifolia) that I planted to replace the old, woody Stoechas variety, Major, all down the eastern side of the farmhouse has started to put out some new growth, so I hope it will thrive. I got a free baby camellia with the lavender so have planted that where I lost a coprosma to drought last year. Around the south side of the house we’ve planted Cineraria, Fuchsias, and Impatiens, with seeds of Foxglove to sow later on. We cut the roses back hard on the north and west sides so that we could give these walls a coat of paint, but they are starting to come away again now. All in all, the garden is quite respectable!

We had a fantastic time at the RWC opening back in early September, and have followed most of the games avidly. What a cliff-hanger of a final. And what a fabulous result! So proud of our All Blacks – well done. The B&B was busy over the two games Whangarei hosted, and the guests all reported that the new stadium was fabulous, and enjoyed themselves very much.

Split our sides with laughter whilst watching the National Theatre’s “One Man, Two Guvnors” – filmed live in London and broadcast to cinemas around the globe – we went to our favourite, the Rialto in Newmarket, taking David’s parents along – it was a big hit with all. And so nice to sit in comfy seats with a glass or two of Pinot Gris – that’s what I call relaxation.

We also took in the recent Paihia Food, Wine & Music festival – perfect weather, lots of great artisan yummies, and some great music with a up-beat, happy crowd – couldn’t have been better. We stayed at the lovely Waterfront Apartments in Paihia and can fully recommend them if you want a very comfortable place right in the thick of things.








In answer to ever increasing demands of the busy lifestyles that we all seem to lead these days, we have revamped our bookings page on the website so that you can now see availability and make a secure online booking which is instantly confirmed – no need to send an enquiry then wait for a reply – all done and dusted in one visit. You will find that both accommodation options are by “REQUEST ONLY” for the current date on the day, and day following – so you will need to get our confirmation back on these requests.
We enjoy some fabulously warm spring months – currently around 21 – 22 C – so come on up!