Keeping busy...

We have been keeping ourselves busy while we are in New Zealand with a few projects.

Around Mark’s Mum and Dad’s place we spent a good few weeks when we first arrived tidying the land in preparation for a local community Garden Ramble. This entailed extensive weeding until Sue lost the sensation in her fingers, weed eating using a serious metal-bladed, petrol-driven cutter. Mowing everywhere using both of the ride-on mowers, and planting out seedlings. The weekend event went off well and plenty of people came around to see the gardens and the selection of classic minis that Gary had organised to be on display.

We were also busy preparing and planting the vegetable garden. Digging over the earth by hand (Mark broke the rotary-hoe in the first 5 minutes). Sowing seeds in the ground or in seed trays, and planting out seedlings as soon as they were ready. Much of the land is given over to those plants that could be used to make produce in Mum and Dad’s preparation shed to sell at market. We have planted loads of tomatoes, plum varieties for sun drying and beefsteak varieties for sauces. We have planted lots of cucumbers, a small variety that can be used for pickled gherkins. We also have a large number of chillies, courgettes, beetroot and basil along with variety of other vegetables for day-to-day eating. We are now starting to reap our rewards with bowls of courgettes and cucumbers and plums ready to be turned into preserves, pickles and chutneys.

Mark has been working away on his children’s novel and has now completed the first draft. At 39,000 words and approximately 200 pages, it will need more work. But for now family and friends are reviewing it before we send it off to publishers for their comments. At the moment is going by the title of Specific Gravity.

The two tea-chest boxes we sent on ahead finally turned up, but not before we had to pay extra money we had not accounted for them to clear customs. It was a very frustrating time and we would not recommend sending unaccompanied baggage to NZ without thoroughly checking out if there are no other alternatives.

In the boxes were some of Mark’s painting equipment and so he has finally started on a couple of pieces. A small area in the garage acts as the temporary studio.

We are still trying to get our glass-working project off the ground. We borrowed an old kiln from a family friend and have had it installed, but the controller seems not to be working. We have also discovered that raw materials are hard to get hold of and are expensive. We are going to see if we can use recycled glass, as there is always a ready supply of that at our place.