Tuesday 24 January 2012

22 Jan Sunday: A New Zealand Family Outing

I woke up and got up at 4:54 am, having had (another) night full of compelling dreams/nightmares and  frequent, fitful awakenings.  Maybe it is the energy treatments, or just being in a different part of the world.  Instead of letting the dreams go, grateful that the roller coasters of danger and emotions are part of my sleeping life rather than my waking life, I am writing them down in detail to ponder later.

Part of me knows better, but the situations and stories are so filmic and involving that I can’t help myself.

 In gathering the ingredients for the morning smoothie, a great bounty was discovered:

mangelbeet

Rex with beetroot compared to a tennis ball

Jo tests the sugar content of the beetrood (Brix test) with refractometer: an 11 which is just shy of  super excellent

the beetroot smoothie
 Before embarking on the daily tasks, I said hello to the kunekune pigs:
Ceres and Juno want to be in the picture
We worked an hour on tree clearing this morning...


making process with managing the tree detritus

a row of branches, butt end out, ready for the wood chipper--to be borrowed from Craig, maybe after we have gone

Harrold the tractor helps with some of the big stuff

the view of the Jacaranda from the house...without the three trees behind it
We then had 2 hours for hanging about before an early lunch, after which we were on our way.
signs directed us at the final turns...it was about an hour away
 The car trip, with three wwoofers in the backseat, felt totally like a 45 year old memory of an outing with Mom and Dad.  Jacques drew, in jest, an imaginary line which was Not To Be Crossed.  The twisty turny ride made me a little queasy, which added to the authenticity of the memory of outings as a kid in the backseat. 

The Tree Crops event was peopled by farmers.  It looked like a group from Iowa--I would have been at the younger end of the bunch, not including Molly, Jacques and Jo--who were the real outliers as far as age was concerned. This was a talkative, grounded bunch, full of stories about successes and failures and all kinds of advice.  I think I may have been the only person there who had ever worn make-up...and I mean EVER. 

REAL "free range" chickens

Pear

Asian pear

The Tree Crop folks
We continued our holiday at Whangamata Beach, pronounced "fangamata"
At an isolated spot


Jacques

a "completely crowded" beach day at the main beach
Then we visited the gold mine in Waihi:

Rex looks out over quarry


Looking to the bottom

Molly and Rex on the walk up.


All in all, a marvelous day...

3 comments:

  1. Lots of fruit and veg in here. Very good. Just wondering if bananas are few are far between?

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  2. Try to bring home sweet potato seed and see if you can grow some those small spuds!
    (Seeds are ok to bring into the US, btw.)

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  3. I didn't know that seed was OK to bring in...thanks... BTW--there are MANY varieties of bananas here--not yet in season. Little Lady Fingers seem to be a growers favorite. It is a very good use of shower graywater to irrigate banana crops. I wonder if these would grow in Los Angeles? If not in the wonderfully temperate Santa Monica...xoxo Teri

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