March 2011

February had definitely been the month of shelves in the garage, and all those happy thoughts indeed, so we then moved on to bookshelves in the house so that last we could unload the boxes containing our books and photo albums that were currently piled up in the lounge. We collected the boxes of kitset shelves in our trailer on about the only day in the month that it rained but fortunately they were well wrapped in bubble wrap inside the cardboard.

It was a bit daunting but the brochure showed a very attractive young lady with a screwdriver assembling them so I was hopeful that for once it could be a job for me.

The first set proved straight forward enough though they did require more than one pair of hands but they transformed the office from this ...

... to this.

Next it was the lounge and the first set went just fine though Dave was required to sort out a way to fix it all to the wall. It changed this:

... to this and it did look very smart and was lovely to get our books out again.

Then the problems struck as we found there were two uprights missing from the other lounge unit and the uprights for the dining room set were too short. So we had to wait for the replacements.

Still, having got the taste for emptying boxes, we decided to sort through all the remaining boxes in the garage that were still awaiting homes. Our friend Bev was visiting at the time but went away for the weekend so our previously tidy house turned into chaos!!


But, we got them all sorted, or at least away on permanent shelves, so that when she returned it looked pretty clear again. Eventually the extra pieces arrived and we were able to convert this ...

... into this.

And this ...

... into this.

We also had to get our woofer to earn her keep, so she set to work on the lawn and seemed to enjoy it.


And I bought and planted a rather lovely magnolia and positioned it strategically behind the tallest gum trees, assuming that was where there was the best soil and shelter.

The veggie patch was still in full swing and we had our first head of sweetcorn, which was particularly yummy. Just as well, as we planted 75 plants in the first bed and each seemed to have two heads on it and then another bed with 99 plants!

By the end of the month, some of the earlier beds in the veggie patch were getting past their best and just about ready for the chooks to move back in and tidy them up.

For our records, this was bed 1 (the first planted):

Bed 2:

Bed 3:

Bed 4 :

Bed 5 (the late sweetcorn):

Bed 6 (at its peak):

Our new herb garden:

The soft fruit patch:
And the climbers on the pergola, none of which are very impressive unfortunately. Still we'll give them another year to show their stuff.

And then, disaster struck. Late tomato blight!! Our fault I'm sure as we'd let the plants straggle everywhere and had been watering them by sprinkler. Such a pity as they were laden with fruit, but they all had to go and go quickly.

We called the chooks in to clear up the first bed, a task they took to with relish.

Oh yes, and we found the odd pumpkin or twenty to store away for the winter.

February 2011

February arrived along with a lot of visitors but we still managed to make progress on our new section. We turned our attention to the garage which was full of clutter and still had no room for the car. There were piles of unpacked boxes and piles of wood scraps and piles of more or less everything else you could think of. This called for lots of sorting ...

... and lots of shelves. Shelves for tools ...

... and shelves for stored boxes - all designed to take the 'standard' box ...

... although of course hardly any of the boxes were actually the standard size.

And then came the workbench, which of course just became another shelf for putting stuff on.

And then more shelves for gardening stuff. So at last we have room for the car in the garage and should be able to find everything (yeah right!)

Summer was continuing nicely and, oh joy, we enjoyed our very first (and only) nectarine.

And Alice returned to pass on a few tips about the art of growing large sunflowers.

We also got some advice from afar about pretty, fragrant plants for shady places from Auntie Lorraine and actually managed to locate some specimens of the plants she suggested in nearby nurseries so we planted up the new beds around the top of the drive. With theirown resident guard cat, they should thrive!




Indoors, the stephanotis at last received the attention it deserved and attached itself to a rather fine new trellis that I got great pleasure from making while Dave was out (little things eh!)

But after a pukeko-free few months, we noticed the return of some of our unwelcome visitors along with their offspring. Let battle recommence!

January 2011

Even though it was supposedly the Xmas holiday, things were still carrying on apace. The end of the lounge had been commandeered for curtain making and the old table tennis table was the perfect size for the job. But that soon had to make way for ...


... another batch of doors. This was the final lot and involved the last 12 doors that had to be taken down for the carpet to be laid. Even though it was my birthday, I was not excused the painting - probably as Dave completely forgot it was my birthday!

Although we thought we had mastered the technique on the previous 20 doors, this time disaster struck and the polyurethane dried with large bubbles and it looked a bit like a major attack of acne!! This was a big problem as we did not know why this had happened and so we did not know how to stop it happening again. They had to look the same as the previous doors and we had to sand them all down and start on them again!!! O me miseram!!

Still niece Katie came round and made me the chocolate fudge banana cake I had so deserved the previous day ...

... and Dave was sent back out to sand all the doors again, a punishment I think he richly deserved.

The veggie patch was in full flight now and we were stunned each night by the yummy produce.

And of course the reason for all the activity on the doors was so that the carpet could be laid in the office, the back bedroom and the corridor. This involved a lot of work as both these rooms were piled high with boxes which all had to be moved. The rooms looked so much better ...



... but of course the stuff was all just shifted somewhere else, namely our bedroom ...

and the future sewing room!

The sunflower competition was hotting up, but still Alice's plants were all well ahead. But they all brightened up the glorious days we were having.


The cats seemed well settled these days and were making lots of new friends. They have the habit of forgetting to kill whatever they bring into the house which certainly livens up our mornings!! This bunny soon went off back outside (though of course we will regret this when it starts eating all and sundry out there!)

And then the carpet arrived and yay, we had a new soft, quiet corridor which felt soooo nice.



And we then splashed out on a flash new desk for the office, kitset of course to give Dave something to do in the evening.

Now doesn't that look good!