Chilli

Melva grows several kinds of chilli. We have two favourites. The one in the photo is sweeter and very mild. We use it instead of capsicum (Bell Pepper). The other is Manzano. Seriously hot and flavoursum. We have red and yellow Manzano. Loads of them. Fantastic!

Thank You Ladies

About 15Kg of smooth, runny gold.
Thank you ladies, all 60 odd thousand of you.

Honey at last

We celebrate with Whangarei Bee Club Mead

Honey Day

Yesterday Melva spun the first honey from her hives. She had nine full frames, each with about two kilos of honey. Hopefully that will get us through the year. They are still working hard but will need all that they can store away for the winter. Dear ladies.

As it turned out the frames had cooled too much and the honey would not spin out easily so only two frames were spun. We will have to place the remainder in a heated room for a while then spin them. Had we spun the frames immediately after taking them all would have been good. The hive is always 37 degrees C inside.
We live and learn. Looks good though.

Today, 23rd February Hilton spun the remaining frames. Currently we have a bucket of honey with a strainer on top all weighing 17 Kg. Tastes great too. Should get a few jars of liquid gold.

The Wetland Boardwalk Progresses

Only 20m to go to reach dry land onto thr Hugh Crawford Reserve. There is a bit of finishing and then OPEN DAY.
Currently I am looking for long beams suitable to support the deck on the remaining 20m.

The New Spindrift

At last the radio controlled 1/10 scale model of the new Spindrift is completed. There have been several very successful runs in the Ngunguru River and Tutukaka Harbour in calm and very rough conditions. Performs fantastically.
Here she is with her designer, Gary Underwood.

The Omahuta Kauri Sanctuary and Horeke

It is 143Km from The Riverbank to the Omahuta Kauri Forest Sanctuary. We took State Highway 1 to Mangamuka where we turned off west onto  gravel road up into the forest. The drive is very scenic with the bush getting more stunning with each kilometre traveled. The Reserve is clearly sign posted about 12 Km form the State Highway.

The walk through the Sanctuary follows a loop path past many large mature magestic kauri and some very large fallen logs that takes about about 30 minutes. It is easy to spend much longer here with these huge kauri. Hokianga, the largest is reportedly the sixth largest in New Zealand. It stands very tall, straight with a huge head. The Omahuta Kauri Sanctuary is home to the 'Ngapuhi Tree', ranked in the top 20 kauri trees of New Zealand.


Not only is there a spectacular Kauri stand, there is also many large rimu and a large variety of other mature natives. Truly a fine bush walk.

We took a detour on the way home and stopped at the Horeke Pub.
This is an absolute must for a touch of a little of New Zealands oldest history. i.e. The oldest pub (Serving beer since 1826) and Horeke being the second oldest town. There is quite a story. Follow the links and visit the village.

 

Strawberries From Our Garden

Ah! Summer!
Don't you just love strawberries!

First Tomtit Sighting at Ratty's Landing

At 7:30 this morning Melva spotted a Tomtit in the Kanuka beside our deck. We had a good extended sighting at between 2 ~ 3 metres. It was a juvenile male. Wonderful. This is a first for us at Ratty's Landing.
At the same time we watched a family of fantails being fed by the parents.

Bees

Checked our bees today. The little ladies are working hard. Should have honey this season. It already tastes good.

Picking Blackberries

At Last!! We have berries.  Last year we could only pick about a cup full. Our blackberries just did not fruit.

Melva grading berries for muffins, jelly and buckles

Between Sunday and this morning we picked about 12.5 litres of the beautiful dark fruit.
We have two wild varieties here. One with white blossoms fruits over Christmas.  The other (Mauve blossoms) starts fruiting at the end of January. So in a good year we have blackberries from about the 20th December to the end of February.
We fill the freezer. Melva makes jetty, jam, muffins, buckles and deserts. One of the best is blackberry and rhubarb crumble. We get enough to last the year from our patch. If it is a good year that is. It really is a bit warm in the north for blackberries. They grow well but fruit can dry on the canes due to the heat.

Summer - Wonderful Summer

The Pohutukawa is in flower so Summer is here

We have eaten our first stalk of bananas. The whole stalk fell off the tree in a wind while still unripe. We ripened them on the deck in the sun and they were every bit as good as expected. We still have four more at various stages of readiness. The newest is just a shoot at the top of the tree.

We had a lovely Sunday evening. Melva cooked some sausages, we grabbed a bottle of wine, picked up some hot potato chips from the Ngunguru Takeaway, drove down to the Ngunguru School car park where there is a beautiful sand spit / estuary view and had our dinner there. It really is a lovely peaceful spot and easy to do.

We also found a pair of stick insects in the Kanuka by our deck. There used to be a lot but since sparrows arrive we hardly ever see them now.

Bees Bees Bees and Other Things

Still only two hives but now we have lots of bees.  On a sunny warm day like today our valley is humming. Every plant with flowers has bees on it. They have already been to our peach trees that now have more fruit set than ever. Here are a few of the plants that the bees are visiting today.

The most interesting thing is that an insect has drilled the Borage flowers near the base and the bees are going there for the nectar instead of down the flower.

Yesterday we also saw a Common Green Gecko by the drive. Nice to know that we have them.

Borage showing holes in flower base

Borage and bee

Kanuka

Rengarenga

Rengarenga

Greanium

Borage and Echium

Echium & Daisies

Bee in Fejoa

Fejoa

Potato

Bees carrying pollen

Manuka

Daisies

Potato

Calendula

Elder Berry

Rocket