I got a bit carried away chopping the quince bush back and ended up with two car loads of branches. Good job I did, underneath was a load of Bamboo shoots sneakly hiding.

Another visitor to the garden.

Another garden change. I have been taking cuttings from the hedge that divides up part our garden. I want to add a small hedge around the patio. The top right pic is what it used to look like.

It looks very small just now, hopefully it will grow quickly.

I have also added a couple of white standard roses, variety "Iceberg".

Rember the snaps of apple blossom. Here is what they have turned into.

There is quite a lot of scab on the apples, but they taste really yummy.







My ever present garden companion was really interested. I think she was just trying to figure out how to get rid of the apples so she could sit in the basket.

Another sign of Autumn, we have had to light the fire for the first time this year. After enjoying months of temps around about 24 during the day and no lower than 14 at night. Today it has not got much above 16 and tonight is forcast to drop down to 3 degrees. Snow is expected on the hills. Peter has promised to kick me out of bed at 6am tomorrow to go and take pictures of the snow on the hills. I think he will have to kick quite hard!

I have planted up the first of the raised beds with Citrus trees, and will underplant with veggies. I bit late for this year. The second bed is being filled with compost and turf at the moment, then I will fill it up with some top soil before planting more Citrus trees.

Between the two raised beds I am going to create a small potager bed. With more of the red murtyle round the edge of the bed. The leftover turf will go to filling the second raised bed.

I have almost finished the side garden makeover. Lots of the planting has been done, the gravel has been laid and the raised beds have been completed.


I still have to dig the the flower bed out further and chop back the quince. The turf that will be removed I can use to fill up the second raised bed.

After last Sunday's kitchen disasters, we have had to replace our old kitchen monstrosity. It was ridiculous the oven only had one top element working. The rings on the top only worked on very hot or not, so I had to move pans around constantly to stop things from burning. And I have no idea what the warming drawer was meant to achieve other than waste space.

Today our new lovely sleek and shiny model arrived. What a treat to be able to set the hob elements to heat at varying rates, the fan oven to work. Unfortunatly the only problem was that it is so shiny Buffy the cat saw her reflection and thinks we have a new cat living in the oven.





P.S. How sad am I for getting excited about a new stove. And you to for reading all about it!

P.P.S. Can you see my feet in the reflection.

It was my youngest son's seventh birthday today. He wanted a cartoon type bomb as a birthday cake!

Because our oven has given up at last, I had to cook this cake in the microwave. Which worked out quite well. I used mixing bowls to cook it in, which gave a lovely round shape to work with. Also the cake was very moist so less crumbs dropped by the 15 kids at the party.

Now where was that case of wine and darkened room.

Flowers on my Fatsia Japonica.

Some misty morning trees.

We went out for lunch at our good friends Keriann and Ian's today. I attempted to make a lovely coffee and meringue cake to take with us. It kind of went a bit wrong as our oven is on its last legs. The meringue cooked nicely, but the cake part under the meringue did not. This is the result. So we had to resort to a quick fruit pie and some fruit salad.

Thank you once again Keriann and Ian for a brilliant lunch and a lovely afternoon.

Peter took our visitors for a drive up to the top of Te Mata Peak and took some snaps for me. I have been up once and enjoyed the view, but really do not want to repeat the experience.

Some Seagulls at Napier.

I have had company on my morning walks for the last two days. Pamela one of my friends from Uni has just moved over to Wellington. She came up with her family for the weekend. It was brill to see her again and to hear scottish voices. This pic is off the view from the hills behind Havelock over Hastings.

Today's daisies live in Clive Square Napier. They were so photogenic I had to include all the pics. Apart from the one with Peter's nose stuck in it. Maybe I will save that for another day. The bottom right image has a couple of busy honey bees that were covered in so much pollen they could hardly fly.

Another pic for Pumpkin watch. Hopefully they were ready to be picked. The next installment should be a pic of a nice bowl of soup.

Today's daisy came in a box with a whole load of other bargins.

I had a really good day out with a couple of friends yesterday. We had been on a trip to Riverside Wines Quilt Shop. What a brilliant combination, a winary and quilt shop in the same location. On the way home Dale spotted a Sale sign at a small nursery shop. So in we trooped. The shop was closing down in a few hours time and they needed to clear the shop totally. The prices were brill, so I bought a few daisy plants, and a whole bunch of Penstemons plus a few others I have forgotten their names. A good end to a good day.

Sky and leaves.

The sun rising behind Te Mata Peak was so beautiful yesterday morning I have just had to include so many snaps. There was a little bit of mist and some lovely fluffy clouds, really stunning. I know it looks like the hills are blurry, but they really did look that way. The last snap is of the valley behind me full of mist.

Sunrise at Te Mata Peak. One day I am going to have to take some pics from the top of Te Mata Peak of the sunrise.

I love the pink colour of this Pampas Grass. I think that it is the New Zealand version.

Sunrise yesterday. I took this snap turned round for a second, turned back to take another pic, and the pink clouds had gone.