Struan Farm

Let the Landscaping Continue

While I can't do any real work at Struan Farm, still, I can definitely supervise! And so I am. Over the past few weeks we've been stockpiling native trees and flaxes for planting around the new house and also down at Paradise Pond.

This past week John got out the spade and "we" managed to plant some red/copper flax by the house, getting this area of landscaping on the way.

 

This colour flax works really well with the wood stain used on John's workshop and the garage, as well as the copper light fittings. Sister-in-law Anna has given us a bird bath the same colour; we're thinking this little corner will look great once the flax is established. We're getting a second birdbath for the other side. The idea is to put out sugar water to attract the tuis, something the flowering flax will also do.

"We" also planted a line of this same flax plant to create a hedge effect along this edge of the drive, bordered by old railway sleepers.

Seems I'm not the only member of the family into supervising?

Early Camellias

We now have three camellias in the Homestead gardens at Struan Farm that bloom early, months ahead of all of the others. Amazing really, but it's great to see those pops of vibrant pink at a time when the summer flowers are fading away.

 

With thanks to John's parents, who thought about all that when they planted our beautiful gardens....

Muck No More

You may recall me posting a few weeks ago about the mountain of "muck" beside the pond at Struan Farm. We'd had the digger in to clean out the emptied pond before it was refilled.

I scaled the mountain of muck to spread grass seed, risking life and limb. Well, here are the results of my efforts, TA DA!

Truth be told we were lucky, we timed it just right. It rained after I spread the grass seed, then it stayed warm and rained again. Really couldn't have done better with the weather on this.
 

Progress at Paradise

Yes, things are also happening down at "Paradise Pond" at Struan Farm. Nephew Mike has been busy!

He's constructed a retaining wall to help support the dam that's been there for years. Once this is done the digger will be back for a tidy up, then riparian planting of natives can begin.

Autumn Pudding

This week I deployed some of our Monty's Surprise apples from the Struan Farm orchard, with Anna's quince, to make Jamie Oliver's "Orchard Eve's pudding with whisky Jersey cream" from "jamie at home."

 

Chunks of peeled fruit are cooked until soft with a knob of butter, brown sugar and spices on the stove top, then put into a butter casserole dish with the batter, which puffs up from the middle of two layers of fruit when baked. It is served with cream whisked with vanilla seeds, icing sugar and a "little swig" of whiskey.

Seriously decadent comfort food, wonderful on a chilly night!

Cowl #2

I seem to be on a roll with knitted cowl projects at the mo. They are quick and easy to knit!

This pattern is Purl Bee's "Lovely Ribbed Cowl," knit in O-Wool's "local" (50% organic merino, 50% alpaca from Pepper Pot Farm in Lambertville, NJ, USA). Colourway is "Wood Fern."

A Rescue Mission, of sorts

It's time to refill the pond at Struan Farm following our recent cleanout. But before we can do so we needed to find the four resident duck decoys, Huey, Dewey, Louie and Tui. They used to float in the swimming pool, but when that was taken out they were relocated to the pond to mingle with their live, wild counterparts. They've been known to go off from time to time, even get stuck in the mud, and during this sort of project anything can happen. Here's hoping we can track everybody down.

We do know that the digger driver rescued one (Huey?) and put him in a safe spot. 

And so John, Clifford and I travelled down to the pond. We were able to find everyone, hooray! Three were face down in the muck, but that was rectified.   

They've survived to float another day....

Interlude with Quince

It's that oh so brief time of the year when sister-in-law Anna is inundated with quinces, she has quite a number of established trees. Our three trees at Struan Farm are still settling in, although I'm optimistic that we'll eventually have our own fruit. This is the one fruit I would especially love for us to grow since it's not widely available in markets.

Next comes Nigel Slater's roasted quince recipe, seriously yum!

Emerald Shimmer

Here's my latest knitting project, a cute cabled cowl in vibrant emerald green. As the temperatures are starting to drop, I'm thinking about staying warm and cozy with cowls, wraps and scarves.

Pattern is Veera Valimaki's "Shimmer in Blue." It's another quick, easy knit. Yarn is Baah Yarn's handpainted Worsted 100% Superwash Merino, in colourway "Emerald Isle."

This is a very hard colour to find in knitting yarn; I was thrilled to have found it at Abuelita's in Pasadena, California on a past trip to the USA. 

 

Things are Happening

Well, while I might be on temporary leave from doing any heavy work projects around Struan Farm, things are still happening!

The builders arrived this past week to replace the windows and door on Maurie's Workshop down near the Homestead. This officially begins our renovation of this outbuilding, which is being converted into a second bedroom to be available for farmstay guests booking the Homestead. In Kiwi parlance, it will be a "sleepout," and a very nice one at that. We've already got bookings for December and January, so this train needs to leave the station.

Next comes tiling inside the entrance, followed by a bit of painting and then the carpet and window treatments. I've already picked everything out, the professionals are standing by. And did I mention chandeliers?

We've decided to rename it "The Garden Cottage" rather than sticking with "Maurie's Workshop." I had wanted to honour its family history, but John figured it was a bit too funky to call it a workshop, and potentially confusing for farmstay guests. So the Garden Cottage it is.

This will be a fun project, stay tuned!

Bumper Crop, Surprise

And we thought it was going to be a relatively light crop of organic walnuts at Struan Farm this year, yea right! There have been so many that I have yet to gather them all, my capacity to do so being somewhat constrained at the moment.

Right now I have quite a pile drying on our wine barrel tray and in a willow basket in the pantry. Once they're dry I will start to tackle shelling them, then pop them into ziplock bags for the freezer.

 

I hate the thought of any going to waste, so any farmstay guests staying with us in the next few weeks will be invited to gather whatever they'd like to take home!

 

 

One UFO Down

Not an Unidentified Flying Object, rather an "Unfinished Object" in knitting parlance. As you might expect, I've had quite a bit of time to pick up my needles while in the healing mode.

First in line was to finish espacetricot's Aise, a knitted wrap pattern available for free on the blog. I'd started it last winter but stalled out once outside work at Struan Farm ramped up for the year.

 

I was needing a relatively mindless project given the state of my mind (and body), and this was perfect. Yarn is Zealana's Kiwi fingerling weight (40% NZ Merino, 30% organic cotton, 30% possum) in "Winter Green," a soft, light sage green. The fabric has a lovely feel and drape to it, I know I'll use this!

Gift from the Compost Bin

Quite the bonus delivered courtesy of the compost bin at Struan Farm:

Lovely late season cherry tomatoes. We relocated our black bins and the plants sprouted on the previous spot. I'd been tempted to pull them out, but John told me to let them be to see what happened. He was right, these are far better than anything we had growing in the gardens this year!

The Road to Recovery

I had my first outing a few days ago. I was getting a bit of cabin fever, so accompanied John on a run to the local Piopio dump, then we went for coffee at The Fat Pigeon Cafe and for berries at Piopio Berry Orchard.

Afterwards he decided we should go exploring some surrounds, so after heading down one side road near the Berry Orchard we went off towards Aria, a rural settlement not far away. There is an abandoned church on a hillside there I've wanted to photograph for some time.

For some reason we encountered quite a number of friendly free range pigs willing to pose for me along the way. John was a bit nervous about the last hairy guy, he reckoned he was a domesticated wild pig and didn't want me getting too close.

John and I rarely if ever take time to wander the local countryside. There is so much beauty on our doorstep, we just need to take the time out to see it.

Weekend Flowers

Okay, I'm cheating a bit on these, since I put this arrangement together for farmstay guests staying at the Cottage at Struan Farm two nights this week. I was able to walk out to the gardens at the new house and put this together so we'd have them on the table upon their arrival. 

Not that I don't trust John to do the flowers while I'm recovering?.....

In a Healing Mode

I've been through a wee bit since you've heard from me last. Major surgery two weeks ago with several days in hospital. I can now report that my prognosis for a complete recovery is very good, not something we knew either way at the time! So it was a bit of a journey, and a stressful one at that, probably more so for John than for me.

Currently I can't drive anywhere, can't really walk that far or lift anything heavy for about six weeks. As you might expect none of this is easy for me. This past week it was pretty much a shuttle between bed and the living room sofa, with some pit stops at the kitchen counter for food. But I'm getting better every day. Life here is outside, and that's really where I want to be.

I am exceedingly grateful for the love and support I've had from family and numerous friends.

A few other things that have helped me have been getting home to Struan Farm, flowers from the gardens (even if the weeds are currently winning), Aromatherapy Associates' "Inner Strength" and "Support Equilibrium," discovered at East Day Spa, and (of course) Piopio Berry Orchard berries. While the latter are finishing up the season, the blueberries have had an amazing last gasp. And yes, with apologies to friend Linda Ducruet who can't stomach them, I've been whirring up a few kale smoothies too.

 

 

And of course my boys, John and Clifford, have been doing their best to behave. This past weekend John was reminded of a time when he was young when the cows would tip over in the paddock, and they'd have to get them up on their feet right away or they would give up and die. Surely he wasn't making any analogies, right? I just roll my eyes and revert to my healing mode...