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I looked out and saw Clifford sitting right in the middle of one of the new garden beds John has just re-dug here at Struan Farm. I'm meant to be planting once the weather permits, we've had so much rain that I'm tempted to get started. But I'll have to move Clifford first.
It must be cool. He's also been known to munch crickets, so that's my other theory!
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But the old man and/or old woman certainly aren't snoring here at Struan Farm, too much is happening! I'd scheduled a post today called "The Latest at the River," which has been pre-empted and moved to Saturday. Because here's the latest, latest at the river:
We've had 7 inches (180 mills) of rain in 24 hours, thanks to the aftermath of Cyclone Debbie. Not anything like what has happened in Australia or even further to the south of us on the North Island of New Zealand. But the Mangaotaki River is absolutely raging, John has never seen it this high. The rocks at the rapids are covered, the sandy beach is being re-landscaped, and the boat shed is threatened, may end up down river in Mokau.
Typically John goes out for early a.m. walks to let me have some extra sleep before breakfast. Yesterday he returned and knocked on the window to wake me up, telling me I needed to get up and grab the camera!
Here are the rapids below, with no rocks whatsoever visible. With this volume of water the rocks create a "chute" or channel that makes waves and increases the speed of flowing water through this part of the river.
There was some discussion about trying to get a rope or chain around the boat shed, to moor it to something further above. John decided not to attempt that. Probably just as well, since I didn't want to have to go fish him out further down river.
So this is really the latest at the river. Life is not dull at Struan Farm!
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I'm still in a bit of denial on this score, autumn that is. I know it's here officially, but it doesn't seem that summer was. Is that fair? John reported that he ran over some walnuts mowing in our roadside front Pet Paddock at Struan Farm and I needed to get onto them. I thought it was way too early in the season for walnuts!
But guess what?
Yep, they've started to drop. Not a landslide just yet, but if I want to beat the rats, wild turkeys and dog to them I need to crack into harvesting. It's time to embrace autumn.
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Rather autumnal, I know, but boy was it good! These are "verjuice, thyme and cinnamon roasted pears" from the latest Donna Hay Magazine. Very simple to make: halved pears are combined with sprigs of lemon thyme, verjuice, caster sugar, cinnamon and scraped vanilla seeds and pods then roasted for quite awhile.
Absolutely delicious served warm with softly whipped cream, but yogurt or ice cream would work as well. I haven't been able to get myself into an autumnal mode just yet at Struan Farm, but these pear may have tipped the balance.
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It was all happening this weekend at Struan Farm! The team from North & South magazine were in the Cottage, while friend Tracy Hawkins and her son Dan from Maine were in the Homestead and Garden Cottage.
We figured out that Tracy and I hadn't seen one another for 23 years. TWENTY-THREE YEARS. Yikes, time flies when you're having fun. Son Dan was four at the time, he is now 27.
Dan has just finished hiking the Te Araroa Trail trail, which runs the 3,000 km length of New Zealand--from Cape Reinga to Bluff. Tracy came over for a brief visit to meet him after he finished this major journey. Lucky for us they had time for a stop at Struan Farm to make up for those 20+ years. One day they ran over to National Park and completed the Tongariro Crossing while John and I contended with farmstay cleaning and laundry. Dan had done the crossing in one direction as part of his walk, but wanted Tracy to experience it as well.
It really doesn't seem like 23 years!
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We're very excited to have a team from North & South magazine staying with us at Struan Farm for two nights this weekend.
They've come to Piopio and the wider Waitomo area to explore some of our more "off the beaten track" visitor attractions such as Hairy Feet Waitomo and the Timber Trail cycleway, also to attend Te Kuiti's annual "Running of the Sheep" at The Great NZ Muster. They'll be covering quite a bit of ground in a short time.
Lots of flowers to welcome them to the Cottage, along with our signature chocolate chip cookies, freshly baked wholemeal bread, homemade muesli, homemade jam, Piopio Berry Orchard raspberries and blueberries, etc. etc.
Hope they have some time to stop and smell the flowers!
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