World Champions!

My first week back at school after the holidays went well, then it was a bonus getting the long Labour weekend straight away. Our greenhouse we had ordered during my holiday was delivered on the Friday which was exciting, we were looking forward to getting it up over the weekend. As you can see from the pic below, it was quite timely! We have plants growing on every windowsill in the kitchen & lounge, and they are starting to take over the place!

While we are on the subject of tomatoes, I couldn't resist buying this fella in the supermarket the other day. It just appealed to me...

Before we could get the greenhouse built we had a bit of preparation to do, including digging out one of our side beds to make room for it. We had taken the shrubs out the previous weekend, & during the week Will had removed a lot of the soil. He did discover the remains of an apple tree hiding below the soil, so it took quite a lot of effort for him to remove the stump!

Next job was to remove the wooden edging from the bed, which included taking out a couple of well concreted in posts... We got there in the end, then it was just a matter of levelling out the ground before laying some more weed matting, then putting some more gravel down on top. We thought we'd start by using pots/planter bags in the greenhouse instead of digging in permanent beds.

After spending a fair amount of time preparing the site, we just had time to build the front and back walls on Saturday. On Sunday we were up at a very decent hour (for us anyway!) to get the rest of it built. We managed most of it before my friend Hiria called by for a catch-up in the afternoon, followed an hour or so later by my friends Glen & Barb & their 2 kids who were down from Tauranga for the long weekend. I hadn't seen them for at least a couple of years, so it was great to catch-up.

We then had the small matter of a rugby game to watch... Lucy & Paul picked us up & we watched it at Em & Wayne's place, along with a few others. My gosh! I didn't enjoy the match one bit, it was far too close for my liking. All I can say is thank goodness they got there in the end! So, we can enjoy being rugby World Champions for the next four years...

Above is the finished product. Today I spent about 6 hours lining every pane with rubber beading which had to be wedged right in. This gives it extra strength & rigidity, & stops the panels rattling around in the wind! I was working in shorts & t-shirt as the temperature was about 28 degrees inside, & it wasn't even a particularly warm day! We have gone for an 8 by 7 foot aluminium & polycarbonate number, & we are impressed by the quality of it. It fitted together really nicely.

In chookie news... They spent most of the weekend up the top patio, & loving it. They make themselves right at home there, whether it be chilling out in the tulip bed...

 Or hanging around on the sun-lounger...

They are still getting spoilt rotten, in this case it is tasty radish tops...

The video I posted last time seemed to be bit of a hit, so I'll finish with a couple more. One is more chilling/dust-bathing amongst the tulips, & in the other they are going a bit mad for some weeds. Enjoy!

Holidays

Wellington had glorious weather during my last week of term. Sunshine & blue skies pretty much every day. During this week we had Karen & Lucy staying with us. I used to play rugby with them in the UK & they were over for the World Cup. It was lovely to catch up with them both, & they seemed to enjoy their stay in Welly.

Last weekend we also had Nicky & Neal staying. Nicky had a tree-climbing comp at the Botanic gardens on Saturday. Will & I popped in to say hi & had a nice wander through the gardens. The tree-climbing comp is always on the same weekend as the tulip festival, so the gardens are always looking good then.

This year the tulips had bit of a World Cup theme, with several displays depicting certain countries. Above is the Tonga display, with the NZ silver fern below.

The tulips were looking good, but the Magnolias were absolutely magnificent. They were the best I can remember them looking.

Unfortunately, for the week I have now been on holiday the weather has been awful! I have had one day where is hasn't rained all day... The poor old chooks enclosure is bit of a mud bath atthe moment so I've been giving them some 'day trips' up to our patio area.

They have LOVED scratching around in the daffodil bed & eating all the little bugs. I couldn't resist catching it on video...

The chooks are now giving us an egg a day each. They are lovely eggs too. One of them happens to lay super-sized double-yolk ones on a fairly regular basis. They are huge! I almost feel sorry for the poor girl popping it out...

Our own tulips aren't so flash this year. However they did have to endure some snow, as well as 2 separate lots of hail...

The bluebells are pretty though.

In other gardening news... I have potted on all of my seedlings so the house is resembling a plant nursery at the moment. I'll probably be able to start planting them outside in another couple of weeks or so. I did count up 75 tomato plants, so might have got a bit carried away in that regard! I usually end up giving a few away. We have ordered a greenhouse to put them all in which is exciting. That should arrive soon, hopefully in this coming week while I am still on holiday.

That's about all my news. The weather forecast for next week isn't too flash either, although I think we are meant to get some respite from the rain tomorrow & on Monday.