Sunshine

The seniors have now finished for the year at school, so in theory my timetable should be a bit lighter. I haven't really noticed it yet though, as last week I had kids in every day wanting some extra help before their exams. Level 1 maths is tomorrow, then Level 2 is Thursday, so I should get a bit of extra time after that. It is a busy time with reports at the moment. I have finished my 3 senior classes, then have 3 junior classes to write over this coming week. It should be fine, I can usually knock them out pretty quickly...

I could have spent this weekend writing reports, but the weather was too nice so I spent it in the garden instead! It is starting to look really good, we are loving the greenhouse. We have tomatoes both inside the greenhouse as well as outside, so it is interesting to note the difference in growth-rate. The ones inside are growing almost twice as quickly. It is also proving superb for germinating seeds, I have all sorts on the go at the moment such as capsicum, more chilli, Lebanese cucumber, eggplant, silverbeet, one more tomato variety, plus all manner of herbs.

The extra little bed that Will put in to grow silverbeet for the chooks is also going well. The silverbeet is growing like mad, it's hard to believe it has only been in for a few weeks. Whoever said that chooks aren't smart obviously never owned any! Whenever we let them out of their enclosure, the silverbeet patch is always the first place they make a beeline for!

One of this weekends jobs was to put down some mulch on the bottom bed. In this bed we have broadbeans on the left which have only just taken off. They have had flowers for ages, but were incredibly late getting pollinated this year. Finally they are growing, and are probably a week or two from being ready to eat. In the middle are several squash and courgette varieties, then there are a few different types of beans on the right.

The new bed that we made this year is also all go. In it we have potatoes, butternut squash, beetroot, carrots, radishes, tomatoes and a few types of pea. The dwarf peas are the first variety ready and not too far away from being ready to eat. I've already sampled a few, they are pretty good!

The last couple of weekends we have had the chooks up top. They are obsessed with a couple of pots on the deck. The little one on the left obviously has something very tasty in the soil as they can't get enough of it. Whereas the other one is just the perfect size for chilling out and dust-bathing... Luckily they don't seem interested in the two pots of garlic and shallots right next to them.

As well as being a busy time of the year in the garden, it is also a busy time for my sport. At the moment I am swimming on a Monday night, playing the Wellington badminton mixed doubles box challenge with Geoff on a Tuesday night, playing Gaelic football on a Wednesday night, then having a game of touch, followed by Business House badminton on a Thursday night. It keeps me out of trouble! There is also the option of a badminton hit on Saturday afternoon and Gaelic training on a Sunday afternoon if I fancy it... The weather has been so good the last couple of weekends I have given it a miss in favour of the garden.

My only other exciting news is that I have booked a trip to the Abel Tasman National Park for Will and I leaving on the 10th December, the day after school finishes for the year. It was bit of a spur of the moment thing after seeing cheap Grabaseat tickets to Nelson. We'll spend the first night at Marahau, thend spend 3 days walking in the park and camping before getting a water-taxi back to Marahau from Totoranui, then flying back to Welly on the 14th December. We'll then head up north for that part of our holiday on the 20th December. It's all very exciting!