Sunday 18th/Monday 19th July

Pic from Auckland Kohimaramara Beach at sunset



Some ungodly time in the early morning, and she goes swimming.


Sunday 18th July

The new truck finally arrived at work Friday afternoon, too late to check it out fully, but it definitely needs a new deck, at present the plywood deck on it is almost see through towards the back. Had a quick look underneath, the supporting timbers look ok, it’ll just be a matter of replacing the rotten plywood with 6 x 1 planks hopefully. It’s about 2 metres longer than our other truck, bigger motor as well, and a 3 tonne hoist.




Other than that, Friday passed as usual for the end of the week, no major trauma, we’ve got the layout beds reasonably levelled, well, the bigger holes are filled anyway, I sprayed all the edges and boundary fence again with glyphosphate, to make sure all the weeds die.

The weekend has been hot, dry and sweltering. I didn’t get to do any shopping, too hot to go walking anywhere, but managed to get all the washing done, and the floors washed.

Monday 19th July

Sweltering hot today, till about 4pm when it finally started raining after the obligatory thunderstorm for about 10 minutes. Not that the rain lasted long, just enough to drop the temp about 5*C though, so it did feel a lot cooler.

Andrew, Misi and I managed to get profile pegs and a string line up today around the shade house area, swinging a sledge hammer in 30*C+ sunshine is not recommended. We all had a turn, I think I’d have been comatose if I’d been doing it on my own. I’ll have to get a good thermometer and start checking the temp out in the field, we’ll need it once we get plants out there.

I was considering just having a small shaded layout bed, about half of one length, but after today I think we’ll need at least one full bed, and maybe another one depending on how much we can get growing. We still haven’t a water supply, nor building permission yet, so I don’t know if what are doing is legal, illegal or inbetween.

The new truck works, we had to tow start it this morning, I think the park lights had got turned on on Friday and the battery was a bit flat, but it started ok, and the hoist works, brakes, etc so I’m pleased. The wire rope on the hoist has been a bit salt spray covered from the sea journey from Japan, but a few pints of oil and some rag has cleaned that up a lot better. A couple of things that will need fixing before we can get it certified, a broken stanchion on one side for the foot rail, and the floor at the rear of the tray is almost non existent, badly rotted out. We have some ply sheets spare from another job, so they will do for a quick patch until we get some 6 x 1 timber and redo the entire floor properly. A lot of salt rust spots on the paintwork, but nothing major or detrimental to running it.

I’m redoing the entrance into the Memorial Gardens, it is too waterlogged there for the Carillia trees, and there is a group of dead trees, well, there were dead trees, as you walked into it. I’m doing a circle of standard Bouganvillea, red and white alternately, if I can get enough trained up a 3’ stake and bushed out, with some Cordyline australis as a background. I’d love some Phormium, but I never bought any seeds back with me. The Cordyline seeds have started sprouting, and the Jacaranda mimisfolia as well. Still waiting for the Sophora microphylla though, they can take months to beak the seed dormancy.

I’ll put my usual Hibiscus in the Memorial Gardens as well, they are so reliable here and I have a few good colours available. Keep them trimmed below the height of the Bouganvillea, I’d like to get the Bouganvillea up to 5’ if I can, as a standard, then let them droop with the flower bracts each season.