Well, here I was thinking that I had nothing to write home about, but after looking through the camera, I came up with some stuff to share. These first few pics are from the Ellerslie Flower Show, which was held here in Christchurch a month or so ago. I had a good time checking out all the exhibits and plants, and am totally inspired to come up with some crazy garden plants for the garden over the winter, grow the plants from seed and watch it all come to life next summer. The globe in the picture below is covered in readylawn and rotates, so you can hide away inside it.
In March, went to observe some sites around Lake Ellesmere, which is a "shallow brackish coastal lake. It is Canterbury’s largest and New Zealand’s fifth largest lake - about 20,000 ha - with approximately 75 kilometres of shoreline." It is located just South of Christchurch and Banks Penninsula. I work with the folks that open the lake to the sea to moderate the lake levels and drain farmland. The lake levels have been managed for a really long time, there are photos of horse drawn carts doing the work, somehow, and before that the Tangata Whenua (people of the land) were out there digging the cut in the beach by hand. Nowadays, the guys get out there with bull dozers! During this visit, I was out there with Ngai Tahu folks observing specific locations for impacts that the management of the lake may be having on the sites. The following pics are from this trip to the lake.

Around the house, I have been working on sanding and painting the trim of the windows on the outside and Darrel has been fixing up the garage, he has made a cool entry way over the door and has replaced all the trim, he just started painting today, so after hours and hours of work, the end is almost near for the garage! I have cleaned out the summer garden in the raised bed, and planted winter veggies (celery, peas, broccoli, brussel sprouts, leeks and beets). Not sure how much they will grow, the night temperatures have seriously dropped this week, but they will put on a bit of growth before the dark depths of winter. Part of the clean up included cutting back the New Zealand Spinach that is growing out of control. It is just like regular spinach but it is perrenial and grows long leafy stems. Jen, our fellow flattie, is picking the leaves off of the haul for dinner.
And here we are sporting the Birds Eye Building Co hats that they sent us last December. These wooly caps are going to be great this winter and we will think of the folks in the barn in Vermont when we wear them. Thanks!