Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

At last. It has taken me three months, but as of this morning, the retaining wall is finished. It has partially taken so long because I was a bit slack at the beginning, and because I have had to do everything “by hand”. The access into the garden is too narrow for even the smallest Bobcat digger, and I didn’t fancy hiring a powered augur for making the post holes after seeing the problems that the guys doing the fence encountered. However it’s done, and Nicky has started planting on the south side already of the retaining wall. I haven’t trimmed the posts as we have plans. I intended to get 2m posts but they had been on back order at the timber yard for eight months, so I bought 2.7m instead, assuming I would trim them. However, we soon decided on seeing them installed that some trellis would be good. Along with providing support for climbing plants, it would give a visual and low physical edge to the boardwalk, once it is installed. The posts may be trimmed once the trellis has been ...

Nicky started the week still feeling under the weather and using a Rapid Antigen Test to check for Covid for the first few days, but they all came out negative. As the week has progressed, she has improved and returned to planting and weeding in the garden. She was feeling well enough by Wednesday to help Joy at St. John’s, and clean the church brass. There is quite a bit of it apparently. After doing a bit of shopping on Monday morning I ordered a cubic metre of scoria from our local landscape supplier on my way home. It was delivered in the afternoon and I got the first layer into the retaining wall. On Tuesday I installed the draining pipe with Nicky’s assistance, and then set about wheelbarrowing the rest of the scoria into the wall. I finished it off with the first of three layers of backfill.   By the end of the day my knees and back were complaining considerably. I enjoyed sitting in the cinema for two and a half hours watching Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore. Th...

 Monday started mildly with a bit of cloud and quickly developed into a lovely sunny day. I had arranged to meet Steve at Angel Louise in Raetihi, as he was in the area walking with friends over the weekend. We had decided to do the Taranaki Falls walk in the Tongariro National Park. Including stopping for me to take photos and having a bite of lunch, the looped walk took us 2¼ hours. It was really good. Great views, good variety of terrain, and just the right distance on the day, for both of us.   I was home in time to spend an hour on the phone with a customer. While I was away Nicky continued working in the garden. We had another pleasant start to the day on Tuesday, though it was cooler. It’s cheap tickets day on a Tuesday at our local cinema, so we headed into to town to see The Duke, with Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent, and throughly enjoyed it. The film is based on the true story of the “theft” of the portrait of the Duke of Wellington in 1961. It was ransomed in order ...

The settled dry weather this week has enabled us to spend much time in the garden. Nicky has continued working hard in the south-west corner, where getting out the deep-rooted weeds is a major struggle. I finished digging the holes for the poles for the straight part of the retaining wall. On Thursday and Friday, I concreted in the poles. On Saturday Nicky helped me fit the planks: The next stage is to complete the digging out and holes for the poles in the “curved” section at the western end. Nicky has been working hard on the St. John’s Church roster this week. I dropped her at Joy’s home on Tuesday morning while going into town to do the shopping. Then picked her up afterwards, stopping briefly for technical assistance. Nicky also finished her Vestry report on Pastoral Care in the parish. While gardening Nicky dug up two major carrots (actually a number of carrot “legs” together) from the veggie patch, and made a lovely soup with them. I made some walnut bread and we had a very enjo...