Canterbury

Leaf Jumpers…and a Cannibal!

November 2, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

A couple of weeks ago, I took the children to the Domain here in our village. It’s a piece of public land, and it’s fairly heavily wooded, with trails through the trees. There is a large open area, which is now a cricket playing field. The cricket clubhouse is at the edge of the field, and was built on part of the foundation of William “Ready Money” Robinson’s mansion. Robinson made a fortune on the Australian gold fields in, I believe, the 1870s, and came here with the money. He bought an immense tract of land, about half the size of a county in Michigan, and then built this mansion. If I remember right, all 3 stories and 40 rooms of it were finished in about 1881, and Robinson died the following year.

Anyway, we went there a couple of weeks ago to do some filming for a movie the children were making. (Watch for it to post here sometime in December, after Esther posts it on her blog, http://estherfilbrun.com.) The day was a perfect spring day, so after the filming was finished, we just spent some time enjoying the beautiful setting. While the boys played, and rode a bike very fast down a very steep hill, Esther and I read for awhile and played with Little Miss. The little boys (and some slightly bigger ones) enjoyed jumping in a big pile of leaves that Esther raked up for them. Esther put this short video together for me.

Mid-October Gardening

October 26, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We’ve been trying to get the garden planted over the last couple of weeks, and spending a lot of time weeding what we planted in August. The day we planted peas, Little Miss wanted to help! She only got one packet open, and thankfully, peas are large enough we were able to pick them all up out of the grass.

My boys planted all the peas. It’s a little amusing, now that they are coming up, to see exactly how they were planted! Some rows have long empty spots, and other spots are pretty thick. Oh, well, peas are pretty forgiving. This is Mr. Sweetie and Mr. Intellectual, who was in charge of the planting. I dug the rows this time.

Soon, Mr. Diligent and Mr. Imagination showed up to help. I think it was about here that the planting started looking funny!

After I had all the rows dug for the peas, I started planting onions. The onion seedlings were a lot larger this year than most years. They’re looking pretty good.

We’re eating stuff that we planted last year, still, as well as some Bok Choy that I set out in September. Here is Silverbeet (Swiss Chard), celery, spring onions, broccoli, and some cabbage that was going to seed (I cut off the leaves and used them), from last year’s garden. The carrots were from the shop; we ran out of our own awhile ago.

Potato planting! Esther came out and helped Gayle and Mr. Inventor. She wanted to discuss the plot for a movie the children were making with the boys, and that was the only way she could talk to them that day.

I’ve been cooking weeds more this spring than ever before. I harvested stinging nettle from the area in the bottom photo, as well as other areas that grew up in weeds. I also use mallow. I cook them together in chicken broth, blend them thoroughly, and freeze them in muffin tins to put in soups later. Mr. Imagination named the concoction for me—prickle mallow soup!

Goofy Turkey and Cute Geese

October 18, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I was hanging laundry last Saturday morning when someone knocked on the window to get my attention. I looked where they were pointing and saw the funniest sight I’ve seen in a long time. Can you see it?

Yes, that is a turkey carrying a bucket by its handle! Our best guess is that he was showing off for the ladies. There are two toms right now in the flock of turkeys, and frequently we see both of them strutting at the same time. They will actually run with their tails fanned out and their wings dragging, to keep up with the ladies!

We have two baby geese now, the first time we’ve ever had that species of baby in the house! They are so different from chicks or ducklings. They really interact with us. They hate being locked in their box, and beg to be taken outside every day. They are already eating grass (and when we were setting out baby lettuces the other day they pulled two up). Last evening, Little Miss was playing outside, and crawled over to the wire basket under which the goslings were. She let them out, and then chased them.

I thought it was pretty cute the way they slept with their necks together this time!

Extra September 2015 Pictures

October 11, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Here are the last of the pictures from September that I thought Grandma might like to see.

Mr. Handyman wanted me to see how much loose hay we have left, so he took a picture, and Mr. Imagination wanted in the picture!

One of my little boys (can’t remember anymore which one) brought me this bouquet one Sunday afternoon at church.

Little Miss playing on the floor at church.

Another chick in the house! This was the first to hatch, so we brought it in to feed it till we knew if more would hatch.

Does Little Miss want to go along with her big brother and sister, when they travel to America next month?

More chicks hatched! We kept them in the house a couple of days, till we were sure no more would hatch, then gave them back to their mother, who is happily raising them.

More little tomato plants! I counted them out in the greenhouse last week. I only have 166! Think that will be enough?

Mr. Inventor and his favorite little sister.

Starting the Garden

September 24, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Yes, it’s a little early, but we have the garden started. I wanted to make sure the pepper plants got big enough to produce some fruit before it gets cold in the fall, so I started them early. This is what they looked like in early September; now they are outside in our “greenhouse”, so I don’t see them every day.

I set out Bok Choi, kohlrabi, broccoli and cauliflower that I started, the other day when we had a warm spell. It’s turned cold and rainy now, but the little plants look great, at least what I can see of them from the kitchen window (the middle window you can see in this picture; the window on the left is a bedroom, and the one on the right is the laundry). Mr. Sweetie had fun with my camera while I was transplanting.

Little Miss had fun crawling around on the grass while I worked in the garden.

Mr. Imagination had fun running in the dirt, and Mr. Intellectual was working on a project.

Mr. Inventor’s ducks have been eating the lettuce and Swiss Chard that I had growing, so we informed him last week that his ducks would be locked out of the yard/garden, or eaten. He got busy putting up a duck-proof fence, and then herded them out.

Here is the beautiful tom turkey again. I know I’ve posted a lot of pictures of him—I love watching him display!

Mr. Imagination on the trampoline.

Mr. Imagination picked me a bouquet of daffodils!

These ducks wanted back in the yard!

August 2015 Pictures

September 18, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Here are the last few pictures I wanted to share from August. I’m getting close to caught up!

We’ve had rain a couple of times. We’re still desperately dry, but since the weather is cool the little bit of rain we’ve gotten has been able to soak in and make the grass grow a bit. The ducks were delighted this particular morning to have water to play in!

I started peppers the first week or so of August. I planted the seeds in potting soil in this ice cream container, and put it, with a tight lid on, above the hot water heater. The peppers came up incredibly fast—I think this picture was taken after only a week!

I liked this picture of Mr. Imagination peeking into Esther’s room (just before she moved back out to the sleepout).

Mr. Handyman and Mr. Inventor have been tilling the garden. The ducks love the freshly tilled soil—they must be finding worms.

Mr. Handyman brought this skink in to show us. I believe this is about lifesize on my computer screen.

A goose nest. I hear that there are now two geese sitting on it simultaneously. We’ll see if anything hatches!

Gayle frequently brings home a load of compost from work for the garden. This time, he took Little Miss out to supervise the unloading from her Bumbo. Mr. Handyman was helping unload, and Mr. Sweetie is watching.

Dead Boring Bike Hike, 2015

September 16, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Today was the annual bike hike for our homeschool group. We start in Waikari every year, and anyone who wants to rides to the home of one of the families, just outside of Scargill. It is a total of about 22 kilometers. Every year, we remind the children that the bike hike is NOT a race. Every year, the boys make it into a race! This year, for the second time in a row, Mr. Inventor was the winner, finishing the ride in only 32 minutes. Mr. Handyman came in third. Mr. Sweetie rode for the first time; he rode nearly half the route. He was pretty happy about that. Mr. Imagination and Little Miss stayed in the van with me and were bored silly. I let Mr. Imagination eat his lunch and take a few pictures, and Little Miss chewed on a carrot stick most of the way—until she put it on her shoulder and couldn’t find it again!

Here are the boys, waiting to start out.

Mr. Sweetie, ready to go. I drove him to the end of the steeper hills before he started.

Mr. Imagination took these next two pictures.

Here, Mr. Sweetie was pedaling past a hedge that caught fire a year ago.

Another of Mr. Imagination’s pictures!

The welcoming committee at the end of the ride. I grabbed a picture quickly as I drove past to park on the roadside, so it turned out fuzzy.

After eating the lunches we took along, we spent the afternoon together enjoying each other’s company. We have such good friends!

Hurunui Mouth

September 6, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

The very last day of my sister-in-law’s visit, we took her to the mouth of the Hurunui River. She had never seen a river mouth before. The Hurunui Mouth is a particularly beautiful spot. One thing that makes it interesting to go to repeatedly is seeing how the mouth moves. One time we were there it was way north of the end of the road; the next time, it was a kilometer south of that point! It was nearly at that spot this time.

Looking north from the end of the road. This is just a lagoon, but at times the river goes out to sea down at this end.

See where the river breaks through the bar to the sea?

Boys can’t be bothered to stand around enjoying the scenery. They took off running back up the road!

We soon followed, in the van but more leisurely, and went to the campground on the bank of the river, to look around. Gayle works with a man who knows about the Maori sites around here, and he told him about some rocks at that campground that we should look for. We soon found them, and discovered the groves that the Maori made as they sharpened their knives.

Mr. Diligence and Mr. Sweetie under the one rock.

We went around to Manuka Bay for a little while, then. We actually got a family picture! It was cold.

Christchurch

September 4, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

The last week my sister-in-law was here, I had to go to Christchurch for an orthodontist appointment for Mr. Inventor. While we were there, we took her to the Canterbury Museum. I won’t put any pictures of the displays on here; I find pictures of museum displays to be pretty boring! This is one of the beautiful old buildings across the street from the museum.

A fascinating fountain outside the museum.

The entrance to the museum.

After we left the museum, we spent a couple of hours shopping. This little girl had apparently had all she could take!

Home to Lewis Pass

August 16, 2015 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

While my sister-in-law was with us for the past month, we took a trip to the north part of the island. With snow on the mountains, the scenery was spectacular as we traveled toward Lewis Pass! This first picture doesn’t do justice to the depth of this valley. We always love seeing this scene.

I don’t know what this building was, but it’s rather picturesque.

This ridge parallels the road between Waiau and Rotherham for a couple of miles, then there is a break, and then another ridge is along the road for the same distance.

Mountains on the way up to Lewis Pass.

A snowplow headed up into the Pass. We followed him for awhile, and then he pulled off and let us pass him.

On the west side of the pass! We went north from Springs Junction, and I was amazed at the range of mountains to the west of us, on the other side of the valley we were driving through. They were so rugged, with sharp tops!