October 'Eight'

Now it's October I will fill you in on my news since June.

July.
 1.
Our Tauranga Christian Writers weekend was fantastic. Most of our group made the most of the opportunity to improve their wordsmith skills through writing, discussion, and sharing and critiquing manuscripts.
We were challenged and motivated to keep the momentum started in April with the initial challenge to write down our writing goals, including progress plans and deadlines.
One of our members is making great progress with polishing her first novel so it is ready to submit for publication. She has written a sequel, and another stand-alone novel.
Another member is writing an organisation's history, so was encouraged to keep at it.
An historical novel based on early NZ history is being written by another member while a beginner writer is working on her autobiography.
I found a wonderful illustrator who did wonderful pencil drawings for my children's story which is currently with a publisher. Watch this space!

 2.
Our four Japanese visitors arrived as scheduled.
As usual they ate heartily and were occupied all the time, shearing sheep, pressing wool, feeding deer, mustering goats and discovering glow worms in the bush after dark.

Resting on woolly sheep

Jumping on the wool in the press

Now, what did she have to say?

Glow worms

Getting aquainted

3.
We managed to shear our goats between showers. It's great to have a lovely big shed to shelter them in bad weather.

August
4.
Kidding began on the 10th and in the first week 2/3 of our 48 does had 64 kids! The rest took their time and weren't as prolific. Two produced triplets, so one from each was given to a couple of local children to raise for Calf Club Day in mid October.

I love kidding, especially in good weather. On a sunny evening large groups of kids play, jump, run and spin around the paddock - just because they feel great. It's a delight to watch their fun.

Pretty

Playtime

New two

Palm kernel bins. Feed time

  

 

 

 

On the run

Birds.
5.
Wax-eyes have been regular attendees at my bird feeder all winter. Sparrows joined them later on, so I had to make more puddings to keep up with them. At the peak I was giving them a pudding each day.

The kereru spent the early spring stripping the new shoots from the kowhai and now they're onto the flowers! The tuis don't have a chance!
Welcome swallows are building their nest again under the deck. It's not a good idea to park the car under there when the chicks hatch!
I'm expecting the shining cuckoo any day. October 1st is usually their e.t.a.

Archery
6.
Our new hobby - rather Hans and Lyndon's new hobby!
We've just returned from a trip to Wellsford where Hans's cousin and her husband, who run Archery Adventures, live. The boys learned to do archery properly, and discovered there's more types of archery than just shooting at targets. Different archery sports use different arrows. Fascinating.

Style!

Garden
7.
I  branched into container gardening recently, prompted by the competitions for Calf Club day. Hanging baskets caught my imagination. I now have four hanging on the office deck, two with strawberries, one with sweet peas and the other 'chocka' with polyanthus, lobelia and silver cineraria. I even have miniature gladioli in a planter.
Because my vege garden isn't quite ready yet I have caulis, brocolli, rainbow beet, cabbages, lettuces and spring onions growing in buckets and pots of various sizes.

8.
We have been grandparents for ten years! Now, with ten grandchildren, we are quite used to it and enjoying the times we spend with them.

Catch you in November.