Flower buds on a Barnea (click to enlarge)
The other day I took a walk through the olive grove to see how the trees are doing.
It was comforting to see the small, green flower buds of spring. It isn’t always this way.
Sometimes olives groves don’t behave according to plan.
When we bought this place the house had been empty for some time, and the grove hadn’t been pruned or sprayed for pests and disease in years.
So it wasn’t producing very much.
7 Comments | 
New Zealand, Olives & olive oil | Tagged: barnea, flower buds, gratitude, olive grove, olive harvest, olive oil | 
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Posted by Moon Over Martinborough
Local newspaper Wairarapa Times-Age ran an article on ‘Moon over Martinborough’ last week, and I was slapped on the front page, top right.
Dorky picture of Jared
They asked me to pose for this picture – sitting awkwardly on our fence, pretending to do a blog post with the olive grove behind me and a bottle of our oil beside me.
As if I always write blog posts this way…
I felt like such a doofus!
There was an absolutely enormous version of this picture on page 3, plus a cropped version on the front page.
14 Comments | Guest posts & media, New Zealand | Tagged: olive grove, olive oil | Permalink
Posted by Moon Over Martinborough
I was standing at the kitchen sink and looking out the back window when I first saw our chickens sneaking into the backyard. I froze.
The Forbidden Zone
They were headed straight for The Forbidden Zone.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that chickens untended get up to no good. Anyone who keeps chickens knows this. Given the chance, they’ll make a bee line towards the most freshly planted, unfenced patch of garden only to begin wreaking havoc with all the wild abandon of drunken sailors in a bar fight.
When we first got our young hens, we kept them in the chicken run for months on end. They were small and there are feral cats and stoats around, so it was for their own good. But when they were big enough to start laying, and when they began laying consistently in the nesting box, Rick and I decided they were old enough to be granted the occasional shore leave.
20 Comments | Chickens, Family, Garden, New Zealand | Tagged: chicken coop, Chickens, chook house, Garden | Permalink
Posted by Moon Over Martinborough
We had two new help exchange volunteers staying with us, a Belgian and a Korean, and Rick asked them to do a very special job. “Dig out these agapanthus, divide them, and plant them in a long row along this line of trees.”
Agapanthus - image from nzplantpics.com
Little did those unsuspecting volunteers know that in doing this work, they were contributing to one man’s slightly crazed and deeply disturbing obsession.
The next day, the Belgian and the Korean began digging.
I never knew what agapanthus were before I moved to New Zealand. They’re native to South Africa, and they can’t survive the freezing winters in the any of the places I’ve previously called home.
41 Comments | Garden, New Zealand | Tagged: Agapanthus, Garden | Permalink
Posted by Moon Over Martinborough
Podcast available.
Rick and I had been living in the country for only a couple of months when Rick’s city friend Fiona came to visit.
Well in the olive grove
Fiona is like a graceful, exotic bird you feel compelled to pamper and adore, and Rick had promised her a relaxing country weekend far away from her stressful professional life. So it caused us great concern when, just hours after her arrival on Friday evening, our tap water suddenly stopped running.
I was in the kitchen preparing to cook dinner when I turned on the kitchen faucet and nothing came out. I checked the sink in the guest bathroom and found the same thing there.
Out on the deck I made the announcement.
“There’s no water.”
20 Comments | Neighbors, New Zealand, Podcasts | Tagged: city friends, gratitude, kind neighbors, olive grove, Wairarapa Lifestyle Magazine, well | Permalink
Posted by Moon Over Martinborough
Moon over Martinborough has been named “New Zealand Site of the Month” in the October 2009 issue of NetGuide Magazine!
I was sitting at my computer at the government agency where I work when an email came in from someone in the Communications team telling me about it. Most of the people at work didn’t know I have a blog.
They do now.
15 Comments | Guest posts & media, New Zealand | Tagged: olive grove, olive harvest, olive oil | Permalink
Posted by Moon Over Martinborough
Podcast available.
Daisies in the garden
Nothing is normal at our house. Even a simple dinner party comes alive with bizarre and friendly characters.
The reason for our most recent dinner party was simple. The neighborhood was crawling with Americans.
I was pulling out the wine glasses when our neighbors John and Aussie Brownyn arrived that night. John has taught me how to prune vines and Aussie Bronwyn taught me how to kill a chicken. I have a lot of respect and admiration for them both.
That week they had an American staying with them, and so did Rick and I. It was a great excuse to get everyone together. It doesn’t take much around here.
Our American, TJ, was setting the table. John and Aussie Bronwyn’s American, Lily, was walking in just behind them.
13 Comments | Country dinner parties, Food, Neighbors, New Zealand, Podcasts | Tagged: dinner party, gratitude, kind neighbors, olive oil, pickling olives, River & sea, table olives | Permalink
Posted by Moon Over Martinborough
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