Roaming The Coast

This will not be a long post. I am still working on a post explaining how the Rotherham Chapter ended and how we ended up following our dreams all the way down the West Coast.  For now, here are a few moments from our journey; from the Punakaiki pancake rocks, to the Oparara Basin as far north as the road goes, to the incredible Denniston Plateau high in the clouds with what remains of the mind blowing incline.

The Rotherham Chapter Draws To a Close

Its hard to believe that my last post was about the first calves arriving,  and now here we are, calving season over! What a long season it has been! 1100 calves, all fed and out in the paddocks now, after endless weeks of battling, feeding, moving, early mornings,  late nights and countless freezing cold mornings!  Phineas has adored every minute of it, perched on my back, toes pointed out to try to kick calves or to sneak into their milk! He loved counting them, pointing to each one counting "two, two, two" round each mob of 45! Of course,  after counting them all,  he had to pat every single one, every single day! Alex too loved tagging along and didn't miss a day. He delighted in adopting all the slow feeders, reassuring every one that I tube fed or tagged, cuddling them and telling them they would be alright! He is an expert at coaxing the stubborn newbies onto feeders, mothering them the whole time. Zoe on the other hand, had no time for the farm life,  and avoids it at all costs.

In the midst of the calving chaos, we decided, after all our "never, ever, no thanks" talk, that we would get married,  so one early spring day we eloped to Kaikoura. It was a beautiful,  warm day and after what must have been the shortest service in history we walked the beach, climbed barefoot through the rocks and watched the waves roll in, a tsunami warning freshly canceled after a huge earthquake of the coast of South America. It was a perfect day, simple and sweet and we ended it with a walk to the old Port Robinson lighthouse where we watched the sun setting over the cliffs of Manuka Bay. As our time as an unmarried couple ends, so too does our time in Rotherham, calving is over and new adventures are calling....

Winter: The halfway point

Wednesday morning was unusually warm so I thought I'd take Nugget for an early run. At ten to seven I was suprised to find the sky was light already! Finally, a sign that we are on the downhill side of winter, days are getting longer! It has been a chilly winter of grey skies and muddy ground,  broken by the occasional peak of sunshine or dump of crisp snow. It seems such a long time since we have felt warm and dry and quite honestly, it has been a dreary few weeks. The arrival of the first two calves this week has been another sign that spring is on its way, and the green tips of daffodils popping up are exciting beyond words!

A Rotherham winter is a completely different creature to a Marlborough winter; where a -8 morning was cold in Marlborough,  we have just had two weeks of temperatures from -12 down to almost -20! Marlborough tends to have beautiful, mild, sunny days and we are missing those terribly with day after day of grey skies and frosts that never melt. But to every down there is an up, and the fine days here are stunning.  The sun glistening on the ring of snow covered mountains surrounding us is breathtaking.  From Mt Lyford, towards Hanmer, beyond Culverden and circling back up the Hurunui River towards Waiau, there is nothing more beautiful than the burning red sunrises and sunsets echoing off the snowy ranges that surround us.

The children are planning for spring and summer already, and Alex has weeded all the back gardens, digging out all the rocks for a fire pit to cook over! Phineas has discovered the joys of feeding scraps to the waxeyes and loves watching them scoff everything he throws for them. He has also discovered the calves and loves trying to touch their spongy wet noses! So, from the halfway point, we are all healthy and happy and all eagerly awaiting the real arrival of spring and warm days!

Autumn in the rearview mirror...

This month marks the closing of Autumn . Days are getting shorter and we are seeing more of Jeremy around home now that things are slowing up on the farm with winter on its way. Phineas is walking everywhere now and its hard to believe he will be one in just a couple of weeks! The week began with a decent size earthquake which shook us into action and we have had a rather productive week! We dug over all our rock hard, summer baked gardens and filled them with spring bulbs and hollyhocks. The weather this week has been unusually warm, reaching 30 degrees,  almost unheard of for late autumn,  and the vegetable gardens we established just a few weeks ago are flourishing,  with a great crop of cabbage,  parsnips, carrots, rainbow chard, lettuces, romanesco, broccoli,  cauliflower, spinach,  beetroot, herbs and even a rogue chilli on the way! Time will tell how they fare this winter, and with snow days getting close we will see sooner rather than later!

Autumn,  as always,  has been a flurry of foraging;  from wild parsnips,  blackberries and apples along the Waiau,  to fennel seeds and rosehips in the Lewis Pass,  to boletes and puha around Hanmer, we have had an incredible wild harvest this year! We are really missing the chestnuts, almonds, hazelnuts and walnuts we usually look forward to gathering around Marlborough every autumn, but are loving the plentiful meadow mushrooms, pine boletes and shaggy ink caps growing around here,  perfect in soups and wild mushroom galettes!

All in all it has been a beautiful, bountiful autumn, and as it draws to an end, we are busily squirrelling away winter bedding for Morel the rabbit and Sancho the guinea pig and making bird feeders to hang up for our feathery friends, and making sure everyone will be warm and nourished this winter!