Christmas 2012 with Ken and Janet.

The Pines Rose Garden

The New Conservatory

Our New Conservatory!

When we bought the house it was a cold place and it has taken us years of doing this and that to make it the comfortable home it is now. The north side of the house only had small windows so Terry built the first conservatory in time for his 80th birthday, and that was such a hit he decided to build a second one off the lounge and this one he finished in May this year 2012 in time for his 83rd birthday.It took him a year as much of the time it was too cold to work outside.
So now in our old age we can choose which wing, east or west, we want to sit in and rock!

Visit by Senior Citizens with Bay Bus Tours

Forty one senior citizens arrived from Napier in two buses to spend an hour and half in our garden. They were treated to tea/coffee and cream scones and a history lesson by Elaine. I hope they enjoyed sitting in the beautiful garden and wandering through the old historic house.

The Opening of the Waipawa Rotunda

The dull weather did nothing to dampen the spirits at the opening of our new magnificent rotunda.It was attended by in excess of 250 residents. Grown ups and children picnicked in the park while listening to the first of many musical evenings.

Inside the Pines

BelWeb sideboard.
Imbuia Ball and Claw Bedroom furniture. Imbuia is and an African timber.

Piano is a Monnington and Weston manufactured prior to 1940

Writing desk made in Knysna from Australian blackwood.

Waipawa's One Hundred and Fifty Year Celebration

This could be a long post with all the pictures I took of the celebrations. The Pines was part of it as at three o'clock a party of over thirty arrived for a history lesson given by Margaret Gray, Waipawa's historian. I think I have written this before,but if Elaine and I had bought a house in Hastings we would have just retired into the woodwork,but by coming here to 'The Pines' we are somehow so much part of Waipawa.

Well the celebrations started off with a procession and float parade from the town Hall into Ruataniwha Street and down to Coronation Park where there were many many stalls. New Zealanders love their old vintage cars and tractors so they were all part of it .A procession is not a procession unless it is led by by a Scottosh Pipe Band.

During the morning there were people coming into our garden and just sitting or taking pictures of the garden and house and the party interested in the history of Waipawa were taken up to the historic pond constructed over 150 years ago and repaired by me, and were also allowed to walk down the passage from the front door and out the back door.What excitement.

And when it was all finished we relaxed and had tea.

Changing Rooms

The conservatory has become our favourite place.. We have teas and meals there.. It is where we take our visitors, or catch an afternoon nap on the sofa or just a place to sit and be.

However we had a problem. To get there one had to walk through the main bedroom. Not an ideal situation. So for some time we debated whether to change the lounge which was in the traditional front part of the house, with the bedroom which was at the back.

There were issues to consider, such as the lounge being near the front door and having a woodburner fireplace which we so enjoyed on winter nights, and the bedroom’s very convenient main en suite. Also the fact that moving big heavy furniture from one end of the house to another, needed planning and strong arms.. Then last week we knew that that is what we wanted to do. Change the rooms. The issues could be overcome.

The family always come for birthday celebrations and that was a golden opportunity to have willing labour right on hand! After a good lunch we set to work. I had emptied the cupboards and stripped the bed. Most of the furniture could be moved down the long narrow passage, but the two wide couches had to be taken outside through double doors. They could not go round corners or through the inside doors, so were carried round the house to enter double doors through the conservatory. The pictures hanging on the passage walls were removed and the up-ended big bed was negotiated along the length of the house to take the place of the couches.

The heavy baby grand piano was the most difficult piece to move.. All hands were required to lift off the heavy lid and tip the instrument to remove the legs and peddles.. Then it was laid on it’s side on a mat and pulled along the passage to it’s new home. That went well, but replacing the legs and peddles was a much bigger task than taking them off, as the legs had to be put on once the piano was the right way up! While the family held the piano, the head of the house lay on his back underneath, replacing the under structure as fast as he could!. Letting it slip from our hands was not an option!

At last all was in place and a well deserved birthday tea was served..

The bedroom light shade looked decidedly out of place in the new lounge and we have since made a trip to town and replaced it with a beautiful shimmering chandelier. The big screen TV is set up, pictures on the walls and flowers on the piano. The conservatory being part of the lounge now gives us more space and the whole effect is far better than we had expected and we wonder why it took so long.

The bedroom in the voorkamer is really nice too with morning sun and wide views of the front garden. Winter nights could be really cosy with a fire in the stove!

Garden Party at the Pines

Any excuse for a party.

Spring at Last.

Nursery Plant Propagation.

After turning eighty I began to think of how I could occupy my remaining years productively. I really would like to be a molecular biologist and thought seriously of starting a laboratory but with little experience and no backing for the half billion dollars needed I decided to look in a different direction and what better place to look than here at the Pines. Everything is set up already. The nursery is already a fact. It just needs some changes to be made to make it run properly again. Some tweaking. We are going to do everything better. In the beginning I was a little skinflint because we were not sure of ourselves, but now with nearly twenty years experience in propagating plants we can start again and fix the things that were wrong.We actually know how to do things right.

The mist bed is the important part. It was running at too lower temperature because of the high electricity costs in New Zealand compared with South Africa. In1997 that was. So instead of running it at 25oC I was running it at about 18oC. The mister had ceased to work properly because I was unable to get a new part as the supplier in South Africa had disappeared. I have managed to purchase a whole new and different system. The old system was based on a timer which could be set to mist for a short period of say five seconds every ten minutes. This had to be changed every time the weather changed which was a nuisance. It also had to have a day/ night switch. My new system is a balance arm which changes the amount of mist depending on the temperature and goes day and night. It is like an artificial leaf. When the water evaporates from a stainless gauze pad the balance swings and a mercury switch operates a solenoid valve and mist is sprayed . The weight of the water on the pad then switches it off until it evaporates again and it swings back like a see saw. The first mist bed was 'invented' only in 1953 and cuttings were misted continuously. Our first mistbed was at Glentworth in about 1987 where we were able to root Prof. Allen's Honey Gold paw paw cuttings.

Before we got all this going I had looked at the propagation tunnel and just wished we could start again. The mist bed was falling down and I thought it would collapse all together. Elaine appealed to four Mormon boys to help us. In two hours they removed all the sand from the table scraping the dirty sand from the surface and separating it from the clean sand, then together we heaved it back into position. I was then able to concrete the legs in place. The clean sand was replaced and the heating cable realigned. We then covered the bed with weed matting to prevent the potting mix getting mixed up with the clean sand.

The next thing to get right was the rooting medium. We have always used potting mix, but this is not the best because it contains fertilizer which inhibits root initiation. I have located a good rooting medium so hope for an improvement there.

All the old badly shaped plants have been removed from the growing tunnel so we can start again with new plants and try to keep pruning them to have a good shape when they are ready to sell and lastly I am learning to take the cuttings to help Elaine out.

After just four weeks new cuttings are rooting and I have already started potting them. Once potted they are placed on the mist bed but on a section that is not heated, just to help them on their way. All we need now are customers.

I think I will put my day/night timer back for safety sake so no water will be sprayed at night