almost hourly

Hello sweet peas!

Well here we are on the second last day of the year, on my 56th blog post of the year, which also happens to be my very last of the year. 

Truth be told I'm a bit astounded that I made it. I posted on every single Friday of 2017 plus a few extra. There were a couple of times when Friday wasn't possible so I wrote it on Thursday and published on Friday, there were more than a couple of times when I questioned the validity of the exercise, and there were plenty of times when I sat down with not much to say and ended up saying plenty, but sitting here almost 56 posts later, I'm so very glad I persevered.

My 2018 blog posts are a wonderful record of the year that was, they're filled with stories and insights from you guys, they've been great therapy, they've been good photography and writing practise, they've gotten me two jobs, and they'll be such a great gift for my girls in the years to come.

And each Friday as I've sat down to write my blog I've had a few tricks up my sleeves to fall back on in case the words didn't come; I could list 10 things happening in my life right now, I could do Pip's Taking Stock, I could talk about books and podcasts and TV series, or I could take photos and write descriptions...I did all of those over and over. 

But the one that I never used and always thought about was taking a photo each hour for a whole day. And it's funny that I've never used that one because people often ask me about a normal day in my life and this would show just how varied and abnormal my days can be. It would also be such a great snap shot of a season.

So yesterday I woke up and decided that the last Friday of the year was the day.

One photo every hour on the hour...

I took the top photo of the market garden filled with zinnias at 8am. 

I took the next three photos of the cat's new sleeping place at 9am, after I'd drunk coffee, eaten muesli with berries and yogurt and hung some washing out.

Bren's made me a washing line in that new bit in-between the sun room and the new deck. I have to stand on my tippie-toes to reach it but it's right outside the laundry, it's under cover and everything dries so quickly on it rain or shine. Imagine how much of a game changer it'll be come winter when I don't have any laundry hanging inside. So good.

At 10am I took the flowering bean tee-pee while waiting for the girls to get ready to go down to the orchard.

At 11am we were all ready for apple tree netting day to begin!

We had Indi in the tractor, Bren and Francis pulling out the nets, my parents, Jazzy and I were on cable tie duty, and Pepper and Neve were on crafts.

By 12 we were a well oiled netting machine. Everyone knew their job and was doing it well. My phone alarm was going off on the hour and I'd snap a few pics and continue tying.

But by 1pm we were feeling the heat and the damp and were losing steam. Time for lunch.

Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to get a photo of my Mum's freshly baked sour dough but trust me when I say it was beautiful. We gobbled it up with scrambled eggs, sautéed silver beet and chats about pregnant Kardashians (!).

I forgot to bring my phone down to the orchard with me after lunch so I had to guess at the times. Later when I saw the time-stamps on each photo I laughed at how wrong I gotten it.

At 2.44pm I took these photos of the girls crafting up a storm in the orchard next to where we were working. They made bracelets, rafts and apple dolls, they played with worms and grass-hoppers, and for some reason they called each other Margaret.

At 4.28pm we were heading towards the finish line. The conversation had slowed down and it was getting harder and harder to stand up in between trees.

At 4.55pm farmer Bren sliced a granny in half!

And at 5pm, on the very last row, I thought I'd better take a photo of everyone doing their job before we finished and it was too late. Francis pulling the nets out and my parents tying each bit of net to a tree to stop the birds getting in.

For some reason I didn't take any of pictures of the orchard all finished. I will soon.

At 6.18pm Jazzy and I walked down to pick some currants and gooseberries even though the birds had eaten most of them.

At 7.12pm I put the finishing touches on yesterday's blog post while Bren put together a survival kit for Jazzy's camping trip.

And just after that we picked and podded broad beans for dinner.

I love those days that are filled with family and friends and farm jobs and food. I certainly found myself laying in bed last night exhausted but with a big smile on my face.

Hopefully I'll get a chance in the next few days to do a bit of a run down on the year that was and my hopes and dreams for the year that will be, but in the meantime this feels like a wonderful place to finish. Full of love for where we've come from and optimism for the upcoming season.

Thank you dear readers for coming along with me this year for the ride. For sharing my ups and downs. For your suggestions and encouragement and wisdom. And really, just for being there. In a world filled with so many opportunities, it means the world to me that you spend some of your precious time each week visiting me.

Until we meet again next year, I hope you and yours have the most fabulous 2018! I hope it's filled with love and passion and fun opportunities and flowers. I hope you find something you love to do and get to do it often. I hope you have lots of fun!

I can't wait to get started!

Happy 2018.

Lots of love,

Kate x

sixth

Our sixth day of the new year had been put aside for veggie gardening.

For days we had known that today would be the day for pulling stuff out, putting new stuff in, tying things up, weeding and planting and neatening. All week when I walked past the tomatoes and saw that they needed tying up I thought about Wednesday, when I saw that the rocket had gone to seed I thought about Wednesday, when I discovered that a whole lot of my seedlings had outgrown their plastic pots I thought about Wednesday, when I saw that the carrots needed weeding - yep, you guessed it, I thought about Wednesday.

And then when the sixth day dawned, so did the realisations that I hadn't done any laundry for a while and everyone had run out of undies, our farmer boy's birthday is on the seventh and we needed to go shopping to buy ingredients, Miss Indi is going away for a while and needed help packing and general encouragement, Miss Pepper slammed her hand in a door and needed round the clock loving,  Miss Jazzy needed help with dealing with Miss Pepper and then after all those distractions from the veggie garden - we discovered that if we didn't net the front two rows of the orchard the birds would leave us with no apples.

Luckily we'd netted a lot of the other rows in the weeks around Christmas and New Year, so we could get back into it quickly and finish it fast, but still not much gardening happened today. Maybe Friday.

After a few weeks on the nets we're a pretty well oiled machine. We each have a role and we do it well (and over and over and over).

Miss Indi drives the tractor.

Farmer Bren and my Dad are in charge of loading the rolls onto the machine, feeding the netting through and pulling it over the rows of trees to protect our apples from birds and hail.

My farmer boy keeps us all in-line on the walkie-talkie.

My Mum and I trail behind the tractor tying the nets to the trees using cable-ties.

Jazzy and Pepper sometimes come down to inspect our work and help with the cable-ties. There's a rule that anyone who stays at home has to clean up so mostly they're pretty keen to hang around.

Over the 15 seasons we've been here we've tried a gas gun, Cd's strung from the trees, some sort of reflective tape that made a noise in the wind, an electronic scarecrow, dogs in the orchard, disco balls, fake hawk kites and big eye balloons but none of it worked. Then we got a quote for $100,000 to permanently net the entire orchard but that wasn't feasible.

We started using this method of netting last year in desperation after losing so many crops to the birds. So far we couldn't be happier.

To be honest I always feel a bit torn when the netting goes on. On the one hand I feel relieved but on the other hand I much prefer the look of an orchard filled with glossy apples than one filled with veiled brides. But farming is not all about looks, is it.

Miss Pepper inspector is pretty happy too.

We had to come in a bit earlier than we'd planned because the blustery winds started trying to rain but that's not such a bad thing because we've got cards to write and a cake to bake for our almost birthday boy.


Did you have a plan for today?
Did you stick to it?
I wonder.

See you tomorrow lovely ones.

Love Kate xx