Speaker: Dancing with Dingoes, Part I
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if I'm to believe my 17year-old son
Fortunately we're over Bebo..
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Ian, you are o-fish-ally the king of the pun, and cheers for the P.S.
Sacha, I'll have to get my son to translate - seriously!
Jacqui, you give sense to my silly and make it all worthwhile. For your sake alone I think I will write part 2 - and without further ado...:)
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A conversation about gardening--now there's a good idea. In respect of tomatoes, I tend to avoid the 'heritage' varieties which have become fashionable as they are too prone to virus infection (there is a readily-transmitted lurge called Tobacco Mosaic virus--when I worked in glasshouse cultivation, we were advised to avoid smoking--especially rollies). A good old standard such as Moneymaker, Russian Red or Scoresby Dwarf are the best bet, along with the Sweet 100 variations).
I am going to try endamame (baby soya beans) again this summer as I didn't have great luck last year. But I did have my first flower on the pink peony, which was transported north from Napier earlier this year.
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But I did have my first flower on the pink peony, which was transported north from Napier earlier this year.
Oh, lucky you!
I've got cauliflower and broccoli seedlings all ready for when my flipping flipper is better (Hey Ian! Do dolphins count as fish?). Once bought some seedlings thinking they were broccoli, which turned out to be cabbages. Annoyed, I gave them no attention until one day, desperate for a green veg for tea, I picked one - like a small cannonball, it was. Well, suffice it to say that it was so totally delicious that I've tried to have cabbages always in the garden. When you pick the main one, smaller ones grow out the side, just like broccoli.I'll be interested to hear how the soya beans go. I like endamame a lot.
And now I moss run and cook our dinner! (Edited on later....I never think of stuff until after I've posted)
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Jacqui - shouting ahead of any response from Ian D - NO!NO!NO!
Dolphins (except for the Hawai'ian dolphin =mahimahi, a genuine pisces) are emphatically not fish!Young cabbages are delicious: I agree with everything you folk have said about tomatoes; radishes/microherbs/parsley/Thai chillies/spring onions are easy to grow indoors, and if anyone cracks growing endamame, I will be a pupil. Delicioso!
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Islander - believe me, I know dolphins aren't fish, but for the porpoises of the fushy posting of Ian's, I wanted them to be temporary and honorary fushes. OK?
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(gag)(both meanings) 'spose so
but the part of me that shrieks at people calling apes monkeys, is still shrieking away- -
Quantum of Solanaceae
(there is a readily-transmitted lurge called Tobacco Mosaic Virus--when I worked in glasshouse cultivation, we were advised to avoid smoking--especially rollies)
Maybe it's just a Waikato thing - wasn't there a heavy metal band from Hamilton called Knightshade?
:- )But seriously hand washing between handling infected plants can minimise passing on the infection, it's almost like TMV is the Herpes of the plant world (and thriving in the Nightshade/Solanaceae family), but plants like grapes and apples show no symptoms when infected, you can try spraying with milk, this can inhibit the infection apparently...
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Who said anything about smoking round my tomatoes, Geoff?? Are you in my neighbourhood or something?
But somehow I think passive smoking will be the least of my tomatoes' worries. In fact my tomatoes must be the most unlucky tomatoes in Auckland. Poor blighters.
And how the bejabers do you lot know so much about gardening?
Sign of a misspent adulthood - my botanical ignorance, dare say.PS. The hat. Either I want Christmas to come early and am going for extra presents in my stocking this year, or my 17 year old considers Christmas and his mother combined to be terribly funny. If I knew how to remove the hat I probably would, though I suppose it's as good a mascot as any. Bah!
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Who said anything about smoking round my tomatoes, Geoff??
Not smoking toms, or anything else.
And how the bejabers do you lot know so much about gardening?
Well, my explanation is that, in an earlier guise, I did a DipHort at Massey and worked for the Dept of Horticulture for a couple of years, but decided I wanted to grow things as a interest, rather than an occupation. I was awfully bad with machinery too but did love driving tractors. One very useful thing I did was graft gazillions of grape varieties on to virus-indexed stock, as my contribution to the NZ wine industry.
Now appreciate the benefits of gardening on the rich loam, river terraces in the Waikato. -
Geoff: So you're not in my neighbourhood then? For some reason I can't imagine you in the Waikato. It always seems to detached from reality down there. So pristine-serene. One doesn't imagine brainy blogging back-stage. It seems built for the horses.
My imagination is limited, of course.
People's previous guises never cease to amaze me. How many grape varieties was that again? I would say a big thank you from a keen consumer but I'm beginning to feel uneasy referring to my drinking habits in jest. But a big thanks anyway;). -
Geoff: For some reason I can't imagine you in the Waikato.
No imagination is needed as I am perfectly happy here. One of these days I intend to write a spirited defence of Hamilton and the Waikato, to challenge the misconceptions and cheap shots but not today. But, my office is close to where Michael King wrote his much-lauded Penguin History of New Zealand and Peter Wells wrote his most recent novel.
How many grape varieties was that again?
Not so much gazillions of wine varieties as gazillions of graftings of various varieties (Gewurtz Traminer, Pinot Noir, Thompson's Seedless etc etc)
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No imagination is needed as I am perfectly happy here. One of these days I intend to write a spirited defence of Hamilton and the Waikato, to challenge the misconceptions and cheap shots but not today.
Sorry, point taken. I'm off to hide in a hole until I can work out how to say/write better things more tactfully. Probably need a new brain.
For what it's worth, we always stop in Cambridge when we head south, being the mainstreamers that we are - and practically every member of my mother-in-law's family live there. My usual thought or feeling when there is primarily one of great peacefulness. Of course, nothing more ideal for a writer and academic than peace.
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No problem, Sally. No offence taken. After all, I have been known to make unkind remarks about Masterton.
I don't get to Cambridge often enough--silly old Tirau is our usual stop, heading south (there are some wonderful, little-known hot spring spots around there).
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Hot spring spots you say? Do tell
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Well, there is Okororie which has a wonderful old country pub (built in the 1880s), a golf course (if you like that kind of thing)--and a walk down an avenue of trees, to the banks of the raging Waihou River where you will find sandy-floored hot pools, surrounded by a high fence and ferns. You get your key to the gate from the hotel.
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Geoff, I've come over all hot and springy...;)You write evocatively of the area. The closest I get to waxing lyrical about Auckland is when I talk about the beach - which is something, to be sure.
a wonderful old country pub...[and] a golf course (if you like that kind of thing)
Country pub, yes, golf, no. Though golf courses are usually lovely places to find tranquillity (when the golfers are absent, of course). We're heading to the South Island by car this Christmas so might check out Okororie. Sounds sublime.
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Okay, well I'm going to have to break the silence. I won't apologise a second time, Geoff, but I will move on now with regret that I stooped so low (wasn't meant to be smutty).
But let's change the subject.
We're having a couple of friends round for Guy Fawkes tonight. Two solo mums and their four kids, actually. Well, they're married, but their men are temporarily working elsewhere. One is in Saudi, poor man.
M (husband) will be the only bloke. He says he doesn't mind. Says he will be the flame.The firecracker.
Okay.
Whatever works for you my beloved.
I am hoping my daughter, who likes cooking, is presently downstairs preparing the pizza, our guests are due to arrive at 7.30. Better go check.
Happy Guy Fawkes everyone :):) -
Happy Cracker night all!
Mind you, while my lovely family is out buying me some crackers from the Warehouse (bless you Moth' dear!) we actually use them at the 3 New Years (Hogmanay/Lunar & Matariki.)
But I love love love fireworks!
Probably not suitable for Remembering Parihaka, Just Thinking - but at least a lot of us will be remembering the nasty occaision - and knowing that things *have* changed for the better...
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I love fireworks too - and normally we go to my friends Ange and Gary, and Gaz - who is a fireman - lets off hundreds in Walker Park while we all stand around and freeze. This year, my dog's not well, so we're inside. Safe and warm and waiting out Cleo's malaise.
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(Best wishes for Cleo's renewed good health, Jackie- ano, kia ora tatou katoa-)
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Thankyou Islander - she's off to see her friend, Chris the Vet tomorrow. She's feeling a bit better, but still very sorry for herself.
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