Weekend Social 28/02/14

Written By: - Date published: 6:15 pm, February 28th, 2014 - 20 comments
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20 comments on “Weekend Social 28/02/14 ”

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  1. freedom 1
    28 February 2014 at 6:48 pm

    we missed you Weekend Social

  2. stargazer 2
    28 February 2014 at 9:36 pm

    bruce springsteen concert. oh yeah!!

    http://youtu.be/Lb30-RPnB1E

  3. Lanthanide 3
    28 February 2014 at 10:53 pm

    Yay! It’s back!

    Have some rabbits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM9YWm6T_hc

  4. Ron 4
    28 February 2014 at 11:05 pm

    Celebrating Children’s Day at Stardome Observatory (All ages Welcome)
    10.00am to 4.00pm Sunday March 2nd
    $2.00 per person
    Planetarium shows throughout the day
    Bouncy Castle
    Rocket Launching
    Plenty to see, crafts for children
    Where 670 Manukau Rd, Royal Oak, Auckland 1023

  5. Rosie 5
    1 March 2014 at 9:04 am

    After two nights in a row of “mini party” it’s a quiet weekend ahead, with the focus of today being clearing out the garage for the delivery of firewood. A part delivery will arrive later in the day.Better do some stretching………

    Any Wgtn northern suburbs readers have any suggestions for good pine cone collecting area’s?

    Bad12, I saw your response on Open Mike re your tobacco plants – good to hear of the crop’s progress. We had the same problem as you with compost being too acidic and burning our young culinary herbs but they recovered after lots of watering and are doing really well..

    No luck with growing vege despite two layers of wind break around the raised garden (made from recycled untreated pallets). Woke up one morning to see a zuchini plant that had blown out the garden being blown away down the length of the lawn, like a tumble weed.

    Back to the garage now………….

    Enjoy the beautiful day ya all.

    • bad12 5.1
      1 March 2014 at 9:50 am

      Rosie, yeah wasn’t this years Summer a grand display of gutting proportions, normally the first day of November for me is the day to start planting but that wind just wouldn’t stop,(to the point of my sanity being whisked away in the gale forces probably resulting in the neighbors having their trigger fingers poised over the 1 digit on their phone dials),

      Like you more than a few liters of the magic wet stuff had to be used to dissolve the acidity i self inflicted on the garden,( the poor bloke monitoring the Te Marua water storage level probably need coronary treatment after November’s garden watering’s sent the gauge plummeting),

      Figuring out exactly what had caused the ‘burn’ to my babies had the neurons smoking and the mental gymnastics included thoughts of pulling the whole garden apart and reverting back to a bucket garden with potters mix as the growing medium,

      i even went as far as to be lovingly casting more than an idle glance at the greenhouses on trademe and figuring out that 4 of them at 5 or 600 bucks a piece would be needed, you might want to think about one for your garden to get yourself out of the wind, lolz up on the hills though you will have to put in some concrete piles or something to save from making a donation of it to Tawa or Porirua,

      Lolz, the learning curve here has taught me to pull all my plants as soon as they show a sign of developing flowers and seed pods, 3 plants is enough to give me 1000’s of seeds and the last time i left them all in the ground at that stage of growth a crazy South-easterly came screaming over the hill and knocked the lot of them over…

      • Rosie 5.1.1
        1 March 2014 at 10:51 am

        At least the last few weeks have been settled and warm, a chance for the poor plants to pop their heads up up to receive some gentle love from the sun.

        Greenhouses. It was a consideration but given the hazards…………Instead in Spring we plan to build another raised vege garden along the retaining wall and construct a shelter of polycarbonate sheeting bolted to supports on the north western corner of the garden bed…………..

        There is a very good reason this area of Te Whangnui A Tara was never inhabited by Maori and was a failure as farming land from the 1880’s onwards.

        Pine cones (lol at you freedom) I used to collect them on MT Victoria when I was in Hataitai but was put off after an episode where an outraged 5 year old girl witnessed me putting pine cones into a sack and screamed at the top of her lungs “That lady’s stealing all the pine cones!!”. I got the dissaproving look from her parents and all the joggers and dog walkers. Are folks so accustomed to buying all their stuff from a shop that they don’t appreciate the art of scavenging? Nothing wrong with a good scavenge! That’s how we got all our pallets, although we did get permission from the warehouse where we “found” them

        Good idea about Tinakori hill, thanks, – bit tricky getting up there with an achilles injury at the mo.

        • bad12 5.1.1.1
          1 March 2014 at 1:06 pm

          Think you got in at the right time with the Ware Whare pallets Rosie, i have noticed a distinct lack of any coming out of the Lyall Bay one recently, along with the same dryness over at Bunnings,

          No worries here tho, i still have spares from when i was a regular doing the weekly scavenge of both places, i suspect some clever so and so has done a deal with both places for the removal of their unwanted wooden packaging,

          Have just been doing some temporary waterproofing to the capping on the balustrade out on the deck, funny people those that manage our States housing stock, you can tell them over and over ad nauseum, the hinges on this or that window are rotten, or, there’s a piece of rotting timber here or there and despite being paid some multi million dollar figure in a contractual arrangement with the Government the box gets ticked and no repair occurs…

          • Rosie 5.1.1.1.1
            1 March 2014 at 4:34 pm

            Bloody hell, that could be frustrating, the lack of follow up on maintenance issues. Send them an invoice for your labour and materials costs 🙂

        • Ennui 5.1.1.2
          3 March 2014 at 12:09 pm

          Rosie,

          Pine cones: take a drive to the Wairarapa and make sure you have plenty of bags / boxes etc. A little exploration will reveal many pine stands, often along the roadside. Even where they are on private land I have rarely, when collecting seen anybody or have been stopped. You should get plenty.

          On that note I get a lot of pine cones, fruit, berries etc from the roadside in that area, most people just drive by. It is where my sauces, jams, preserved fruit, wine etc is sourced (I do the processing admittedly). You need to harden yourself to the disapproving looks of the common garden Kiwi…the buggers have been too well trained in so called “property rights” and slavishly adhere to supermarket fare. To me it is great when they will drive by and leave the goods alone.

          Gardening in the wind….never ever grow behind solid barriers in Wellington, the wind just swirls and forms vicious back eddies…..wind cloth followed by wind cloth..hedges / flaxes etc for windbreaks, expect damage, grow low. Basically it has been a crap growing season, I have only persisted with the hardiest plants. Beans, dwarf beans, zucchini. The trick is to get some degree of shelter to take the edge off the wind, it cools everything too fast otherwise. Treat Wellington as a southern or mountain climate for growing, it is significantly colder than anywhere north of Southland if you are a vege. And don’t give up, it can be done so long as you limit your expectations to match reality.

  6. freedom 6
    1 March 2014 at 9:47 am

    “any suggestions for good pine cone collecting area’s”

    under pine trees 🙂

    • bad12 6.1
      1 March 2014 at 10:02 am

      The only place i can think of that has access to the public and any amount of pines on it is Wellington’s Tinakori hills,

      There are public tracks through the town belt there and i am not even sure how many of what used to be a large number of Pines is left up there, i know that Wellington City Council had to go through and remove a lot of them after one particular storm cut a swathe through there and left plenty of them only managing an upright status by leaning on their neighbors,

      i wouldn’t have a clue how to access the tracks over there, Google might tell you, not exactly Northern suburbs sorry Rosie,

      There are pine plantations over the back of you in the Makara valley but i don’t know about public access, not that i have ever let such niceties inhibit me, but then i am Bad…

  7. marty mars 7
    1 March 2014 at 11:58 am

    just watched this – beautiful shots of Saturn’s hurricane and hexagon

    http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/745173main_cassini20130429-320-jpl.mp4

    • ianmac 7.1
      1 March 2014 at 3:02 pm

      Thanks marty. I guess the washing hung out to dry at Saturn’s North Pole would dry quite quickly.
      I think there is a bright planet visible from NZ in the North Western sky about 45-50 degrees above horizon. Anyone know if that is Jupiter?

  8. freedom 8
    2 March 2014 at 9:51 am

    http://www.ediblebackyard.co.nz/events/

    Here are the upcoming Edible Backyard workshops

    Whether you are a gardener just starting out or maybe you are wanting to alter bad habits of old, Kath’s extensive knowledge and down to earth style will fill your head with ideas and your heart with laughter.

    p.s. I recommend making the Tomato and Onion Pie you will find on the homepage.
    So simple, so yummy.

  9. the pink postman 9
    2 March 2014 at 12:51 pm

    Mrs Pink Postman amd I celebrated 60 years of marriage last Friday,
    ,celebrated our eldest son’s birthday the day before and our closest friends birthday yesterday, and we are off to the HD Met-opera at the Lido Hamilton on Monday . Tuesday a day off I hope…