A bit of rain and a few hours of sunlight later and it's a bit difficult to find the bedroom!
It certainly seems like the day of the triphids has arrived in Johnsonville. But as well as many many leaves etc we have certainly begun the harvest. Every day we pick between 10 and 20 tomatoes and even that looks like increasing in the next few days! What to do with all these tomatoes?
I found a really easy oven dried tomato recipe - you just wash and dry them, cut them in half and bake at 50 degrees for 6 to 12 hours (sprinkled with a little salt).
They are about 1 1/2 hours into the process at the moment - talk about technology, take a photo, download it and then immediately upload it and hey presto a morning in the life of Lesley and Brent! Thought I better give a shot of the front "garden" as well, tho the herbs are a bit over shadowed by the rhubarb!
Once again we planted a few Swan plants to encourage the Monarchs into the garden. I think Nan enjoys them as much as Ethan. One crysalis came adrift and so we rescued it and had it inside. Much to our delight it survived and when we arrived home from work on Tuesday it was sitting on the kitchen bench. A quick walk outside to transfer it to the garden followed and here it is!
Not the best photo but you get the idea.
A few flexes of its wings and the next day it had flown the garden - hopefully to surviving to produce a few more beauties!
A couple of months ago we decided that with power increases forecast, power outages becoming a bit more regular around the country and the opportunity of free (if somewhat energy sapping!) firewood available from Dee and Duds it would make good sense to get a free standing fireplace. This one has the added bonus of being able to cook on it ... so bring on the blackouts, we'll be warm and fed. If we can get past the puppies that is! When we had it installed and certified we had to have a trial run even though it was the middle of summer and the girls decided they were very happy!
And Mumbles tried out and purchased several locally made vegetarian cheeses... YUM! We also found a stall selling beautiful local Olive oil for a very good price so Carly and Mum negotiated a bulk deal and got two litres each. We'll probably regret not buying more.
Well if you have to get stuck in a traffic jam you could hardly ask for a better view than the Manawatu Gorge. The line of traffic was about a kilometre or two heading off round the corner so we figured we were in for a long wait but surprisingly once we got moving after about 5 minutes we went straight through. It may have had something to do with the fact that it was about 4 o'clock and the workers were heading off home!
So we continued our merry way to Napier and parked the bus, put the billy on and watched everyone else putting up their tents... with a quiet smile on our faces. And on Saturday morning when we woke to rain and the news that one of our parties tent had become a swimming pool overnight we were even happier to stay warm and dry in "The Bus". Carly and Kate while a wee bit cramped in their tent, managed to also stay warm and dry over night, however they chose to join us in the bus for drinks, food, warmth and conversation.
After a hearty breakfast at Kaieto Cafe on the Forgotten World Highway, Stratford, the bikers headed in to Whangamomona for the big day!
The township really gears up for the day with passports required for all visitors and a market day atmosphere! The weather came to the party and it was so hot that the tarseal melted on the road, to the point that several jandal wearers became separated from the base of their jandals. An abstract art piece was made of the left behind thongs... sorry no photo. 
