A full day of outside activities with a climb to the top of the ridge west of the house.

A full day of outside activities with a climb to the top of the ridge west of the house.

I had a trip to take the gas bottle to Bryony and Mark so quickly… or at least I tried to put together a letter card with a collage front with a tui and then wrote a poem about the tui talking all day, not sure what they say.

I think of you as I see the tuis, who talk and talk all day

I don’t know what they talk about but they have plenty to say

I would like to say how “I love you” and look forward to a visit one day

but till then I want to tell you that I’m okay, where I stay.

We walk and work in the outdoors but find it hard to play

so reading is good, making things and writing a little each day.

It’s cooler now but the sun does shine when we go out doors each day

I put a hat on my head and warm clothes to wear so I can be warm today.

I picked the last of the horse mushrooms for the season I think then collected more pine needles filling 6 bags that filled the boot of the Suzuki. A great resource from the recent winds to put around the blue berries and keep some for the smoker.

We had a plan for an early lunch before heading up the ridge to the west of the house to get to the top and remove gorse and spray their stumps, so we used a squeezy bottle that had been filled with window cleaner ( I hurriedly cleaned the inside car windows and a couple inside the house).

We headed up with packs and secateurs, components to spray the gorse stumps which we worked on cutting. It was a over 3 hours from the time we arrived at the top to our arrival at the house. A great place to be is at the top looking down into the valley.. great views as we headed up too. I took lure and gas to work on the good nature traps on the ridge. ( I found 6 of the 7). Fish and chips would be nice now but with the fresh tomatoes I collected yesterday I made a vege mixture and cooked chipped potatoes using an Alison Holst recipe. Now time to eat…