Blog
Weekly tales from The Outpost.
Making joy
The world is a lot right now, so I took some time to create some joy in it.
November in the garden
It’s full-steam ahead on all your fresh summer faves.
Four reasons to dig up your compost bin
When was the last time you lifted up your compost bin to see what it’s been up to?
Paper wasps in New Zealand
Polistes paper wasps are introduced pests in New Zealand gardens. Or are they?
Five things I did this week
It’s been an unexpectedly dry week, so we got some things done.
The berry house
We’ve finally planted our collection of cane berries into the ground!
Gran Shirley’s Sally Lunn
We’ve got too many potatoes so I’m looking for new ways to use them. Turns out, my Gran had a delicious way around a potato glut.
Let’s go fly a kite
It’s taken nearly 3 years but I realised that all our space and wind make a fantastic combination for kite flying, so I bought a kite.
Some faults on the fenceline
The storms last weekend brought down a couple of nīkau palms near our fence line. How did we sort this one out?
Max chicken
We’ve had a bit of a poultry shuffle. The ducks have found a better home, and we’ve gone max chicken!
The succulent garden
It’s been on my ‘to-do’ list for a while, but last week I finally created my succulent garden.
Growing past my biggest failure
Last year, my garlic crop failed big and hard. This year, I’m nervous and more subdued about planting again.
Spraying gorses
Gorse is an unfortunate reality of owning farmland in New Zealand. This week I got out and sprayed some.
The Smith sister’s boarding houses
Part four of my hunt for details of the lives of my great-great aunts, the Smith sisters.
The three wives of John William Lewis
In attempting to work out where he came from, I uncovered the life story of my great great grandfather, John William Lewis.
Citrus meringue pie
A light and deceptively simple dessert that can be made in a range of flavour combinations depending on what’s available and what sounds yum!
What’s in a name?
A guide to, and explanation of, the names we have given to places around our property.
Citrus update
A round-up of how our little collection of citrus is growing.
Serendipity
I know we all joke we’re two-degrees of separation from anyone else in New Zealand. But Richard and I have closer links to the land we live on than we could have imagined.
Coffee fruit!
The coffee trees have started fruiting!
Finding the ‘family stuff’
A sudden whim leads to an impressive collection of family history – and some new leads on the Smith sisters.
The banana plantation
An update on the patch of bananas we planted back in December 2019.