It’s been a funny week. I guess it’s not that much of a surprise as Monday started with a 4am wake up call and we’ve never really caught ourselves up.
Anytime The Farmer’s beloved Chelsea and Liverpool FCs meet is special in our household, calling for the purchase of half-time savouries, crisps, and m&ms divided into bowls of red and blue. I always say its way too early for me to eat anything and always down at least two potato tops and feel slightly queasy for the rest of the day. Tradition is tradition. At the end of the day, only one team can win and by the time the Cup and Virgil’s Man of the Match trophy had been collected and we’d witnessed You’ll Never Walk Alone being sung (without sound…not quite sure what BeIN Sports problem was but we’re not impressed) it really wasn’t worth heading back to bed and thus the week began.
It’s a kind of calm-before-the-storm week; the sort that don’t really make for great blog posts but are nice to have every once in a while.
Although it was humdrum, we looked pretty good from the air.
This popped up on my facebook newsfeed (I’m resorting to tactics employed by “proper media” now and trawling social media) with the photographer asking which township in Canterbury was shaped like a star (I can’t find the post now – it’s disappeared into that place every thing I want to revisit later on facebook does – so I can’t credit the photographer). That little patch of green at the kind-of head of the kind-of arrow is The Homestead. Union Homestead, Starfield if you will.
In proper news, in that I actually witnessed and recorded it, is the fact that I finally started on untangling the herbs from the weeds
and that the peaches are not that far off being ready to harvest. Hopefully they don’t reach their zenith next week when all is predicted to be anything but calm.
Also worth noting is Miss Chip-chip, the wandering duck, has somehow persuaded the goats that, whilst the pigs have no time for her, she is worthy of her very own bowl in their paddock.
In the interest of clarity (and not fake news) it has to be said that this is the mop-up-the-crumbs stage, and all the big players having moved onto the replenished hay-feeder, but it still highlights her ducky strength of character and utter self belief.
But not everyone on The Homestead is that caring-and-sharing.
There was no way Babette was sharing that patch of sun!
Sure, it’s not the Carabao Cup but her fist-pump sure looks familiar.
Union Homestead 
Now that’s devotion to get up so early. And fish peaches! Be still my trembling heart.
The peaches are a very hardy variety and prolific producers and so are the foundation of our preserves: jam, chutney and relish,cordial and frozen for future hearty desserts. A bit of work but so worth it. As for getting up early to watch the team: it’s just all part of it when you live on the other side of the planet.
Should be “fresh.” Good old auto correct.
I guessed 😁
I hope your peaches will be juicy and sweet. A good peach is hard to beat.
They’re a hardy, reliable cropper; their arrival is very welcome by both us and the local possum and bird community. It’s always a frantic race once they reach that perfect point.
A warm ripe peach straight off the tree was one of the greatest pleasures of life on the rare occasions when we could get one. I hope that you save some from your competitors.
Hopefully we catch them at the perfect time. I hate having to strip the tree and ripening them off it; they’re never as nice. Life is busy though so I may, after losing the best part of our Nashi crop overnight, have to resort to it.
Arising at 4.00am to watch a sporting event! Oh, the insanity of it all! What has happened to Smarties? Do M&Ms completely dominate the market? The aerial photograph clearly demonstrates you have found a flat bit of New Zealand to settle. Australia is full of flat bits but New Zealand? I am wondering about the absence of netting (wildlife approved) given the competitors also eying off your prized fruit. Who will get there first? Oh, the tension! I hope you successfully weather the approaching week.
I agree: absolute insanity! No excuses,no defense. And, yes, Smarties don’t seem to get a look in anymore – at least not in our house. Very clever marketing,on reflection. NZ, geographically, has a little bit of everything; we’re situated on the Canterbury Plains. As for netting, it’s so sensible but I hate the fiddling around it involves so instead I up my stress levels with the yearly race to the fruit. Thanks for the good wishes.