Friday 8th January was another day of work, cherries and plums. It was a cool day and we were dressed in jeans when we went into Alexandra to pick up my daughter off the bus from Dunedin. She was staying with us for a couple of weeks.
Wyn worked on the Saturday but I took the day off. Laura and I went in to the Saturday market and later I caught up with some washing. In the evening Laura and I ended up watching a film on TV called ‘The Story of the Weeping Camel’. It was the story of a camel that failed to bond with its colt so it wasn’t feeding it. It was set in the Gobi Desert. It was that simple. It was an amazing film, one which has stayed with me in the weeks since then.
Sunday was our day off and a rainy morning. We slept in to after 10am, except for being woken by what we thought was a sprayer in the orchard beside us at about 8am. It turned out it was a helicopter, probably 20m away, hovering over the cherries to blow the rain off the fruit. It rained some more so it had to come back later. When I heard it later in the morning I had to dive outside to wind in the awning. In the afternoon we went for a drive to Conroys Dam nearby. We got there just before a southerly breeze arrived. The road was wet so we didn’t go far for fear of getting bogged – it was very soft. Later I took Suzi away to visit the dump station in Alexandra and to fill up with water at the orchard bore.
Monday was still cold with light rain on and off. We started late so it was an easy day.
Tuesday 12th was an even later start at 1pm. However with the weather settling down we had a full days work on Wednesday and Thursday and that’s been the way ever since.
On Friday 15th we finished at 4.30pm and got ourselves tidied up and headed up to Cromwell to my sister’s place. My other two sisters were there already, one from Blenheim and the other on holiday from South Korea. Plus with a niece and Laura it was a bit of a family reunion. It was a lovely evening in every way including the weather – calm and mild.
Saturday was more work and then Sunday was sleep-in day. It was a sunny warm morning – lovely. Early in the afternoon we set off in Suzi to get some water. The track to the bore was damp – there had been some irrigating going on. I managed to get Suzi bogged on the track – not my best effort. I had to ring the boss to get him to come and tow us out. He wasn’t very pleased – understandably. Somehow the afternoon passed with all this adventure – it was 5pm by the time we got to Alexandra so by the time we’d visited the supermarket our day was done.
