How will my garden grow? Fabulously!

September 29, 2008:

Sorry about the absence of updates but with a limited number of megabytes I can use we have to watch our internet browsing. Last week Gordon was on night shift which left me to my own devices and staying up pretty late waiting for him to come home. I find it hard to sleep without him there and my own insecurities about staying home alone in the evening. The bonus was that I didn’t have to do any cooking! Whenever Gordon goes on night shift I get to go basic and have a sandwich, some soup, or leftovers. My foray into cooking has been going great. I find that the simpler the recipe, the better I am at it. It also saves us money on groceries, bonus! So thank you to Aunt Diane for telling me about kraftfoods.com.

Since Gordon had the day free all last week, we were able to go into town as well. We merged his account at the bank into a joint account. We also looked at used cars to get an automatic so that I would be able to drive around. It turns out that the finance company had charged him too much one month and they reimbursed him as well as told him that his loan was paid off. So we were free to get a car. We looked at many options, all of them with at least four doors. We had to go to a used car lot because new cars out here are expensive, even the used ones! For a used Toyota car I saw a sticker price of $18,000 (NZ) and that was after the guy had put in the trade-in price. We were able to find something that was economical as well as family friendly and it has enough space in the back for Gordon’s golf clubs. We ended up with a Nissan Primera which is a type of station wagon out here. The only fault is that it’s black but I really like our new car. I’ve even done some driving; Gordon says I drive wonderfully. I drove the car home and found that I kept leaning to the left and thought maybe the car needed an alignment. Gordon told me that the slopes of the roads are made so that if something happens you lean to the left, their side of the road. I’ve done a couple of trips since then and seem to be doing fine. I still get a bit nervous but that will ease with time.

We also started creating our veggie. It’s about five by two meters and at the back of the yard. I can’t wait until I can start on my flower garden. That reminds me, we were playing golf on Monday and while Gordon took a shot I was looking at a couple of cherry blossom trees. The trees were literally humming from having so many bees in them, I guess that means warm weather is not far off. Anyways, we’ve dug out the grass, laid down the weed mat and are now breaking up the grass clumps to use as bottom soil. Our compost is coming along nicely as well. I turn it every now and again to get it nice and earthy. At first I was putting our leftover ashes into the compost as well but that doesn’t seem to be helping so I just put them in the trash. If anyone knows of any garden use for ashes please let me know because we have tons due to the fireplace each night. I’ve seen so many flowers that I would love to plant and some that remind me of home. There are Livingston daisies, purple daisies, zinnias, marigolds, dahlias, cone flowers, poppies, cosmos...the list is endless and they would make such pretty additions to my garden. We’ll probably get a couple of ornamental grasses to add a bit of different color as well. I’m also looking at one rose bush and maybe an azalea tree because they are so beautiful and bushy. I have little containers ready to go to grow my seedlings. I’ve taken my old yogurt cups and cartons and drilled holes into the bottom of them to allow for draining. They are the perfect size for growing seeds and bulbs and a great way to start my growing green thumb.

It’s time to leave now. I have the in-laws coming in today and there are a couple of errands that need to be done before they arrive. Good news, I got an email from my shipping company and my stuff will be arriving in New Zealand on October 17th. It will take a maximum of two weeks to get here but hopefully it’ll be here sooner. I hope there are no problems with customs. I’ve also started reading again, the new Eragon book, Brisingr. Let’s hope Eragon is a lot less whiney in this third book then he was in the second. Take to y’all later and love you bunches!