Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Mr Puffer Fish
In Mapua near Nelson, there is a wonderful aquarium, down by the wharf. They have a great selection of NZ costal fish including some impressive stingrays and a big octopus. But Guy was most pleased to see the puffer fish. For a long time now he has been fascinated by puffer fish. He has a toy plastic one that glows in the dark, he has built a model puffer fish from paper mache, and he draws them often. He even pretends to be a puffer fish, (alternately with being a caterpillar or a deep sea diver).
Monday, June 07, 2010
New Year New Lawn
Visiting Christchurch and Nelson where everyone 
has nice lawns, (a combination of nice soil, nice weather), reminded us what a scurffy patch of mown weeds our single flat piece of ground was. So the decision was taken to lay down some ready lawn. this meant removing the hardpacked clay layer left from the excavations. With steps above and steps below, a wheel barrow was unusable so it was back to the fish bucket and chuckit method. The lawn was only 10m2 but needed excavating 100mm, so that was a cubic metre of earth to shift, armload at a time down steps. Then trailer load of Topsoil was deposited onthe footpath , and half a cubic metre was portered down from the road, along with half a cubic metre of sand (left over fromthe new creche sandpit project of last year) So in total 2 cubic metre of soil had to be moved , oh and then it rained, the rainest wettest summer in memory. The soil weight must have doubled. When ti dried out enough to rake level we went up to the grass farm and loaded the car up with 12 rolls of wet green grass. The Grass farm said make sure to water it well, being February now. They said a rotary sprinkler would be best, but we had something even more effective, a 4 year old in control of a hose!
has nice lawns, (a combination of nice soil, nice weather), reminded us what a scurffy patch of mown weeds our single flat piece of ground was. So the decision was taken to lay down some ready lawn. this meant removing the hardpacked clay layer left from the excavations. With steps above and steps below, a wheel barrow was unusable so it was back to the fish bucket and chuckit method. The lawn was only 10m2 but needed excavating 100mm, so that was a cubic metre of earth to shift, armload at a time down steps. Then trailer load of Topsoil was deposited onthe footpath , and half a cubic metre was portered down from the road, along with half a cubic metre of sand (left over fromthe new creche sandpit project of last year) So in total 2 cubic metre of soil had to be moved , oh and then it rained, the rainest wettest summer in memory. The soil weight must have doubled. When ti dried out enough to rake level we went up to the grass farm and loaded the car up with 12 rolls of wet green grass. The Grass farm said make sure to water it well, being February now. They said a rotary sprinkler would be best, but we had something even more effective, a 4 year old in control of a hose!So that was late January and most of February! But it sure looks good, should have done it ages ago.
Over the Hill to Nelson
From our campsite at Hamner it was over the Lewis pass to Nelson. Started the trip with a pie from the terrifc bakery in Hanmer. The storm that brought the sunset also brought heavy rain on the western side of the pass, but the road through the beech forest between the pass and Springs Junction was still beauthiful. Rain or shine it is one of the worlds great pieces of road, everyone should drive it once, and wonder what the world would be like if all roads could be lined with ancient trees . Sorry I was too busy driving to take a photo!
When we got to Nelson to saty with Ed & Lisa, the national model engineers convention was getting set up at the park. Here is Guy 'observing' the set up, and the next day enjoying one of the many live steam models.
