Hiding from the World

Haha... love that title... !!!

Well, we are back home now and out of hiding.

It was a lovely break despite having no internet, no phone, no mains electricity, the gas oven packed up and only one hob ring and the grill working so at least I could make a cuppa tea to go with the bacon & eggs (and who needs anything more than that?).

The solar panels were working a treat, so we had tv, movies & music and lights, and Tony got the inverter connected up so that I could work on my laptop (offline). Have I mentioned how much I love my 'gadget freak' man, and he even labelled EVERYTHING to make it easier for me to use (even the remotes. He knows all about my love/hate relationship with remotes).

We took the bench picnic table down with us in the trailer. Here it is in its new place under the walnut tree and with the Mountain Ranges as a backdrop.

And looking back the other way towards the caravan, just before the rain came.

The following seven photos are views of the snowy topped (or sometimes cloud topped) Ruahine Ranges. All viewed from our paddocks on different days.

Snowdrops...... right beside the caravan.

And here are two views from our caravan door.

We had heard from friends in the village that one of our plum trees had not survived a storm a month or so ago, but on our arrival we discovered that a more recent storm had created even more havoc to some of our trees.

The plum trees around the shed will all have to be removed due to wind damage.

Good job Tony took his chain saws.

And the shed needed a new roof and side panels.

That was all in paddock number two.

Looking back across to paddock number one now, there are more plums and vines that didn't do too well in the storm and need to be removed as they are a safety hazard now (the shorter brown ones to the left of centre in the photo).

Luckily nothing had fallen on the water tank.

Plenty of free firewood for our friends and neighbours.

(that's my future 'house-site' btw)

Tony had planned to erect a fence along our 'paper road' boundary, but that idea had to be scrapped when we saw that three large blue gum trees had hit-the-deck right where the fence is meant to be. You can see, in the following photo, that there are still two tall gum trees standing on the very left (or should I say 'leaning precariously').

Villagers are collecting the precious windfall firewood of the blue gums that fell.

Standing in paddock number five, looking across to the river beyond the poplar trees.

There might not be much to these trees, but the sound of the wind rushing through them on 'fierce' days is incredible, and on quieter days, like today, you can listen to water babbling over the rocks.

I love those peaceful, tranquil, dreamy days.

I've walked down the road a little bit for the next shot.

The tree area on the left are in paddock one, the caravan and shed are in paddock two, the telegraph pole is in paddock three. Paddocks four and five are out of shot.

Tony got lots of wood chopped, and fixed the shed, and the bore water tank system (which had sprung a leak and wouldn't fill up). The fence will have to wait until our next visit.

I got loads (and I really mean LOADS) of work done on lots of my current projects (writing and fiber works).

It was a very productive two weeks.