Spring in New Zealand seems to happen in a rush. One minute it's all daffs and snowdrops...
Extended family enjoying daffs in Christchurch's Botanic Gardens
...then in a week or two everything is in leaf, lawns need mowing, and you're turning on the irrigation. September in North Canterbury was certainly like that - warm and dry, but with enough winter moisture to get everything moving. Now it's raining - and very welcome too - but I know that means that shortly I'm going to have get the tractor out and start mowing the olives and truffles and orchard. Repeatedly. Perhaps I should get a new iPod in honour of the hours I'll be spending in warm leatherette seats. The old one is getting, well, old.
Meanwhile, a large digger has taken up residence down by our riverside well. It will soon (when the rain stops) excavate a deep trench to improve the water supply (this involves installing an 18m fabric sausage with a pipe and stone stiffener 4m below the surface) - then a new pump will go in to fling water up the hill and around the property. If all goes to plan, we'll have enough water for all crops, even in dry spells. This will be important to getting decent yields out of the truffieres. And it was only one truffle this year. June's visions of great truffle feasting were dashed by a plague of mice. This year, they're all going to die. And out fattest farm cat may be sent on holiday to the truffiere...
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