Another week has just zoomed by, so what's new at Dean's Nursery? Well, for a start the place has now taken on a totally different appearance. The beautiful flowering cherry blossom has almost entirely disappeared, to be replaced by a fresh new green, and in the paddock the wildflowers are beginning to bloom and already look absolutely stunning - I've taken a few pictures but will take more over the next few weeks as it really does seem to change every day. But, it hasn't warmed up yet! The mornings have been chilly in the shed - in fact yesterday Susie was so amused at the sight of Su & I wrapped up in our woolly hats, me with a hot water bottle on my lap, that she had to take some photos, which she's kindly given me for the blog. It really is an indication that spring has only just begun, and over the last few mornings the mountains have had a fresh covering of snow, and poor Shadowfax has had to be de-iced again - we have thought more than once about buying her a blanket…. But while it remains cold in the shed until mid-morning, once outside you can feel the heat in the sun and we love our breaktimes when we can sit outside on a picnic table, in a little suntrap by the shed, surrounded by the beautiful scent of flowers, with a steaming cuppa to thaw our hands, nibbling on our food including some delicious date slices that Su made last weekend, and some lime muffins that Susie brought out for us, while flicking through various food and gardening magazines and throwing our teabags and fruit skins onto the garden (with permission) to decompose. Lovely.

Also this week we have started to feel as though we are part of a museum, or an exhibit on a wine tour. Dean's Nursery currently has its spring sale on (so for any locals reading - now's the time to buy!) and Susie's wonderful new homemade sale sign has done its job, bringing in many people, while the cold and occasional icy rain has pushed people towards the shed for shelter while looking for advice, etc. Once in the shed, "oh, what's going on here?". And then we tell them what we're doing and why, and people are absolutely fascinated. I've lost count of how many demonstrations I've done this week of how to graft a vine, and we've told Jamie & Susie more than once that they should tell groups running Nelson wine tours to pop in at this time of year. Anyway, it's been so popular that we've done a little step-by-step of the process of grafting for our picture album, just in case you're interested….

And what of our weekends? Well, last weekend was really lovely - we had quite a chilled one as the weather wasn't great so not worth a long walk, and we pottered merrily instead. A little visit to Nelson to join another library, Su did some baking (just for a change), we had a fabulous evening at Ann & Bob's, munching pizza, sipping wine and watching the finale of Doctor Who. And on Sunday we popped up the coast to Motueka and found a beautiful little area to sit in the sun and eat our lunch, and then have a little stroll up the coast. And we feel it was a gem of a find, barely mentioned in the guidebooks of this area - in fact a local told us not to tell everybody… Sorry! We stopped firstly at the Saltwater Baths - a swimming pool in the sea, about which we made nice noises while deciding a few more months would be needed before diving in! And then we wandered along the foreshore, just as the sun decided to join us, and gazed out over the aquamarine blue of Tasman Bay, to Nelson and the Sounds in the distance, and to the Motueka sandspit which stretches out into the sea, a white strip of sand contrasting with the blue of the sea. Quite a beautiful sight. The walk passed an area known as The Kumaras, an important area for Maori food gathering, and finally reached the landing point for the first European settlers in this area. It was also a wonderful area for birds, and as we reached the river estuary at the end of the walk we were treated to the sight of 7 Royal Spoonbills, huddled together in the wind, a gannet and two Caspian Terns diving for food, and 2 magnificent Harrier Hawks circling above the trees. It was a perfect Sunday afternoon stroll.

The drive from Mapua to Motueka is another gorgeous drive, along a different part of the coastal highway, which I mentioned in last week's blog. But one thing I should mention to give you a full picture of this gorgeous drive, is the one thing that can spoil it - tailgaters! We've come across them quite often in New Zealand, the other place that was particularly bad being Coromandel, but likewise, this road is bad for locals who obviously know the area well, driving right up your a**e and often overtaking at completely inappropriate moments. And as a result there are numerous accidents, including the one on the first night we were at Ann & Bob's when a young lad crashed his car into their perimeter fence while reaching for his mobile (lucky for him the fence was secured with a solid wooden post in concrete otherwise he would have plummeted down the steep drop the other side with a much worse outcome). And how do we know about the number of accidents? Well, as with all places with a small population in NZ, there is a volunteer fire service here and whenever they are needed we hear the mournful, sorrowful wailing of the siren calling the volunteers to come and cut yet another idiot out of their car (as well as legitimate fires of course!) both here at the Mapua station and at work from the Appleby station. The sound is haunting and always makes my stomach lurch a little. Anyway, Dad, please don't worry, we are quite sensible and if we get an idiot up our a**e, we generally pull over as soon as we can, to watch them drive right up the a**e of the car in front… and so it continues. Sadly, Su won't let me write BACK OFF SMALL D**K in large letters on the back of Shadowfax!

Anyway, on that note, we are off to enjoy our weekend!

Lots of love, Jo & Su, xxx