I have been in Vancouver from the past week with my Astrolabe hat on and this week I am multitasking between the two labels. However, do not worry, I have my Durvillea pinny in my bag.

We are off to a New Zealand Winegrowers Tasting, a trade event. Three sessions: trade, sommeliers and public. Then tomorrow we head back to Toronto for a similar event on Thursday.

I loved Vancouver. I had a day and a half off and did a fantastic walking tour through Gastown and Chinatown, biked and walked around Stanley Park, visited the Museum of Anthropology at UBC and Granville Island Markets. Jason and I meet Tim Pawsey for dinner and he took us to a terrific new generation Chinese restaurant in Chinatown called Bao Bei.

Tim is a wine writer whom we met in New Zealand for the first time last year.  It is always great to meet people and discover interesting places.We also visited Salt,  a cool wine bar in the fantastically named Blood Alley. We ended up at Boneta where we caught  up with the House Wine ladies.

Now I am home in Marlborough and it is raining and pouring. The garden badly needs it. Simon and I have been mushrooming and eating the product of our labours.  Autumn is advancing and the olives are beginning to turn coloured. I have booked dates at the olive mill for June.

I was so inspired by the public gardens of Vancouver and Toronto I have planted tulips. I have many plans for the garden over the coming months as we are having a wedding here next March. It is very exciting and a wonderful spur to planting. I want flowers, so dahlias and delphiniums are mycurrent focus. Daisies, salvias, and geraniums are also in my mind. It is such fun and I am looking forward to getting stuck in. However this week it is Perth and then home. Home sweet home.

It seems like such a long time ago that all the Forrest-Waghorn family were in Akaroa getting ready for Christmas. Even though it was a while ago we took some lovely photos down there so I thought I would share some with you all. There will also be some recipes to follow in the next few weeks.

We Waghorns have had a  very close link with Akaroa and Banks Peninsula since 1850 when our ancestors arrived on the Randolph from England. At the moment my Waghorn grandparents live in Akaroa, along with my dad Simon’s brother Hugh and his sister Sarah. Uncle Hugh along with his wife (our aunt!) Pip owns a few businesses in Akaroa.

The main one is Akaroa Dolphins , who provide nature cruises around Akaroa Harbour. Of course we would highly reccommend them if you are in the area! Who knows, you might get to enjoy a glass of one of our Astrolabe or Durvillea wines on board!

Hugh & Pip also have another business called Captain Hector’s that hires out kayaks and paddle-boats. We really like their logowhich features their cute dog Hector. Hugh has a good little vege garden going on out the back of the Akaroa Dolphins premises.

We sent out a few raiding parties to augment our summer meals.

Hugh has bought several electric bikes for visitors to Akaroa to enjoy. Libby and Arabella, along with our cousin Rose, took them for a test drive.

Libby on one of the electric bikes

They took them for a reasonably long run and found them really enjoyable. You don’t need to use the motor all the time, just when you need a little boost. They worked well even on some of the quite steep hills that surround the harbour. Libby & Bella even rode them up to the bach where Mum and I were preparing some food for Christmas and I had a go.

I really liked them and thought they would be great for commuting, especially somewhere hilly like Wellington. However, I’m too much of a scaredy-cat for cycling in Wellington yet so I’ll stick with the bus for now.

One place in Akaroa that we hadn’t been before was The Giant’s House. It is a lovely old house and garden filled with amazing sculpture and mosaic. Here are a few photos of us there:

Arabella at The Giant's House

Libby and Bella

The garden at The Giant's House, Akaroa

There are more photos of The Giant’s House and our Akaroa holiday on our Flickr page if you are interested!

-Meg

Firstly a word about the birthday. For me to have so many family and friends together and to have such a great night was overwhelming and fabulous. Also lots of silly dancing. To my girls (and Genevieve you get included here), my sister Nicki, Sophie, Aunt Maureen, Liz Morgan you are wonderful women who made it work and of course Vicky and Janet the ladies in the kitchen. Simon isn’t just a great winemaker he is also a good chap. We should celebrate more often.

So post events I have time work in the garden and Monday was a public holiday and I had a terrific day weeding and pottering in the vege garden. The tomatoes and broad beans are in flower, strawberries and raspberries are forming and weeds are flourishing. My main concern is to weed and mulch as we are away in November. In the flower garden the irises are glorious and roses beginning to bloom.

However roses are a constant challenge as I am determined not to spray. The roses look terrific at this time of year in the full flush of new leaves and blooms and then they succumb to disease. My current problem is scale.

On a suggestion from a friend I took the left over olive oil from the party and painted it on the stems with an old pastry brush. The results are fantastic. The scale has died and healthy systems have emerged. I am encouraged.

The young chickens are broody. I have lifted them each day but it is amazing how drugged they appear. They are completely passive and let me carry them about. I have checked out the chicken blogs and it would appear I need to get them off their warm, snug nesting box and lower their body temperature.

Tomorrow they we go into the more spartan isolation unit (aka dog run). However the other broody hen is Widow Twanky, our lady pheasant, who is living amonst the rhodenrodens and is currently sitting on 7 eggs. I shall leave her to fruitless task.

My latest project is to make seaweed soup for the garden. On Wednesday Simon and I headed down to Ward Beach and collected some Durvillea. Ward Beach is very beautiful and Durvillea flourishes there. I love stony South Island beaches. So we hauled some durvillea ashore, bundled it into the truck and headed home. I chopped it up into a half wine barrel and added some comfrey. Now it is steeping.