Two weeks til WINTER

I think the weather gods need a wee reminder that it's too early for snow.  Noodle and I just came back from a drive to Arrowtown in the mighty Nissan Skyline, and I couldn't get over how much snow there is on the mountains.  Coronet Peak is due to open for the ski season on June 4 - there's probably almost enough snow up there to get underway today. The weather forecast is for more bitterly cold winds and snow down to low levels late this afternoon. 

Looking on the bright side though - what better excuse could there be for a Pinot in front of the fire?

As Noodle and I headed off on our trip we stopped to check the letterbox just on the offchance there was something for us.  The Boss and I don't normally have mail delivered here, as we have a Post Office box in town, but every now and again something arrives in the letterbox on the corner with our names on it.  Today was one of those days - YEAH!  Ironically it was a postcard from Fiji - full of news of sunshine and beaches - just what I needed today to read about while wearing my woolly hat (thanks Imogen & Si).  It seemed weird to think of them living in their tent while we're busy battening down the hatches and fretting over how damp the firewood still feels.

As part of our pre-winter preparations The Boss has put a light up in the chookhouse - partially because I've been feeding them by torchlight for the past fortnight, but mainly to try to encourage the ladies to keep laying.  I read somewhere that chooks need at least 12 hours a day of sunlight to feel the urge to lay an egg, at the moment we'd be lucky if we're getting more than nine or ten daylight hours, and the days will continue to grow shorter.

This cunning plan appears to be working as the egg count has gone from one or two (if I'm lucky), up to today's tally of three. They're good sized, lovely looking eggs - perfect for my budding "eggs for wine" trading scheme.   My mission for this afternoon requires a couple of eggs as I'm making a lemon polenta cake to be enjoyed with a wee bottle of late harvest riesling.  I think the recipe is on my "Recipes" page, if not I will post it as this is a cake that scores five gold stars on my rating scale.

Darn, Noodle is barking her head off about something - either Pinecone has eaten all her food again (I have no idea why they've become friends but it's very funny), or else one of the winery dogs has taken a bloody shortcut up our driveway just to torment her.

What I've learnt lately;
1. The three Barred Rock teenage roos seem to have been getting 'Leg Over' instructions from Prince Charming, it's definitely time for them to say hello to our freezer.
2. Since we've finished picking for the season, the piggles have been given the run of the hillblock in The Vineyard.I was surprised to hear that three of them were so contented sleeping in their house that they couldn't even be bothered going to explore.