I'm guessing the chickens have been enjoying the concrete dust on our driveway. The eggs have been arriving unusually rough since! We've had an awful lot of rain lately, so the farm has bought a huge heap more of it to spread out around the farm. We've had to put that on hold for a bit; we can't get the tractors around to spread it out. Allan came round early this week to level off our driveway. In the dark, because we had more rain forecast. He levelled the driveway nicely. Unfortunately he also knocked out the support for one of the power cables, so we had some guys round to fix them back on. Fortunately, the cable survived.

Nine lambs and counting. They've all been born this week. We've been out three times a day to check on them, and Bronwyn has been delivering them and getting them to feed. We've got the shed and the back garden ready in case we need to bring one in. At this rate, that could be quite soon.

The National Brass Band contest in Wellington last week went well, apart from a couple of slipups in the first piece. We had warmed up for the rest, and we got first place for the march and third equal overall.

Had a very long journey down and back. It's about 9 hours driving. We went down in one day from 5am to about 3:30pm. Saw sunrise at about 7:30, by which time we were well south of Hamilton. Somehow we avoided the huge amount of rain that went past in the meantime, but we saw the floods on the way back. Fascinating to watch the landscape change along the route, past geothermal steam, the Rangipo desert and the rolling hills and plains. Stopped in Bulls for lunch. Lots of bull statues and bull jokes everywhere.

Bronwyn got to interview the Auckland mayor last week. He allowed her 20 minutes and required her list of questions in advance. I'm guessing he felt nervous. But it went really well, and it went on for 30 minutes. She's also had the chance to meet Chloe Swarbrick, the young maverick Green MP who turned out to be really interested and wanting to help in any way. She's also been round all the churches and cathedrals and various other places trying to get people talking to each other about the city centre issues. So far the socialists seem the keenest to talk.

I'm told it's warm in the UK. It's cold, wet and windy here. Need to get some more firewood in. And deal with the rat that wants to get in too. Woke us up at 4:30am yesterday!

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