Posts by Geoff Lealand
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Geoff: For some reason I can't imagine you in the Waikato.
No imagination is needed as I am perfectly happy here. One of these days I intend to write a spirited defence of Hamilton and the Waikato, to challenge the misconceptions and cheap shots but not today. But, my office is close to where Michael King wrote his much-lauded Penguin History of New Zealand and Peter Wells wrote his most recent novel.
How many grape varieties was that again?
Not so much gazillions of wine varieties as gazillions of graftings of various varieties (Gewurtz Traminer, Pinot Noir, Thompson's Seedless etc etc)
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Who said anything about smoking round my tomatoes, Geoff??
Not smoking toms, or anything else.
And how the bejabers do you lot know so much about gardening?
Well, my explanation is that, in an earlier guise, I did a DipHort at Massey and worked for the Dept of Horticulture for a couple of years, but decided I wanted to grow things as a interest, rather than an occupation. I was awfully bad with machinery too but did love driving tractors. One very useful thing I did was graft gazillions of grape varieties on to virus-indexed stock, as my contribution to the NZ wine industry.
Now appreciate the benefits of gardening on the rich loam, river terraces in the Waikato. -
I hated military training at school and would avoid it at all costs (but somehow was placed in the 'Non-commissioned Officer's Training Corp). Amongst the useless things we were taught was how to assemble and fire a Bren gun. Just imagine--a callow 13 year old weedy schoolboy in South Taranaki firing a machine gun with live ammunition! It generated a life-long distaste of all things military.
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gotta say Ryall on the telly tonight, made me rather angry (chatting with an interviewer in a matching suit)
When did he become 'Acting Minister of Education' (suggesting he is only pretending to be a minister?).
What is it with those guy and their mis-matched striped suits and shirts and clashing ties? Are they colour-blind?
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A conversation about gardening--now there's a good idea. In respect of tomatoes, I tend to avoid the 'heritage' varieties which have become fashionable as they are too prone to virus infection (there is a readily-transmitted lurge called Tobacco Mosaic virus--when I worked in glasshouse cultivation, we were advised to avoid smoking--especially rollies). A good old standard such as Moneymaker, Russian Red or Scoresby Dwarf are the best bet, along with the Sweet 100 variations).
I am going to try endamame (baby soya beans) again this summer as I didn't have great luck last year. But I did have my first flower on the pink peony, which was transported north from Napier earlier this year.
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Great stuff, Jackie!
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Liked your piece on biking in the latest Red Bulletin, Russell. At least I now read one page before I toss it in the recycling bin ;-)
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Thanks, Joe. Excellent information. I remember Truth used to go on a lot about cases of 'carnal knowledge', which as a schoolboy I was pretty ignorant about., even though they sounded enthralling. It did visit my school (Hawera High) in pursuit of a scandal once but about what I do not know (something behind the bike sheds?).
As I grew older and wiser, we used to refer to it as (Anything But the) Truth
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You are thinking of omelettes; yellow, flat things which keep plates stabilised on a table.
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.... and here's your hat ;-)