Well here we are just back from a lovely long holiday – five wonderful weeks to be precise – but it is good to be back.

Mrs Blackbird sitting happily on her nest in the eaves of Brian's terrace.

It is the longest holiday we have had and we certainly enjoyed the Northern Hemisphere summer weather. I have to say, drought or no drought, we were not upset to have missed the wet conditions here at home.

The only downside was missing the All Blacks’ matches; but we did get up to the minute text messages from family which was better than nothing.

Here at home it’s great to have all the signs of spring even if that does include unsettled weather.

The London Plane trees are just coming out in leaf and look great – making it easy to forget the myriad of problems they cause me during late summer and autumn.

The fruit trees are out in blossom – in fact all the trees on the property have that lovely spring look to them.

My grey teal ducks are nesting in their boxes and we’re looking forward to lots of ducklings.

This year there seem to be so many more birds than usual and many of them nesting quite close to our house. In fact just a metre or two from where I am sitting writing this piece, and up under the roof of our back terrace, is a very busy blackbird nest.

Mrs Blackbird is hovering at the moment with a beak full of worms just waiting for me to move away so she can feed her hungry chicks.

The autumn spreading of fertiliser is proving its worth as my pasture is very lush and growing in great fashion.

Of course I will need to keep an eye on the weeds and when the weather settles I will attack with a broadleaf spray. I hate spraying but I think this application is necessary to maintain good grass throughout the summer.

We experienced a strange power situation last week which I really brought home to me how reliant most rural folk are on a good power supply. Of course town folk are too but out in the country we feel a bit more isolated when the power is down.

We were sitting down to watch television recently when our lights went very dim.

They returned to normal a few minutes later and assuming it was a general situation, we never gave them another thought.

My wife woke later during the night to the sound of our wall oven beeping. On investigation we discovered ‘incorrect mains connection’ displayed on the front of the oven.

We turned if off at the wall and the next morning phoned our friendly electrician with a cry for help. Gus was here in a few minutes and set about finding the problem.

After dismantling the oven, testing the fuse box and the metre box, he found no such thing as an incorrect connection.

It was a mystery but we resumed normal power usage and carried on as usual. Gus did suggest we contact the maker’s repairman and after many phone calls we were able to do just that.

However the person we contacted suggested we wait for the fault to occur again and then ring him. Two days later our lights dimmed again and then became very bright. This was obviously more than just the oven we thought.

Gus returned next day and determined it was a power board problem. Faults were duly called and responded within the hour.

Eventually it turned out to be a fault with the roadside transformer which they soon remedied.

The low voltage caused by the fault however upset most of our electronic appliances. The oven, the heater, the television, the computers, the clocks, electric blankets, garage doors and the electronic gates.

It was a timely reminder to be prepared for anything and everything.

See you next month.

• Brian Neben publishes Rural Living, and during the weekends is an avid lifestyle farmer.