Wednesday 22 November 2017

Silky Stripy Munchers

My goodness, we hit November and suddenly everything is happening, November is certainly our busy month.  Things start growing like crazy, including weeds!  The ride-on mower, Helga, is dusted off and gets to work, we need to get firebreaks ready and comply with other fire safety regulations by December the 1st, and we've learned by experience that there is no point doing it too early as it all grows back and we have to do it again!  And suddenly everything need watering, so the bore has been reactivated and the small tank is filling up.  Thankfully we haven't had the problems of iron bacteria blocking up the submersible pump like last year....we know what to look for now and can deal with it chemically if necessary.

The orchard is a very interesting place when the temperature rises enough for the trees to leave dormancy, it always astounds me how leaves and blossom just appear from nowhere.  We have been busy trying to get all the trees under nets before the parrots start chewing off the young fruit, it getting harder to do each year as the trees get bigger, but they are nearly all done.  Here we have some tiny cherries, there are about 30 on the tree, more than last year's 8 ha ha, and hopefully we wont get any pesky little birds getting under the net and gobbling them up like last year.
 We have apricots.  All three varieties have a few fruit set, I hope they all make it to ripened so we can compare the taste of them.
 These are teeny tiny Bartlett pears.  The tree has gone bonkers and set far too many fruit and a few are starting to fall off now.  As long as we get a taste.
 These are Cox's Orange Pippin apples.  We also have Sundowners, Red Fuji and Bramleys all setting their fruit at present.
 This is the Granny Smith covered in blossom, the last of our apples.  This one is the main pollinator of the other apples so it's good that it is reliable.
 We have a decent amount of nectarines and peaches so far this year.  These are Angel peaches, a flat, donut, white fleshed peach that I hope will be productive.
 Last year our stone fruit was decimated by this dreadful fungal disease, Leaf Curl.  Unfortunately our climate is ideal for the disease to flourish and last year it was so severe that the trees defoliated about five times, thus leaving them no energy for fruit and we lost the lot.  This year I have been absolutely diligent, I sprayed with copper as much as I could without causing toxicity in the soil, and every other day I pulled off every diseased leaf I could see, before the whole thing got out of control.  We had quite a bit of leaf curl, but now the weather has warmed up we are past the danger time, and the trees seem to have recovered, albeit the odd distorted leaf here and there.  There is still fruit on the trees so we live in hope!
 The vegie patch has sprung to life too, the tiny zucchini seedlings that sat there for weeks hardly growing, have turned into monsters and are producing zucchini at an alarming rate!  The rhubarb that Steve divided and replanted has gone berserk, so we are never short of that.
 The dwarf beans are starting to produce, we are having our first meal of beans tonight, yum.  There are loads of tomato plants growing well, with the first tiny green fruits starting to appear.
 Finally, after five weeks of very hard work, Steve has finished the enclosed growing area and greenhouse.  The finale was us hauling a net over the entire 10 x 4 metre space, stretching it and securing it in place.  We are hoping (HOPING!!!) that this will be bird, rodent and cabbage white proof.
 Now the construction is finished, Steve has started planting out the beds.
 But the main reason for this enclosed growing area is for growing berries.  Like these beauties here, they are unripe blueberries.  Steve has planted five blueberry plants, four thornless blackberries, strawberries, a red currant and a white currant.
 All the plants seems to be growing well, we are a bit excited about the possibility of growing loads of berries and actually getting to eat them ourselves instead of the birds nicking them!
 Speaking of birds, there have been a few of these beauties around, the Red Tailed Black Cockatoo.  They sit up in the Marri and Jarrah trees scoffing the seeds within the gumnuts.  Beautiful, majestic creatures aren't they.
 My garden remains a profusion of little birds... Red Winged Fairy wrens, Splendid wrens, White Browed Scrub wrens, Fantails, Silvereyes, Western Spinebills and the occasional glimpse of Red Eared Firetails.  They have suddenly decided that the like the little birdbath I popped into the garden bed just outside the kitchen window, sothis is the sight that I am blessed with...

 The photo below has thrilled me no end this morning.  I have always been happy that I have created a garden that the birds now live in, and I have been hoping that they would also breed.  Well, this morning I could hear a lot of cheeping deep within a pittosporum, and upon quiet inspection I could see four (FOUR!!) baby Splendid wrens sitting huddled on a branch, while their parents frantically dashed around finding them insects to eat.  I managed to get a photo of the rear end of one, you can just see her open beak to the left, and her mum is the dark blob to the left of her.  I am so so happy that the birds have graced my garden with their progeny.
 And while all this wildlife stuff is happening, we made Neo an outdoor enclosure, accessed from the laundry door that we don't use.  It's about a metre wide and four metres long, and netted right up to the eaves.  We netted very carefully, not only so Neo cant get out, but also so nothing bigger than a bug can get in.  He has a chair to sit on and Steve added a shelf in the corner so he can get a view from higher up.
 He absolutely loves it, and spends most of the day out there now that the weather is pleasant.  He loves lying on the ledge in the sun, snoozing, but with one eye open on the little birds that flit around in the bushes just out of his reach.
 Here he is up on his tippy toes, watching the ground cover beyond the net intently.  That is because Voldemort the King Skink is lying in the ground cover, having a sun bath.  I think they stared at each other for about half an hour before it got boring.
 Look what I've got in a container in my kitchen, silkworms!  Some young lads were selling them at the Torbay market and I was so impressed with their enterprising business sense, the brilliant way they had set up their stall, and the enthusiastic way they talked about their silkworms and how they care for them, that I couldn't help but hand over $3 and bring home 20 tiny silkworms.  We have a mulberry tree so feeding them is not a problem.  They are absolute gutzes!  When I put the new leaves in the container every morning they set too gobbling them up, and if you put your ear close by you can hear them eating, it sounds like the snap, crackle and pop of milk on Rice Bubbles.  They are so pretty with their stripes, and if you stroke them gently you find that they are velvety soft. Most of them have just pupated now, so I'll need to cover the container so we don't have a house full of moths flapping about!
 I've been churning stuff out on the craft front.  This is a pile of thirty joey bag liners that I made for a local wildlife carer who is overrun with orphan joeys at present and was running short of bag liners.  She gave me a great big hug and showed me all her gorgeous joey babies so it was absolutely worth it.  :-)
In the background on the foam head and in the crochet bag is a Christmas present for a small person in the making, all will be revealed at a later date.
 I had a go at making a Christmas crocheted bauble, I was testing a pattern for a friend.
 I finished a dreamcatcher for a certain special young lady who is turning nine very soon.  She informed me her favourite colour is green so I hope she hasn't changed her mind!
 We are overrun with duck eggs at present so I had a go at making pasta with duck eggs.  Very nice, not much different to using chook eggs so it's good to know that's another way I can use them.
 Look at this gorgeous little joey, who I hope is a girl.  The markings on its head look a bit like a halo, so if its a she then her name just has to be Angel.  :-)  Her mum is Jane, so named as she is completely and utterly plain, with no markings at all.  Sadly Patience's joey Willy who I had photos of in the last blog post, disappeared about ten days ago.  Patience showed up as usual at our bedroom window for breakfast, but with a saggy, empty pouch.  We had a look around for him in case he was caught up in a fence, to no avail.  We just have to accept nature but it's still sad.  So we said goodbye to Willy in our hearts and look onwards to the three or four little darlings like this haloed one, and hope they stay safe and healthy.
Until next time xx

Wednesday 1 November 2017

Happy Little Flower

Is this not the happiest little flower you ever did see?  I swear that my photo is straight from the camera, it just so happened that the angle of the flower and the shadows created this lovely little bonneted smiley face.  It tickled me no end.
 The other flowers that are making me very happy are these beautiful irises.  They are probably my favourite flower, I love the colour so much.  My friend Ellen gave me a heap of spare bulbs that she dug up from her garden and I planted them a couple of months ago.  I think there are 7 flowering at the moment which is very very good.
 These are Western Rosellas, we don't see them that often, they are very shy.  I thought there was a small wren in the foreground of the photo too, but upon zooming in I discovered that that dark shape is in fact three pieces of giant kangaroo poo ha ha
 Mum and dad came down for a four day visit, it was lovely to see you.  While dad had a nap, mum and I went and had a look at Shelley Beach Lookout.  Always beautiful and this day was no exception.
 Then we drove around the cliff and down to the beach for a walk.  We have always loved Shelley Beach, we used to bring our kids when they were tiny.  It has a marvellous freshwater stream that runs across the beach...great for rinsing sandy little bodies.  I imagine the fresh drinking water helps create a fantastic ecosystem for many species.
 Here's mum having a rest on a convenient rock at the end of the beach.
 Steve continues his great work, this is the new growing area he's created just up from the orchard.  What was only a few weeks ago a weed ridden, overgrown piece of ground is all dug over, paths created, fencing almost finished and the greenhouse built.
 And from the other direction.  We still have to put a net over the top, that will be the last job.
 Little lettuce plants are growing happily in the warmth of the greenhouse.
 Here's a comparison.  These three tomato plants are growing in the greenhouse, watering can for size comparison.
 And these two tomato plants are growing in the open, planted at the same time.  Look at the difference in size!
 Today was an exciting day, we planted five blueberry plants and four thornless blackberry plants, and popped in a dozen strawberry plants along the edge.   Oh my goodness, it will be so exciting to grow a decent number of berries and not have the birds nick them all!  :-)
 The chickens are fascinated with the goings on.  They can't get into the new growing area but hang around, as Steve throws them any bugs he finds as he's digging.  The best bugs are a large beetle larvae, they look like witchety grubs and the chickens go ballistic over them, the lucky chook will grab the grub and take off at a rate of knots, with the others chickens in hot pursuit! The chicken on the right, now named Houdini, is the same feathered friend I mentioned in the last blog, the one that has taken to wandering.  Well, she has become extremely naughty and escapes all the time!  We are finding her all over the place, and within minutes of us putting her back, she's out again.  I think she's realised that the fences hold no bounds for her, I'm surprised her colleagues haven't followed suit actually.  We are now getting four chook eggs and two duck eggs every day, amazing. 
 "Please can I have some breakfast", says Patience with Willy enpouch, every morning she waits hopefully.  She wins us over with her beautiful face.
 Willy is out of the pouch more and more.  Patience is very protective of him and keeps to herself, so the other roos don't come too close to her precious baby.  Interestingly, Ben, the alpha male, is very caring of the joeys, he doesn't seem to mind them at all.
 I love this photo of Patience, she really is the most beautiful girl.
 My crochet hook is still clattering along.  I made the Meandering Pawprints scarf for my neighbour Claire as a present.  I'm rather pleased with how it turned out.  If you are interested in the free pattern, it's here - http://amysastitchatatime.blogspot.com.au/2017/01/meandering-paw-prints-free-scarf-pattern.html
 My newest project is one I've been coveting for a while.  I made myself wait until I'd finished all sorts of other projects for this one, it's called the Lost In Time shawl.  I bought this delectable, gradient yarn called Blueberry BamBam, what a great name hey, produced by Scheepjes.  So the top of the shawl with be cream and it will gradually change to grey then to light then mid then dark blue.  I've got a long way to go and it requires concentration but it's so enjoyable, particularly using a very special yarn. 
Right, I think that's my lot.  Until next time xx