Pillage, Protection and Pretty Birds

You remember the 6 sweet potato plants I put in last week?  They were all quite lush and leafy even though they were only young.  Hmm, yes, well.....

We have been pillaged and plundered overnight, the culprit leaving a telltale footprint in the soil.  Bad, naughty kangaroos!  They have gobbled nearly all the leaves off each and every plant!  Living in harmony with nature is something we are getting used to, wildlife is just, you know, here, unlike city living where you rarely see much more than a fly.  On a positive note, I am grateful that they haven't ripped all the plants out of the ground and have left the stems and roots intact, so the plants will recover I think.

 

Steve very kindly did some plant protection work whilst I was having a lovely afternoon nap (hard life eh), and he has installed a wire fence.  Whether they effortlessly leap over it and continue on with the sweet potato massacre tonight remains to be seen! 

On a pretty bird note, I am thrilled to be seeing these spectacular birds again.  He is a scarlet robin, isn't he gorgeous!  This one is beating to death an unfortunate caterpillar.  They are a bird that know their own beauty, and sit on fence posts and tree branches proudly, posing for photographs.

And a follow-on from last post, here are my seedlings coming up, exciting eh!  They have sprouted very quickly, only after about 8 days, and I think everything is starting to come up except the coriander.  The line in the middle of the photo is beetroot, can you see the red stems?  Top right is spinach, and left of the beetroot is red lettuce.  The other random seedlings are no doubt weeds :-)  New life is wonderful, and hopefully these are planted close enough to the shed to keep the kangaroos just a bit too nervous about settling down for a snack.