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

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