A cucumber with a difference...

Kiwis seem to be obsessed with cucumbers. I had no idea that there was more than one type of cucumber until I arrived in Auckland. Supermarkets and green grocers usually stock three types of cucumbers at different times of the year - Lebanese cucumbers, telegraph cucumbers and this one, the apple cucumber. Will have to decide which one to grow in our garden...

Yes?

Home to Roost

Cock-a-doodle don't!

Our rooster-to-be has started to learn to crow. I thought it was the peacocks and peahens making a noise outside but he was later caught in the act. If he carries on, he'll have to move out of the garage and into the coop at the bottom of the garden....

Nursery Rhyme

I had a bit of a surprise on the way to the compost heap at the weekend when I came across this ENORMOUS spider. We'd seen the webs at the top of stalks of grass and trees but hadn't spotted one of their builders before.



A quick google and we found out that it was a nursery web spider, believed to have quite large and sharp fangs but fortunately they rarely bite.

Cuttings

I had a lovely time at the local gardening club yesterday afternoon and came back with my hands full of cuttings.

Now I have the challenge of raising a forest pansy and a rose-scented pelargonium - which actually smells of Turkish Delight...

Baking for the Gardening Club

I'm off to my first meeting of the local gardening club this afternoon. The invitation requests that we "take a plate" for afternoon tea and so I baked for the first time in a very long time.

Ginger biscuits were the order of the day, thanks to a recipe from Jennifer. So I lined up my local ingredients and got started - 12 oz of Edmonds self-raising flour (part of NZ's heritage since 1879), 10oz of caster sugar from Chelsea Wharf, 5 oz of Anchor margarine, 2 teaspoons of ginger, 1 tablespoon of golden syrup, from Chelsea again, and 1 free-range egg from the South Island...



Roll the mixture into a ball and top with a piece of date (not local, I'm afraid) or a slice of crystallised ginger...



Then it's about 15 minutes at 180 degrees...



And they should come out golden brown and nearly ready to eat...

Fish and Chip Friday

We decided to make our own fish and chips tonight. Lovely battered fillets of snapper (with the rest of the fish for stock) and hot and crispy chips. Mmm...

Pest Control II

The possum bait stations have been emptied out by the local marsupial menace. Unfortunately, there was collateral damage too with one poor rabbit expired on the drive.

We've been keeping an eye on the tunnels as well, which I baited with sardines. The expert opinion from Forest & Bird is that there are no mustelids - stoats, weasels or ferrets - but plenty of mice and a greedy hedgehog.



The tiny little dots are the mice prints and the big pawprints are our spiky little friend. Fortunately, Spiky poses only a small threat to native birds and insects and so there's no need for us to finish him off.

You can find a full range of footprints for comparison purposes here.

War on Weeds

Now that autumn has arrived, we've been busy tidying up the garden for winter. Some of the weeds that I've pulled from the beds have been as tall as the sapling pittosporums and all of them seem undeterred by the drought.

The worst weed by far has been the convolvulus which was starting to strangle some of the tree ferns.



Fortunately, the convolvulus has taken root in the mulched area at the edge of the lawn so it's been relatively easy to pull up. At times though it reminded me of a scene in The Hurt Locker when the bomb disposal expert pulled one wire to find it connected to half a dozen other incendiary devices, the wires snaking away through the dirt.



We filled nine biodegradable bags with weeds in just a few hours. Add a cup of water and put the bags in the dark and they should rot down and lose their potency.



And then there was a huge roll of bindweed which will have to go to the tip...



Some of the weeds were less objectionable though such as these star grasses (not sure of the real name) which I brought in with one of the ferns that was a victim of my fervent digging.

Surrounded!

This is what I found waiting for me at the front door one morning last week...

Sinister!

Autumn Colours II

Autumn Colours I

Just for Jennifer...

Anticipating Caipirinhas

A few weekends ago, we got busy planting our second fruit tree - a Bearss lime to complement our grapefruit tree, which arrived as a birthday tree - thank you!

Planting it was a rather complicated task. First, we had to dig out the hole and add some compost to improve the drainage compared with our clay soils and to introduce some nutrients. Next, we had to water the compost to ensure that the lime tree wouldn't die of thirst. But then we had to tamp down the soil to remove any air pockets which would allow mould and fungus to grow on the tree's roots.

It was finally time to pop the sapling in the ground but we hadn't finished... Before leaving it to grow, we had to fence the tree in to keep out the possums and deter the rabbits.

So you can hardly see the tree now but it seems to be flourishing...



It will be a little while before we can enjoy caipirinhas with our own limes but at least the Bearrs lime is an early fruiting variety.

Nesting Instinct III

A wasp's nest that we found whilst weeding...

Strange Fruit

I'd never seen fruit on a magnolia before and this grotesque example took me rather by surprise. I think I'll leave it to the birds...

Treasure or Trash

Here's two of my purchases from Trash Palace in February...

Feeding time

Some footage of our chicks from their first hour with us...

Easter Chicks

Having picked our chicks on Good Friday, we returned this morning to collect them. All six chicks have a Plymouth Barred Rock for a father. The two older chicks, about five weeks old, are from eggs laid by a frizzle hen. The four younger chicks are part-silkie.

Here they are in the carrying cage looking a bit bemused...



We deposited the more extrovert frizzle into the cage first. The chicks were sold unsexed but we're fairly sure from the size, stature and conduct of this one - plus his comb - that he's a rooster.



Here's the second frizzle with the other one. This chick has been playing mother hen to the younger silkies and so we're fairly certain she'll be producing eggs...



This is one of the silkies and probably another hen - look at the lovely soft colours of the feathers.



The biggest, boldest chick is a real attention-seeker. Here he is sat on my hand wanting strokes...

Jemima doing her chores

Hot Cross Buns

Waiting for Rain

We've had hardly any rain since early January now. Milk production is down by nearly 30% in Waikato, Kaikohe is running out of drinking water and kiwis are starving to death in Northland.

The South Island looked pretty dry too on my flight back from Christchurch tonight.



I'm just relieved that we have two very large tanks and didn't quite get round to establishing a vegetable garden and an orchard this summer.