Haiku for Covid Lock down

Rain pours,Iron roof

Covid lock down made bearable

Inside a warm Book

 

Haiku for Saturday Morning

                                             Magpies's soft murmur

                                               Rolls forth into joyful song

                                                Lights the dark grey morn 

Wet Weather & Another Covid Lock Down

Here we are in another Covid lock down and obliged to stay at home... The weather is quite conducive to being inside as it is very cold and very wet... the rain falling in lusty and enthusiastic showers ... the ducks just loving it as I watch them through the warm kitchen window frolicking  in our pond, making ducklings... which will be hatched in the hollow of the Sugargum tree by the gate...I hope this year that there will be more than three of them that survived last year...

My friends think that I have acquired a number of very useful males around me who will perform those jobs so necessary to keep a place going.....Kym our gardener-handyman, Kevin our builder-carpenter and fixer of roof leaks...Trevor our erstwhile share farmer now our firewood supplier and lately Gordon, my son and heir who is very handy with a chainsaw and fixer of old machinery ....the tractor used to run on kerosene and is his pride and joy having been able to prod it into life after 30 years in my shed..it now runs on unleaded fuel...and is 79 years old....

Last week during one of our huge winter storms a Lhemanii was split in two and half fell on the fence.

Yesterday was the first dry day we have had in weeks (it seems that way) so we decided to cut up the two trunks and clear away all the branches as well.This tree produces a lot of heavy seed pods which are also excellent to burn in the fire as they stay as hot coals  and enable you to re-start the fire in the morning.

 So there is quite a box full of them. The seed pods come after a beautiful round flower of a lime green colour. When they finish the pod has lovely red finger- like spikes which were at one stage used to make attractive necklaces when threaded on cords.

They were all the rage in the 1970ies.....

Showering with Scolopendromorpha or Bark Centipede

So, stepping into the shower this morning and adjusting the hot water and getting thoroughly soaped, I happened to look down and there, shock horror, was what I call a Chinese Dragon. It seemed glued to the corner and keeping a close eye on it after that, finished my ablutions...

It is a Bark centipede with a very vicious bite and looking it up it belongs to the Scolopendromorpha group and is found all over the world in different colours...Later I removed it by my usual method of putting a plastic food container over it and then sliding a sturdy piece of cardboard under it and encouraging it to move onto that. Then it gets carried out to the garden and released to do its duty there by eating other bugs.

The other creature I had to deal with this week a few

days ago, was a Shag sitting by the pond with the Wood ducks and eyeing off

the Goldfish, which are already being reduced in

number by the White faced Heron.

It did get the message it wasn't

 welcome and has not been back since I last told it to go elsewhere ...

 And so life in the garden is romping ahead with the little white snails ( where do they suddenly come from??) eating the cabbages , slugs in the silverbeet, and an unidentifiable bug eating huge holes in everything except weeds....

 

Not an Haiku this Time....

Listen to the Magpie's song

So early in the morning

Waking up the world with song

So early in the morning

Greeting with such massive joy

The blessed day with trees so tall

so early in the morning

Showing us a different way

So early in the morning

Of joy and life and such delight 

As sunrise in the morning

The sky is red and pink and blue

So early in the morning

And I will go the whole day through

 Heart ablaze with Magpie song

So early in the morning....

 

A True Garden of Eden...a Snake and Apples

This morning we thought harvesting the Grannie Smith apples as well as the rest of the quinces, would be an excellent idea.

Kym was on the other side of the apple tree and I was just starting to lift the net up over the branches when I noticed part of a brown snake. For a moment I thought it was a left over from the snake I found entangled in the net at the beginning of the season.When Kym came to have a look we realized it was very much alive but totally tangled up in the net.

We could not see its little head so Kym uncovered as much as he could and severed its tail end from where it was sticking out of the net.

We got the net off the tree and dragged it well away. We could not disentangle the poor creature at all so we left it to make sure it really was dead.

We harvested the apples and left the little ones for the birds....when I started thinking about the whole situation it made me smile ....the snake did not say a word....

Later in the afternoon, I carefully cut the net away from the snake and it took some doing as it was tangled up right to its gills, though I don't think snakes have gills do they?

You can see the length of it, spread out on the net after I cut it free, it measured 41 inches which is 3feet 5inches or 104 cm. I gave it a christian burial by the Walnut tree.....

 The apples are stored in layers between newspapers in the bath ( I shower in the en suite so don't freak out, no need to stand upwind from me next time we meet...)

 The apples keep very well this way. The quinces I store in the fridge and they too, store quite well.

 The vegetable garden is starting to look presentable again, the seeds have all sprouted now, it did take nearly three weeks for some of the seeds to emerge, the onion tribe especially. The garlic though is doing brilliantly.

So far I can't say that burying a tin of sardines under a silverbeet plant has had dramatic effects on it...its control plant is further ahead ,I hate to admit...

Sequel to the Micro Bat rescue

It is some weeks now that I wrote about the little bat which found its way into our house.

After we rescued it I kept it safe in a dark shoe box for the day and when it was dark I had been told, it was the best time to let it go.

So come evening, I took it out and put it on the potting table under the Ash tree.

When I went to check it in the morning, to my horror it was still in the same place....

So I thought I would take photos of the poor little creature and as you can see it is quite detailed and you can see it's tiny little sharp feet.

I went to turn it over with my gloved hand( it is important to wear gloves when handling bats)when, with a shock I realized it was still alive as it wriggled when I touched it. So carefully I transported it to the rough bark of a Eucalyptus tree which has a Carob tree for company. So it was a lovely dark, sheltered place for it to hang out.

 It hung there all day and when I went to check on it the next morning it was gone....no bat body under the tree so I can only assume it recovered from its traumatic experience and went back to its clan...it is a Lesser long eared Bat, Nyelophilus geoffroyi

The grapevines have all turned a lovely autumn colour....winter is on its way......log fires...mulled wine.....good books....contentment....