Mother's Little Helpers

As most of you know, we keep hens. Six brown shavers who have never been named - they're simply referred to as "the girls". I like to let them out of their run most days so they can have a peck around the lawn and garden at what ever takes their fancy.

They do make a mess scratching mulch away from where I've carefully put it and taking dust baths in the middle of some cherished plant. But I like that we rescued them from what would have been a life in a battery cage.

They live as hens should live. Bit of company, bit of sun, bit of dust - it isn't much to ask.

Snow at Whakamaru

Well - snow on the top of Kaahu really but it was a grand sight to wake up a couple of mornings back and see a sprinkle of snow on top of the hill out the back of us.



I realize this is a total non-event for most of you who trudge round up to your armpits in snow for half the year but, for us, this only happens about once a year.

We do have decent snow falls in many places in New Zealand but not in my back yard!

It had been a very crisp frost earlier but once the sun came out was beautiful. Winter is upon us.

Swans - we have swans!

At last the issue with my camera is sorted. If you want to read the whole story I made a Squidoo lens out of it which you'll find here at Cannot Detect Camera. (That is just my cunning ploy to give my newest lens its first link in! I have just under 30 lenses now under several different "names".)

The solution was as simple as buying a cheap memory card reader.

Anyway - the images finally got transferred.



There we have the mamma swan and her four babies. The father is just out of shot.



And another shot showing their more general setting. You can see that most of the ducks that arrived for the beginning of the duck shooting season have now moved on.

So we're back in business folks!

Can you imagine?

Can you imagine two black adult swans and their entourage of gray fluff balls?

Mmmm?

Well, you have to - because my computer and camera are still not talking to one another. I've given up fretting about it. I have so much going on at the moment that it seems like a waste of energy to worry about what's happening with the images. I'll sort it out "later".

So there was going to be an image of the swans and their 4 babies - but there isn't!

I've been following their progress for a few weeks because these babies have hatched WAY too late. We're going into winter and the rest of this season's ducks and swans down by the dam are indistinguishable from their parents. Not this lot.

Four little gray balls of fuzz bobbing along behind mom and dad swan. They appear to be thriving and although there are many extra beaks at the dam at present I have no concerns about feed running out. I see the adults lifting lake weed to the surface so that the little guys can bob their heads under and fish for bugs or weed or whatever they eat.

I'm sure they're going to do just fine.

The dam is a busy old place at the moment as duck shooting season started about a week ago and many out-of-towner ducks have arrived for a visit. It always amazes me how the first few arrivals start turning up before the hunting season has started. They some how seem to know that "that" time of the year has arrived. Every morning I'll see a few more ducks swimming about.

I have to confess that my images - the ones you can't see - aren't that great. Very distant. So perhaps you're better off with your imagination!

Okay you digital camera experts!

Tell me what I'm doing wrong. Please!!

It's most frustrating. My digital camera is refusing to download onto the computer. It is hoarding its images like a miser.

Normally, I just plug the camera (a Cannon) into the computer and hey presto a screen pops up in ZoomBrowser and I download the images.

Now, all I get is a polite message in ZoomBrowser saying "cannot detect camera"!

Does anyone have any idea what's going on? Ever run into this sort of thing before? Do I need to go to my local computer guy - or digital camera guy?

I have images - I will blog - but first we need to beat this camera into shape!

Anzac Day

It's Anzac Day here in New Zealand and I've spent much of the day watching remembrance services and documentaries on the Gallipoli campaign. It is a time for remembering our soldiers.

The poppy represents the fallen - it is, I believe, an allusion to the blood soaked fields in Europe during the first World War.


Photo courtesy of FreeFoto

Many thousands of New Zealand and Australian soldiers lost their lives on the beaches of Gallipoli during an ill fated landing in 1916. And many Turkish soldiers lost their lives in the campaign that followed.

After the battles were all ended, Turkish General Kamal Ataturk made this moving and gracious speech about our soldiers who had died there.

"You are heroes who spilled your blood and lost your lives.
You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.
So, rest in peace.
There is no difference to us between the Allied soldier and the Turkish soldier.
They lie side by side in this country of ours.
You, the mothers, You sent your sons from far away countries.
Wipe away your tears.
Your sons are now lying close to our hearts and are in peace.
They lost their lives on our land.
So they have become our sons as well."

Matai Bur

This matai bur resides in my garden and I love it. It's an honored guest. So much character in that knotted face.

You may know it as a bur, or a burr, or a burl. All are accepted spellings in various parts of the world of this type of knobbly overgrowth of wood.

The matai tree it came from would have been maybe 800 years old and we found the bur in an area where the native bush was logged about 40 years ago. It had been cut from the trunk when the log was milled and left lying on the ground as an unwanted waste product. How could anything so lovely been seen as waste? The area was then replanted in pine trees for timber and pulp where once again this fabulous matai burr was covered with scrub and blackberry until it was re-exposed when the pines were harvested. This time, the land is being converted to dairy farms.

So I'm happy to offer a home for this "old-timer" in my garden. He doesn't deserve to be buried or burnt or have cows poo on him!

The matai tree is a New Zealand native and can grow up to 25 meters tall and live for over 1000 years. A bur is usually the result of some injury where the tree responds by making too much growth. This one is about knee high and is the biggest we've ever seen.

Times have changed and now he is of value to people like wood turners. But he'll grace my garden with his wonderful presence until I shuffle off!

We have a number of matia burrs about the garden but this old man is our pride and joy.