A Great Spring
Although today is very patchy …. nice sunny spells, but broken by heavy rain squalls, thankfully quite short …. we have had some lovely days, with temps as high as 20 deg C.
And Iris has thoroughly enjoyed her garden time. Our spuds are well up, and now she has 7 rows in the upper garden. The lower garden has carrots, parsnips 3 types of onions, beetroot, 2 types of lettuce and lots of radishes. She mixes radish seeds with the others, and they come up so quickly they delineate the rows. And germination has been really quick, and the weather covers are long removed.
Garden up and covered with bird netting
Old “Spotty”, one of our resident blackbirds, and an old friend
“Spotty” seeing off a rival male. We think this young male is actually one of
Spottys hatchlings from last year.
Spring time is when we really see blackbirds defending their territory,
and especially in this case a good food source … Iris putting food out for them
Birds
Now the problem is birds monstering the young plants. So the rows of seeds are covered with “tunnels” of bird netting. Quite a fiddly job, and after it was all done I had a head smack moment. We should have bought some of the bird netting the vineyards use for bird control. Easy to fit, as now both upper and lower vegetable gardens have heavy timber low boundary walls. Bit late now …. but next year !!.
Friends
Even though we shout at them when they get into the garden many are old friends. “Spotty” the male blackbird has been here several years. When we first saw his distinctive white spot on the back, we thought they were just a couple of damaged feathers. But no, they are there all the time, regrowing after each moult. So a genetic modification.
The cage he’s on is our cat cage. She gets locked up each night, and also whenever there are young silly birds around. Although Kit is so laid back the black birds will go into her cage through the netting, and steal from her bowl, often with Kit just a half metre or so away,
Lunch
Iris enjoying lunch in spring sunshine
Native Pigeon lunching on Kowhai leaves outside our kitchen window.
I arrived on Stewart Island in 1969 as Forest Ranger. Since then I've fished commercially both in Fiordland and around Stewart Island then skippered our charter yacht in the same waters, and also down into the Southern Ocean. More recently we now have "Sails Ashore" B&B, and I also guide our guests and others on Ulva Island, introducing them to the natural world of Stewart island