Do You Hear That?

   

              Country Sounds.
   I sat and sewed on the deck in the shade
   The warm still air was filled with sounds
   The cicada orchestra played a common song
   Keruru took a solo turn close by
   Changing his diet from Miro to Puriri.

Close up view of Puriri berries ( Vitex lucens ) About the size of small cherries.

I have never seen so many berries on our trees. The native wood pigeon - " Keruru" gorges on them. (I'm  still trying to get a really good photo of one )

Still some Puriri  flowers too.

The cicadas are pests to us. They pee and sooty mould grows on the deposit.

 Which matters when it is on the Kiwifruit as sooty mould  is not allowed. 

Skins where the grubs have crawled from the soil (after as many as 7 years, depending on conditions ) and clung to anything they can find while they emerge as an adult Cicada.

Look closely there is an adult Cicada drying it's wings on the branch.

They are doubly insulting things cause they pee as they fly along and sometimes it lands on me!

( it must be the season for there to be abundant Puriri  and Miro berries and millions of Cicadas. In the South Island of NZ the red Rata trees are flowering better than they have in years ( partly the pest control  of the possums but partly the season )

My Choice.

Yesterday I worked all the given hours. I mowed and dug and weeded and planted. I achieved some neatness and tidyness around the garden that pleases me. This morning a windless night has left it that way. I was a very tired person by nightfall. I worked  hard so today it would be My Choice all day to just do just as I please - a rare thing.  R left early to go across to the airport to the Airshow . I will get to hear and see anything that flies over head here which started yesterday when they were all practising. I hope he has a satisfying day.
     Mine is going well....I have sat eating my breakfast and scrolling through your blogs. I intend to sew.This is the fabric that would not behave as I wished the first 2 times I tried it out. BUT I thought I must be able to make it please me, cause individually I like the fabrics. I also am incorporating left over strips from a jelly roll so have started by using 2.5 inch squares. I know they would look good on black or white but I am trying any darker plainish fabric that I have sufficient quantity of ...this is one...but is it slightly too busy and bright? .....stll playing. I will show progress when there is some.

The ball has just 2 motifs left to decide on and make. So, sewing by hand outside I think and machine piecing these squares. 
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Women make up more than 50% of the population, but in some ways still don't get a fair share of things. Nor do young people and children. What am I on about ??? One of my pet grievances.....TV time. All programmes, but in particular NEWS coverage.Take yesterday for example ...it was Waitangi Day ...New Zealand's National Day.....the news naturally covered celebrations ( men making speeches, men rowing Waaka, men singing at concerts etc .) The news as always had a huge section on sport - men's sport...Rugby Sevens, men's golf, motor racing etc etc.  Where were women and young people yesterday?  Watching men do their thing????? Oh yes, a woman read the news and another lovely young Karen forecast the weather. ( the criteria here being pleasant on the eye. )
       Sometimes, as the night before the Halberg Awards ( for NZ sport ) were on and women did feature - well too, but we are talking about the elete of sport in this country, which for women is a tiny percent of the population.
   For the first time in 60 years a woman had won the top producer for a film....well done, but that illustrates just how far we still have to go in many areas. Why are so many of the things women do and are good at still not considered newsworthy ? Why do young people only get coverage for the wrong reasons - when they stuff up. Why do we have so much coverage of crime -  men shooting each other or abusing females or children.( does testoterone have so much to answer for ? )  
      Someone else mentioned on their blog how it was okay for mature males to read the news or forecast or front programmes but the women doing these things had to be young and attractive and have the latest hairstyle. Intelligence and experience are not the criteria...it's how they look.
       With other programmes on TV, only the Living Channel has alternative and hobby items  often at wierd hours. Women are supposed to be happy with cooking programmes or restoring houses or buying property. It's time for something new and stimulating I say.
      Luckily on the radio programme I listen to ( National radio ) women do get coverage. Some doing amazing and unusual things ( like breeding queen bumble bees for export to countries where they have disappeared  - this young lady is the only person in the world with this particular job). The front person ( on national radio ) in the morning is female and in the afternoon male; that seems fair. There is less balance with political broadcasting as we have now returned to a very much male dominated arena.( At least when we had a woman prime minister she got some air time. )
       What can we do to make things more equitable.... (would I have been a suffragette? )Women (who rock the cradle ) do have influence, but maybe not enough. Young people and children and older people matter in this world - give them a positive voice!
        

Over Ordered.

I think I may have over ordered on the rain!

This long holiday weekend for us was very wet.

We have had 140 mls ( 5.5 inches ) of rain in the last 3 days.. Blocked spouting had to be cleared by R in the worst down pour. We have metal ( gravel ) washed off some of the tracks but nothing more moved in the landslide debris in the creek , altough the creek itself was up and the spillway barely coped. Others about the country were not so lucky with Hawkes Bay and Gisborne areas getting severe flooding and slips.

I did some cutting out but the minute I sat down at the sewing machine the power went out. Not for too long but dinner was a bit late.The ball made some progress and one hemisphere is complete and the other has the last 3 to fill with motifs.

This morning is fine but cloudy but one of the main things I am doing is harvesting veges that haven't been picked for a couple of days. The wet has split some tomatoes.

I have the other beans still to pick and courgettes, but as family are popping in while passing for lunch I better get going. Some pikelets are my next job.

Butterflies and Kingfishers.

Oh, you should have been here half an hour ago we were having freshly made date scones for morning tea ( at the computer ) ( no crumbs in the keyboard )! Next time perhaps.
It is raining and raining so we are very pleased.

This misdirected young Kingfisher tried to fly through the ranch slider and had a sore head for a while. Luckily he has flown away since. ( he is possibly one of a young family who hatched in a hole in the bank  directly behind the vege garden. )( Lots of birds fly into our glass - I thought that only happened if it was really clean .)

I worked on this Red Admiral Butterfly motif for the felt ball last night. It is smaller than it looks here and still has to have details added once on the ball. I made a cricket bat and ball too, but I think it could be mistaken for a bottle of wine!

Yesterday I made a big batch of Chutney to use some of the excess courgettes and beans and tomatoes.

As the rain keeps sweeping across in heavy showers I think any garden activities will have to wait. I have been wet already today so will now try and stay dry and perhaps get my requirements ready for a class on 20th Feb with Mary Transom. She is coming to 20 of our group for the day. The class is Agapanthus ( that weed! ) but most of us want the technique rather than the suject matter.( the photos are on her site on the right hand side if you wish to see some of her wall hangings )

I might even get some other sewing done, but will need the lights on it is that dim.   BOP ( Bay of Plenty ) never does anything by halves hence the name - today it is rain - heavy rain. 

*Molly your clutch ball looks great - very bright.
* Thimbleanna, I'm so glad you now know I am a Kiwi not an Australian ( giggle ). We are similar but not interchangeable.
* Good, today I have time to look at everyone's blogs.

Fresh !

Walk from vege garden to kitchen...15 seconds. Open Microwave ...put corn in....zap for 2 mins...unwrap skin,  take out silk...place on plate and eat. All of 5 minutes to harvest prepare and eat. Yeah I love that!

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Here's Where.

I do like your Comments - 
 I read them and I hope to answer any questions. So Gudrun this is for you.
I think you know that New Zealand has 3 main Islands: North, South and smaller Stewart Island. I live in the North Island which has the much greater population of the 2 bigger islands. I have scanned a map of the North Island  and the arrow shows Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty. I live about 14 kilometers from Tauranga.

To all my friends in the northern hemisphere I hope your weather is warming up a bit. Today where I am it is just pleasant - not too hot ( like yesterday ) as there is overhead cloud.

Yesterday I made a good start on my big weeding effort but it was so hot. Today I started before breakfast and did 2 hours then - much more sensible idea. I

am still not finished but R has already taken 3 full woolpacks of weeds away to put as mulch under young avocado trees. I'll do some more later.

Variety.

A couple of days with drizzly rain have meant we have done some other than Kiwifruit things ( Yipeee ) We have shelled more stored walnuts. Roger is doing a 3rd batch of pesto this morning. This is the picking the leaves off the basil plant stage. That will be my perfume ( stronge ) today - it really clings.

In 2006 I read "The Lovely Bones," by Alice Sebold and loved it. Yesterday we went to the Movie and loved it.  Directed by Peter Jackson, from a screen play written by Fran Walsh, Phillipa Boyens and Peter Jackson; based on the book. It got some poor reviews - I'm giving it a GOOD one. The special effects were so good.

The felt ball now has a Kiwifruit and a capital A. The baby I am going to give it to was born last weekend named Alex Peter in North London to a Kiwi Dad an English Mum.

 

This weekend top priority for me is weeding ( on a large scale ) the garden along the driveway right out to the front gate. It didn't get sprayed as it usually does and now some weeds are taller than me with seed heads. So quite a challenge; but I do have plants in there that need rescuing and space to grow.

Meanwhile in other parts of the garden things are doing well.

This is my little extra vege garden. R built up the side so the dirt doesn't dry out and fall out of the little bed and this is the result. A row of Freezer Slim green beans and a row of Cavolo Nero and carrots just up.

These are the low growing freezer slim beans with white flowers that I pick one day and on the alternate day I pick these Scarlet Runners up in the main garden.

While I was going to take these photos some bright wee things called to me.

Wee low orange Zinnias

and Scabiosa Midnite.  I'm

off to weed now, while it's not too hot.

Thanks for your comments and glad you found my blog D and N in Alberta.