The mouse is beginning to hack me off, bring back the zebra or the thick pig.
It is belting down outside so it sems a good time to Blog.
Michelle said 'It was lovely weather before you came, in fact it's always nicer when other people aren't here so can you leave please ?'
I am glad I got lots done yesterday cos it doesn't look like it's going to clear up today.
Dug over a large chunk of the veg plot then started weeding/raking all the flower beds around the house.
Noticed an arum lily in the beds, not surprising as they grow 'like weeds' here. What is surprising is it's colour. Rather than the white variety we are all used to this one is deep, chocolate brown & beautiful.
Yesterday was one of those days when every time you think you are finished you look around & notice someting else. My aching back testified to a busy day.
After lunch Eric offered me a tea. An hour later I noticed it hadn't arrived. Thinking I would be amusing I went & squashed my face up against the kitchen window where he was supposed to be fixing cupboards. In my wellies & waterproofs I adopted my most pathetic expression & began whining "Teeeeaaaa" in the same way I do back at work in the UK when I think Andy should earn his keep by making one of his really good cuppas.
At that point I noticed Eric was not in fact fixing cupboards but was on the phone trying to order some fencing supplies. Oh well - I found it funny.
It got him back for the fact that he hadn't informed me I was weeding in his mousey-graveyard. 3 times I put my hand on rotting corpses.
On a more prosaic note, I wanted to tell you about the birdies here.
Q - if you can find any pics on t'internet to accompany these ramblings for Bloggers I would be grateful.
All day yesterday I was aware that I was listening to birdsong. One of the reasons I was upset to leave the South was because of all the different birds I saw & heard every day. I needn't have worried. They are just as prolific here.
The bird that features most largely here is the magpie. Less showy than it's UK counterpart & looking more like a pied crow without the long tail, they are everywhere. Their song is magical, not for them the hoarse chuckling & cackling that the UK ones indulge in. Here, they are reminiscent of Clangers on acid with a touch of yodelling goatherd. They make a noise which sounds like "wardle-oodle-ardle"
I am especially fond of them because I remember waking on my very 1st morning in Rangiora on the 14th May & wondering what the beautiful, exotic birdsong was.
The sound has become NZ for me.
My favourite birds here are the fantails. Bright-eyed, curious, pretty little birds, they are very comfortable around people who they follow as we stir up the insect life they live on. About the size of a blue tit, they come in either biscuit or chocolate colours & as their name suggests have a long, elegant tail. They were always much in evidence at Marfell Downs whenever I was taking off the horses rugs. They came close enough for me to feel I could quite easily capture them. Their song is an unmemorable 'peep peep' but their looks make up for it.
There are parrakeets here which are lovely to look at & don't make the irritating 'skreeeech' which the escaped green ones in Surrey do. I remember thinking that I could happily shoot those birds whilst listening to them all day long every time I played golf at Bushey golf club. The NZ ones here are predominantly scarlet, have white cheeks, yellow throats & love to perch in the trees here watching all the goings-on.
The most arresting bird I have seen so far here is the Harris hawk. About the same size as a UK buzzard ie big, they flourish here & are regarded as vermin. It's a shame as they are stunning birds with the most gorgeous plumage of various shades of red & gold. I must easily see 10 or so a day & I still enjoy watching them glide lazily over paddocks & verges in search of ickle things or road-kill.
One of the paddocks with a pond at Marfell was home to a pair of Paradise Shelducks. These birds mate for life & can live (if I was reliably informed by Mal) for up to 70 years.
Their call is the most un-birdlike I have ever heard. A kind of 'zoonk zoonk' when alarmed, like an amplified Space-Invader game. Eric has said he would like to slot them - I will be checking to make sure that if he finds any he kills them both. The thought of a solitary, celibate, lonesome shelduck is more than my soft heart can bear !
Kingfishers here are like ours but GM'd. They are MASSIVE. Easily the size of our mallard ducks. Ok, I am exaggerating, they are about a third again as big as UK kingfishers but much less secretive. I don't know about you but I was 31 before I first got a good look at a UK kingfisher & even then it's only because I was spending a lot of time fishing. To see a perched kingfisher is a rare treat back home. Here you are likely to see them in trees in most places. They are just as lovely as the ones I am familar with but instead of a brilliant coral breast it is more a salmon pink.
The wax-eye or silver eye entertains me by balancing on & feeding from the red-hot poker flowers directly outside my bathroom window.
Dainty little birds, they are shy & easily frightened & remind me of our wrens.
There are lots of birds here to remind me of home, wood pigeons, blackbirds, sparrows by the sackful (which is lovely now that they are endangered in the UK) mallards, herons (smaller) yellowhammers, thrushes and goldfinches.
As for kiwis, none of the locals I have spoken to have ever seen one. As well as being rare, they are nocturnal & I am told my only chances of setting eyes on one are is a reserve or sanctuary.
The Tanners keep a lovely selection of chickens, all of which are laying for England at the moment. 6 eggs in a day is not unusual. They have a couple of bantams (one white, one black) a couple of Rhode Island Reds, a couple of Light Sussexs, a Brown Leghorn & some black ones with a tinge of blue (the name of which escapes us at the moment) Michelle has just gone to look it up & they are 'anconas' "I think"
When I am weeding I save all the slugs I find & then give them to the chickens. I love listening to them as they find the tasty morsels amongst the greenery. They make excited little 'ooh' noises like elderly ladies at a Bric-a-brac sale. The slugs must make a welcome addition to their pellets, there are never any left after 5 minutes at any rate.
If our little feathered friends leave you cold then I apologise for the last few paragraphs of my wittering but I love them & really appreciate being outdoors all day where I can watch them.
Has Bill Oddie's new series started yet back at home ? Wish he was my Dad.
Anyone who records & sends me the tape will earn my undying gratitude.
Sunday afternoons, a tray of tasty nibbles, a good bottle of red & BBC2 wildlife programmes are one of the things I miss most about home.
Well, I have decided to make pumpkin soup for lunch & the sun looks like it might be trying to squeeze through the clouds so I must away. Michelle is pottering around the house on her 1st day off & once again I thank my lucky stars that I landed in such a hospitable household.
I also wish to give an alibi. Yesterday there was a 'controlled avalanche' on an abandoned snowfield near Taupo ski-fields. There have been 2 big quakes in S.Island recently of 7.1 on the scale. The quakes had dislodged some of the snow in N.Island so it was deemed sensible to clear the loose snow. The 'controlled avalanche' rapidly became 'uncontrolled' & ended in ski-fields which were being used by skiers & snowbaorders.
I don't think there were any fatalities but I would just like to state clearly & for the record that I was at Cedar Lodge all day yesterday & didn't go anywhere near Taupo.
ttfn,
Cx
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