RABBITS,RATS & ROSES

A view from the window

One of the benefits of working from home is that the Office can be situated to enjoy the landscape instead of the side of a concrete building or lines of traffic winding their way into the city. Our current home Office looks out on a delightful rural view of grass paddocks, trees and hills which has been enhanced with the addition of a shady wooden deck to lessen the heat from the Summer sun which used to make the room extremely warm especially in Summer. We don't have to walk far to another window which has a view over our dam and a wide range of Native evergreen trees and many deciduous trees which vary from a delightful fresh green in Spring through to beautiful Autumn tones and then bare branches in Winter. I used to worry that our property had too many deciduous trees (looked like a bomb site in Winter) but after 20 years of growth, the Oaks and Liquid Ambers are a fantastic sight to behold.

A tiny bunny that will grow big!

But I diverge! This week I spied a baby rabbit feeding on the lawn and in our experience, one rabbit spells disaster for any new growth in our vegetable plots. Two rabbits usually mean an influx of these long eared louts and in recent years they have been quite prolific in our area and when you get rabbits and possums on the prowl, beans, peas, lettuce require extra protection. I won't get the rifle out just yet, but if I spy more than one over the next few weeks, they had better look out! Unfortunately our local council insists to apply for discounted rat or possum poison funding, we have to have a written submission for contestable assistance by joining large commercial operators also seeking funds. We haven't got close, even though we can show them $100s of dollars of already purchased and plenty of containers of products used in the past. Anybody would think they are OUR rats and possums!

Macadamia rat collection

Two weeks ago our nostrils told us that there was a dead animal somewhere close to the garages and Lyn and I searched close by, but couldn't track down the source. Overtime the smell disappeared and I forgot about looking any further. In recent months we have experienced the character building experience of completely upgrading our kitchen, which has not been a totally enjoyable period. Lot's of disruption and the complete destruction of the old farmhouse kitchen meant heaps of broken timber and surplus cupboards, doors and other items which will need permanent disposal. (This experience could involve a future blog or two once we have recovered!) I managed to save a couple of undamaged drawer units and decided to replace a rather tatty arrangement already installed in the garage. As I dragged out the old unit the door swung open and to my surprise the body of a very LARGE, very DEAD rate hove into view! I gathered together a bucket and spade and shoveled these remains out of the way (now buried under the Tamarillos) Once I had removed this unit outside I could see that the rat had been very industrious and the area under the cupboard was covered in a collection of Macadamia nuts! They had settled into a very neat tidy pattern (see photo) and reminded me of a Chinese abacus. The replacement drawer unit has been vermin proofed!

My love is like a red,red rose ...

On a lighter note, but also involving the use of nostrils, is the wonderful scent of our roses. We planted some new varieties last year and Lyn insisted they were of the scented type and we don't regret this insistence. Although they don't last long roses are just one of those "must have" flowers in any garden. My personal favourites include Fuschias and the huge variety available these days mean you can have them in pots as well as in borders etc. I have plans to clear a larger area and Fuschias are top of the list. Of course the fruit tree blossoms are a delight and our Puriri and Bottlebrush trees with their red flowers and berries make our resident Tuis very happy and we can sit in our lounge and watch the Tuis feeding close by the window. A glorious sight indeed and my aim is to try an attract some wood pigeons (Kereru) which have been decimated by the possum damage to our native trees.  

 I can recommend working from  home!

Cherry tree blossom

And the scent is fantastic!