Cabin fever!!!

Cabin fever sucks. I have been obsessing about the garden the last few days because I haven't been out of the house for days except for necessities!! I just checked the last month of rainfall for Stratford and there have been only about 10 days with no rainfall at all. The rest of the days have accumulated 383.5mm of rain [that's 15.1 inches] and I am so sick of being housebound  ! I know I won't melt [my mom told me that plenty of times], but everything is waterlogged and soggy and squishy and, well, I just don't like being wet and cold. I guess it's worth the misery knowing that the water tables are full for next year.

The ducks don't seem to mind, they just peck on the window for food as usual! There are two pairs of ducks that show up on the pond, one in the morning and one later in the day, that are apparently vying for ducky rights for the inevitable broods. Hopefully, there won't be any fiascoes like last year with 3 different sets of parents and babies, and one of the female brought babies that weren't even hers!!

The finches and sparrows are only slightly put off by the wintery weather, but, being the softies we are, we put bird seed out for them on the back patio or along the fenceposts. As a matter of fact, I think they are starting to take us for granted, now that I think about it. Hmmmm.... They accumulate in the trees across the access road to the stables that is next to our property and I swear they have scouting parties that watch for movement at the door. More and more often, I barely get the door open before one beautiful yellow finch flies in and perches on the jasmine vine at the steps. I call him Einstein, since he's smart enough to be the first at the seed. Isn't he cute??!




When there are 30 finches and sparrows and wax-eyes and riflemen on the patio, they are quite pretty [even when they are soggy] and, as hubby says, they are free entertainment!!

We moved the dahlias to one central garden spot last week and have several hundred bulbs that we couldn't cram into the space we made for our favorites, so we are selling them on trademe for a bit of spending money for the kids.

And, daffodils.....*sigh* I thought we had a handle on them last year by selling a few hundred bulbs and planting a portion of them to sell next year. Boy, was I wrong! We now have a different kind of daffodil sprouting all over the garden! They are a sort of miniature that we hadn't seen before.

And have I mentioned that we still have 'dunnos' everywhere? This will be our third summer with this garden and it looks like our digging and moving have stirred up mystery stuff, so, it's a regular thing for one of us to point and say, 'what's that?' and the other to say, 'dunno, have to wait and see!' Slowly but surely, so we are making progress with names of plants we have in the garden. Lachenalia...agapanthus...daphne....sounds impressive, doesn't it!?

Oh, yes, I forgot to mention that we have one black calla lily growing in the runoff ditch. Out of curiosity, I found that they sell for about $20/bulb. I can't see paying that much for one flower, but if someone else will buy them, we might be persuaded to part with a few extra bulbs

There's another storm passing over today--should be gone by tomorrow. With lots of spring flowering coming out all over town, I hope this is the end of the winter with spring just around the corner.

I might not like some things about NZers..

...but I have to admit that New Zealand is a very clean place--literally. You don't see burger wrappers and drink cups and unmentionable things lying on the side of the road or blown up onto the hillside. Even in the 'big cities' there's not much litter and it's usually taken care of promptly. I guess that's one of the perks of being a country about the size of Nebraska.



In Taranaki, there is a company that does all the construction work for the area and it looks like part of their contract is to make sure that the curbsides are clean. It has rained a LOT lately and right now I am watching one of their workers shoveling mud and debris [pronounces 'deb-riss, here] into the back of a modified pickup--I mean, ute--as another worker slowly drives it along.

And, since community is a big part of the school system--don't get me started on what it lacks...but I digress--I notice that the children I see, including our two, put wrappers in their pockets or run to the nearest rubbish bin to dispose of them instead of dropping them where they stand. 


Of course, our share of litter has ended up in the washing machine filter, but I guess it's easier to live with there than on the roadside.

Fantails and waves

In a very long list of new experiences, I never thought about composting before I moved here. In Kansas, it was just part of the trash that magically disappeared from the curb every week. Not any more. Since we have such a large garden and since things like fertilizer and plant food are expensive here [because it's all imported, with the exceptions of fruit, dairy products, and some clothing lines], we now make out own compost for the garden, and I must say that it does an excellent job! The composting barrels sit behind the garage and, in the summer, get a good workout. Since it's winter, there isn't much to compost except food scraps. This, of course, attracts bugs--but the news isn't all bad, kids--the bugs attract fantail birds. It looks like a pair of them have decided to claim our bright, ugly, yellow compost barrels as their own gourmet food dispenser! They are very fast moving and rather elusive for the camera, but with some patience [and the 'continuous' button], I managed to snap a few last week.

The are so awesome to watch flitter and bob around! And they're not particularly afraid of people.

It's officially winter here [I think--it feels like it, anyway] and the weather makes for amazing waves on the ocean. There are slight reminders of last week's coastal storms still pushing the waves a bit high and we took a trip to the beach so I could photograph them. So, as the kids occupied themselves with rocks and shells at low tide, Kev and I took most of 500 pictures in less than an hour of the waves . Boy, it was fun to be that close to such angry-looking water. Here's a sample. I will have more up on the picassa site later.

I don't think I will ever take the ocean for granted. It's beauty astounds me every time I see it!

It's not all bad, honest...

Before I go on about the flora, I must admit that I never went out of my way to notice the flowers that grew in the states, so it's all new to me.

I can't remember palm trees anywhere I lived, but there are several types here that are common. There is an actual, full palm tree [I have no idea which type] two doors down and we have 2 ponga trees [scrawny looking palms] in our garden. Also, there are lots of ferns all over the place that look like palm leaves. The silver fern--known by the silver underside of the fronds--is one of the unofficial symbols of New Zealand. [I believe there are NO official symbols for the country at all--just items associated with NZ.]

Across the street is a tributary of some sort and the area around it is wild. There are holly trees about 12 feet tall; some sort of conifer, I think, that reminds me of an asparagus fern; honeysuckle and wild jasmine that smell delicious in the summer; and many other plants, shrubs and trees that I don't recognize [except the pongas!].

Norfolk pines dot the horizon and coastline of the country at up to 30 feet tall. They look cool peeking over the tops of other trees.

In our garden, there's a bush that I have no inkling of it's name [ok, there are lots of them, since gardening is a new thing to all of us, but I have one in mind at the moment]. When you shake the colorful leaves, it sounds like paper rustling. I just call it the paper bush. : )

Then there are the daphnes bushes that smell wonderful when in bloom and the bottle-brush bushes that bees love. Hydrangeas, azaleas, pansies, dahlias, naked ladies, daffodils and begonias in a variety of colors are very abundant.

Rhododendrons and camillas grow vigorously in the spring in just about any color you can imagine. There are area festivals where gardens are listed and you can visit the ones you prefer. We have done some travelling to find a few of the gardens, but they were worth the effort. Some are just magnificent.

There is a type of jasmine in a stone planter on the back patio that is in bloom year round so far. It is absolutely huge and only dies down momentarily when a male adult of the household who shall remain nameless decides to give it a haircut.

Ericas are one of my favorite plants. They are full of tiny, delicate blooms around town in the summer. Some are white, some are pink, some are purple. All catch my eye.

I'm sure I have missed some of the great things here to pass on to you, so if you click the title to this post, you can see some of my favorite flowery stuff.

BTW, did I mention that it doesn't snow in Stratford? ; )