Only 10 hours to go before the slate wipes clean and a new year starts; I wonder what's in store for us both as individuals and as global citizens sharing a single planet with millions of other species. I hope we can learn from the past and foster new habits of reducing, reusing and recycling in an effort to become more like Mother Nature where there's no such thing as 'waste'.
It was fun sharing the festive season with my friend, Jen, and although the temperature outside was a tad cool, the atmosphere inside was very convivial with lots of laughter, fine food and non-stop talking. Between the showers we got stuck into dismantling the hen house - I'll re-use the timber for adding an extension on to the woodshed. We also transplanted over 40 toitoi seedlings, cut more grass and weeded around the flax.
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| The hen house and run before we started |
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| Halfway through |
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| All gone |
Jen hasn't visited in summer before so we had lots of 'slow walks' - the tui are very territorial at present and chase all other birds off their 'patch'; the kereru are also good at chasing each other and, of course, there were new things to see in the bush including a stack of orchids. The sun came out for the second half of Jen's visit to show her that summer can be hot here and to show off the pretty sun orchids,
Thelymitra.
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| Unopened Thelymitra orchid |
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| White (above) and blue (below) Thelymitra orchids |
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| Close-up of the Aporostylis orchid flower |
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| Side view of Aporostylis |
On a sunny day, Sarah Cove is one of the prettiest places and I love showing it off to visitors who think that Stewart Island is almost at Antarctica. Jen hadn't seen it on previous visits and with the weather forecast not looking the best for a few days we decided to brave the strong easterly and intermittent showers to have a peek. We had to stand in the lee of a large macrocarpa to take some photos and the waves were almost big enough to go surfing!
An oyster catcher on Bragg Bay (next door to Sarah Cove) had bagged itself a paua and we watched as it used its long bill to slide down the inside of the shell to try and lever the paua out. Despite a lot of patience, the incoming tide reclaimed the paua and hopefully it lived to tell the tale of how it nearly became Christmas dinner.
More on the bird life in my next blog but, in keeping with my opening sentence, I'd better get this one published right on 2pm. Wishing you all a happy, healthy and sustainable New Year.
