Summer time - yeah right!

It feels like mid-Winter except it's still light. The fire's lit, I had soup for lunch and I am wearing two layers of polar fleece to combat the 11°C air temperature. Not exactly Summer down this neck of the woods! The good news is that I don't want to stray far from the fire so what better excuse than to write a long-overdue blog or two.

I have been busy with Summer activities though; picking blackcurrants, cutting grass and trying to coax my green peppers into edible size. The plant is brought in every night and only goes outside on warm days - there's about 15 peppers with the largest about 60mm long.

An outside day for my pepper - early January

Woohoo! First sign of pepper success!

I've had a bumper crop of blackcurrants and the rhubarb is growing well again so that means jam and relish making. I have a lovely recipe for rhubarb relish which complements the cheese sandwiches that I have for lunch most days. I've also made rhubarb and blackcurrant jam (which I prefer to straight blackcurrant jam) and blackcurrant concentrate - so yummy drizzled over the Greek yoghurt that I've been making.

Another kilo of blackcurrants from 6 plants - yummy

Rhubarb relish in the making - isn't it colourful?

The finished product - 3 jams and 5 rhubarb relish

There is still a heap of currants to pick but I was waiting for a fine and sunny day so that they keep better; I've been busy working most days so harder to find the time for topping and tailing the currants; the concentrate works well but I'm running out of freezer space. Blackcurrant wine could be the answer in the future!

Orchid hunting has taken lower priority and the lack of sunshine means that the Thelymitra (sun orchid) haven't opened on many occasions. Still, they have a beauty all of their own in the rain...

 

I'm a bit rusty with names but I think this orchid is
Caladenia lyallii

 

Thelymitra - sun orchids

I have a backlog of orchid pics; I try to identify them first but sometimes the flowers haven't opened which makes it trickier to understand the written description - a picture is definitely worth a thousand words! I then wait for the flowers to open but by then have taken photos of other things to write about so get even further behind.

At present it's the turn of Thelymitra (sun orchid), Aporostylis (odd-leaved orchid), Microtis (onion orchid), Chiloglottis (green bird orchid), Caladenia (white and pink orchid), Gastrodia (black orchid) and Winika (lady's slipper orchid).

A clump of Thelymitra (sun orchids) on a road-side bank

Sun orchid - swelling flower buds

Partially opened sun orchid

Thelymitra venosa (veined sun orchid)

I think this is Thelymitra hatchii (blue sun orchid)

Close-up of T.hatchii flower centre - Hugh Wilson states that the
flower centre is distinctive for each of the 12 species found in NZ.
There are 4 species of Thelymitra on Stewart Island.

Another view of Thelymitra hatchii

The white sun orchid, Thelymitra longifolia



I think this is Thelymitra pulchella

There are masses of sun orchids on some roadside banks on Back Road - they must like living here as much as I do :)

Orchids on the way home

What a stunning day today - calm, blue skies and warm temperatures; the perfect day for slow walking home taking photos of the orchids up the Back Road hill. This is the third year that I've weeded the bank; to begin with it was just the dandelions but now a bigger threat is looming with rampant growth of Lotus, a clover-like legume that might be a good pasture grass but it's a jolly nuisance here. The rhizomes grow behind the bank surface so when I pull the roots out the bank collapses too. Short of painting weedkiller on the leaves, I'm not sure how to tackle the problem.

The hill up to my home is about 500m long with a bank on the right hand side for about 400m, then a bank on the left hand side for the last 100m. The vegetation on the bank gets trimmed in late summer or early autumn to retain visibility for drivers and in September the orchids start appearing. Here's a selection...

Flower bud appearing on ?Thelymitra longifolia



This looks like Aporostylis bifolia but there's only one leaf, not two

A group of Pterostylis (greenhood orchids)

Not sure of this one

Close up of greenhood orchid flower

The ants were swarming over the base of the flower above

Another clump of Pterostylis

A slightly different greenhood orchid - perhaps Pterostylis Montana?

Another close-up of greenhood flower

Greenhood flower just starting to form

Corybas (spider orchid) in flower

What a sweetie

Another clump of greenhoods

A mass of spider orchids

Looking down the throat of a spider orchid flower

Close up of Corybas flower

Side view of Corybas flower

Another side view of Corybas flower

A mass of Thelymitra (Sun orchids) - they're later flowering and won't
open if it's not sunny

Orchid update

Spring is symbolic of new beginnings and every day I'm seeing evidence of this special season - the orange branches of the deciduous native tree fuchsia (kotukutuku) are now clothed in green leaves and flowers, the yellowhammer has started his repetitive 'a little bit of bread and no cheese' call and I've now found my first greenhood flower of the season.

Sun orchids (Thelymitra) reaching for the sky in early September

New spider orchid (Corybas) leaves

A clump of Pterostylis orchids on my boundary track including the first
flower of the season

Close-up of above - the flower's not quite open

The warmer temperatures are bringing some weird and wonderful fungi - I found this one on my walk home yesterday; when I looked closer today I found two more nearby. They are called 'brain fungi' or False morel, Gyromitra tasmanica.

Easy to see how they get the name 'brain fungi'

Taken 15 September

Taken 16 September - am I imagining it or is the stem redder?

A grey springtail (collembola) feeding on the surface of the false morel

More fungi along my drive

Native clematis climbing up a lancewood - the mature vines
will be flowering in the next month

Beautiful new growth colours