Sunday, September 30, 2007

Careless Backyard

In an effort to compete with Simon's beautiful garden, I have.... um... well I have no garden at all actually. But out the back of the section I live on there is an interesting little wilderness full of flora and fauna which is both native and introduced. But at the moment the most beautiful dispays are the koru unfurling from the tops of the tree-ferns.

It is raining today which is common for Auckland. There is no wind so the water falls straight down in no-nonesense drops which I am sure the ferns love.



The house is split-level & semi-detached and behind the back fence the land drops away quite sharply. Plumpy of course loves to go exploring in there but Maalie will be pleased to know he has never brought back a bird. I would love to stroke his ego and say it is because he is too wise to bring them to me, but in all my brutal honesty I would have to say it is probably because he can't catch anything. The sudden lack of all four eye teeth probably doesn't help.



See the difference in height between the top of the fern in the foreground, and the top of the fern just behind the fence. I am suspicious though that the lower one is also shorter ;-)
The next photo is just to the other side of our main foreground fern;



Good Golly Miss Molly!
Check out the koru in that one!!

The next door neighbours (who live in the other half of the building) don't bother with a back fence, which I think is a grand idea. Their lawn stops, and the wilderness begins!


The neighbours have used a convenient Cabbage Tree (Cordyline australis) to help with the washing - which is getting wetter, not drier. Captain Cook made his crew eat the flowers of this plant to prevent them from getting scurvy. Hopefully Kiwi Nomad will not correct me and say it was rickets he was preventing....

I should like to invite Merisi to click and enlarge this last picture (and anyone else who cares to). Merisi displayed an interest in Simon's fern - though his had a lorikeet as well, and my birds are hiding from the rain! Look at the abundance of koru (fiddleheads)!


Lastly a quiz, which I expect Maalie to be able to answer. (No pressure Maalie). Captain James Cook of HMB Endeavour chose to fight off scurvey by feeding his crew sauerkraut. How did he manage to popularise this dish amongst the sailors?

11 comments:

Merisi said...

Merisi has enlarged the picture and is truly impressed! :-)
Vow, one of these fiddleheads should feed half a dozen, don't you think so? *grin*
You don't think Sauerkraut is in itself tasty enough to have the crew clamour for it?

Ju's little sister said...

Apparently not! But he did have to ...encourage them to eat it by their own free will. The trick is how he did it!

Martin Stickland said...

Hey me little old Fruit salad muncher, we have a fern like that in our front garden here in little old England.

I always thought the Latin name was biggusfernusingardenuss but you learn something everyday!

Unknown said...

OK, I'm waiting on the sauerkraut answer here. Anybody?

You can't beat a bit of wilderness, and I see Plumpy agrees. I think it can be just as beautiful, if not more, as a well-manicured garden.

simon said...

I have a couple of those tree thingos which the clothes line is attached on to!!!

Looks a great back yard.. I think a walk through there would be great!

lorenzothellama said...

I think he must have put rum in the sauerkraut. That would be the only way to make it edible!

Does Plumpy climb up those fern things? He doesn't need teeth to catch birds, only to eat them! He still has claws doesn't he???

Lorenzo.

lorenzothellama said...

Just been browsing through Maalie's to see if there were any new comments, and I saw yours!

Are you on facebook? I am. Would you and Plumpy be my friends? Only trouble is, I'm not sure how you put people on, so you will have to make the first move, and then I can respond!
Lorenzo.

Maalie said...

What a nice little bit of bush you have there! I bet Plumpy has a lovely time out there exploring and watching the fantails, silvereyes, grey warblers etc. Have you ever seen a a parakeet in there?

In answer to your question, yes.

Maalie said...

Oh, I wasn't clear which question! Yes to Facebook.

As far as the cabbage, I reckon the ships surgeon just said something like: "Eat this or you'll lose your teeth, or even die!". Quite a motivation, I should think!

Word verication - one for Plumpy: rattd!

lorenzothellama said...

I'm with you on winter though I don't admit it.
Well actually it's autumn I hate. I hate all the death and decay of the plants and even if the trees are beautiful I can't wait until spring.
Once we get over the winter solstice I start to cheer up and come January 2nd I really start to get excited. I look for the snowdrops and daffodils coming through and each day has a couple of minutes longer daylight.

I'm going to try Maalie's philosophy and enjoy it this year and not get into depression. I'll start running again and try to enjoy the horse riding.

Love Lorenzo.

Ju's little sister said...

Oh dear, I have just seen the verification and I'm not sure I want to comment on my own blog!!
(zwxnryua)

Thank you for all your nice comments. I shall give the answer in a post of its own!

LtL, I will initiate a friend request. :-)