Just Add Worms

Now that we are well into autumn there’s less to do in the vegetable garden and I have more time to relax and take in the ever changing textures and colours of the season.

Even though I’ve lived in Auckland for almost 40 years I’ve never visited any of the off shore islands so when I was invited to check out “Tiri” about 4 weeks ago I jumped at the chance. Brian a friend of mine from Forest & Bird was keen to get back to the island with [...]

A few days back whilst toiling away in my workshop I spotted two kereru or wood pigeons land in a gleditsia tree about 35 metres down the back lawn. At the time I was busy making up tui feeder orders so decided to admire them from a distance and continue with my work. This was [...]

Over the last year as I blogged about birds, worms and bees I often imagined how much easier it would be if I had a good video camera. No longer would I need to take 30 or 40 still shots to get the images I needed for my next post. After frustrating almost every camera [...]

These new buds on one of the plum trees that I pruned about 3 weeks back signal that spring is near. As I am an avid photographer I’m always on the lookout for that great shot so one rainy morning last week I downed my tools, grabbed the camera and went wandering in the garden. [...]

Several days ago I made mention of how nice it was to see the remaining monarch butterflies finally emerging from their chrysalis’s. My pleasure proved to be very short lived however as the following day the monarch that had been preparing to fly off into the big blue yonder was no more, sadly “it was [...]

Back on the 2nd May I made a comment that I thought the 12 or so Monarch chrysalis’s on our front deck would probably not survive due to the onset of winter.  Over the last six weeks their colour hadn’t changed significantly plus recently we had a couple of severe frosts so I assumed they [...]

Most mornings after breakfast I take a casual stroll around our property to see what’s new and to ensure all is in order. So that I don’t get distracted the camera remains on my office desk but sometimes it’s a hurried return to the house to fetch it. Drat, why didn’t I bring the camera? [...]

Every summer we look forward to a visit from our very special friends the Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus). It’s like they’ve become a part of our family. About three weeks ago I indicated in a previous post that all was not well as the developing caterpillars were being wiped out by a plague of Australian [...]

This morning as I wandered out to check the vegetable garden, now a morning ritual, I spotted a most unusual visitor on one of the seats on our front deck. First thought was to grab the camera but upon closer inspection I could see that the dragonfly was going no where. It was dead, no [...]