Tui acrobatics

In the summer families of tuis visit our dozen or so flax bushes to drink nectar. In the winter, food isn't as plentiful, but this wee lad has discovered one of our ornamental cherries.

Shadow kitten

Miss Ginger Postmistress has been playing shadow games this evening. Hubby's study lamp was behind her and she has had lots of fun watching her shadow on the wall. The shadow behind her is the sewing machine, but looks like some kind of gangster. Good job she didn't notice! In the end, she requested to be posted in a small box. Destination unknown.

Rosellas in the hekeheke

Parrots eating seeds from the flax bushes. They bob around a lot and I took these pictures from about 30m away.....so please forgive the blurring.

The excuse for cake

Do we really need one? I need a "friend visiting" excuse to bake, because I have tried to STOP baking as it was a serious health hazard. Today friends from the Middle East are dropping in enroute to the capital. This is what we will be eating with strong coffee

She just likes to help!

My husband and I trade stamps on behalf of a national charity. Saturday morning is often "parcel them up and send them out" time. Ms Ginger is the self appointed post kitten and "sitter on" of stamps. We have yet to train her to lick the stamps, but when she was a kitten she could occasionally be seen running around the house with a stamp on her nose.

Hairy but not scary

The young 'uns in the paddock have developed real personalities and have their own distinctive calls. I think with a bit of work, we could have them singing four part harmony. Not sure they would fit in the barbershop category, on account of their hairstyles.

Vignette from the Post Office

Our local post office is actually a dairy (corner shop / super baba, whatever you may call the general grocery kind of shop). It sits on our main highway north, and has a small area to pull off to collect the mail, or go and buy a suddenly needed item.

Sharon, our post lady also sells a huge selection of sweets and ice-creams. As you will have realised, our area is currently enjoying early morning frosts. Not exactly the weather for ice cream. However, this morning I was stood in a queue behind an elderly gent in shorts, and a cut off tee-shirt about to purchase a double decker ice cream, perched precariously on a cone. My internal core temperature dropped just looking at him.

I suppose he could have been from Minnesota....

Overnight stay

For those of you who have children, an "overnight stay" or "sleepover" is probably a positive event for your kids. I don't have the pleasure of being a mother, but my baby boy, a two year old tabby, is staying over at the vets tonight after rather laborious blood tests. The poor wee thing. It is a FREEZING night (below zero) and he will be so scared. He is a part wild cat, hates being confined and it took ages to get him through the trauma of three nights at a cattery. I don't think he'll forgive me the trip to the vets in a hurry. Going to bed as one very anxious "parent".

Heavy Frost

Ginger on Patrol

I am grateful she is more interested in watching than chasing. Not long after this photo was taken she was snoozing under a blanket. She had done her guard duty for the morning, and had clocked off early!

Norbett, Corbett, Albert and Freda?

The calves in our paddock are growing fast and fat. After a difficult drought in the summer, they are making up for lost time on the lush green.

I've dubbed the three steers, Norbett, Corbett and Alfred. For whatever reason the heifer looks like a Freda.

Here is Norbett. He must be the calf of Carly, the light coloured mum - check the streaky hair do. The other calves are much darker and auburn in colouring. Norbett was the sleepy one by the fence today. Like a true gent, he got up when I approached, but then "gave me the eye". I'm just very glad there is a fence between us and them.

Murphy's law

Today I took part in a bird survey online. It was a nationwide survey of garden birds. The idea is that in a space of an hour you make note of the varieties of birds in your garden then post the details online. I had just completed the survey and gone back to the messy business of breadmaking, when I heard a familiar squwark outside. There was one of our half dozen rosellas on the top branch of the ornamental cherry. Here he is (taken on a very long zoom with shakey dough covered hands). Mercifully the camera survived this abuse.

Footnote to yesterday's post. It was very cold overnight but today it is warm and sunny. Blue skies everywhere and the laundry is happily drying outside. After living previously with the temperatures of Wellington at this time of year, I feel like I have landed in summery clover.

dropping temperatures and interesting skies

Tonight we are promised zero degrees, this afternoon we had hail and sunshine at the same time, and the new photo above was taken 10 minutes ago. It is snow coming over the hills.

Not a great time to be full of cold and manic about the boxes of tissues all around the house.

Stay well and warm wherever you are.