The Kiwi Quarterly – Volume 1:Issue 1

Welcome to the first posting of The Kiwi Quarterly!  After 7 years (2003-2009) of writing my newsletter, The Kiwi Gazette, I basically burned out.  I found it harder and harder to come up with what I thought were good articles and, after publishing only one issue in 2009, I took some time away from the newsletter to see what I wanted to do with it – if anything.  During that time I’ve changed my website considerably, moving to a more modern blog style format (even though I detest the word “blog”!) and taken a while to get used to it.  I think it’s ok although  I probably don’t make as many entries as I should;  I’ll never be a prolific blogger… but for me, a little seems to go a long way.  So, I’ve decided that amongst the miscellaneous entries that I make every now and then, a good and hopefully newsworthy post every 3 months might suffice for my new quarterly “newsletter”.

Leroy

So what of 2011 so far?  January saw the arrival of the newest Mello, our kitten, Leroy.   He was a birthday gift to me from Jim and is the cutest little fellow!  I know, I know, all new little kittens are cute, but this guy has a great personality, is very affectionate and is a go-getter as well!   He’s handsome too, a well-dressed “tuxedo” cat!   We weren’t sure how he was going to fit in with our existing dogs, JR and Scarlet, but we took some time letting them get to know each other through the screen door for a couple of weeks and then short visits with each other before making them permanent roommates.  As it turns out, Scarlet the Lab just loves Leroy! She lets him play with her tail and would lick him to death if he’d let her.  JR, the Jack Russell, was more wary at first but has warmed up quite a bit to the new guy.  He tolerates being chased and even play-attacked and has taken to teaching Leroy the ropes, like not eating out of other critters’ food bowls – but in a relatively nice way.  Overall, Leroy is now head cat in charge!

Herb Garden

As February rolled around, summer was in full swing and my herb and vegetable gardens really took off.   It was my second year to try my hand at growing anything other than flowers and I think this year was much better than last.  My tomatoes were the most prolific, probably because I had about 30 plants!  I grew them from seed and rather than throw any out,I just planted all that survived.  So, no shortage of tomatoes.   This year I’ve also had potatoes, corn, parsnips,garlic, shallots, carrots, zucchini, bell peppers, cayenne peppers, Hungarian peppers, jalepenos, peas, beans, cucumbers, lettuce, fennel, spring onions and watermelon.  (Whew!)  In the herb garden I’ve grown parsley, oregano, rosemary, 2 kinds of mint, sage, thyme, chives, 3 or 4 types of basil and probably something I have forgotten.   So, all in all, I think it has been a pretty successful year.

Shallot Harvest

Ripe Tomatoes

 

As the tomatoes started to wane in March, I did some canning and ended up with red relish, green relish, chutney and tomato chili jam. In addition to that, I tried some pickled vegetables just to see what they come out like – we’ll see.  This month also brings about the beginning of the pigeon racing season and by now we are full swing into that.  The season got off to a slow start this year with the first race being cancelled due to bad weather and, for me, the second race brought a mixed result.   During the breeding season I followed the progress of one particular pair of nestmates as they grew from hatchlings until they left their parents (see Baby Pigeon Diary).  One of the two hurt a wing early in the pre-season and missed out on most of training flights, however she was healed in time to take part in the race so we sent her.  When race day came, one of the pair was the first one back home out of all of our birds and the other one (the one that had been hurt) didn’t come back at all.  So, I was a bit sad to lose her because she was a very friendly bird, but I suppose I have to learn not to think of them as pets!  There was also weather trouble the weekend of the third race and we lost another bird as a result, but there is a long way left to go in the season and hopefully the weather will improve for the remainder of the races.

One of our prettiest birds, “Skunk”.

 

One other note I’ll make about March is the little trip I took this week out to a place called the Waitakaruru Sculpture Park. This is an old quarry that has been converted to an arboretum and display area for local artists to show their works.  Every few months some of the sculptures are changed to showcase new ones.  Since the location is an old quarry bed, the terrain goes from quite high to way down low, with access provided by steps in most places.  It offers a bit of a workout if you walk it quickly.  My calves are still sore, ha!  On the way back home I stopped at another local attraction, The Hamilton Gardens, which features different themed gardens that are maintained year-round.  To me, the best time of year is to visit is spring, but even now in early autumn the gardens were looking very nice.  My favorites are always the Italian and Indian gardens.

Large Carvings at Waitakaruru

 

Italian Renaissance Garden

 

So, now the weather is getting cooler and we are looking ahead to April and thinking about the coming winter.   The leaves have already fallen off of the Poplar trees and are starting to change colors on the rest of the deciduous trees.  Jim worked hard over summer on the firewood pile and we should have enough for a couple of years, I think!  It won’t be long and we’ll be looking back wishing for the hot days of summer.

 

A Monarch butterfly alight in the Lantana bush.