Cicadas

It is definitely the height of summer here - the scent of barbecues is in the air every evening, the gardens around us are a riot of colour, and the cicadas have hatched. We went all of a sudden from nothing to the almost deafening sound of cicadas in all the trees and bushes around us - they start up just as I'm heading to work, and keep going until the sun has gone down. After not being able to see any last year, this year they seem to have lost their shyness, and are clinging to anything which could be remotely seen as being tree-like. The neighbours' wooden fence was covered in them when they first hatched, and the telegraph poles still have a number clinging to them all the way up. One even came and investigated our washing (though it didn't like us peering at it, and flew away rather rapidly). They really are beautiful



The stick insect (well, I say 'the' - I don't know if it is the same one...) came back to the olive tree as well.


The garden is definitely being successful - I have dug up the onions, and pickled a whole load of them, the chillis are storming away (I have at least three different species growing at the moment), I have been eating tomatoes most days this week, the olives and lemons are growing, and even the fig is getting in on the action - there is one solitary fruit growing, but I'm not going to hold my breath, as I've got to this stage with figs before and they've always fallen off. I'm hoping that the warmer weather here will help it on its way!

Light posting...

I'm afraid that posting is going to be light over the next few weeks - work is getting incredibly busy, and all of the various clubs and societies are now back again after the summer break. So, usual apologies in advance.

We've got our new pieces for the April orchestra concert - we are playing Schubert's 6th Symphony, Ravel's Pavane pour une infante défunte and Mozart's Clarinet concerto. The oboes don't play anything in the Mozart, which is actually a good thing - both the Ravel and the Schubert are full of oboe solos, and the usual first oboe is going to be away for the concert, so I get to do them all by myself... I think I'm going to have to fit some time in for some heavy duty practice into the evening schedule! The pieces are lovely (or will be when we aren't sight-reading), so I'm really looking forward to getting my teeth into them.

I did get to take part in a fine Wellington custom this week - Wellington is known as the Windy city for a very good reason, and this week we had winds of over 100kph for a few days. Due to the way that the buildings are laid out, you can often find that the wind comes at you from multiple directions at once, which can be very interesting, to say the least. However, let someone who is not from the city, such as the Australian supplier who came over for a meeting last week, comment on the wind, and the response is usually along the lines, as both my colleague and myself said, at pretty much the same time, "This? It's just a light breeze..."

Chrysalis update...

I've been keeping an eye on the Monarch chrysalis on our fig plant - it has been hanging there, green and gold all week, blowing in the wind, dripping in the rain rain as well as basking in the few sunny days we have had.

Then, this morning, it had changed colour:

The wings of the Monarch were clearly visible through the 'skin' of the chrysalis.

So - I kept on popping out all day to keep an eye on it, then, in the last hour, this happened:


You would never think that something so large could fit into something so small!

I left it drying its wings, and when I came back out to pick mint for dinner, it had moved round the tree.


It was tentatively testing out its wings, as well as trying to find the best position on the leaf.


Unfortunately, it had a lot to learn about the Wellington winds (something that a caterpillar can safely ignore!), and as it was trying to swing itself up on top of the fig leaf, it fell off and started crawling round my olive plant.


As I know that there is at least one spider round there, I decided that I wasn't going to be the ethical naturalist and just stand by, so I put my arm down and let it climb on.

(apologies for the blurriness of this one - I am very right handed, and even taking a photo with my left hand was difficult!)

It crawled around for a bit, but seemed to show no inclination to take off, and the little barbs on the end of its feet were actually rather sharp, so I let it back onto the fig tree. Even though I put it on the top, it decided very quickly that it wanted to go back underneath (probably more sheltered and less visible to birds)


One curious thing that I noticed - this butterfly had only four legs! I'm not sure whether the final pair was folded behind the wings (I didn't see them when it was exploring my arm) or whether something went wrong when it came out of the chrysalis or even when it was pupating.


I hope it does survive - it is such a pretty butterfly!

Picture Post

I know - it's been two weeks - sorry!

From being very quiet a couple of weeks ago, the social life has now bounced back after the summer break, and everything is busy again!

We took a trip last weekend to Stonehenge Aotearoa with the Sci-Fi group.


This isn't just a replica of the Salisbury Plain Stonehenge, but is of itself a working henge, aligned to its position in the Southern Hemisphere.

There is a beautiful central tile to align yourself with everything:


From there, you can look through the hole in the central obelisk, which is aligned to the South Pole:


Next to the Obelisk is the Analemma - the white tiles mark the north-south meridian, and at 12.18pm (or 1.18 in the summer) the shadow falls on the yellow line which gives the day and the current zodiacal sign.


Just outside the main circle is the Moon Stone (which marks the maximum extent of the shadow that the obelisk casts in a full moon) and behind it is the Seven Sisters, which mark (when standing on the marked spot next to it) the point where the Pleiades rise - also known as Matariki, they mark the beginning of Maori New Year in June.



Outside the circle are six heel stones - when standing in the centre of the circle, they are in line with the horizon, and they mark the rising and setting of the sun during the equinox and solstices.


The countryside around the henge was beautiful - there were only a couple of farmhouses in sight. I can't wait to go back at night (at some point, I'll try to see if any of the astronomical societies who use it are having open evenings) - the amount of stars visible when there is so little light pollution must be stunning.





Then, on the Sunday, I went out with a colleague and her husband around the Waiuniomata Water Reserve. This is normally closed to visitors, due to the need to avoid contaminants in the water supply, but for eight days a year, you can take guided tours of the reserve. The forest was stunning - rimu and rata trees towering overhead (there were others, but my memory isn't good enough to remember what they were called!)















We learnt of the history of the reserve as well about the trees and plants - the huge amount of work that went into providing drinkable water for the Wellington region.

To dig this 3.2km tunnel, which links the Orongorongo Valley to the Wainuiomata Valley (and their respective water supplies), huge efforts were made - they had to transport the materials 45 km around the valley to the mouth of the Orongorongo river, and then a further 22km up the river bed. There were two teams, one working on the Wainuiomata side, and the other on the Orongorongo side, meeting in the middle; the skills of the engineers were such that they met exactly - not bad for something finished in 1924!

We had the Ongaonga, or New Zealand Stinging Nettle pointed out to us:

If you fall into this, then it's not just a case of a mildly painful rash - the Ongaonga is very poisonous, and has killed at least one person. One of the volunteer rangers, the one who pointed the nettle out to us, said that he had been on a tramp (NZ hike...) with his group, when one of them had fallen into the nettle. Despite wearing trousers and overtrousers (it was raining), he was badly stung and had to be helped home where he was ill for a week. Not a plant you want to tangle with!

On our way back to the car park, we spotted a beautiful dragonfly on the ground - it was huge!


Speaking of insects, my fig tree has got a guest...


I'm going to be keeping a close eye on that for the next few weeks - I'm looking forward to seeing what emerges!

(EDIT - a quick Google search tells me that it is the chrysalis of a Monarch butterfly...)

Not much happening...

The summer sun is shining (sorry to those in the Northern Hemisphere!), the cicadas are singing (though not as noisy as last year - I think we must have been in a mass hatching year - the difference is really dramatic) and the garden is green.

On the right are (front to back) Mrs & Mr Kiwi, the Luffa (in the middle of the picture - it has to be out of the way of any other plant, otherwise that questing vine will find something to twine against - it is very Triffid like in its quest - it would be interesting to see it on a BBC type time lapse photo, as I know it moves rapidly; I moved it twice off the lawn on Saturday, and it had moved back about 90 degrees between morning and mid afternoon, and then mid afternoon to evening. It was windy, but not *that* windy!), the Fig (by the watering can), then behind the Fig are the Lemon, Feijoa and Olive (is it a photography crime to have a tree growing out of a tree's head?). On the left is the army of chillis (in front) and tomatoes (behind - though they have now been moved into the greenhouse for their own safety - something is nomming up the tomatoes faster than I can eat them - the current score is Pest 3 - Jo 2...)

We had a garden visitor at the weekend - this large stick insect was on Mrs Kiwi:


Apart from that, it really has been quiet. Back to work - as though the holidays had never happened. None of the clubs and societies are back yet, so there has been a lot of DVD watching, a bit of craft work (I'm waiting for a final bit to arrive from Trademe before I can show you...) and a lot of relaxing. Very welcome!

Ngā mihi o te Tau Hou ki a koutou katoa

Happy New Year to you all.

May 2011 be full of peace, love and joy, with enough time for some fun along the way.

I've enjoyed a relaxing week off of work, and even managed to get up to the Hayward's Scenic Reserve again for a two hour walk - I found a track that I hadn't spotted before, and ended up sitting for five minutes listening to the sound of the cicadas and a Tui singing its heart out. There are worse ways of spending a New Year's Eve.

Christmas Break

A belated Happy Christmas to everyone! We have had a very lazy few days; we didn't end up getting to the beach on Christmas Day due to one thing and another (getting up late, opening presents, popping over to the neighbours for a quick chat which lasted an hour and a half), and ended up spending the afternoon over at a friend's house discussing the world and everything in it with him, his daughter and son-in-law. He has the most unusual Christmas tree - his flatmate has a life size Dalek, and they had decorated it with tinsel and bows. Sadly, I didn't have my camera on me, so you will just have to imagine the sight! It was a very gentle and relaxing way of spending Christmas.

Boxing Day included a trip to the Garden Centre (very domesticated!) - I had been given vouchers for Christmas, and, as they had a Boxing Day sale on, I thought I'd take full advantage. So now, in addition to the olive, feijoa and lemon trees, I also have a fig and two kiwis (kiwi fruit are one of those which need a male and female in order to get fruit). I am getting a veritable orchard!

Yesterday we took our first trip to the cinema since we arrived in NZ, to see Tron Legacy. We also saw it in 3D, the first time that I've been to see a mainstream film that way (3D shows at theme parks and specialist ones at the IMax notwithstanding). Overall, it was a fun 'popcorn' film. It wasn't setting out to make any deep and meaningful statements on the meaning of life and the principles of existence. It was a simple 'good vs evil' film, with many overt nods to Star Wars (bearded Jeff Bridges in a robe looked uncannily like Alec Guinness, and one of the weapons near the end had the potential to be a light sabre) as well as the original Tron film (which I haven't yet seen - one to add to the library list). The 3D was beautifully done - nothing hugely flashy, just added depth to the background, and stunning 'up and over' in the chase sequences. The music was fantastic (I'll be getting hold of the soundtrack), and a lovely nod was having the band, Daft Punk, cameo in a scene where they needed DJs. Whilst it may not be a film which changes the world, it was a very pleasant way of spending a few hours.

After the film, we went out to a restaurant which a friend had recommended. Han River is a Korean restaurant in Lower Hutt (no website, otherwise I'd link to it). It's the first time that we've eaten specifically Korean cuisine, so I wasn't sure what to expect. The restaurant was pretty much empty, but we did go to eat at 6 pm, so it wasn't surprising. The food was delicious - we had dumplings and radish rolls to start with, then a shared main course, called a 'Steam Boat'. This was a small wok set over a small gas burner filled with a broth of beef, dumplings, glass noodles and vegetables, which we ladled into our own bowls with rice and a selection of cold side vegetables (I am very intrigued by the pickled Daikon, and will have to attempt to make some of my own!). The flavours mixed together very well; there wasn't a high level of spices (my choice, as I have had a few issues with heartburn over the last couple of weeks and didn't want to aggravate it by choosing something which could have been overly hot), and it was a very tasty meal. We finished up with a dessert of rice-dumpling-cakes stuffed with a nutty ice-cream (the outside of the cakes was a chewy paste rather than being crunchy) and a 'Persimmon ice', which, rather than being the sorbet we had assumed, was actually a whole Persimmon which had been frozen and then stuffed with ice-cream! Overall, it was a superb meal, and, as we took advantage of the BYO status to provide our own wine, cost us only $60 for all three courses. We will definitely be going there again.