Category: Comments from Farside

Visiters Beware!

It may be just about the first day of spring, so they’re really early, but the gaggle don’t care, they’ve already starting laying. Senior goose has a nest from which I’ve already sneaked four eggs (about 8 days worth) and sister 1 and sister 2 have thoughtful looks on their faces as they prowl up …

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An Odd year So Far

Weatherwise that is, and it has been. For several months at the start of the year it was very dry. Not a real drought, not where I am, but much drier than usual. (Tararua is a good place to farm, the weather evens out better, fewer dry spells, fewer floods – although there’s no wind …

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Hammering On

That yellowhammer may have adopted me as provider. On the fence bordering the front lawn I have what Andre and I used to call the “cat TV tin.”  That’s where suitable household scraps go for the benefit of the wild birds. (The the household cat/s sit and watch it through the window as small birds …

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Weathered…

It looks as if forecasts may have been right about this winter. They said that temperatures would be milder and thus far they have been – something that is showing signs of continuing since it’s now officially spring. On the other hand after the drought we had over the start of the year, rainfall stepped …

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Home Again…

…to the huge delight of a large cat. Thunder heard us arriving and was already flat on his back in front of the door, paws waving in the air as my friend and I walked in. We dropped luggage and cuddled him as demanded – Immediately! Since I got back a week ago he’s been …

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Hammered

And anent my blog last week on the Bamboo Clump birds, the Yellowhammers are back. They seem to come and go, I see only one at a time although I’m sure there’s a pair, and sometimes I don’t see them for weeks. But when one shows, it’s unmissable. The first time I saw one just …

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Cat-Parked

It’s gone very wet this last week or so and the Bamboo Clump birds are turning up more often to share the hen’s wheat. Not that I or the hens mind that. Back when I built the cat-park for Rasti, the original cat here, I also planted a clump of bamboo in the corner of …

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Wooden It.

Yes, I can say that winter is now here and that has been heralded by firewood arriving for the coming cold wet months..and by much physical effort, some of it mine. Several cords were dumped on my lawn outside the woodshed and I was left to heave it from lawn into the shed. Last weekend …

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Mus Minimus.

Temperatures dropped solidly for last Friday and Saturday, and – every ready to be cyclic, it’s supposed to do it again this coming Friday/Saturday. But with cold snaps I get mice. It’s a given that farms have mice. And as soon as it chills down, the farmhouse has mice. Last weekend both mousetraps sprang into …

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Busy for Thunder too

Yes, he had a great week a couple back.  A long lost relative (and partner) arrived and to my spotted friend’s delight they were cat lovers. He landed joyfully on the settee between them and was cuddled, scratched, stroked and petted for an hour and a half. When they left he followed them to the …

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