hot and warm this sun Day

cloud and rain swept over us yesterday

still following a template of rain and sunshine with a bit more emphasis on the grey side of the deck.

seeds planted appear very quickly and gardens are flourishing here on the south coast though some gardeners have been heard to moan about mould.

our  garden enclosure has been a wild teaming mass of  self sowers and stalwarts rhubarb chives sorrel and marigolds in a thick carpet of borage and rocket .

along the journey of weeding this luxuriant growth I have uncovered a couple of tomato plants a few beans a cucumber climbing and a bed of potatoes. the potatoes have benefited by having the weeds mulched  in around them.

I didn’t get around to putting in the spring/summer garden this year – no excuses – just how it was.

when we returned  from camping glenda who was staying with us  moved into the garden cleared a small patch and put in parsnip seeds.  in the early mornings while the day is fresh and new I clear the ground and plant. I am not certain the parsnips are up as they are unfairly advantaged taking as long as they do the weeds beat them to it and take over but fingers crossed. the yellow robins love me in the garden and call to me to stop so they can dive in and grab a worm.

I am adding what I can for the month of february though who knows what the season has yet to say to us. carrots beetroot endive mizuna , marcos lettuce,  silverbeet  – all tipping the soil and nodding at the world .

I have a snipper that comes into the enclosure long after I have gone to my bed – some creature prowls and plucks …snipping my parsley the beans a taste here a nibble there.

who are you? perhaps  a possum that finds a way thru our fishing net roof – could be birds – bower birds someone says , what about slugs? or how about bush rats ?

I am betting possum and am going to try out the live trap one night and see if it wants to go on a holiday. Possums are protected in this country , we may neither kill them nor eat them nor relocate them. well over the years one gets to try all sorts of things and eating one caught in the house one night proved to be very delicious. I hope you wont tattle on me and if your ears are offended by this admission then  find one of my kinder stories to read. 

this is their homeland this forest and I am the interloper so we try to come to some sort of agreement – they take their cut  and I place guards around plants I don’t want them to eat.

While eating them is an obvious answer to our too many of them problem we are at this stage of our evolution not able to go there. The only time it did happen was a bit of a fluke.

in NZ to which  they are not native being  shipped over from Oz they are considered a menace  and 1080 is the commonly used means of eradication. shame as they a great food source and the skin is a worthy piece of leather . there is an industry of sorts over there and they are making uncommonly good money by spinning the possum fur and making clothes – hats gloves cardigans combined with  wool it becomes a very fine garment.

once rabbits were considered a worthy food source and an entire felt industry owed them thanks but  then they  became  ‘pest’ and ‘noxious’  which led to a big problem . In 1950 the CSIRO found a solution and released myxomatosis ( a virus) which killed  99.8% of the then rabbit population . This was the first biological control of a pest mammal in the world. Since then rabbits have adapted  the virus has mutated and they are prolific as they ever were.

In 1995 there was an accidental release of calicivirus ( rabbit haemorraghic disease virus) that initially seemed promising ( not for the bunnies ) and it wanders blithely around  jumping species but totally safe to humans of course. The rabbits are still winning to such an extent that people don’t eat them anymore nor are their fur and skins valued products.

The news is that there is a new strain of calicivirus that is going to be introduced to deal with this problem . and so it goes on…

 

For some reason I am reminded of something I read the other day 

“Recent figures show that if current trends continue, the wealthiest 1% of people will own more than the remaining 99% of the world’s population by the year 2016.”

http://troubleandsqueak.com/2015/02/07/the-coalitions-war-against-the-people/

stats like this are hard to grasp difficult to imagine and almost impossible to counter.

the bunny the possum the weed are all useful in their own right . one wonders how useful the 1% are -whether they plant lettuce or watch a cloud scooting about on a windy day.

when we want to get rid of something  generally it is because we don’t know what else to do. we are oftentimes afraid of the lateral thought, the glinting possibility that we could think outside the box and utilise this situation in another way. it is certainly taxing me to consider the 1% wealthy situation and how this can be shared out a bit more evenly. what helps is knowing that wealth is a fabrication a substitute for the real thing  and that sunshine sky possum rain and veges are real products. So this leads me to consider that as one of the 99% on the planet I am very rich indeed.

I return my attention to living with rabbits and possums – the rabbits have gradually moved from the surrounding farmland into our forest so I guess the snipper could be a bunny. hadn’t given that much consideration and while I do look for scats it is difficult when the last manure placed upon our garden was camel poo .

I try not to get grumpy when they polish off the grapes on our verandah and or get woken up to hear them playing chasing on our roof . I try to believe  that we are an ark and that this is their safe haven – a place where they can be wild and free from pursuit – well at least until some thing crosses my line and I feel bound to defend.

I have to live with paradox with inconsistency with hypocrisy even – otherwise I would go totally mad. 

 I have to live with not knowing  and learning stats that frighten the stuffing out of me.

it helps that I am part of a global community that cares deeply and shares gladly 

oh well I guess I’ll go and pick a bit of rocket and basil some sorrel a few borage flowers some lettuce and have lunch.