Sunday 18th October 2015

Waiting, waiting, waiting....

Hello friends and family
The week got off to a grand start with a trip to Oamaru to collect potting mix to plant the tomatoes for the season. They are doing well. Chris and Hiltrun came up on Tuesday and we enjoyed having Raewyn and Hugh for dinner. 

Now the apple tree is taking centre stage in the garden

Wednesday was my day for volunteering at the TopTip shop and I was pleased to learn that I will be able to get raw milk for cheese making next week. The weather has been great and so I will be able to extract the Varroa treatment from the hives this week and begin gathering honey.

On Thursday Nola came out and did her first trap round. It was the first round for this spring and it is good to know that the predators have options as the burrowing sea birds return to nest.

An unusual visitor - a Californian Quail

On Friday, Chris, Hiltrun and I did the nest rounds and were very concerned to find 2 abandoned Yellow-eyed penguin nests. We have fostered the eggs out and hope they are still viable. There is nothing else that we can do when this happens. Last year we had some success but it depends on how cold the eggs get.

Cute Bunny

We put artificial eggs in the abandoned nest so if the parents return and settle, they get their own eggs back.
Have a great week!
Rosalie