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Monday, July 21, 2014

The Visitor.


For Ms Jayda...
Today we had an early morning visitor.
Had we known there would have been an extra friend for breakfast, we would have been prepared.

She is a swamp wallaby.









and then she hopped away...

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Organic Gardening on the Island

 
This year we have had the best results with our summer produce.
We don't use any chemicals at all.
Instead we net some beds and we are fortunate to have one special natural bug remover...
FROGS !
 
This one is on an eggplant. They are all through the garden beds, eating all the freeloaders.
 


A green tree frog in the frangipani tree.
 
A newly hatched cricket we just happened to see.
Amazing wings and colour.
 
 
 
 
A cicada just hatched.
These live underground for 17 years as a nymph and crawl to the surface and hatch and lay eggs.
Life cycle when hatched is short.
They are the biggest we have ever seen them this year and incredibly noisy!!

 
You can see the shells of the ones before, that hatched (left).
 

 
They appear white / pale but later have a brown patterning as they mature.

They attach themselves to the trees to hatch.
 

Fully emerged and drying its wings.
(click on image for a bigger pic).
 
You can see the size of the Cicada in my hand and its developed colours.
Totally harmless too.
 
This butterfly was caught in the greenhouse. We let it out and landed on the Hibiscus -
what are the chances of getting this shot?
You can see the pollen on his wings as he feeds on the nectar (yellow pollen).
 
The budding rose bush.

This was planted in memory of June Rose.

And she's blooming this year.
 
Lastly, the two knuckleheads. You know them !