Old Jam

I found some old crystalised plum jam in the fridge, so I put it out for the wax-eyes.

It's been a year since the last time I filled this little glass pot up. As I scooped the jam in, the teaspoon dinged against the side of the pot. Immediately I heard a sharp 'peep' from nearby. I began counting the seconds. After 29 seconds a bird had arrived in the tree. By 46 seconds, it was eating.

This one clearly hadn't visited this food source before. "Do you get it from underneath?"

"Buzz off! It's my turn! I'll work it out by myself. "

"Ah, This is the way. Yum."

Mystery Plants

1

2

3

4

5

6

7a Close up of small tree (below)

7b

Can anyone help me identify these plants and/or trees? I met them up in that wonderful Wharepuke Tropical Garden in Kerikeri. They were numbered but some of the numbers had worn off. I copied the brochure list of species, so even if you know roughly what it is, that might be enough of a clue.

I confess that I do know what no. 5 is. I just put it in to see if you do.

Beauty in Unexpected Places

Image by Chris Gray.

Thanks to 'Look Around You'. for finding it.

Feste

One of my favourite literary characters is Feste, who plays the 'wise' fool in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night or: What You Will. Unfortunately I cannot now imagine him played by anyone but Sir Ben Kingsley, who, I was delighted to learn, can sing. And indeed, more than well enough for the role.

W.S has included some exceedingly fine songs in this play for the singing. 'O Mistress Mine' is one of the few sombre moments in the play.

....What is love? 'Tis not hereafter.
Present mirth hath present laughter.
What's to come is still unsure.
In delay there lies no plenty,
Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty.
Youth's a stuff will not endure.

The Tour de France and Me

My connection to the famous Tour De France cycle race goes back a long way.

When I was in my early twenties I went to the UK with the intention of doing a cycle tour. On arrival I went into the nearest cycle shop, which happened to be in Chesham Bois, and looked at the bikes. I went for a sturdy-looking one with not too many gears and aluminium alloy wheel rims. I bought a small tool set and a spare inner tube. The bike had a name. Eddy. I didn't name it this; it was written on it: "Eddy Merckx". At the time the name meant nothing to me. In my colonial ignorance I didn't know that this famous Belgian had won the T d F no less than five times - no small feat. The year I bought 'his' bike, 1978, was the year after he lost the 'one tour too many'.

But his bike proved marvelous and I rode it from Chesham to a delightful tiny village called Yielden near Rushden where I found work as a rousie, tieing fleeces. After work and on rainy days when the sheep were too wet, I house-kept and cooked for the shearing gang boss.

After a month or so when the shearing was over, I jumped back on my bike and went back to London. Well, actually I skirted London and ended up in Rye on the coast. I biked (with a friend) all along the South Coast, avoiding Southhampton by getting on the ferry to Ryde, biking across the Isle of Wight, then taking the ferry up to Lymington in the New Forest.

We went as far west as Fowey (via Avebury, Salisbury and Winchester) then came back to Plymouth for a while.

Taking off again north across Dartmoor then Exmoor to Lynton and Lynmouth, we walked around the coastal path there and explored the lovely Valley of the Rocks before plunging down Porlock Hill (and going through a complete set of brake-pads) on our way back to London.

Me peeking over the battlements of Dartmouth Castle

The whole trip took three months and was really wonderful. We camped in fields (like that one above, near Powderham Castle), cooked over a little burner and had stand-up washes in pub loos. The weather was kind and I was fit and brown and glowing with good health by the end.

That was my Tour d'Angleterre avec Eddy.

My connection with the Tour de France continued when in 2003 I discovered the quirky and surreal French animated film "The Triplets of Belleville". I enjoyed this tremendously. Briefly, it is a story of a T d F competitor who is kidnapped by French mafia and taken to New York (thinly disguised as 'Belleville', but recognisable by a fat hamburger-munching Statue of Liberty), to be the object of an illegal betting game.

He is finally rescued by his old grandmother Mme Souza and dog Bruno, assisted by the former music-hall singing Belleville Triplets, now themselves elderly women.

Un jour, je vais voir le vrai Tour de France peut-être.

Spot the birds

Last Sunday just after breakfast I was sitting at the picnic table in front of the first tree opposite the little beach settlement of Kaiaua, just north of Miranda. I had with me a telescope and camera. There was thin cloud, a cold brisk wind, and it was about 90 minutes after high tide. This information is included so I sound like a proper twitcher.

With the help of photoshop, with which I've stuck three images together and moved a few birds around, I present to you, this panorama.

I was there mostly to see the first bird: the Eastern Curlew. An unusual visitor, it should be up in Russia breeding by now, and rarely comes to New Zealand at all, even in summer. It's the biggest wader with a wingspan of over a metre, and there are only about 20 thousand left. Look at that magnificent decurved bill (down-curved beak).

There are eight other avian species in the panorama. I've enlarged them. Spot the little ruddy turnstones near the caspian tern and the two NZ dotterals directly above. There are only about 1700 left of these.

The ducks probably find the beach a safer haven than the inland ponds at the moment. Don't worry ducks! Duck sooting season will be over soon (5/5 - 31/7).

The last image, as you have probably guessed, is not a wader at all, but a member of the domestic cat family. There are plenty of these left. In fact, they are probably not likely to be endangered anytime soon. This one was directly across the road behind me and had been watching me with interest the whole two hours I was there sketching and photographing.

Eye Candy Day 23