The weather is hot and sunny right now. This is probably a good thing because Gnome is in the middle of pond digging. The first pond is almost done…just needs to go a foot deeper. The first part that I showed you last week has been lined with construction plastic, the sides have been weighed down with heavy rocks and taro and peanut have been planted. I am not going to show you a picture yet because it still looks like a messy construction site. We had to also fence off the whole area because the goosies thought that the new pond was a new swimming and socialising area. I had to chase them off with a broom when they started tearing up the planted peanut. Yes, those dastardly goosies are getting all feisty for breeding season and they are spoiling for a fight!
This is a picture of “Silly Goosie”; she is a bit of a loner and makes a weird “whir…whir…whir” noise as opposed to the more familiar “ghwaa! ghwaaa!” You may only appreciate my goosie communication observations if you are being surrounded 24 hours a a day by a gaggle of geese! Usually she walks about in the yard all the day talking to herself while the rest of them go off swimming. She seems happy enough.
Aside from digging in the dirt, Gnome has been air-layering to get more fruit trees for our newly organised orchard.
I have been planting black pepper cuttings:
The plan is to plant 10 to 20 vines behind the house to harvest enough pepper to use for the year. I have neglected the pepper in recent years and have resorted to buying white pepper…I know…that’s not like me at all!! The bought white pepper is bad quality and I just can’t get that lovely, Chinesy peppery flavour and aroma into my food. Time and time again, I am finding that money can’t buy everything and if I want something good, I have to do it myself! So back to looking after my plants and harvesting and processing…
