White Tail closeup - Photo a week challenge

I had meant to take my camera up the road and try to find a good hibiscus to photograph, but I don't tend to take my camera running with me and didn't get around to walking the block up.  Plus, there should be better flowers in bloom closer to the sidewalk next week.

I spotted this weeks photo on the outside of our bedroom window today (Sunday the 27th....cutting it pretty close to get my photo this week!).  I really wanted to get a picture of the spider from the inside of the house, as the light shining through it's thin legs was very prominent in it's white stripes.  However, the camera refused to focus on anything except the cars on the other side of the window :(  So, I opened the window and leaned around to take a few pictures of one of the very few critters worth avoiding in New Zealand.

27 May: Small White Tail Spider,
moments before death by poison spray

 White tail spiders are usually feared to cause painful bites that tend to become necrotic. However, many web pages say the spider is rarely to blame for a wound becoming necrotic, that other factors may come into play.  All web pages say the bite is painful and can cause swelling.  So I went ahead and sprayed this little guy with posion, just to keep him out of the house.  I felt a little bad, but we often leave our windows open during the day to air the house out.....and I don't really want him biting my sensitive skin!

Neighbor Flower: Photo a week challenge

It's been a pretty wet week here in Thames. I'm not sure a day has gone by that it hasn't rained at least once.....until today that is.  Finger's crossed that the clouds sitting high in the afternoon sky don't turn dark in the next few hours.  I'll be so annoyed if it rains on the hundreds of socks that I hung out this morning, when the sun was so warm in the clear blue sky. 

This grey uninviting weather makes it that much more obvious that winter is nearly here.  So I find it quite amazing that admist the dying plants and autumn colors I should find a tall bush of large pink flowers!  Even taken with a small camera phone, you can see that they are absolutely gorgeous :)

Unknown Flower; Sandes Street corner: 19 May

Knitting: photo a week challenge

I relearned to knit this week!  I have craft dates with Dave's mum every Thursday and this Thursday she tutored me in knitting.  So, Friday afternoon I decided to keep with my sedentary mood and start the shawl project I had yarn for. Little did I know that wrapping the yarn into a ball would be just about as much work as the knitting process!!!! I think it took me an hour and a half to wrap and untangle the thin, sticky yarn I am using!  But, I now have a large ball of lovely yarn....it looks just ready for a kitty to come knock around!

11 May: The beginning.....

After finally corralling all my yarn into a tidy ball, the next step was obviously to start the knitting.  Okay, maybe wrapping the yarn won't be the most time consuming part of the project......see that little triangle of work on the right needle?  Yep, that's about an hours worth of knitting!  This is going to be a long project......

Strawberries! Photo a week Challenge

I finally got out in the garden yesterday! It was a gorgeous winter day (yes, winter has fully hit - it's freezing at night and Dave has lit the fire the last 2 nights).  The sun, however, is still quite warm and it was nice to get out in it and get some soil on my gloves :)  I didn't get around to planting my turnip and onion seeds, but I did clean up my strawberry plot! The 5 plants that I purchased back in Nov/Dec have turned into nearly a hundred plants!  Okay, I didn't count them all, but there have to be at least 50.

The strawberry patch is a perfect place for the plants to take over, they are under the grapevine, are in the only place to still be getting sun, and the space has never been used optimally for gardening.  However, the strawberry runners were going a bit extreme - getting tangled in the bird netting and spilling out of the garden and onto the footpath.  So, today's photo shows the haul of strawberries I planted out yesterday! I've left a few  runners attached but able to form roots in pots so I can move them later, but this is the majority of my culled plants. They were looking pretty wilty after a day of sun yesterday, but a crisp night has perked them up again.

5 May: Baby strawberries in morning light

 Oh, and my strawberry patch is producing again!  I've laid down quite a bit of slug bait, so by the time these babies ripen I might get to eat them!