SOPHIE

.

This is a small video I took on my phone back in March of Sophie telling us that Kim the Cat is in the kitchen and going to eat her food.  I tried to post it then through the desk top but it didn't work so just tried now on my phone.  Hope it has worked.

AT LAST

When Doug and I got married and Kim the cat and I moved in we had Kim and Doug's Labrador/Retriever Sophie separated with Kim having full run of the lounge and my bedroom and barriers to keep Sophie out.  As Doug used to have trouble with neighbouring cats hunting the birds he fed he always encouraged Sophie to chase the cats and suddenly there was one living in the house.

The barriers stayed up for over a year and there is still a child's gate on my bedroom door as that is where Kim is fed.  

Finally this winter they are tolerating each other and a few nights ago this.....

they are back to back but only a couple of inches apart in front of the fire.  Kim usually gets to the fire first as she appears as soon as she hears me light it.  

Long may it last.  

WEEKLY WALK

Although our trip to Tiritiri Matangi was cancelled for yesterday the weather was quite good so we did our weekly circular walk from home.  I have just set my phone up with Samsung Health to measure the distance I walk and discovered that this walk is 5.77 km long.  It also gave a graph of the elevation of our walk which fits in with the height of the Whangarei Falls at 26 metres.

I think we are getting a reasonable work out.  The weather has packed up today (should help fill the dams).  Not the best for Doug's daughter who is moving up here from Orewa today.

There has not been a break in the rain today - not usual for here.

VEGETABLES AND CANCELLATION

The first of our winter vegetables have now been in the ground for three months and we have eaten all the pak choi and spinach and been enjoying the swiss chard and brocolli.  The brocoflower and Italian brocolli are  also coming on as well as the later planted beetroot, leeks and more swiss chard and spinach.

Tomorrow we were due to go on a bus and boat trip to Tiritiri Matangi, an Island bird and animal sanctuary.  Unfortunately, the forecast for tomorrow is not at all good and the trip has been cancelled.  They hope to run it later in the month.

KERERU or Native Pigeons

The pigeons are in place on their branch.  The large one looks a bit paler in the photo.  Doug was quite keen to paint them but they are made of Corten steel which is designed to rust quickly and can not be painted.

Anyway here is the finished result.

FANTAIL

Doug was going to make something to put on the blank wall at the end of the new sun room but, last week, we saw some metal birds advertised and bought a couple of different sized Native wood pigeons.  These came with a free small fantail.

The idea is to hammer them into a tree trunk but as the fantail is so small one would be hard pressed to see it so the obvious place to both of us was the front of the garage.  

The branch it is on is actually in front of the wall not straight on it.

Doug is at present working on the support for the branch that the wood pigeons or kereru are to go on  so watch this space.

CAT DOOR TO KIM'S RUN

When I moved here Doug built a run on to the outside of the house by my bedroom and we had a cat flap put in the window.  This has worked very well.  Kim is locked inside at night. 

In fact it may have worked a bit too well as the curtains ended up getting very dirty where she came and went at night.  I have just bought some new curtains and Doug has built a frame to go around the cat flap so that the new curtains stay clean.  It should work.

                                               With the curtains open.

                                           With the curtains closed.

                                              I put some bubble-wrap over the door.

It didn't take her long to get used to pushing through the bubble wrap.