How to attract native birds into your garden

1. Buy a Telecom cellphone.
2. Download native birds to your ringer tones.
3. Press play repeatedly.
4. Vary bellbird, tui, and morepork "bird calls" alternatively. You will soon discover morepork is best used in darkness. Although it may also attract attention from your neighbours.
5. Native birds fly around and around and around - quite confusedly but around and around nevertheless.
6. Vary your "bird calls" by moving around the garden and pressing "play" from various locations. Close to trees works best.
7. Repeat until you think "this is not really fair to the birds - but it's amazing how well it works."

The bark man

The bark man came at 8.00am or so today. I was having a shower. It was a little embarrassing for both of us. I said "oh, I didn't think I would be your first job". He responded " your not, I start work at 6.am. Your my second job of the day." I paid him cash. He gave me a receipt. This is how you deal with tradesmen or anyone in fact. Cash goes a long way.

Now, shovel by shovel I deposit the bark on to my garden in various stages. This is not as as easy as it sounds. Well the shovelling of the bark is.

However. I have to prepare the soil first. Fertiliser it with blood and bone, sheep pellets, potash, epsom salts. Then I have to water this in. Followed by the ritual layering of the recycled newspapers. More watering and then the layering of the bark.

There's a long way to go. I have to intersperse little afternoon sleeps because it gets so hot. The trick I think is to get up early do a few hours and then do the key work beginning and end of day.

It will be worth it.

Bark chips

Today I ordered a truckload of barkchips. To be technically correct not actually a truckload of barkchips but a truckload of amenity garden bark. This is to put on my amenity garden. Heck, I may as well have ordered a truck load of gold. It costs $75.00 to deliver and so much per square metre. That is, $75.00 delivery for a 10km or so distance and back from Oldfields. I can't remember how many square metres fit in a truck - I think it was 10. Anyway, all up this is costing over $400.00. The alternative is hiring a trailer at $20.00 but then that only takes a cubic metre or so. So, its actually cost efficient in the scheme of things to order the bark. It will also reduce labour hours, make my garden look nicer and be more sustainable in terms of water retention. Its not cheap being sustainable.

The amenity bark will be delivered tomorrow. My garden is not quite ready for it. But I figured get the bark and that will spur me in to more action. This is the theory. I hope the truck fits and tips down the driveway.

The barkman sounded on the phone a bit rough and ready. I need to perfect a technique for dealing with suppliers and tradespeople. There's an art to it. And I haven't quite practiced it enough.

As someone is now officially unemployed and therefore no money going in to my bank account this week or for another three weeks or so I don't have money to be spending on barkchips.

But I need to get my garden in to shape.

In quite tragic news the tree fern I purchased with money from my last employer has been going brown and I have to chop some leaves off. It needed much more water - so it has suffered a bit of a rocky start. I hope it survives and that new leaves grow.

In other financial news I rang the Tax Department today. Yes, my student loan is payed off. In fact I am in credit by about $400.00 or so. Unfortunately, it takes them 10 days to send a tax form to me to change my tax code! Still, at least this should mean when I do become employed again I have about $300.00 or so each pay extra.

Money is on my mind.

Maori potatoes

Yesterday I harvested my first Maori potatoes that I had grown myself - these were even sprouted by me having been left over from the "Ellis Freidman" barbecue last year. When you dig them up its like finding black gold. When they are cooked though they go super and penetrating purple. They are nice but I quite like the basic standard old spud. They do they make a superb contrast in colour on the plate with fresh pan fried groper and tomato salsa.

I had groper at Stokers, vineyard the other day. That restaurant is good value and nice people - plus Gladstone vineyard is making an effort to be sustainable. Sometimes the Stoker lady sells Irish soda bread at the market. But one reason for this is she and her husband are Irish. It's nice to eat out but I reckon my groper is pretty dam fine when I pan fry or bake it. Probably helps we have the same fish source.

Speaking of the market yesterday it was packed. There were also numerous morris dancers in attendance. Hmm. I don't get morris dancers.

My village is being invaded with summer tourists. The market is packed and then go Moise's for coffee as I usually do at the weekend and a read of magazine - and the people at the next table are discussing their holiday home and how their wife appeared the hot section of the Sunday Star last weekend. I now consider myself a "local". Although really I am a Wellingtonian too, I guess, just not when I'm being a local.

Roses

I've been weeding today. My roses are doing Ok given they survive amongst weeds for periods of times. But I can grow better roses. I have grown better roses. I can grow show roses that are as close to perfection as you can get. This is beginning to annoy me that my garden is not as good as I can get it. I let my life get like that sometimes too. Well, things are going to change. I'm going to improve the state of my roses and the state of my life.

The annoying thing is that the four new roses are on their way to being of the standard I expect from my roses for their age. Maybe I can use that positively, and they can set the benchmark. I purchased them from the californian garden centre in mirimar. I need a few to replace a couple I have lost. I willl be going back there next year.

The only constraint I have with the roses currently is contravening the water ban. But I'm going to. Apparently there are water meters in place so the council will have evidence i Have exceesive use. This is my only sustyainable flaw. My excessive water usage. But flowers need water to grow. Mulch does help but its not enough.

George

Yesterday on the train home I had a victory with George. George is a train guard. He would be mid fifties possibly late fifties early sixties. He wears his hair shaved short. He wears oversized shorts. His manner is abrupt to say the least. When he asks for tickets he says "Tickets pleeeeeeeeeessssssssssse" in a Hitler type lisp. The key thing is the please ends with a defiinite hiss. I would be kinder on him if I thought it was genuine lisp but I do not think it is. It's just something he's developed. I have one positive thing to say about George and that is that he is consistent. However, this consistency applies to his rudeness to all Tranzmetro customers on all services. He is consistently rude to all customers whether they are regular or not, whether they are abled or not, and whether they are young or not.

George seems to think he rules Tranzmetro and the railways. He is in fact a train bully. I really should lay a complaint about him, but I'm trying not to buy in to the culture of complaint. Although this entry is a little contradictory to that. Ironical. However, I want to publicly savour my minor victory over George while alert potential customers to him should they be travelling on public transport.

On New Years Eve he was extremely rude to an elderly passenger who clearly doesn't travel that often insisting she had the wrong ticket. The moment was saved when Jenny (the lady guard - and who deserves her own entry) came along and said yes, she had sold the lady a ticket. He never apologised for his rudeness. Although Jenny did to the old lady. The point was that it should have been George that apologised.

The thing I've noticed about George apart from his consistent rudeness is that he also seems to get the Sunday and Public holiday shifts. I suspect this is so I can get the increased pay.

Anyway, George was on "guard" on New Years day on my return trip home. As I passed him before I boarded he advised me that I needed to put my bag in the bag section of the train up

the front of the train. I didn't see that this was really necessary as the train was not full but thought I would comply so handed it to the "other man on duty" (who also deserves a separate entry) and answered his question that I was getting off at Carterton.

When I arrive at Carterton I went to collect my blue bag. George insisted it wasn't there. I said it was. He asked me to show him which was my bag. So I did. It was the blue bag. He then said it couldn't be my bag because it was was in the Masterton luggage section of the carriage. So, quite pissed off and not to be intimidated by George on the first day of the year, I said

"Well, I told the other guy I was getting off at Carterton. As you know, I get off at Carterton every day, so why you think I wouldn't be getting off at Carterton today beats me. And besides, you saw me carrying this bag before I got on the train"

It was a small moment of victory over George. He smirked. But I knew it was smirk of defeat. I knew I had verbally beat him and this small verbal victory felt very sweet as I walked off into the Carterton sunset with my blue bag.

I realise that I am supposed to adhere to anonymity, least I be charged with slander or whatever, but George needs to be named and shamed. If you encounter him, please fight the cause and stand up to his rudeness!

Happy New Year "Anyone"

To celebrate the New Year I have enabled the feature "anyone" can comment. That is, you can comment anonymously. I didn't realise that this may have been inhibiting freedom of commentary until Homeperm alerted to me to this fact. So, "suck it up" as Strongerlight has advised me and comment! I helps me know that I have a readership out there.

Well, 2008 is here at last. It promises to be a great year. Last night I watched the moon set at Hikoi over Kapiti. I also had the delightful experiecne of enjoying a Morgue organised event. That man Morgue knows how to get the people and the sounds together. DV3 and the Scotsman provided superb sound grooves. Even though I never danced, I did enjoy the music. It was also nice to be invited into the wider Morgue clan. There were fireworks and converstaions with people who know how to catch paua. It was nice to share the end of the 2007 and the begining of 2008 with such good company. I'm still adjusting to that moment when you meet someone from the blog community in real life. But thats I first met Morgue! Oh, its was a tough call between the Nash lady and the great downward sand dune race - but I thing the sand dune race won for highlight of the last day or so. It reminds me that its the free simple pleasures and the ability to play as adults that remains important - and sharing friendship.

So, I've decided it would be good to list eight things that I will do (or not do) in 2008 - eight coming from the 2008. Here they are not necessarily in sequentila order, but eight things I will be able to place on the 100 things I need to do before I die. Eight seems doable. SO, here I go:


1. Learn to scuba dive so I can catch crayfish and paua.
2. Get fit and loose weight.
3. Resume boxing.
4. Wear a size 14 black dress.
5. Go for a Hot air balloon ride.
6. Allow myself to get in a loving relationship
7. Increase my annual salary by at least $15,000 within the next 12 months
8. Read 15 books and write at least 500 words per day.

There you go. I will achieve that list of eight by 31 December 2008. This will mean significant change in my life of proportions I have not achieved for some time. But I've decided its time for this amount of change.

Here we go......Happy New Year. Let's enjoy the year. It will be awesome, energising and invigorating.