In the back yard this morning waiting for breakfast to pass by. More info on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantis
Category Archives: Xanadu
My Canon G9 is disassembling
Rain has it’s uses — a vine covering our sheds is bursting into bloom.
Sometime this week I noted that the front panel on the G9 is parting from the body leaving a gap that invites dust and moisture. Can’t remember when I bought it but it has been an excellent still and video camera. But time has made it slightly redundant, especially the manual focusing feature — very primitive.
Will have a look at the Panasonic GX-1 today — main criteria are changeable lens (they have Leica lens’ options) and manual focusing.
Bromeliads
Bromeliads are common here at Xanadu — here are a few examples. Many are considered noxious weeds in Florida because of their mosquito breeding potential.
More on Bromeliaceae at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bromeliaceae
The rain has some benefit
Easter lily
Compost
A relatively mild day here at Xanadu – temperature 250 C, humidity only 65 per cent, no rain but threatening so ideal for some compost movement. Emptied two bins and moved contents to a staging area for it to dry out for eventual sieving and then moving to the next stage prior to distribution. Here’s a pic of the bins – black tub at bottom-right is the new worm farm – uber productive.
The bins take a mix of kitchen scraps, garden refuse such as leaves, shredded paper and larger soil that won’t pass through the sieve. To keep the mix moist, I add litres of fish water from the twice-weekly change. Takes about two months to fill a bin and another two months to mature. With six bins and three staging slabs, space is no problem. The snap below is fresh from two bins.
This one is a staging slab for oversized sievings and greens such as hedge clippings. As it breaks down I remove the woody pieces and recycle the residue into the compost bins. Despite this process, we still put out a green recycling bin every two weeks.
And here is the final manufactured soil, rich in earth worms, ready to distribute on the vegie garden (a bit late for sowing but we’ll get something to eat).
A late hydrangea
A single, subtle bloom outside the back door.
Something clicked in both of us this week and gardening has resumed – principally weed clearing from the vegie bed. The worm farm is producing many litres of ‘worm tea’ and weeding precedes distribution. And there are barrow loads of manufactured soil from the compost bins to be spread.
Lily
Striped Marsh Frogs
Limnodynastes peroni
Light rain overnight and early this morning, and we have our voracious frog calling for a mate. As it becomes warmer, the chorus increases in numbers until we get the annual complaint from a new neighbour about the peculiar noise. This morning’s caller:
The original tadpoles came from Garden Art in Five Dock and took three years and a number of return trips before Beryl coaxed them to maturity. Cooked lettuce was the successful tadpole food. We didn’t know what they were until I took a recording into the Frog and Tadpole Society meeting at the Australian Museum (worth attending to observe very keen frog lovers). Soon we noticed a dramatic fall in snail numbers – this frog will attack and eat anything up to its own size. Marrickville Council established a Golden Bell Frog sanctuary at their nursery – wiped out by the Striped Marsh invasion. During my early morning summer dog walks I hear them, spreading wider and wider, and have been told it is a very favourable sign that our local ecology is encouraging a return of fauna and flora species that were wiped out in the 20th century.
Some quotes
A large wetland-dwelling frog and voracious hunter, this frog eats almost any animal smaller than itself, including small frogs. Its distribution extends along the east coast from Queensland to South Australia. It is most commonly associated with wetlands and permanent water and shelters among reeds and other debris. Males call from the water concealed in vegetation or sometimes concealed under the egg masses. The call is a single short soft explosive note … a “tock” or “poc” with similar inflections to a hen’s “cluck”.
Male frogs of many species do fight, particularly in species where good calling or breeding sites are more likely to result in success. Males also tend to fight more often when females are uncommon at breeding sites. Many species of marsh frogs (Limnodynastes) are known to engage in ‘male-combat’- and that might be the reason that male marsh frogs tend to be larger overall, and have much bigger, more muscle-bound arms compared to females. Larger individuals tend to be more successful in these wresting bouts, and the puffed up bodies many be an attempt to look as large as possible, and hence maybe scare off the competitor.
The garden
I have begun clearing some of the over-growth and intended to work on our vegie bed this morning but too wet. Maybe tomorrow.
Sourcing those esoteric food needs
I was interested in yesterday’s SMH Good Living recipe for ‘Tomato and chickpea soup’ and came across this comment:
Finding fire-roasted crushed tomatoes
Q. I am having trouble finding fire-roasted crushed tomatoes for a recipe. What can I substitute?
A. Oh boy, can we relate to that! Just the other day we were looking for some 4.36-ounce, malt-infused, wasabe-scented, sliced-on-the-bias, free-range, southern-Washington-state, line-caught, hand-massaged salmon fillets for a special recipe, and in the end, we just used salmon. We suggest you use crushed tomatoes. (It drives us crazy when recipe writers specify foods that are all but unobtainable — and act like it’s the most reasonable little request in the world, and that your food won’t be worth eating unless you kill yourself trying to do just what they say!)
You could also roast a few tomatoes in a pan on a grill, slip them out of their skins, and crush them yourself. Or try the following recipe from one of our favourite new cookbooks. If you’re competent to follow a recipe that absolutely requires fire-roasted crushed tomatoes, you’re certainly competent to roast a few tomatoes yourself.
Oven-Roasted Tomatoes
From Not Afraid of Flavor: Recipes from Magnoila Grill, by Ben & Karen Barker. Preheat oven to 250°F (120°C). Cut tomatoes in half, toss with olive oil to coat, and place, cut-side down, on a baking sheet. Roast for 1-1/2 hours, until the tomatoes are soft and have just begun to exude their juices. Cool, remove the skins, and pack into a container. These are delicious tossed with roasted or grilled vegetables, in soups, and with simple pastas and risottos. They keep for several days, refrigerated.
Striped Marsh Frogs
Are singing again after the rain last night — a sure sign that summer is approaching.
Striped Marsh Frog (not working — has bombed out and can’t find the original file — will rerecord)