Well, it's almost the end of May, and that means almost the end of of Autumn. Orion's Belt is moving further and further north in the night sky, the Southern Cross much higher off the southern horizon and much easier to see from the valley floor. The winter solstice is less one month away and the sun has been scooting across the northern sky with only a few hours on the house in the morning and a few in the afternoon. And that's when it hasn't been raining. The Waitakeres have been living up their name (falling water) and the ground around the section has been pretty satch for the last month. Temperatures are dropping too - we had our first ice on the car windscreen day last week. The fireplace has been getting a good workout courtesy of our supplier of kiln dried untreated off cuts. And it's not yet even winter proper!

It's been a season of visitors, and not just of the human kind. April was the month of the duck, with hundreds of mallards flying in to spend the day on our front lawn and driveway. As the acorns in the house oak tree ripened we were visited nightly by a possum feeding on them, dropping branches and acorns on the roof throughout the April nights. On the avian front we were also visited by wood pigeons (also feeding on the acorns), pukekos, eastern roslleas, moreporks, tuis, piwakawaka, waxeyes and chaffinch.

The chickens continue to do well, albeit down in numbers after one unexplained death in the coup. The remaining eight are in full feather as they head into the cold months, following some dramatic moulting late in the summer season (feathered one day, partially bald the next).



One benefit of the rain has been softer ground, and the beginnings of the path down the northern side of the house has been started and the ground next to the chicken coop is ready for the construction of a long needed shed to house the growing number of garden implements being acquired.

Next Blog Post - Winter at The Roost.

a bientot