Now that M2 is back safely at home with us, we plan to have a double celebration party with a garden barbecue tomorrow. Firstly, to mark her return and secondly, to celebrate her birthday, which falls on Wednesday.
However, the skies and weather have other ideas to thwart our plans. It has been raining a lot, unusual during this time of the year. Even today, it rained this morning and looking very gloomy. And there is a forty percent chance of rain tomorrow as well.
How are we going to have a garden party with such unaccommodating weather? We’ll have to cross our fingers and hope Mother Nature will be kind for a lovely double celebration.
There seems to be no reprieve with the ongoing MCO lockdown. As such, the garden weeds have sprouted uncontrollably because our external gardener is not allowed to come in.
So we have to tend to the garden ourselves with our limited resources to curtail the weeds’ rapid growth. However, it is not enough. I find myself battling with weeds just about every day when I want to be outdoors for some sun.
Look at all that nasty Creeping Charlie plus some others
For someone who once wasn’t keen to venture out of the house, much less tend to the garden, I guess the lockdown can change a person. I suppose this is another good thing that came out of this situation. We have to look at the brighter side of things. Having said then, we wait with bated breath for the MCO status, whether it remains as is or will be relaxed.
It’s a week already that M2 has returned and under quarantine. Staying in a modern and comfy room in the city, with three meals each day, I’d say so far, so good, although all she does is eat, sleep, talk to us, and not much else! At least when we talk, we are in the same time zone unlike, when she was still in Ireland on a seven-hour time difference with us.
Soon another week will go by quickly, and she will be truly home. Yay! We plan to have a celebratory garden barbeque for the occasion. Time, hurry on faster, please? I can’t wait!
Our doing something during this lockdown is the daily baking and cooking; throw in the daily efforts on the DIY project and chipping in the garden is not sufficient to pass the time. And we don’t sweat enough but end up eating more instead because of all the food efforts.
We decided to work on the garden again, focusing on the area at the side of the house. The plan is to convert a tiny plot to become a vegetable patch.
But before we could sit down to work out the idea, we jumped ahead and made another area into a pineapple patch!
Our pineapple patch!
Hubby relocated all the pineapples to one plot instead of being in pots and scattered around the garden. I think they look good being there. Furthermore, the plot is easier to protect from the squirrels. Remember that one time, the rascal of the squirrel ate our pineapple right in front of our eyes?
We look forward to the day the pineapples are ready to be harvested for our consumption.
My recent improvement in golf is due to the YouTube golf instructor that I have been following for the past 11 months. There is an abundance of golf instructors out there on YouTube. It’s just a matter of preference and style, and whatever suits your ability.
Initially, I followed Shawn Clement but, later, found his methods do not quite suit my ability. So I surfed and discovered two other instructors, Danny Maude and Chris Ryan. However, it was a toss-up, and I ended up with Chris over Danny. And I’m glad I stuck with him.
My short game improved, my drives are further than ever, and my ball striking is getting better. Pretty amazing what one can find on YouTube for self-improvement and self-enrichment!
But with the current MCO in place, all that improvement has been wiped out, having to stay at home and no golf ever since my last game on 4 May. The only consolation is I can still do chipping in the garden for up to a 20-feet distance.
After the recent pineapple theft right before our eyes by the garden squirrel, hubby took no chances with the latest pineapple as it is almost ripe and ready. He had put a wire mesh around the fruit as it grew to protect it from the squirrels. Of late, squirrels have been visiting us.
Last week, hubby set out a cage trap intended for a suspected rat intruder in the wet kitchen area, but a silly young squirrel fell for it instead. It wasn’t a big-sized squirrel, nor was it the scalded squirrel. He let it go because the furry critter did look rather cute but not our intention to trap it. Then several days later, two squirrels was simultaneously trapped! Two, I thought it was quite a feat.
I suspect the critters are coming around because there are fruits in the kitchen, and they can smell the enticing fragrance of ripe fruits. Thankfully, we are one step ahead of them this time, and our fruits are not compromised.
But with the whiff of the ripe fruits, we have to be careful, and since the current pineapple is almost ready, hubby decided to harvest it. I think it should be two or three days before we can savor this fruit of his labor.
And yesterday morning, the scalded squirrel had a brief encounter with me. It contemplated coming inside the house as we left the terrace door wide open. We had a short staring moment, and I won as I got up, causing it to scurry off.
Again out of pity, hubby left a piece of bread for the poor squirrel. I hope the birds will not eat it and continue pecking at their provided bird seeds. The things we do for our garden visitors.
Our garden is a sanctuary of sorts for all the critters in the area. Birds flock to our place for bird seeds provided on a timely schedule, squirrels romp here hoping for the same fortune as the birds, and earthworms make a mess of the garden surface while having a galore underground. The smaller critters – the bees and caterpillars enjoy the nectar and leaves at their own pace without any disturbance. It is a very fertile and happy place.
Recently we spotted an injured squirrel from the kitchen window. Unfortunately, I was too slow with the phone to get a picture. The poor thing looked like it got scalded for its tail, and part of its face and body is missing some fur with the bare pink skin showing. The poor critter is constantly looking very frightened and wary of the surroundings and still surviving.
One day, hubby – out of pity – threw out a piece of bread for the injured squirrel to eat. It came around and sniffed at the bread, unsure what it was. It is evident bread is something that is not in the squirrel’s natural environment. It even sniffed at the surrounding plants, wondering if the bread fell off from one of the nearby potted plants.
We couldn’t wait for it to eat the offering and left for the office soon after. That night, when we got home, the bread is gone. I am assuming the squirrel ate it, and we have not seen it since. Hopefully, it gained some strength from the offered food and is recovering well. We have to keep a lookout for it to appear again.
It looks like our other papaya tree is finally fruiting! Yay. Just when we thought we would not have any papaya to eat after chopping the big tree down to a manageable height, the newer six-foot-tall tree has come to our answer.
Will this tree give us papayas to enjoy?
The young papaya tree failed to pollinate several times. Previously, there were lots of flowers, but nothing more. This time, I guess the insects and bees have finally cooperated, and there are fruits now. Let’s hope the fruits will grow. We will have to monitor to ensure that the squirrels don’t get to them.
Our papaya tree has been very fruitful. We have had an abundance of fruits and have given away much of the yield. But good things must come to an end.
Two weeks ago, the largest fruit fell from the tree before hubby could pluck it. Thankfully, it did not cause any damages to the potted plants on the ground, nor did the fruit explode upon impact.
We both agreed that after harvesting the last few fruits, the tree needs to be shorter. Otherwise, it will be hard harvesting future fruits standing on the top-most step of the nine-foot ladder. Currently, the tree is about 20 feet tall!
So we spent a fruitful (pun intended) morning trimming the tree down to a more manageable height. It will be a while before we can have some papayas from the garden.
Capping the once towering but now shortened tree with some pots
The battle with the pesky woodpecker continued for several days. In the end, we humans won. How did we do it?
There were no more new holes in the staghorn ferns, but there was a show of who is more superior. Every time hubby stuffed the opening with garden refuse – the bird would somehow remove all the stuffing! One evening, we discovered torn newspapers on the ground when we came home. How clever the pesky woodpecker.
The mess made by the woodpecker
After that episode, hubby decided to spray water-based repellant on top of organic vinegar, and this double dose only worked for a short period. The woodpecker was very determined. Hubby deducted it must be pregnant and ready to lay eggs, hence the urgency to make a home. Otherwise, how do we explain the persistency?
So we changed tactics and upped our defense. Hubby decided to stuff the hole with eggshells, recycled from his baking! We figured if newspaper pieces, leaves, and twigs can’t do it, perhaps something sharp and more potent as a stronger yet natural deterrent. The eggshells will provide nutrients for the plant and, at the same time, prevent the woodpecker from causing more damage.
Eggshells are a good deterrent
It was not easy to stuff the eggshells upwards, but they held. After several days, this latest effort proved to be successful! The pesky woodpecker has not been heard or seen. Perhaps it found another site to make its home and lay her eggs. Well, wherever it is, we hope it won’t come around to our garden and spoil hubby’s prized staghorn ferns in the future.
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