An evening walk with Otto and his friend

 

It is still spring and yet it feels like summer has arrived here. The temperature was 27 C yesterday and it is the same today. There is no humidity and not a cloud in the blue sky. We have all the windows open to let the gentle breeze in to cool the house down.

By evening-time yesterday the temperature was very pleasant, so I decided to go out for a walk around the garden with Otto. We were soon joined by Otto's friend, who we think is a neighbour's cat, or maybe a stray.

We call him Ginger or Gin-Gin, but he is very shy and won't come any closer than 5 metres to us. 

I managed to get a long-distance photo of him which I enlarged. It is rather out of focus, but here he is. He is rather a cute cat with a sad face.

The cinerarias and nasturtiums are in full flower now and I love the contrast in colour between the purple and the orange.

The grape vine is creeping over the feijoa bushes again. We let it grow wild and it produces many kilos of red grapes each year. Plenty for the birds and for us. 

We cook the grapes to make juice which we use to make kissel, a Russian dessert, which is quite delicious. Which reminds me that we still have 4.5 L of grape juice in the freezer to use up from last year.

I discovered a patch of comfrey that has planted itself under the grapes. Comfrey is great to use as a fertiliser as it is very high in nitrogen. But I don't fancy the putrid smell of rotting the leaves down in water to make the fertiliser.

Here is Otto. It is very hard to take photos of Otto because he is so lively and doesn't keep still very often. But I managed to take this one of him.

I think Otto and Ginger are about the same age, still quite young. They play together, pouncing on each other and making trilling, purry meows. Then they run up trees together. It is lovely to watch Otto with a companion since we lost Abby.

While I was walking I saw quite a lot of wildlife in the garden. Rabbits, Canada geese, quail, pheasants, rosellas and of course the pukekoes. I wasn't fast enough to get photos of them though. 

It is lovely to be so close to the wildlife. Very enjoyable and relaxing.

Here is a view over the canna leaves towards the orchard where the trees are now green. 

I need to pull out the kikuyu grass which is starting to swamp the cannas. It is a crazy grass that smothers everything in its path. (I always find things that need to be done in my photos!).

The mock orange (philadelphus) is flowering beautifully this year, and the scent it gives off is glorious. I wish the flowers would last longer so that I could pick them to bring into the house.

I shall pick some of our pink roses instead 😊

I shall leave you with another blurry long-distance photo of Otto and Ginger kissing. They do really like each other. 

Mum has just told me that Ginger came into the house and walked past her in the sitting room and then out through the window. He was very scared when he saw mum, but he is being quite brave coming into the house!

I hope that you have a great rest of the week. I will see you again soon.

Hugs, Rose x