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Sunday 3 March 2013

Weekend fun

It's been a funny weekend. Lots of rain with a few brief moments where I could get out and do a bit in the garden.  I have great plans but as I get wet enough while working I don't feel as if I have to do the same when it is for me. But I finally got around to doing a bit of a pot up which I am sure will make a lot of plants happy.

I finally re-potted my Epiphyllum or Moonflower cactus that I have been waiting an absolute age to catch and grab a photo. I mostly forget to go out and take a picture and it seems to want to bloom on the nights it is raining! But tonight I braved the wet and snapped a couple of photos.

The bud is tiny and swells over a week or two

I think it looks a bit alien
Finally the Epiphyllum opens
A pretty flower that is quite fragrant and opens for just one night
Then while I was potting up and planting a few things something unusual caught my eye.  I expect it is because of all the rain...

It is not the weeds (they are always about)
I expect there is a lot of fungal spores all over the garden
I was luckily given a boysenberry plant from my dad's cousin. However she would like the pot back.  So we drove it the 3 or so hrs up the coast in the car and left it on the drive to swap into another pot. After much pushing and poking it finally came out. Look what we found in the bottom of the pot (thanks Alison).


I did have a small freak out. Mr R and V bravely put the funnel web into a container and took it to the hospital (where they can milk them to make anti-venom). It was quite a bumpy trip where V did mention that if the spider came out of the box then there would be no one driving the car as he would no longer be in it.

Anyhow the chap behind the desk then started to shake the box about and declared it was actually a trapdoor spider rather than a funnel web. I believe the pokey bits out of it's tail are not long enough but it is indeed a female.

Finally I have added these last 2 photos of an apple pie I made with cheddar cheese in the crust as I know my mum would like to see how it turned out.  And to wish my Uncle Bob a happy birthday. Hope your weekend was adventure filled.




4 comments:

  1. Eugh. I can handle most spiders but that just makes my hair stand on end. We have trapdoors down here too (that look a lot more brown than that one but anyhoo) and the first time I dug one up I think I ran a mile when I saw it not 10cms away from my (luckily booted) foot. But that moonflower cactus is amazing! What a gorgeous bloom.

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    1. I know Bek, trying to get a photo of it was a bit of a test as it kept moving about. I am so glad I finally got a photo of the moonflower. There have been about 15 this summer and I just kept forgetting to go out to see it, not sure why they are so shy.

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  2. Hmm, funnel web. Do you know when I was a kiddy growing up in a very funnel web are we were taught as primary school kids how to catch them live. At that time there was no anti-venom and so our first funnel webs taken to the council led to the very first anti-venoms. Well done for continuing the service!

    Lovely apple pie!

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    1. It's funny how times change. Personally I might have left it but Mr R is a believer in not killing anything so he thought the whole process interesting. He grabbed his spider book to study the difference when he got home, so cute

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