Crimson pohutukawa - unfurling for Christmas

The pohutukawa seem to have sprung into action very suddenly - there are beautiful displays of the bright red flowers everywhere.  Although they were actually only native to the north of the North Island, they have thrived here in Wellington and have been planted extensively in the city.  Close-up the flowers are quite intriguing.  Clusters of hairy (tomentose) buds are grouped together, the white of the dense hairs contrasting with the green sepals and red petals at the tips of the buds.

The petals are modest compared to the crimson thickets that emerge - a central stigma and then the wonderful wiry red stamens in great profusion around it.  When fully open the stamens make an orderly array.  But these are crumpled and still in a bit of a tangle - as if they are just waking up and beginning to stretch in the light.

Feeling itchy and scratchy

Privet!  I am not ill disposed to many plants but this is one I would like never to see.  The name privet covers a number of different Ligustrum species.  They tend to be a pest wherever they are introduced because they are so very successful.  They produce squillions of little flowers that result in similar numbers of little purple fruit.  Birds at least appreciate them but then go on to scatter the seeds in their droppings, and the resulting privet seedlings then out-compete the native plants and anything else, and take over.  Privet is also poisonous to browsing animals, particularly horses.  And the sweet cloying scent of the little flowers is thought to be the cause of the nasty allergic reactions experienced by lots of people - myself included.

At least the bumblebees enjoy the flowers.  This one zoomed in as I took the photo, wings beating (and blurred) it paused for a quick feed then busily flew to another spray.  Here the flowers are just opening so they are not at their most allergy-causing - I quickly shot some photos and made my escape, sneezes on their way.

Like gorse, another pest, privet was introduced to New Zealand as a hedging plant.  The qualities that make them good hedges - robust, easy to grow, tolerant of a wide range of conditions and so on, are the very reason they were risky introductions - useful plants which turned into thugs.

There are a number of native plants in the genus Aciphylla that can be planted to defend territory because of a different thuggish defining characteristic - they draw blood.  No kidding - some have spikes that can puncture tramping boots. 

Don't mess with me say the formidable spines - here on top of a flowering spike, protecting the forming seeds, but the whole plant is defended by spines and sharpness. 

Maybe the spines evolved to stop moa from eating the plants - there weren't any other browsing animals around before humans arrived.   Apparently the roots and shoots of some Aciphylla are edible, but generally it is wise to give them a wide berth - falling into an Aciphylla is not recommended.

Yellow pohutukawa - a variant of the crimson "Christmas tree"

One of the recurring images used to represent summer or Christmas in New Zealand is that of the crimson pohutukawa in flower.  (The flowering season spans November to January, but most are in bloom in mid to late December.)  The yellow pohutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa 'Aurea') is seen much less often.  It was found in 1940 on Motiti Island in the Bay of Plenty, and was brought into nursery production seven years later.

This one, by Shorland Park near the beach at Island Bay, is flowering beautifully.  The flowers are spiky clusters of yellow stamens, and they are very attractive to birds and bees - tonight it was bumble bees and sparrows having a feast, and often it is tui enjoying them.      

It is much more subtle than the rich red forms with their range of hues from crimson to scarlet to almost vermilion.  I think of the yellow one as like a starter, stimulating our taste buds for the rich main course that is coming soon.

A walk on the shore - lots to see and lots to learn

A few evenings ago I was on my way home, but stopped to admire an interesting cloud formation over Island Bay.  Looking from the beach a line of lumpy clouds echo the lumpy shape of Taputeranga.

There were many seaweeds - red, green and brown, washed up on the beach and decorating the sand.  I thought the shape of this group looked like the outline of a large fish. 

Although they had mostly dried up and had been partly covered by sand, I enjoyed taking a closer look.  This seaweed looks brown but I know enough to know that doesn't necessarily mean it is a brown alga.  It had a red coloured fringing on some of the blades.  So I wondered - are they part of the seaweed or another one which has jumped on for the ride?

The force of the waves that dump the seaweeds on the beach is reflected in the number of holdfast anchoring structures that were evident.  This one had a multicoloured decoration of other seaweeds - very pretty.

There were more curiosities to come.

A little bladder-like structure amidst the seaweed debris.  One of many. 

Here it is more obvious - the remains of a bluebottle (a jellyfish, the long blue thing a stinger) and a sea lettuce (a green alga).  I think.

And what on earth?  The only thing I can think of is a sea cucumber, but this doesn't look like the few pictures I have seen of the local one. 

There's always lots to learn!

From the pyramids to Island Bay - Rosa sancta

We are surrounded by fascinating stories if only we knew or could hear them.  Imbued in the landscape are memories of events, often dramatic, from the past.  But plants carry stories and history too.  I grow a rose called Rosa sancta or Rosa richardii.  The flowers are single, blush pink, with a thick cluster of long golden stamens - very pretty but still quite subdued compared to the bigger brighter roses nearby.

But to me this rose is very special because it links us back to pyramids in Egypt, specifically to Hawara.  There in the late 1800's an English Egyptologist named William Flinders Petrie made exciting finds including the Fayum mummy portraits and many papyri - one, a great papyrus roll, contained parts of books 1 and 2 of the Iliad (the "Hawara Homer").  What you learn when you start reading about roses! 

But his rose-related find that links us with the Roman era in Egypt?  In tombs dating about 170 AD, he found floral funerary wreaths well preserved in the dry conditions.  And some of these wreaths included roses identified as Rosa sancta. 

Rosa sancta was introduced to cultivation in Europe around 1895, sourced from the collections of an Italian botanist in Abyssinia/Ethiopia where it was grown beside churches and monasteries.  It is robust but not a thug, and is happy as a low growing prostrate rose.  It is once-flowering and unfortunately the flowering this year has coincided with some brutal weather.  So the petals have been blown and battered, and are short-lived.  But the stamens make a lovely golden display, as befits a little treasure.

Morning balm

Early morning calm - muted light and soft colours before sunrise, over the still waters of Island Bay.

The sun is about to rise, and is colouring the wispy high clouds and low clouds over the horizon.  A lone fishing boat is moored by the island Taputeranga, both in dark silhouette.  The silvery patterns on the water reflect the subtle movement of the apparently calm water.  Before everything warms up and gets going there is quiet and stillness - balm to the soul.

Balance - and reflections on deep sea oil

In the last few years I have noticed the frequent appearance of constructions on beaches here made of slender branches of drift wood, balanced carefully.  Does this happen in other parts of the world too?  The ones made of driftwood are ephemeral, easily dislodged by the wind.  A more robust version of this phenomenon appeared at Owhiro Bay recently.

Three stones piled and balanced carefully on a tree stump on the stony beach - put together by hands unknown.  A rather special little sculpture. 

I reckon it is lots of fun to try and balance things, especially when it is challenging.  But when I see these constructions I see more than playfulness.  They could be a call for balance.  And we really are facing a challenge to be balanced in the way we care for the natural environment.  Even the vast sea is under threat from our activities. 

Our government gave the green light to exploratory drilling for deep sea oil in the waters around New Zealand.  So much for vision and future focus!  The Anadarko Texan oildriller is right now heading to a site in the Tasman Sea, off the west coast of the North Island near Raglan.  The Oil Free Seas flotilla of small yachts ( http://oilfreeseasflotilla.org.nz/ ) is occupying the site and tomorrow a "Banners on the Beach for Oil Free Seas" day is being held along the coastline to support the flotilla and protest this risky and inherently damaging venture. 

It isn't just that there is a risk of an oil spill - some modelling suggests that if something goes wrong, oil could contaminate beaches along much of the North Island's west coast.  Even if it isn't a Deepwater Horizon type gusher, a slow leak could cause incredible harm.  And goodness knows how they imagine they will manage an oil spill out on the open ocean, given the trouble they had with the grounded Rena.  I think they just cross their fingers and call it risk management.  All this in order to get more fossil fuels to burn, and accelerate global warming.  So it's two ways of damaging the precious ocean. 

The banners on the beach will read "Stop Deep Sea Oil."  I think we must try to find some sanity.  Our lack of balance in how we treat the environment means the changes we fear are already afoot.  Warming and increased weather extremes are already here.

So whoever makes these constructions and whatever their motivation, thank you for the pleasure of your imagination and flair, and for reminding us about the importance of balance.  And I think we are up to the challenge.  It could be a great adventure to find balance in how we treat this good earth.

The Endeavour - a David Austin rose

David Austin is an English rose breeder who has produced roses with the wonderful combination of a loose and romantic old rose form, strong perfume and recurrent flowering typical of modern roses.  The Endeavour rose was named after the Royal Navy research vessel commanded by James Cook on a voyage from 1769 to 1771 which included exploration along New Zealand and Australian coastlines.  Although this is described as a voyage of "discovery" both were already inhabited.  Interesting. 

Rose naming is also curious - what quality led to this name for this rose?

Glistening raindrops gilding (actually they look more like little crystals to me than gold) a beautiful fully open Endeavour rose.  The rich pink glows in the morning light and the rose has a delicious fruity/spicy scent. The bush is now in its first full flush of flowers - a late spring delight.

Low tide at Island Bay beach and an oystercatcher's catch

Low tide at Island Bay and the rocks were exposed, the seaweeds on them looking gorgeous.

Then my attention was caught by another favourite of mine - one of the beach's resident variable oystercatchers (toreapango, or Haematopus unicolor).  I love their bright orange beaks and eyes and their confident busy-ness.

This one had been peep peep peeping at some gulls, as if asserting its space on the rocks, then it went off foraging.  On rocks a little way out it had its beak down in the seaweed.  Then I saw it on the sand.

Success!  An oystercatcher with an oyster.

Crunch!

And off to find more goodies. 

They eat a lot as revealed in this interview -  http://www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/native-animals/birds/interviews-about-new-zealand-birds/oystercatcher/  and of course despite their name they eat a lot of tasty morsels, not just oysters.

Oystercatchers are wading birds found in coastal regions world-wide, and the different species are very alike.  The variable oystercatcher is endemic to New Zealand - it is just found here.  Although the population has increased since it was estimated to be around 3,500 in 1994, it is still rare.  This bird is one of a pair who live on this part of the beach.  They will be nesting now.  Each year a chick is produced.  It grows up and departs but the parents stay, and we get to enjoy them.

A fishing boat returns to Taputeranga Marine Reserve (?!)

Fishing was an important factor in the development of the Island Bay community.  In the early 1900s Shetland Islanders, no strangers to rough seas and harsh weather conditions, arrived in Wellington.  Island Bay, close to the fishing grounds in the Cook Strait, was a good base for the Shetlanders who took up fishing.  Many immigrants from southern Italy had settled here too, and also fished from Island Bay.  There are a number of Island Bay fishing families - generations have been involved.  People recall how you used to be able to get fresh fish on the beach when the fishing boats returned with their catch.

So there was quite a lot of debate about establishing a marine reserve in this area and concern about the impact on the fisher people.  No fish are to be taken from the reserve.  But we still see the fishing boats come in, the seagulls wheeling above them.  How can this be?

At sunset, with the South Island (Te Waipounamu) in silhouette, a fishing boat returns past an arm of Taputeranga and some rocky outcrops into the shelter of Island Bay. 

When the Taputeranga Marine Reserve was established, provision was made for the existing moorings in Island Bay to remain.  So the fishing boats are able to travel out beyond the marine reserve boundaries, but return to the shelter of the island Taputeranga for mooring.  And the Island Bay connection to the sea is enhanced by the increasing richness of the sea life protected by the reserve.  It's all good!