Curl

 

There was a little girl
And she had a little curl
Right in the middle of her for'head
And when she was good
She was very, very good
But when she was bad…
… she was 'orrid

Like chasing wekas for instance.

She has been a good girl all day today supervising gorse grubbing and the local builder lads doing some finishings I'm not equipped or skilled to do. All the door and window architraves are finished.  Worth the cost - I'm better at hacking out gorse and blackberry.

NZ used to regulate against 'noxious weeds' - things you had to take positive steps to control on your property (nodding thistles for example). That's changed to some rule about not have certain plants within 10 metres of your boundary. Gorse is one of them. My land is long and narrow - 10 metres each side doesn't meet in the middle but not by much. So far no one has seriously challenged me about our gorse (and generally speaking no one really can - people in glasshouses throwing stones and all that) but I want rid of gorse and blackberry anyway - blackberry more than gorse. Blackberry is really invasive; the long running vines can take root at the ends and the plant compartmentalizes so that if you kill one end, the other end doesn't  die. It just makes a new plant.

My blog posts have been a bit random lately because I've been spending about 5 or 6 hours a day hacking out pernicious weeds and there's not much story in that. I get tired (but I'm developing muscles like Popeye) and struggle to find energy to make nutritious meals. Fortunately for me I don't buy easy options when I'm shopping (too expensive for rubbish nutritional value quite frankly) so I simply have to apply myself to the process of meal prep - like it or not.

Today I have nearly finished clearing 4 metres in from my uphill boundary and it will enable Scully to scoot up into the neighbour's place to chase rabbits. She won't catch any (no bunnies harmed  in the making of this entertainment) but they might feel exposed enough to move away from my vegetables and fruit trees and go find somewhere to exist with less harassment.

On the other hand - I've been telling her Brer Rabbit stories. I know they aren't woke but I've modified the language.  She needs to understand the wily mentality of Brother Rabbit. Born and bred in a briar patch.