Odd cucumbers, tomatoes blowin’ in the wind
AND that’s another weekend come and gone again. Welcome back for another fiveday stretch of the weird and wonderful, the bewildering and bedevilling, the nonsensical and nutty.
My apologies that there is now a bit of a backlog of stories and photographs which I had planned to use last week. But all those fascinating, sobering memories of the Wahine storm just had to come first. I think you’ll agree they made for compelling reading.
Talking of wind, how did you all fare in that howling northeasterly yesterday? That cold, gusty wind can be unpleasant along the coast and in Dunedin at the best of times, but it was positively disgraceful yesterday afternoon. It was a relief to get in the front door of the Allied Press building and escape.
Crossing the pedestrian overbridge over the railway line actually turned into a rather harrowing experience. It was exhilarating to start with, the wind filling my jacket and flowing back down past my arms and making me look like the Michelin Man (if anyone remembers that). But then I could see the gusts blasting through the trees along the railway line towards me and I had to hang on to the rail to avoid being blown off my feet.
Even from this building I could see the scaffolding around the First Church steeple visibly swaying, and the feisty breeze was hustling and hurrying pedestrians around corners before they were ready.
Sounds like it could be a windy week, so best put your concretesoled shoes on.
Misshapen fruit and veg
After seeing the photograph of Gordon Cameron’s double cucumber, Mikhail Keniya from Calton Hill emailed some pictures of fruit and vegetables in unusual poses.
‘‘Being a keen gardener I also see many kinds of strangeshaped fruits and vegetables,‘‘ Mikhail writes.
‘‘This season I had a cucumber plant with two stems fused together, making an ‘8shape’ in crosssection, growing all the way to the top (1.5m high) and producing fused cucumbers as well. These types of growth anomalies are not so uncommon, especially with stressed or frostbitten plants.
‘‘I am more interested in the artistic point of view — I’ve attached a couple of pics as an example.
‘‘One is indeed just a cucumber with the shape notsoodd by itself, but in the vase I like the shadow it drops. The tomato with a side ‘beak’ appeared on one of my greenhouse plants. I put it upside down on the top of other tomatoes which made a kind of ‘tomatoman’. A small hat on top, perhaps a nasturtium flower, would make it even better, but it might spoil its alltomato outfit.’’
Bird behaviour
Norm Hewitt of Green Island is bewildered by bird behaviour.
‘‘Perhaps your readers who are super sleuths can solve this one for me.
‘‘I have numerous plants, bushes and trees in my front garden. At 14:15 hours, for approximately eight minutes, a fantail was trying get through the lounge window, hitting it several times before flying away. Is this normal?’’ Thanks Norm. Can anyone explain it? We had a similar problem with silvereyes a few years back. Several birds outside flew at fullspeed into our upstairs window — a couple were dazed and recovered, but a third one broke its little neck. It was very sad.
Back to monarchs
There’s lots more to share on monarchs, and butterflies generally, this week. The other day I saw a couple of monarchs floating above the Roslyn overbridge, catching the warm thermals rising from the top of Stuart St. I also saw another drifting in the wind close to Moana Pool, although it looked like a large leaf falling at first.
Jacqui Knight of the Monarch Butterfly New Zealand Trust has emailed to thank all the ODT readers who passed on sightings of the butterflies in recent weeks, either individually or through this column.
She has also sent a few interesting answers to questions which are worth sharing here, including facts about their transformation into butterflies from caterpillars.
‘‘Firstly, the monarch larvae (caterpillars) leave their plant and find somewhere on which to pupate (make their chrysalis) because they sense that they will be safer there from predators and parasites. Rhubarb leaves, and the like, make excellent umbrellas, too, and give plenty of protection from rain and frosts.
‘‘Monarchs don’t make cocoons. A cocoon is when a moth larva spins silk around itself as protection for the third or pupal stage. Monarchs and other butterfly caterpillars actually shed their skin — so for a minute after it has pupated, you could say you’re looking at the insides of a caterpillar, until a cuticle forms over it to protect it.’’
Jacqui says in Auckland there have been virtually no monarch eggs or caterpillars sighted for getting on for two months now.
‘‘It must be to do with the environment or weather. So we’re glad they’re thriving in other parts.’’