Tuesday, April 2, 2013

First came flora, now comes fauna ;)

"Pip-Squeek" one of my baby Lavender Belgian D'Uccles

Hey Everyone,

Sadly in February, a 12 foot long Carpet Python got into our chook pen and proceeded to kill a total of nine of our hens, over the span of a few nights.  Our chook pen is usually filled with a bunch of menopausal old broilers, all of which have their own names, whom we love dearly, and are allowed to live out their "Golden Years" just being chooks. So it was really sad when during the week I found three of them on different days that had died unexpectedly during the night.  When I found the first two I thought it had just been a coincidence, and that they had died of old age, however when I found the third, I got worried.

The night after I found the third hen I took my sister down to the chook pen to show her my new rooster that my neighbours had given me.  But when we walked into the pen, with the little light on my iPhone we both pooped ourselves because hanging down from the rafters of the pen was 3 gigantic big coils, presumably part of a snake.  So we both bolted up to the house to get mum, who would know what to do.

Long story short.

We came back down, snake was gone.

Later that night (10:30pm) I was in the house and all of a sudden the chooks started squaking loudly so I race down to the pen, grabbed mum en route, to find my favourite hen being hung from the roof in the coils of a carpet python.... yeah, we weren't happy.

In the process of getting it out of the rafters and into the feed bin, we saw that the blighted had killed a total of six hens before we'd run down, mum got bitted, and the snake NEARLY got it's head chopped off with a shovel....

Once we got it in the bin, we chucked it in the ute and took it for a drive down the road to the nature reserve.  The next day dad and I fixed the chook pen up like fort knox, so now hopefully a snake/fox wont get in.

Understandably mum and I were really upset by this, so we have now proceeded to go a tad crazy, and have bought quite a few more chooks since then, including Belgian D'Uccles (Mine), Pekin Bantams (Mums), Hatched and bought roughly 22 Quail chicks, 4 Indian Runner Ducks (Mums), and 2 Buff Orpington Ducks (Mine).  Most of which come in all different colours.

While I'm on holidays I'm going to try and get a nice photo of each of the chooks, so that I can post them up on here to show you my babies, and also so that I can show my other friends.

But I guess for now, I'll just have to show you the photos that I've already got, and I'll go into detail more about each of the chooks, and their stories in other posts because this one is starting to get a bit long, and I've got to go to bed because I've been gardening all day today, and have work tomorrow.

Some of Mum's Pekin Bantams
My Blue/Gold Mottle Belgian D'Uccle pair
One of Mum's Silver Laced Wyandottes
Well, I'm off to bed, and until next time,
Happy Gardening,
Michael

Monday, April 1, 2013

Eastern Districts Orchid Society Meeting - March 2013


Doritis pulcherrima var champorensis
Hey Everyone,

yeah yeah I know, Long time no speak... no surprise there... I'm going to just give up saying that, and just write what I do, when I can :D.

Life gets amazingly busy sometimes, aint it a fickle thing, LOL

Well, I attended my wonderful societies March Meeting last week and as per usual it didn't fail to please.

There was an impressive number of plants considering it was the Easter long weekend and a lot of people would have gone away, and of course with the Brisbane Orchid Society Autumn Show set up being on the same night as well.

But, it'll definitely be our time to shine this weekend when we hold our annual Autumn Show.  It's amazing, and it's always good fun, with plenty of plants for sale, and on display.  Fingers Crossed, I might even win a prize :D


Well, on with the photos :D

Miltassia Supreme
Ascocenda Ken Kone
Doritis pulcherrima var champorensis
Oncidium Butterfly Papilio x sanderae
Paphiopedilum gigantifolium x praestans
Paphiopedilum Maudiae Dawn x Red Maud
Paphiopedilum primulinum x roebelinii
Paphiopedilum Mary Franz Smith
Paphiopedilum Mary Franz Smith
Paphiopedilum Snow Squall
Phragmipedium Westmount
Phragmipedium Lynn Evans Goldner
Phragmipedium Green Hornet
Phragmipedium Green Hornet
This Bulbophyllum had a name on it, but I couldn't find it anywhere on the Royal Horticultural Societies database so for now it'll have to remain unknown to me

Dendrobium Albertine
Cymbidium canaliculatum
Cymbidium canaliculatum
Dendrobium Enobi Purple
Dendrobium Masako Taki
Dendrobium Salaya Candy
Dendrobium Salaya Candy
Dendrobium Sonia
Rhynchosophrocattleya Glenn Maidment
Brassoepilaelia Golden Spice
Vanda lamellata
Vanda lamellata
Bulbophyllum careyanum
Bulbophyllum grandiflorum
I know I've seen these before, and it's a species.... but I forgot to take a photo of the tag so I don't have the foggiest Idea of what it is :) LOL
Closeup of the above plant
Epidendrum porpax.  This thing had HEAPS of flowers, but I just loved the positioning of these comparative few... it most certainly out-shined mine on the night :D
Catasetum species (forgot to take a photo of the name tag)
Catasetum species (forgot to take a photo of the name tag)
Coelogyne species (forgot to take a photo of the tag)
Coelogyne species (forgot to take a photo of the tag)
Cattleya bowringiana
Bulbophyllum species (forgot to take a photo of the tag)
Bulbophyllum species (forgot to take a photo of the tag)
Paphiopedilum helenae
Phragmipedium longifolium
An interesting deformed Dendrobium in which the dorsal sepal and the two upper petals merged
Phramipedium Memoria Dick Clements X Phragmipedium richterii
Well, until next time,
Happy Gardening Everyone,
Michael