Busy Day

David Baxter has been here all day connecting the church to the new rainwater tank- no more carting heavy water containers from home every Sunday. Yay! Tim helped David to clear out the gutters on the house. I did some gardening, some counselling late in the afternoon and some heavy lifting of furniture. It's been busy, but I feel productive.

In the middle of all this I picked 10 kg grapes. In a normal year I would expect about 2 to 3 times that on the first pick. The grapes are small as well as way down in quantity, due I think to the very dry conditions through spring. On the other hand, they are absolutely scrumptious- even sweeter than usual.

I've also had the privilege of sharing them with these guys:





I've had 5 or 6 of them constantly in the grapes. They've eaten about 10-20% of the grapes.

They are called noisy miners (Manorina melanocephala) and that is an accurate description. They usually have one on guard duty who squawks loudly when I come near.

I've discovered they only come for the grapes in drought years, so they must prefer something more natural in good years. It's only fair to share with them in the hard times- as if I had any choice in it :D