Moosey News : May 2008

Dear Subscriber,

It's the grand clean-up month in my garden, as autumn moves into winter. Hopefully there'll still be time (and good weather) for some decent May adventures.

This month's features :

1. Dog Etiquette
2. Cape Campbell Walkway
3. A Good Red
4. Cape Campbell's Lighthouse
5. Autumn Poem

Regulars :

6. Plant of the Month : Green Cordylines
7. Animal of the Month : Percy the Purring Cat
8. Garden Quote : Two Little Magic Words
9. Garden Gallery : Cape Campbell Walking Montage
10. Forum Focus : Earthship Houses
11. Gardening Advice : Edging
12. Searching for Moosey : Lettuce
13. Coming up this month : A whole lot of gardening verbs.

This month's features

1. Dog Etiquette

Dogs who go to the river to chase things might like to brush up on their etiquette. For example, what to do and not to do regarding the fetching of a tennis ball from water...

2. Cape Campbell Walkway

Boutique hiking in the company of a hiking gourmet cook, in brilliant weather - read about my trip on the Cape Campbell Walkway.

3. A Good Red

Gardeners who enjoy the autumn season will all appreciate 'a good red'...

4. Cape Campbell's Lighthouse

I haven't had a lighthouse in the newsletter before - this one's on the East Coast of New Zealand's South Island, warning ships and boats in the Pacific Ocean of coastal dangers..

5. Autumn Poem

This poem by Christchurch's Frank Allan made quite an impression on me - and gave me a great chance to increase the number of autumn leaf pictures published in the year 2008.

Regulars

6. Plant of the Month : Green Cordylines

Why should red cordylines always be in the limelight? As well as the beautiful green restrained green cabbage trees in my own garden I've recently met some farm monsters.

7. Animals of the Month : Percy the Purring Cat

Percy my young ginger cat now has set routines, like sitting on my lap every morning as I type up my journal. He is the purriest of all my cats - and oh so photogenic.

8. Garden Quote : Two Little Magic Words

This quote concerns those much-used (over-used?) words 'trim' and 'weed'. Aargh!

9. Garden Gallery : Cape Campbell Walking Montage

Here's a photograph montage I made of walking pictures from my trip to Cape Campbell, full of legs, feet, and boots - and happy hikers climbing, ambling, trudging, plodding...

10. Forum Focus : Earthship Houses

These look like the most interesting, sensible constructions to live in...

11. Gardening Advice : Edging

Herbs like Golden Marjoram and the culinary sages make great edging plants.

12. Searching for Moosey : lettuce

garden lettuce

I can proudly offer two types of lettuce in photographs this month - one grows in a patio pot with resident slugs.

sea lettuce and octopus

The other lettuce is slightly wilder - it's sea lettuce, complete with resident baby octopus. Apologies to the searcher if he or she was actually after some sensible information!

13. Coming up this month : A whole lot of Gardening Verbs.

Far too many to list here. Examples include raking, burning, trimming, weeding... Need I say more?

Cheers,