Click here to add a title or text.Its New Zealand's national bird survey week from June 27th until July 5th.
All you do is sit out in your garden for an hour on one of the days between the above dates and count the birds in your garden.
Here is the link to take part
I so enjoy birds in my garden and I deliberately let plants go to seed to provide food for them and so that  I get self sown plants for next season.  I've had Waxeyes, Sparrows and Goldfinches feeding on the Magenta spreen or Tree spinach seeds Chenopodium giganteum for weeks.  Its such a win win situation.  The plant produces seeds for collection and for the birds and then when the seeds are gone the tall 3 metre high plants have woody stems that I chop up and use a a carbon source in my compost.  I also like the way plants in seed add a vertical sculptural dimension to the garden. 

Anna Breytenbach never fails to inspire me and the theme of this song fits with our bird survey week in NZ.

A collaboration between Donovan Copley of Hot Water (https://hotwater.co.za) and animal communicator Anna Breytenbach (http://animalspirit.org/), this song celebrates red-eyed doves and their invitation to us humans to reconnect with nature. The music video is a collage of some of Anna’s time with wild friends. Sing/dance along to “Vuka, Uleleni” and en-JOY!  Here's the link.

I want to share a little from a captivating book I’ve just read called ‘Wilding’ by Isabella Tree.  It is about Isabella and her husband Charlie Burrell returning to nature an uneconomic cropping and dairy farm of 3,500 acres on marginal land (clay above an iron pan) in Sussex, England. The Knepp (pronounced ‘Nepp’) farm project is the first of its kind in Britain. There is very little human intervention. They have released herds of free roaming herbivores which have stimulated new habitat resulting in a flourishing of insects, animals, plants and soil life. I have lots of photos of Knepp so you can read more in my blog here.

I didn't know this plant was considered a weed and it came to my attention when a young leaf was recently likened to Nipplewort Lapsana communis).  They are not related and Nipplewort is a small garden annual that is edible.

I wanted to share this piece from an article on 'Classics in your garden' by University of Canterbury student
Laura Bythell.

Acanthus mollis is also known as Bears breeches: (Greek: ἄκανθος – akanthos. Latin: acanthus)

This leafy weed is a menace in New Zealand gardens. (How many people know this I wonder?)  However, long before it made its way to our shores, acanthus was a popular motif in Greek, Roman and even Byzantine architecture. One of the most common places you can spot acanthus is in the capitals of Corinthian columns, a design which is credited to the Greek sculptor Callimachus. According to Roman author Vitruvius, Callimachus was inspired when he saw an acanthus plant growing in an unusual way; a basket had been placed upon an acanthus root and a tile placed upon the basket in order to preserve its contents. This caused the acanthus to grow up and around the basket and bend beneath the tile as if it were supporting it. Callimachus was apparently taken with this, and created a new design for the Corinthian column.

This is Nipplewort Lapsana communis

It is a salad plant in Europe and I eat it in smoothies and salads while young. It drops its seeds so grows in colonies and can be cut like microgreens.

This is a winter smoothie recipe from my friend Kaye.
Wild edibles from top left: kale, magenta spreen, plantain, mizuna - 2 leaves maximum otherwise the taste is too strong, nasturtium, parsley, chickweed and violet leaves.
1 dessert spoon tahini
1 dessert spoon honey
1 banana
1/2 avocado
3 cups water
1 cup almond or coconut milk
This smoothie is light and refreshing. The darker coloured one I added 1/2 cup blueberries after pouring out the green smoothie. Enjoy!