Ross McKay wrote:
/lurk

On Mon, 15 Feb 2010 15:55:36 +1100, Trish Brown wrote:

[...] If anyone's got any clever ideas
about scaring them away (the mynas, not the blueys) - aside from rushing
outdoors, waving a fly swatter or wooden spoon and screeching like a
madwoman...

Well, that worked quite well when SWMBO did it. They were beating up on
a magpie, and when she dived outdoors with a broom in hand and whacked a
couple over the head, the noisy miners joined in and drove them away.
Since then, and since we've been giving the last scraps of rice to the
noisy miners, they and the magpies are proving quite efficient at
keeping the Indian mynas away.

Will try the broomystick method and report back. I hate Indian Mynas!!!

[...]
How about everyone else?

Chili explosion here at Blackalls Park.

Oooahhh! I'm at Wallsend! G'day, neighbour. ;-D

We have two cayenne chili bushes
that won't stop producing, and we've given away a large number, and
minced and fermented a quart jar's worth of chili and garlic paste, and
we eat about 6-10 fresh chilis each week, and they keep on coming. Now
the jalapeño bush is producing well too (hmmm... ranch beans!) and our
tabasco chili bush has ~50 little fiery buggers on it and they've
started ripening.

My chilis and capsicums have done pretty well, only the #($^#@%@
European Wasps have continually gotten at them all season. I've put up
traps for the rotten creatures, and had some success at first. Now, I
can't find anything they'll go into the traps for (not even chilis or
capsicums).

Ginger, turmeric, and galangal have erupted during the wet rainy summer.
Well, the galangal popped up in spring, but has stuck up another spike
or two each over summer. One of my taro corms is raging away with plenty
of leaves, while the other is still presenting short green spikes that
don't go anywhere.

Still stuffing about with other bits, not much other than chilis and
herbs making their way into the kitchen lately.

The mozzies are back in abundance. #$%^. ZzzzzzZZZZ!...zzzzZZZ! :/

You're not wrong the we've got tiny little black ones that always
seem to bite where you can't reach 'em. I don't s'pose you'd get Hexham
Greys out where you are? We live about a block away from the edge of
Hexham Swamp and so we get a few from there. They seem to have made a
comeback in recent years and I can't say I think that's a good thing.

--
Trish Brown {|:-}

Newcastle, NSW, Australia