Imparting Knowledge

After a year of learning I’m hoping now to be able to passing on newly gained information to those around me.  I want this to be a year of imparting knowledge.  To continue helping neighbours, friends and community and of course continue to learn from all these encounters too.

The first day of 2023 I had an unexpected start.  I woke as usual around 4am, went out for a jog, exercised then headed to the beach for a swim.  On my way home I stopped to chat to some dog walkers and their dogs, crossed the road and met another lady walking her two dogs who I greeted with a cheerful ‘Happy New Year’.  One of her dogs looked as though it too wanted a chat so I put my hand out to pat it.  To my horror it lunged at me teeth bared, then latched onto the sleeve of my windcheater.  Praise God I was wearing thick long sleeves otherwise its teeth would have sunk into my wrist!  Stunned, I walked away leaving the woman trying to control her marauding dog.  I was very grateful the dog was on a lead.  I did wonder, if the dog was so unpredictable, why wasn’t it muzzled?

During the last weeks of December I noticed lots of large droppings on my pavers under the grapevine.  Taking a closer look at the vine, I saw what were at first small green caterpillars with a large spike-like tail.  Within days the droppings had become larger as the caterpillars grew very large, in fact they eventually grew 50mm long and as fat as my middle finger!   I sent a photo to my friend Monica, from TAFE, who is into entomology (study of insects).  I also sent a photo, through the MyPestGuide app, to the Australian DPIRD (Department of Primary Industry and Regional Development). Both Monica and DPIRD came back with the same results.  The caterpillar is the native Grapevine Hawk Moth, Hippotion celerio (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae).  They are found across Australia and into East Asia and Western Pacific and feed on grape leaves, taro, sweet potato, ornamentals and some native plants. The moth is agriculturally important as it is one of several species largely responsible for the pollination of Papaya. (I hope this means more fruit will remain on my papaw tree) It also is important for pollinating a number of night flowers, as well as being important food for night-active owls, boobooks, lizards and bats.  By the end of December I was unable to see them in my vine as they had begun to pupate.  One morning I found a large pupa wriggling on my pavers.  I think this wriggling was an automatic defensive response.  I brought it safely inside and placed it in a jar, waiting for the moth to emerge, which after a few weeks it did.  Unfortunately its wings didn’t properly open up.  I left it outside and checked on it throughout the day but still no improvement.  The next morning it had disappeared so I will never know if it ever took flight.  I do hope the other pupas were more successful.

My little family of bobtails looked like they were enjoying their extended area in my back garden.  While giving them some of their favourite tit-bits, I have been able to train at least one of them (the female) to come to a certain call.  She soon comes scurrying to the feeding dish to find out what is on offer.  Their favourite snacks are mango and watermelon. The male is more timid and is often harder to find.  Both have their own special summer residence under leaf litter but haven’t realised that unlike their previous sleeping spots under the eaves, here they get wet every time the reticulation comes on.  For a couple of days early January the female didn’t seem to move from under my mini greenhouse.  Then on the third day I propped up one end, fed her a tasty green caterpillar and tempted her out with some of her favourite treats.  Her head and torso looked very pale.  Later that day I understood why.  She had shed her skin and wow what a lovely dark colour she now is as was her partner who had also shed.  When I took a photo of the shed skin I thought I could hear her saying “Do you really need to show people my dirty laundry?”  hahaha!  Funny how some of us think!

Then, just as I was thinking all was going well with my reptilian friends, after not seeing him for three days, I suspected Quinto (male) had escaped and is living at large in the broader garden complex, which unfortunately is frought with danger. I think he took off just after he had donned his new attire!  Off to party in the wider world!  Praise the Lord I found Gojira just as she had climbed the fence a second time before escaping into the garden on the wrong side of the little fence.  I’m sure she was looking for her partner.  I hope this time I have made the fence impenetrable.  They are such escape artists! Gojira looked very guilty as I brought her back.  I’m hoping this time she will be content to stay.  By the end of January there was still no sign of Quinto and Gojira looked as though she was grieving the loss of her mate.  There was nothing I could do to help other than give her some of her favourite foods.  If Quinto had followed his instincts, he would have tried to make his way back to Yanchep, that’s nearly 50km away with lots of very dangerous hazards along the way including busy roads!

I don’t know about you but I’m a person of routine and over the holidays I’ve found it difficult to keep myself busy.   The mornings and evenings have mostly been cool with hot periods during the day making it difficult to work in the garden.  I’ve needed to find other things to occupy myself, as, unlike during the term where I’m going out four out of seven days, I’m free every day and there are only a few activities around the house that can stimulate me before I begin to go stir crazy!  Where possible, I find opportunities to get out and about.  I visited Esther in her new home, taking her an old wool carpet that was from my lounge renovations in 2016. She had done so much to make things look better, including a lick of paint on the cupboards and some of the walls.  The day I arrived it seemed her second-hand fridge had died.  Esther had seen a neighbour with a fridge on his veranda so we went to inquire.  He was looking to sell it as it was only 18months old.  By the time we got back to Esther’s her fridge was working again.  She suspected she had left the freezer door slightly ajar causing it to defrost.  Praise the Lord it was working and also that she had met a neighbour who was planning to move and might have some furniture she could have.

During my morning jogs, I’ve noticed on one property the street trees have been terribly scarred from trimming the grass far too close to the trunks causing ringbarking.  This results in the cambium layer, which takes nutrients up and down the trunk, being damaged, cutting off the tree’s life-flowing sap.  The beautiful eucalyptus tree which is over 15mt tall already has dead central branches.  I decided to leave a hand written note in their letterbox, letting the occupants know the damage and what I thought might have caused it.  Weeks went by, then one morning I saw the eucalyptus tree had a tree guard.  I was thrilled that my advice and horticultural knowledge had paid off and hadn’t offended them.

Another project I started was taking responsibility for the Coastal Community Garden newsletters, collecting stories from the committee members and putting together interesting information that can be sent out to members.  It’s been quite fun at times.  At our last committee meeting, we decided the newsletter would come out six times a year to coincide with the Noongar seasons (Noongar means black people in the local indigenous people’s language).  I’m preparing the structure of all six newsletters, to which I will only need to add the most recent stories and events.

I have had both great success and disappointment with the grapes I’ve grown this year.  I had an abundance of currant grapes (true currants are from the Ribes family and are a type of berry, like a gooseberry).  Unfortunately the vine became covered in grey mould while the grapes were just forming.  I think this was because of high humidity, still weather and very early reticulation in early Spring. Praise God I spotted it early and was able to spray with a mixture of milk and bi-carb-soda  I lost quite a few bunches but there were heaps more which I was able to share with friends and neighbours, even though they looked rather scruffy, having white spots from the spray still on them, however, at least the spray was food safe.  The only two bunches of sultana grapes that grew were delicious.  The vine is huge and rambling and being the second year of fruiting, I had expected more bunches.  Even so I had thought I had protected these in netted bags) but still I had to share them with the birds who had made several holes in the bags to get to the berries.

The pears seem to be surviving under their plant pots and netting bags and should be ready by March, God willing.  My Giant Duck weed has multiplied enough to sell three more batches, giving me a bit more cash to put towards this year’s adventures.

Health-wise this month, some amazing things have happened.  Firstly, let me take you back to my GP who suggested I get my gut flora tested.  My Naturopath, who has been trying to help my gut, agrees with me that I’m doing everything possible to improve good gut flora.  Getting expensive tests ($300-$500) to tell you what I’m already doing to improve my good gut bacteria would be a waste of time and money.  He suggested I do a food diary to try and see what foods are more detrimental to my sensitive gut.  Then to make matter worse, my GP put me on two rounds of antibiotics which kills gut flora!  I then increased my Kefia and kimchi input and started taking extra pre and probiotics to help restore good gut flora, as well as lots of fresh fruit and veg.  Then it seems the last lot of antibiotics was not needed as a UTI was misdiagnosed! I should have waited on the laboratory results before starting the second dose.  I also let my doctor know that the physio exercises were now starting to make things worse.  Both of my hips were giving me pain as well as my lower back.  She suggested I go for an Ultrasound to see if it was a bursa or torn ligament.  The appointment was booked for the same morning I was also booked in for a visit to a sports doctor, Ray, who specialised in Zone Technique.  I was able to speed through the results of the ultrasound in order to take it with me to the afternoon appointment, but it was not needed as there were NO abnormalities.  Well that was a relief, but what was causing this ongoing pain?

That morning, while taking my morning swim, I’d met up with Helen H whom I’d known from church.  I asked her and her friend Avis to pray for me as I was believing today was the day the Lord would heal me or at least show me what needed to be done to improve my back.  My hopes were now on the Zone Technique, which I’d never heard of before.  We went through all my injuries, illnesses and health issues while I explained where I had tried to improve things through physio and diet.  I was basically told that it was an imbalance in the body, preventing self-healing.  Yes, I believed the body had the power to selfheal, that’s the way God has made it so why wasn’t it doing it’s God ordained job?   Ray explained sometimes the brain needs to be stimulated to see what has been neglected, to prompt it to work on that area of imbalance.  There are six areas relating to our bodily functions and three of these were requiring work in my body.  First Ray asked me to do something which caused pain in my back.  That was easy.  He wanted a baseline to work from. Then I was up on the table where he poked my scalp before working on my spine.  Then rolled me over and worked on my neck. Boy was that painful.  I then checked my back again.  Even getting off the table I had a twinge of pain, it was still there.  So back on the table and more prodding up and down my spine and neck.  This time getting off the table I hardly felt a thing and testing the baseline, there was no pain at all.  Hallelujah!  What a relief! The Lord has answered both my prayers – that today I would find someone to help fix my back and that I would be healed.  As you can imagine I was elated!

Before leaving his rooms I not only booked myself in for another visit to work on other areas of need including my gut and sleep but I also booked in Kat, my younger sister who is coming to Perth in February.  I tried to get hold of her several times to let her know then finally had a chat to her sending her a link to read about it.  It was then she said she had received an email from them but had thought it was a scam.  Praise the Lord she hadn’t deleted it as she normally does.  I was relieved that she was very interested to book more appointments during her visit and I will be praying that it will help rebalance her body, which has plagued her for many years with a mystery illness, which on occasions is so debilitating it puts her to bed for several days. After that, I thought I’d better book the next two sessions in advance having told my story to several of my neighbours who were eager to see if it would help them too.  It’s been five days since my back has been healed, my body continually reminds me to correct my posture which I suspect was the reason why over the two days following my treatment, my muscles felt stiff, like after a strenuous work out.  I’m pleased to say I’m still pain free.  To God be the glory!

Photos:  1. Lemon Bergamot     2. Grapevine Hawk Moth caterpillar    3. Pupa    4. Moth    5. Bobtail skin    6. Look how tall my Hollyhocks got!    7. Currant grapes    8. Duckweed     9. My new hanging pots

Prayer & Praise Points:

There is always much to praise God for; His continual guidance, provision and love towards us all.  The miracle of answered prayer for my back, our beautiful summer weather here in Perth, wonderful neighbours, friends and family.

Praise the Lord for this coming new term and all the opportunities He has given us to share His love with others.  Please pray for me as I start teaching ‘Gardening Basics’ at our Share In at church. Pray that I will be able to impart the knowledge God has given me and that those attending will enjoy our time together.

Pray for Kat as she comes to Perth for a visit that Ray will be able to help correct her health problems and that she has a lovely time catching up with friends old and new during her stay.

Pray for those caught up in the extreme weather conditions throughout the world.  And please continue to pray with me for world peace both here in the Australasia region and Europe.  Pray for the refugees and all those caught up in the suffering this war has caused, both in Ukraine and Russia.

Please continue to pray for my sisters, Tricia, Jen and Kat to come to know Christ’s love for them. Pray especially for Jen’s safety as she travels around Europe.  Pray she is able to get a new Australian SIM for her phone which was stolen in Naples.