Mopoke

For the past couple of weeks, an owl has been roosting in our trees. 

He is a Southern Boobook or Mopoke owl, and spends the day tucked away in the tangle of branches above the woodshed, where the neighbouring callistemon, lemon tree and our tallow tree, all meet. It’s dark and spidery up there, perfect for sleeping. 

Similar to other owls, boobooks hunt at night and sleep during the day, though I’m not sure this owl gets much rest. The callistemon' are just coming into flower, so the trees are busy with birds, none of which are happy too come across a sleeping owl, especially one whose diet includes them and/or their chicks! Wattle birds, angry at the best times, screech and cluck their disapproval, honey-eaters and silver eyes fly about him twittering wildly, snapping their beaks loudly, as do the mistletoe birds. It’s a ruckus we can hear inside the house, and it is exactly this noise that led us to find him in the first place (we had see what was going on), but the owl seems oblivious, and never moves a muscle. 

Habitat loss is the main threat to these owls, they nest in tree hollows, so we are considering building a nest box. Of course it would have to be positioned 'out of cat reach' in the tallow tree, which unfortunately is also 'out of ‘ladder’ reach, so we’re not sure how we’ll get it high enough. Hopefully though, the owl will hang around until we work it out.     

Through the window...

Through the window April 1^st, 2016. 

Jam

Something I like to do, as a way of marking the seasonal change from summer to autumn, however small that change may be here in Western Australia, is make a batch of preserves. Some years it's pickles, others chutney or relish, and sometimes I’ll make a more than one, depending on what is seasonally cheap at the market or comes my way. This year it was a two kilo bag of undersized blood plums, some ripe, some not so ripe. Perfect for jam. 

My favourite, and really the only recipe I’ve ever used for plum jam, is from Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management; it’s a no fail. The Mode does instruct that the preserving pan should be stood, “by the side of the fire to simmer gently”, but simmering on the lowest setting of the gas jet works just fine. 

This particular jam, is always done in the time allocated by the recipe, and Mrs Beeton doesn’t give instructions on how or when to test for setting point, but I always do it anyway, using the old fashioned ‘wrinkle’ method. 

Here are the jars all lidded and labelled. The tiny one is for my Mum, and will be posted early next week with some biscuits, to arrive (hopefully), in time for Easter, and the medium jars will go to friends. That's the best thing about 'preserving', there's always plenty to go around.