Shelley Munro Blog

A kakapo is a New Zealand flightless parrot. It’s an endangered species because of its vulnerability to predators and of course, the inroads made by man into the parrots’ natural habitat. Until this week there were only 86 living kakapo but after a bumper breeding season five chicks have hatched on Codfish Island (a sanctuary for the birds). Kakapo need special conditions to breed and plentiful food, which means that not every year is great for breeding. The last good year was 2005. Here’s the story here plus a photo of a kakapo.

In a small promo, I included the kakapo in my very first book, Aislyn. The baddies were conducting a scavenger hunt and one of the items they needed to collect was a rare kakapo egg.

In writing news I wrote the last words on my first draft of another Middlemarch story. It’s tentatively called Cat Burglar. I’m going to let it sit for a couple of weeks and start yet another Middlemarch tale - this time it’s Leticia’s story, a character from Stray Cat Strut. I’m really thrilled with my progress, because after stopping the Sven challenge and taking almost a week off writing, I’ve still managed to write 50,000 words.

Tomorrow Christina Phillips is my guest blogger and we’re giving away a prize. I hope you’ll pop back to say hello.

When we first moved to our current house the section was bare, and the soil consisted mostly of clay. After throwing around some ideas we decided to design a potager garden.

A potager is French and it’s a raised bed garden, normally for vegetables and herbs. Hubby built three box squares out of timber and filled them with good quality soil. We made a decorative path between them so it’s easy to plant, water and harvest and not long ago, Mr. Munro planted a hedge of shelter trees because it seems to be windy where we live.

Mr. Munro spends hours out in the garden and periodically, I have to go out an inspect his latest improvements and crops. This year we’ve had fresh potatoes, lettuce, zucchini, red onions, leeks, green beans, basil, radishes, beetroot and the tomatoes are starting to ripen. It’s so handy just wandering out to the garden to pick whatever vegetables we’ve decided to have for dinner.

Here are some photos of Mr. Munro’s garden:

I have to confess I’m a bit tired of zucchini but I’m really enjoying the green beans and can’t wait for the tomatoes to ripen so I can make fresh tomato sauce to have with pasta. Do you grow your own vegetables? What do you grow? And if you don’t have a garden, what is your favorite vegetable to eat?

The weta - it’s a large and primitive insect, native to New Zealand. The reason I chose to write about wetas today is so more people know what they are. When I used a weta reference in my book Talking Dogs, Aliens and Purple People Eaters my editor didn’t know what I was talking about and I had to rewrite slightly to describe a weta as a prehistoric cricket-like insect.

There are five broad groups of weta:

1. Tree weta
2. Ground weta
3. Cave weta
4. Giant weta
5. Tusked weta

Wetas are nocturnal and live in a variety of habitats including grassland, scrub land, forests and caves. They live under stones and in rotten logs or in pre-formed burrows in trees.

They are mainly herbivores in the wild but are known to eat other insects. They can bite but are not poisonous. Species of weta are still being discovered and several are endangered. In the wild they were traditionally eaten by the tuatara (a prehistoric reptile native to NZ) but these days many are destroyed by rats, cats and dogs and of course, humans encroaching on their habitat.

The weta sheds its exoskeleton when moulting.

At 18 months the male weta selects a female and they spend time together in the male’s territory. (Romance in the insect world!)

At around two years old the female will lay 100 - 300 eggs. The parents die before the weta eggs hatch 3 - 5 months later.

The Department of Conservation in New Zealand is currently involved in weta breeding programs and translocation to safe sites such as protected islands like Tiritiri Matangi and Little Barrier Island in the Hauraki Gulf. The weta respond well to a captive breeding program.

The following photo is of a giant weta.

I’ve never seen a giant weta but have personal experience with both tree and cave wetas. We often find tree wetas in our garden and will return them to live in peace. They can nip and look creepy but I don’t mind them. My experience with cave wetas is a bit more spooky. When I was a kid my girlfriend lived on a farm with limestone caves. It was a favorite pastime to visit the caves and wander through them with a candle and maybe a torch to search for stalactites, stalagmites and glow worms. When I think about our cave visits now I can see how dangerous it was but for us it was an adventure - an hour or two of wandering through pristine caves. One day we discovered a new tunnel and were all set to charge into it to explore. I happened to shine the torch over the ceiling and it was covered with huge cave wetas! Really covered. I think I let out a screech and dropped the torch and we all decided to explore another part of the cave. I also took to checking my gumboots carefully and shaking vigorously before I put my feet in them. This lasted for a few weeks until the initial horror passed. I’ve never been bitten by a weta but I’m always careful not to get too close either. I can appreciate them from a distance.

How are you with insects? Do you like them or hate them with a passion? Do you have any insect stories to tell? What do you think of New Zealand’s weta?

Mt Ruapehu, one of the volcanoes in the middle of the North Island erupted with no warning last night. Two climbers were taken to hospital, ski lodges and the ski field have closed. The railroad and roads have also closed. It’s bad timing since school holidays started this week.

The volcano has been fairly quiet over recent years, apart from the big lahar that came down a few months ago when the ice wall of the crater lake broke, releasing all the water. That one was forecast but the scientific instruments were strangely quiet during this eruption. This eruption produced small lahars. I’m fascinated by volcanoes and one day will find a way to use a volcano setting. Yes, I will.

I’ve been editing this week and yesterday I typed in all the amendments I’d made on my manuscript. Actually yesterday was momentous since I also decided that maybe I would enter the Brava contest. I have a story idea but haven’t written a word yet. Yes, I’m cutting it fine but nothing like a deadline to get me moving. Guess what I’ll be doing today.

I love animals and I’m a sucker for any story relating to animals. I watched a news story with interest today about residents of Capetown in South Africa running a raging war against baboons. The protected baboons are adept at opening cars and house windows. They are breaking into both and creating chaos, especially when they hit the “motherlode” - the fridge. Here’s the full story here

This reminded me of my own baboon experience, which happened during our overland trip through Africa. We were staying at a game park in Nigeria. The place was run down since they didn’t get many tourists but we stayed in these nifty huts, which was a change from camping. They also had a river with hot pools in it. After lots of cold showers and cold water washes, hot water was good! Anyway, they also had this small camp store that sold chocolate. Mars bars in particular. We hadn’t seen chocolate for weeks so just about everyone indulged. This camp had baboons and we had to make sure we locked our huts and didn’t leave any food about for them to steal. Between the camp store and our huts there was a dirt road. The baboons patrolled that road and let me tell you they could spot a Mars bar wrapper at one hundred paces! A few of our group were mugged by the troop of baboons and had to make a run for it, leaving their chocolate behind. I wasn’t game to purchase chocolate after that and everyone kept a wary eye out for those baboons. Not a creature you want to fool around with, that’s for sure.

I’m running a new contest in conjunction with Sierra Dafoe over at my website. Check out my contest page for details.

I’m off on holiday to sunny (hopefully!) Hawaii tomorrow. I can’t wait. The wee dog has gone off to the farm with my sister, I’m mostly packed and raring to go. Did I say I can’t wait?

Below are some shots of last night’s Luna Rossa. It was tres cool to watch.

Today or rather tonight we’re having a solar eclipse. It’s a special one called a Luna Rossa where the moon turns red. All day I’ve been watching the weather because I’m desperate to see this thing. All sorts of story possibilites have jumped into my fertile imagination, and I want to see it myself. I’m hoping the sky will clear a little.

An incoming newsflash…Mr. Munro has just seen the moon pop out! He’s seen it through the kitchen window. We’ve set the alarm so we won’t forget to go outside.

Here’s the National Geographic link. Evidently you’ll be able to see it in parts of the Northern hemisphere as well.

Here are some Luna facts taken from Stardome NZ

DISTANCE TO MOON
averages about 360,000km. This is about ten times the stationary satellite orbit that delivers SKY TV and about 1/400 of the distance to the sun.

SURFACE TEMPERATURE
Day – about 130deg, the temp for deep frying potato chips
Night – minus 150 deg; CO2 is solid but oxygen is still 30 deg above turning liquid.

ORBITAL SPEED
3660km/hr, 4 times the speed of a Boeing 737 but 1/30 the speed earth orbits the sun.

ONCE IN A BLUE MOON
Have you heard the expression “once in a blue moon?” A month with two full moons is a blue moon. This year July is a blue moon. The full moons are 1st and 30th July

SKY FACTS
The 7 brightest objects in order: Sun, Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Sirius, Mars and Saturn. (5th brightest is a three way tie between the last three; the brightness of the planets varies.

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I finished my Caveman story today, or at least the first draft. I’ve also had a brainwave regarding Assassin, my third Middlemarch story and this afternoon I’ve changed the start. I’m much happier with it now.

I was fascinated by this story and the photos in my National Geographic newsletter today. It’s about bodies discovered in Denmark’s bogs, most of whom seem to have been sacrifices. Check out the photo of the man with the battle hairstyle and the one with the red hair. (They think the bog has made the man’s hair turn bright red)

This is the link here

A story from the National Geographic blog feed caught my attention because it’s about hyenas. My story Romantic Interlude features hyenas. Richard and Hinekiri, my hero and heroine, encounter them when they go on safari in Africa.

Evidently a study has found female hyenas force males to leave home by snubbing their sexual advances, thereby cutting the risk of incestuous mating. It seems female hyenas prefer mating with males from other clans or males born after they were, and this is nature’s way of preventing incestuous encounters and ensuring the breed stays strong. The full article is here

Below is a shot of a hyena mother and pups. There were actually three pups but there’s only one in this photo. This was taken in Kenya at the Masai Mara game park. We sat and watched the hyena family for quite a while. They’re not exactly attractive animals but it was fascinating watching them nonetheless.

Mr. Munro and I live in a fairly new subdivision with lots of new houses and there’s not much in the way of established vegetation. The company who subdivided the farmland has planted lots of trees and made ponds - well, not the company but the people who work for the company! On one of our daily dog-walk excursions last week we were talking about how many native birds are turning up. Every weekend we’re woken up by enthusiastic thrushes (these aren’t native) who don’t seem to know the meaning of sleeping late!

This morning when we walked past one of the ponds there was this huge white bird feeding on the edge of the pond. A heron, we decided. We have lots of grey herons but hadn’t seen one like this before. Mr Munro took a photo with his cellphone and we went back later with the digital camera but it was gone. The photo is zoomed in, but you can see it’s a big white bird.

We’ve decided it was a white heron or kotuku and they’re actually very rare. It was a lucky sighting and made our day.