Rubus Cuneifolius

Photo by Alisa Kenley on Unsplash

Wie geht's?

The latest round in the blackberry wars has ended and...myah ha har! Wozza won in a technical knock-out!

The battle raged on for three days. It began at dawn. Actually. After breakfast. So around 7.00 for 7.30. At times, Wozza was down. The heat, the thorns, the ripped arms (as in cuts, not, ha ha - muscles).

In the end the box thorn needed confronting to root out the nefarious big daddy blackberry roots but rooted out they were.

Now the burn pile is all blackberry, waiting for autumn. 

It's extremely pesky stuff though. Somewhere it's quietly bidding its time out there in Maple Grove. Surveying its options. Watching...and waiting...

Love and peace - Wozza

Blackberry Way, see the battlefields of care or sins cast to the winds (The Move)

Looking east

Wie geht's?

Call it bramble, call it blackberry, call it Rubus Cuneifolius, sand blackberry, western dewberry, Rubus Fruticosus, Rubus Ursinus, dewberry bush, true blackberry, western blackberry, running blackberry, dewberry. Whatever.

It's still a pain, as I've mentioned before - it's deja vu all over again.

During the study break, Jacky and I finished off two massive blackberry bushes on our boundary fence after we had Richard, our local gardener for hire, cut it all down with his specialised equipment. Given it had grown over 5 metres tall, it took some cutting down!

Jacky and I loaded it all up via a tarp on the harrows behind the quad bike and towed the branches to our burn pile. Took four trips - there was a lot of bramble!

This post is not really about the bramble though. Oh no.

You see, it had engulfed two trees that we could see from our kitchen window and so our view east towards Takapau and the Oruawharo hills behind the town were largely obscured but now they are clearly visible!

I do love that view east from that window. The view changes frequently through the day, and now I can enjoy it without being bothered by that pesky bramble - it was always a job staring me in the face.

Love and peace - Wozza

Goodbye blackberry way. I can't see you, I don't need you. Goodbye blackberry way, sure to want me back another day (The Move)

Wie geht's?

Blackberry is one tough son of a gun.

For some reason it's charming when you come across it in England (calling it 'bramble' is also charming) but a miserable infestation when it's on your property in Nu Zild.

When we lived in Leigh-on-sea we would walk towards Hadleigh Castle with a bucket and pick blackberries from the bramble for a pie (in my memory Jacky and the girls made this). This doesn't happen at Maple Grove!

Yesterday, after repairing some deer fencing and clearing out the low hanging branches in the pine shelter belt, I decided to tackle a couple of persistent  blackberry spots. 

It always takes me ages. First, there's all the protective clothing, the double gloving, long sleeve shirts and the snipping away done very gingerly, and then the careful carrying to the wheelbarrow and the careful placing on the burn pile.

All while getting snagged multiple times and needing first aid from nurse Jacky for various cuts and abrasions.

Horrible stuff.

Love and peace - Wozza