Busy, busy, busy

The combination of warm weather (today has topped out at 34oC) and moderate rainfall (73mm so far this month) has meant that there is much growth of things we don't wish to grow.  There are various other tasks around the place as well which I managed to do before it got too close to damn hot.

Fortunately the day started off rather overcast and thus relatively cool.
My first job was to visit the strawberry patch (this is the old one: there is a much newer plot that is like a jungle).
Here is the outcome of that visit.
Then up to the top paddock with a couple of sprayers full of various chemicals.
It makes sense to have full body cover - note gloves, mask goggles - but even with the overcast it was still pretty hot.

There was a bit too much serrated tussock for spudding it out so it was on with the spray.  The red dye makes it easier to see what you have covered.  Or more usefully, what you have missed.
When I moved on to brambles and briars I gave the clump a squirt of dye but sprayed most of the clump with undyed spray (but with a stronger cocktail of herbicide).  The red arrows show where the dye has hit.
A couple of days later (21 November) some of the brambles were looking pleasingly used.
The briars were in flower (which is good for take up of the herbicide) and a few unwise insects came in afterwards.  I have no idea of the name of the bee!
A Hoverfly also came by.
As well as these insects a golden spider was found on the 21st.

Any suggestions as to species would be welcomed.

With a focus on weeds it was very pleasant to come across some beautiful Thysanotus tuberosus (Fringe Lilies).
Back at the ranch I replaced the head on my brush cutter - ready for some work when the weather cools and replaced a globe on one of our floodlights so that I can see what is going on on the lawn when the small dog is taken out after dark.  Interestingly, the hardest part of the latter was aligning the cover afterwards.

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