My Battle With Elvis over the Hanging Basket

(FIRST - an update on last week's Melbourne Cup posting: Dunaden - my horse - was the winner. It was a fantastic race, loads of drama and a photo finish at the end, so close it took the judges something like four minutes to decide who'd won! The 2011 race will be on Facebook at some point, I'm sure, and it will DEFINITELY be worth watching. George wasn't phased by it all but Laka was mesmerized. She stared at the TV from the moment we turned it on and was clearly excited by the voice of the announcer.)

The hanging planter just outside my office window is one of Elvis's favorite hangouts. He likes to pounce on it and make it spin, and sitting there gives him an excellent view of my office.

When it was new, I planted some petunias in it, but didn't get to enjoy them long. Elvis and his pals had a ball pulling the flowers off as soon as they opened. They didn't actually eat the flowers, just pulled them off and flung them to the ground.



The day after the video was taken, Elvis returned, pulled off the remaining flowers and started ripping the plants out, as well. I put the plants back in only to find them ripped out again a day or so later.

I gave up on the petunias and replaced them with spider plants. Those fared well, for a while, but one afternoon I found a female King Parrot perched on the pot happily gnawing on one! She pulled the plant right out of the pot, chewed away and discarded the leaves, and was munching away on the white root. I chased her off and replanted what she'd ripped out. Of course she returned and we went through it all again, but eventually I won out. The spider plant recovered and although the King Parrots attack any "babies" it sprouts, they leave the plants themselves alone, at least for now.

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WASSUP?

• What I’m listening to: "Black and Gold" by Sam Sparro
  
• What’s for tea: Tassie smoked salmon steaks (cooked on the BBQ) topped with yogurt/dill sauce, spinach/feta/walnut salad
  
• What I’m reading: "Mary Boleyn: The Great and Infamous Whore" by Alison Weir
• Wine recommendation: Diet Lemon Lift (a soft drink - it's fabulous)
  
• What's the season?: spring in Oz, fall in the U.S.