This first picture was taken from our balcony a few weeks ago.
I think you'll agree that the palms are beautiful. I like the seed pods hanging down especially. Before we moved here, I never knew that some palms grew them like that.
However, the area below those palms is well traveled. Fronds, spathes, or seeds can and do fall sometimes, and if one of our elderly residents is struck, it could lead to serious consequences.
Therefore, the tree barbers come in regularly, and give our palms much-needed trims. Let's take a quick look at the latest cut.
That's quite a reach for that bucket truck.
After the trim, the foliage looks much neater.
If you go back up to the first picture, and look at the far left, between the buildings, you'll see how the fronds were obscuring the view of the north-east horizon.
Now, with the cleanup, the sunrise is once again visible. I took the following shots this morning, 7/12/24.
To close out this post, here are a few of the zoomed in shots from this morning. I can't resist super close-ups. -djf
Love those closeups of the sun rising! And your trimmed palm trees look so svelte!
ReplyDeleteAnd about your cover photo - I do remember you had posted about them before, but I'm puzzled as to why they are labeled "USA Turkey Tails" when they're grown in NZ.
They are imported from the U.S., not grown here. We get American meat here fairly often.
Deleteeven when the package says "product of New Zealand"?
DeleteHere is what I have found online this morning. NZ produces about 200,000 turkeys a year, mostly for Christmas. The population of NZ is about 5.1 million. The USA produces 216 million turkeys year round, and has a population of 333 million. Therefore, the USA produces about 1,000 times as many turkeys as NZ does but has a population that is only 65 times larger.
ReplyDeleteLast year, before Thanksgiving, I asked a meat manager at a supermarket, where all the turkeys were? There were none in the stores. He said that the turkeys were late this year because 100% of the turkey food required for raising the birds is imported into NZ and shipping problems had delayed the feed from arriving. Therefore the schedule for raising the birds was pushed back. He said he expected them to be in the stores in time for Christmas. Thankfully, they were.
It is my opinion that those are USA turkey tails that are imported in bulk and then broken down into individual packages for sale in NZ. Those are very large tails besides. I have never, in all my 12 years of living here, seen such large turkeys for sale in NZ. I 'believe' the 'product of NZ' tag is on there because although they have imported the tails, they have repackaged them here and can call them that. But, they also have to label them as to the country of origin. Hence, the USA.
I have just come back from the supermarket (7/16/24) where I asked the meat manager, about the turkey tail question. He said that Tegel, (NZ's largest poultry producer) imports massive containers of frozen turkey tails, tests them to assure they meet NZ standards for bacteria, (or lack thereof) and then packages them for resale. This 'value added' work allows them to call the tails 'product of NZ.' I also noticed in the store this morning that most of the labels in the meat department said, 'NZ beef, or NZ chicken, or NZ pork, or NZ lamb. The country of origin is the largest font on the label. Therefore, USA turkey tails means it does come from the USA.
Hope this all solves the question.
We also buy USA pork loins now and then, when they're on sale. I buy them when they are $11.99/kilo, which translates to $3.40/lb. in U.S. dollars.