Month: September 2018

Birthday Girl!

Hello!! Ruby turned 102 years old today!!
Lots of people turning up at the house during the day! Mum and Dad went in to see her while I was organising some Birthday Compost!!
Love her… she is so willing to be dragged out the front to pose with shovels!

I bagged most of it to put in the shed for later use. Her grandsons and great grandson gave me a hand after they had had lunch!
She has already been planting out the hothouse, so I have a bit of rearranging to do!!

I’ll look forward to getting back in for a cuppa and a bit of that birthday cake (that she naturally cooked herself!! haha)

I had to clear the trailer before I could go out and fetch the compost:

We were going to take some to the tip, but you have to pay full price to drop off compost so we changed our minds and will continue burning it. But it slowed me down!
On the way home from Ruby’s I picked up a load for myself so I could get weaving on my garden beds.

So… I might tell you that after moving two trailer loads of compost today my body is saying a few things to me (like “You Idiot”) 😀

I put a lot of the compost on a tarp (and covered it – happily as right now its raining heavily!) but also filled up this garden bed that has sunk over the past couple of seasons.

Lots of lovely worms in here!
I weeded it and dug it up a bit before topping it up.

I might try to plant some snow peas either side of the little climbing frame… just to get something started!

The struggling blueberries got a bit of it too.
And the remainder of the barrow load got chucked on the part of the strawberry bed that was weeded!

The three rocket sprouts have become many overnight!
Also the Alyssum has popped up!

Time for me to follow Pip’s snoozy lead!
Hope you’ve had a great Saturday!
Cheers

Jeff wanted his chair back so he scooped Pip up in his bundle and deposited him on the other couch – and Pip didn’t skip a beat:

Beach Time!

So fantastic – a kookaburra sitting on our fence post just out the back! I was able to sneak a couple of pictures without scaring him/her off!
Kookaburras are fabulous birds! The heaviest of the Kingfisher family, they have the most amazing laugh!
If you have never heard one and are interested – click here

I have seen a pair hanging around lately and would love to tame them. My best friend grew up with them flying onto the back veranda where they used to hand feed them!

Anyway, today was lovely! A real total chalk and cheese from yesterday!

We went down to Sisters Beach this afternoon to enjoy a walk while the sun was out. It was a little chilly when the sun dipped behind clouds, but mostly it was nice. Parents thought it was a bit windy, but honestly, after nearly 7 years in Tasmania, if its not blowing me off my feet, I don’t notice it!!

Dad taking some snaps!

Wanted a photo of my folks together. This is them being funny… thanks for the bottom shot Mum and Dad!

I eventually got them behaving nicely!

The usual shapes and textures catch my eye…

Meanwhile, back at home my first tiny sprouts have popped up!
The rocket is the winner for the fastest seeds to germinate!

I found some leek that went into a lovely soup Mum made tonight (bacon, leek, corn, potato)

The few strawberries that I dug up the other day which are marking time in the hothouse are looking quite perky!

And where to start with that passionfruit?
I am toying with the idea of giving in to it and letting it have the hothouse and building another one for my tomatoes and chillis!

Another little patch of liliums are looking great even though the wayward chooks got in there and tried to scratch them up!

You can’t really see it properly, but this compost pile is steaming!! I was trying to balance my camera (its heavy) in one hand to take a photo as I tried to pitchfork the compost over! Its so hot! (The white-ish bits in the photo are actually steam)

I am pretty excited with this new addition to our garden! Mum and Dad bought me this absolutely lovely little Boronia! I love them – they smell divine! I have to do some research into how to care for them and where is the best place to plant them.

Well, thats all from the Peanut Gallery… time for bed!
Hope everyone has a brilliant weekend ahead!
Cheers

Sloth Day

Hi there!
Parents requested a Sloth Day and it was pretty nice!
It was raining – a lot – so being cosy by the fire spending time catching up and enjoying their company was perfect.
Mum and I did a bit of knitting/crochet, Dad played some computer games and I gave him a lesson on how to play the new version of Bejewelled! 😀

Fiona dropped in to catch up with us all so that was fun. We got to relive a few of the funny moments of the Overland Track hike for my parents, which amused them greatly.

We had a really fab dinner… I’d been saving some of the nice steaks for when they arrived and was able to add home grown pumpkin and potatoes to the plate as well.

You know… I might even manage that early night I have been aiming to achieve for a couple of weeks!

Cheers

Short River Walk

Hello!
A lovely day – well… it was a bit dodgy weather wise but not so bad that we were stuck inside all day!
We decided to do a bit of a walk around the river. They have finally (after two years) built a new bridge and fixed the track after it all was washed away in the floods.

Its a bit fancy – and well above where the old bridge was, so little chance of it being washed away again.

So now we can do the entire circuit again!

Some of the paddocks haven’t been refenced so it gives things a lovely open feel.

Lots of pademelons living around here! Didn’t have the zoom on to get up close to these fellows!

Plenty of birds to see on the way.

The tide was on its way out so it gets muddy looking.

Mum got a bit warm so her arctic jacket became her arctic skirt!

We got to the bridge near town and Mum and Dad opted to walk into town and meet us there rather than walk the full circuit.
I told them I was putting them in training as we plan to go to Cradle Mountain Monday to do the Dove Lake walk… hee hee

(Weird tree stump lichen/fungi growing on the splinters. It looked cooler in real life…)

The wattle trees are looking gorgeous! I was pretty amazed at the size of this one and a few others. I hadn’t really seen them grow that tall!

Anyway, it was a lovely day finishing up with my parents taking us and  other cousins out to dinner tonight, so we are all full and happy!
Cheers!

 

Parents Arrive!

Hi there!
I had a busy day yesterday getting the house nice and the dining room table cleared off so I could impress my Mum 🙂
It was lovely to see my folks again… hadn’t seen Dad in nearly a year!
They came over with their car on the Spirit of Tasmania boat. They travelled overnight and disembarked early this morning.

They kindly collaborated with Ruby and went in to have breakfast with her so they would arrive at our place not so early (because we all know how great I am at early mornings hee hee)
Ruby was so excited about having them come in for breakfast! She was all ready the other day!!

We had a second breakfast here and a late lunch after a tour around the property so they could see the million half done projects and check out our fallen tree.
I had to duck into town, so we swung by Fossil Bluff to get a bit of beach time!

I knitted Dad that beanie and I think it really suits him! The pure home spun wool is nice and warm too!

It was a bit chilly today, not too bad, but harder for Mum and Dad to walk about in t-shirts as they aren’t used to the Tassie weather just yet! (Ok… I wasn’t in a t-shirt either!!)

Was great watching this parachutist glide in over the bluff! I could only imagine the gorgeous views he/she would have been getting!

It was nice to go back home to the warm fire and relax. I had put a slow cooked beef casserole in the oven at midday so all I had to do tonight was put the rice on and we were set! Just the thing.
Everyone is now in bed and I should follow suit so I don’t sleep in too much! Things to do tomorrow!
Cheers!

Seedy Spring Sunday

Well… it was a gorgeous spring day!
I was dying to get in and plant some seeds!

Got my stuff… some cheap potting mix to be mixed with the mushroom compost… 50-50 and thought I might try growing some seeds in egg cartons since its all over pinterest and trendy sites haha

Actually most of the egg container seeds I am going to aim to be selling out the front so its all my excess stuff

Glad I sorted all my seeds the other night. Made it a lot easier today to get into it.

My little cos lettuce seeds!

This is my start in totally overdoing quantities of butternut pumpkins!
I also have put some in pots to hopefully sell out front

I will direct sow my snow peas, but I also have some in egg cartons for the front.

I also have enough celery seeds to last until – well – forever!

I am going to need more table space! I have started putting pots on the ledges. I will have to tame the passionfruit to get more space. (Or just give in to it and build a second hothouse haha)
So… from memory I think I have planted today: Cos lettuce, celery, snow peas, butternut pumpkins, capsicum and some alyssum. (Flowers)

Somehow the potted silverbeet (chard) in the hothouse is still producing since I planted them as seedlings and never quite got them out of their small pots!!! The chooks enjoy it very much (I am not a fan)(I just like growing it!)

And we are still getting plenty of eggs!

I picked a capsicum… I ate half of it at dinner… not bad, slightly bitter but not too bad overall. (My fault… I haven’t watered the plants in the hothouse so regularly.)

I even found another couple of asparagus spears! Yum. They didn’t even get close to the house!

Hope your Sunday was/is fabulous!

Cheers

Thinking of little birds and mousie mouses.

 

Hello Spring!

Hello and welcome to Spring!! (My spring anyway!)
It’s been a relatively quiet couple of days… It rained a lot yesterday (just winter saying a fond farewell I expect) Today was off and on with the rain but mostly sunny.
I got to do some laundry, make up beds for my parents and did some cooking.

I put on a slow cooked curry then squeezed a LOT of lemons and made up a double batch of lemon cordial. I will have to dash in to see Ruby and hand over a couple of bottles since they were her lemons after all!

Not long now and my tiny tulip patch should burst out!

A little way to go before we see the cherry blossoms & liliums

Daffies, big and small everywhere

(Impossible things to photograph!!! 😀 )

My little rhododendron is past its best, but there is one more bloom to come out.

The other plum trees are also blooming.
The chooks are now providing us with minimum 6 eggs daily!! Time to bake a few cakes!

We even got a half hearted rainbow today!

I think tomorrow I will have to plant some seeds. I know its a bit too early but I am itching to get something going!
Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend!
Cheers!