Month: September 2023

Hello!
I’ve been a bit better making an effort to get out and hike more regularly.
We went back up the Blanfordia Hill loop in the Rocky Cape NP yesterday, but these photos were from the walk before

Yesterday I tried to keep camera in bag and just concentrate on doing a brisk walk.

There are lots of sweet little wildflowers on the track now too

Yesterday I managed the track and all the ups pretty well overall… I can feel an improvement

Although right now I am baking choc chip bikkies which might be slightly counter productive haha

Jeff is still hauling about a big heavy pack.
At least that helps me keep up a bit

I’ll probably have to start doing the same if I think I’ll be doing some overnight treks soon

The days are definitely improving warmth wise and the longer daylight is so nice!

Michelle from Farm It Forward Tasmania has asked if I’d start doing the guided walks again and I think its a good idea.

I’ll just do it as a ‘Pop Up Event’ so when I have time and the weather and tides match.

We’ve also been getting into more work in the yard.
BBQ area AGAIN cleared out and two trips to the tip.
Jeff tackled a bit of the shed too.

I don’t get tired of the views…

It still gets quite windy up the top.

Ahhhh, Blanfordia Hill… the hill that goes up five times! Always thinking you are done… but you are not!

Jeff just washed the car
I am doing the last batch of bikkies, then I can go out and we can finish off the BBQ area and I plan to plant a few more things

Yesterday we saw three wedge tailed eagles!!
Just soaring about on the thermals enjoying themselves. By the time I tried to access my camera they were far away

Still looks like a long way to go hey?

We remembered to time this hike yesterday and it took us two hours and twenty minutes

Jeff said its about a 7km hike. Doesn’t sound like much but thats not taking into account all the ups and downs!
(OK… elevation)

Sweet little natural moss garden

I tasted a biscuit (cookie)
Yum.
Now to try not to guts them.

Okies, thats all from me
Hope your week is going splendidly!
xxx

Hi… It was a reasonably nice day today so no excuses not to put the ratty old clothes on and get out and do a few garden things.
Potatoes were high on the list. I’d been putting it off as we need to clip some chook wings.
We haven’t done that task so hoping that Nihon doesn’t fly in and dig them up again!

(All pics are just dodgy snaps from my tablet)
The plot had been covered with straw for a few months.
Very few weeds had managed to get past it so that was good

I’d considered planting directly into the straw but in the end I decided to rake it off.
Probably a good idea. The underneath was pretty sodden…

A bit of fungi around too which I was pleased to see. I suppose lots of good stuff happening in the soil

Anyway, gave it a quick dig over and found some stakes to mark out my rows

Instead of digging through blood and bone and compost throughout the whole plot, this time I’ve just directly sprinkled a bit of the bnb into the holes with a handful of compost.

Best of luck little taters!

Next… removed netting from garlic (chook defence strategy) and got in and weeded.

Before and after pics give me such satisfaction!!
I also mulched them… using the potato patch mulch which I am leaving off the potatoes until things dry off a little bit.

Overall I think the garlic is looking ok

Next… Carrot patch.

Most are going to seed so it was time to just pull them out.
The ones that weren’t too bad I kept and will hand out at basket weaving and keep a couple for us.
The rest? The cows and compost I guess. Annoyed I didn’t get to them earlier but overall they’ve been used and shared a lot so can’t be too miffed at myself.

Above are the ‘good’ ones.

Below is the one that made me laugh the most (Because I am so grown up)

Oh well, whats a gardeners life without a few rude veggies?

I removed a colony of snails and gave them to the chickens. Dug through a bit of good stuff and now I have another plot ready for action.

See the nice little strawberry plants? I had gotten these as extras for the other strawberry patch but clearly not planted.
Below is what I found this morning.

Sob. Bloody possums!
I scooted him off the back veranda last night but never imagined he would eat all the strawberry leaves!!
So I spent the last part of my garden day netting the strawberry patch so he didn’t come back for seconds
I am sure these will come good but so annoying!!

Anyway, progress progress.
And I am taking my rather sore self off to bed
xx

Hi!
Its been a busy few days… workshop, hiking, gardening at Judes and finally today in my own garden!

I somehow kept managing not to get back to the hothouse to plants seedlings!

A nice sturdy little tomato has popped up all by itself!!

I had 4 other more established tomato seedlings to go in and a punnet of lettuce

I decided against topping up the soil in the beds and have built up this area with straw… and made nests of soil and compost

I also put some seedlings between the tomatoes in the hope I can get some leaves off them before the tomatoes do their usual out of control jungle thing because I am slack and never prune them back.

The little parsel/parcel?? plant Jaana gave me. Its been thriving in its pot. Time for it to go into the garden bed. Thought I might as well leave it in the hothouse.

I forgot to go back and plant some cucumber seeds but that wont take long once I remember.
It was so convenient to turn on the tap and let the new watering system do its thing! (Thanks Dad xx)

Then… I planned to plant the sugar snap peas.

They apparently don’t climb too high so I amused myself by building a little trellis for them

I love how there is just so much usable ‘stuff’ around here to do this kind of thing.

I used passionfruit vines and vines from the native black pea.

Voila!
And if they want to grow higher I can add more.
I decided not to plant the seedlings out as the weather was turning ugly and thought it would be mean to put them out.
Good choice. Right now its blowing a gale and raining a lot.
Not that warm either!
Still… its all ready for when the weather behaves.

I meant to go inside at that point but got distracted and started clearing up this area

Its a bit of a feral mess!

I didn’t get far but I did pull out a lot of stuff in a short period of time.

The sawdust mulch really kept a lot of the weeds at bay.

There is a path in there somewhere.
In front of the rosemary there is basil mint gone bonkers!
I suppose its more interesting than having other weeds take over. Smells amazing even if it looks disastrous!

Granny Bonnet self seeded

I need to ask Cousin Fiona what this is again as I got it from her garden and I’ve forgotten. I only noticed it out in flower today! So unusual!

Anyway, all bits of me ache so I am going to take myself off to bed!
Hope everyone is doing well
xxx

Hello!
After some frantic cleaning and sorting, I was ready for the folks to drop in!
They were only here a week but it was really lovely to see them and hang out and catch up.

Tassie turned on some fabulous weather the first day or so…
It did go slowly downhill after the first day but at least we got a gorgeous day on the beach!

And another day of much more blustery weather!!

I was able to show and tell my amazing carrot growing skills!! (Don’t mind my glamorous look here haha)
This carrot actually went home with them and they’ve been showing it off around the village and getting some great comments and reactions!! So funny.

While they were here, I got my Dad to help me put in the hothouse watering system! Its been on my ‘gunna’ list forever and I thought it would be a good Dad-Daughter project!

Haha…Mum stepped in as occupational health and safety officer when it came to pouring boiling water down the pipe (helped to straighten it out.)
For some reason she insisted on a funnel and tongs.
Dad and I were ready to just be living on the edge.
Dad was probs happy… was his hands after all!

Bits and bobs ready to go… and more boiling water to soften ends to put in the elbow pieces etc

I am so excited to have this done

Its going to make life during summer so much easier!
And because the old hothouse has lots of holes, Dad found the right spot to poke the connecting piece out the side so the hose wont have to be dragged in through the door

I’ve already been using it. Trying to re hydrate the soil in there which will help as I need to plant pretty soon.

I am happy to report that our firewood lasted enough to mostly keep the parents warm during their visit. So lucky that Cousin Jeff dropped off a couple of loads.
Dad enjoyed reading in the lounge room with the fire all nice and cosy

When I was in Japan I bought some material for Jeff. I posted it up to Mum and she, being the brilliant seamstress she is, created three beautiful work scrubs for him, which she finished off and brought with her.

You’ll possibly recognise these favourite characters of ours from the Kyoto temple -originally drawn over 600 years ago!
The little bit of black on the sleeve was put in while Mum was here using a bit of black silk that was given to Jeff by a patient when she found out that he was interested in Japanese materials/silks!! Very special.

Super cool owls

And our ever favourite dragonflies!
He is definitely the snazziest nurse on the ward!

Their time went quickly but we really enjoyed a relaxing week of catching up, chatting lots, enjoying the fire (Every time I put a log on Mum would stay up later to enjoy the extra warmth haha)
We only did a couple of visits – when they return with a car in nicer weather and stay longer they’ll do the rounds of the cousins.
We were given some nice steaks and I also had the wallaby mince so we made some nice dinners too… and drank a lot of wine!!!!

Today the weather perked up again so I thought I should get into the raspberry patch and prune the canes and cut out the dead ones.
Such a tangle!

(Oh and chop down that tree!!!)

Of course the girls had to get involved!

The snap doesn’t really show the after effect that well but it is a lot less of a mess. I couldn’t restring it properly as the clothesline wire was snapping. Its clearly had its day so I’ll need new stuff to finish that off.
Plus I will need to net before mulching otherwise those feathery darlings will just kick it all out everywhere!

Here’s hoping for continued better weather so I can get more of the garden on its way!
xxx