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Look at Tasmania behaving in the weather department for me for once! So proud!

I had my first Gardening Workshop for Beginners today with three lovely ladies from the local area.
I did have some more booked in but one lady called and had to postpone (family issue) and the other couple forgot! Oops! I should have sent everyone a quick reminder email but its all new so next time I will do that.

I think the day went really well! Its also given me the confidence to put it out there again and do another one if people are interested (which they seem to be)
We started with a quick chat then a fairly long garden tour.
I found that rather than standing or sitting about lecturing, most of the information I wanted to share was easily incorporated into the ‘tour’.
Talking about the soil, mulch, what to fill beds with, planting tips on certain veggies etc.
The ladies were full of questions which was awesome and shared stories of their own spaces and gardens.
Luckily because I have no set style, there are so many different garden beds and ideas on the go, so they got a really good look at lots of different approaches and seemed to really like my ‘no fuss’ attitude towards it all. I guess it makes it less daunting when you simplify things and don’t overthink everything.

After the tour, we sat for a cuppa and cake (of course)
That was nice and relaxing.
We then did some hands on planting. Seeds, seedlings and a row of potatoes.
I’ve sent them home with a ‘Garden Party Bag’ that had seeds, potatoes to plant, seedlings, some oregano I pulled up and some spring onions as I have LOTS.

Once everyone had gone, I packed up my stuff, came inside and excitedly talked Jeffs ear off about every detail. Poor Jeff… just off a nightshift. In the end he had to head back to bed… probably in self defence haha
Luckily one of my sisters called so I could blather on to her about it 😀

I think I might have a day off tomorrow!!
Mind you I owe myself two laps of the river track as I just couldn’t face going out late this afternoon.
I am now feeling a bit tired!

I hope your weekend is going splendidly!
Cheers

So excited to get my dirt. haha
Half mushroom compost and half topsoil. Now I can REALLY get going in the new beds!

Three barrow loads filled the shallow bed nicely. I have plans to use this one at my rescheduled gardening workshop on Saturday. (Too scared to look at weather updates haha)

I cleared part of this area out – started stacking wood back under the hothouse annex

This area will get a sensible revamp now that we know better what we are doing and what works best for us.

I forgot to take the ‘after’ shot for this yesterday. Jeff got in and whippersnippered the area. I have a lot of work to do to clear it and get something on top of all the grass to kill it and keep it at bay.

Tomorrow might be my last day as Lamb-Day-Care-Mother.
Frankie only got the one bottle from me today (yes there was a lot of heart rending bleating)
Fiona reckons she should be right for a feed in the morning and one in the late afternoon.

Poor Frankie was left to her own devices a lot today. Sharon and her husband Paul, dropped in. Sharon got in the garden to cuddle Frankie! So cute. Paul is going to take one of the big felled branches that will make great fence straining posts. We’ve decided on a barter of firewood – a different timber to the macrocarpa which is great as we need other stuff to burn it together.

Frankie is pretty good on her lead, so I took her for a walk all around the place. Pip (sitting at back door) was NOT impressed.
I don’t think the chooks were too happy either! I think white chook looked like she was going to jump at and peck Frankie! (The others just ran off, such wooses)

Anyway, we finished the day with a lap around the river (goodbye to another 6kms worth of choccie bikkies and ginger beer)
Then dinner… lots on the plate from our garden or local farms!
T-bone steaks, potato salad (with my bartered bacon and home grown spring onions) some asparagus, lettuce and rocket, corn from the freezer and pickled beetroot. Even the butter on the corn was home made (friend)
Always makes me feel a bit chuffed with a dinner like that!
(And probably means two river laps tomorrow)

So… I am full and I need to take my aching muscles off to bed!
Cheers!

Hello – A couple of the little short tulips are out!
Yesterday after another waistline reducing hike, we got stuck into the yard. It had been forever since we could mow – the grass has been so wet and heavy.

While Jeff was mowing I was running about raking up grass and moving wood

Today I am meant to be getting a truck load of topsoil/mushroom compost mix so I need this spot to dump it.

Need more pallets

Moving stuff about.

Will have to chat to cousin Jeff about more pallets! So much firewood!

Bit muscle sore this morning!
Can’t wait for my soil!
Cheers!

Hello!
Another productive day! Yay me.
These two beds weren’t nearly as problematic to level and put into place!

And with a bit of careful shuffling about I got the cardboard under the bed edges without throwing the whole thing off.

And ew… I found a flat mouse – maggots and all! (Apologies to anyone eating something nice when this appeared on screen)

Next, a nice first layer of straw. I sprinkled with blood and bone and watered them in a bit.

Its still a little hard to get a sense of the inside bit but its getting better. I dug and moved a lot of dirt around and by the end of the day it was looking pretty good and easier to visualise what happens next.

I was going to cardboard the lot – sans path – and build up with topsoil, compost etc… but figured that will cost a fortune and is possibly more effort than I want to expend.
I’ll top up the raised beds with a topsoil and mushroom compost mix, but the middle bit approach a bit differently. Still cardboard. Otherwise I will be fighting weeds from now until the end of time.
I’ll top with a lot of straw as a mulch, but anywhere I am planting something I’ll cut a bit of a hole in the cardboard, dig in compost and plant the seedling or plant. Over time I will continually add in organic matter.
Still planning on putting in a herb spiral.
Now thinking of using some of the macrocarpa logs to line a path and different areas of the garden where the height varies. Its hard to explain. But I am NOT levelling this plot. There is about 3-4ft difference between the highest corner to the lowest.
Anyway. I am sure it will work out 🙂

Need to pick up more big screws to finish the last raised bed.

Looks like my tulips will be out soon!

This morning after Frankie arrived, I slipped down to the river to do a lap. That’s 6km of choc chip bikkies gone from my bottom. 😀
Unhappily had to get on the scales at the hospital yesterday and I really wished I hadn’t.
Winter has taken its toll and I need to step up and get moving and lose those extra kilos pronto!

No more baking.
Oh well. It was fun.

Hope your week is going along well!
Cheers!

Hello!
Wow – I am a bit tired tonight – I was up waaaaay too late last night.
I was given a beautiful bunch of Freesias today by a lady I’ve just met via our gardening interests. They smell so beautiful!

Anyway, lets backtrack a little to yesterday with a few more photos of Ruby from her birthday!

Lots of cuppa’s to be had!

My cousins Ruben and Beau catching up with Ruby.

Margie wheeling in the birthday cake – that Ruby insisted on making!! Gotta love a good fruit cake!

Time for a birthday song and some cake cutting.

It really was a lovely afternoon. The weather might have been cold and a bit soggy, but the atmosphere was warm and cosy with lots of laughs and stories!

Well – I was up late because I was mucking about outside at midnight with my camera and a tripod – glowsticks and sparklers.
The last subject for the current photo challenge is ‘Light Painting’
Luckily it wasn’t raining.

I was having quite a lot of fun really – its a bit hit and miss. I would have liked to have gone to a beach but I didn’t have the car last night.
Eventually, me prancing about with lights attracted the bovine neighbours. Suddenly the air was filled with bellowing – and stampeding noises.

The whole lot of them ended up at the fence and just stared at me for most of the rest of my time out there, cramping my style and getting into my photos!!

Not content with just cows… the possum came for a stickybeak as well… AND IT POOED IN MY BASKET OF GLOWSTICKS!!!
Seriously??
I guess I should be grateful it didn’t wee on my camera.

Anyway, I soldiered on trying all sorts of patterns and words or just scribbles.

I even wrote Jeff a brief love note 🙂

Anyway… I MUST go to bed a bit earlier.
Hope your weeks starts fantastically!
Cheers!

My night has been a bit mad, so only a short hello from me along with sharing a photo of the Birthday Girl!

A lovely afternoon was had. Lots of family, many cuppas, lots of food.
The weather turned cold and wet so we didn’t tromp outside for photos, but it was cosy together in the lounge room where everyone was catching up and enjoying themselves.

I’ll pop back sometime tomorrow with more photos – but since its 1.30am and I am up early to get Frankie… I better scoot!
Hope everyone has had a lovely weekend
Cheers!

Hi!
The other day when I was hobnobbing with movie stars, Tree-Guy Warrwick returned to take more off our dwindling Macrocarpas!

So we’ve got another bunch of branches and timber to clean up.

This time he took down one of the big trunks

She makes a solid thump when hitting ground!!
This went into the neighbours paddock.

Warrwick cut through a lot of the main bits into rounds so we could clear the gateway for our paddock neighbour.

That end bit is being left so we can mill it as its a really nice big straight piece!

I postponed my gardening workshop today as yesterday was dreadful weather and today wasn’t meant to be much either. It wasn’t too bad but so soggy and muddy underfoot. We’ll wait for a better weekend.

So easy to dive into my drawers and find what seeds I need!
Time for the snow peas to go in!

Mushroom compost dug in and seeds planted either side. Lets hope the sticks hold up!

I was NOT going to dig to level more sloping land. So a bit of a Dodgy Brothers job on stacking some bricks etc up under one end…
Then filling the space with logs and old dirt etc before laying the cardboard down.

I filled the first layer with some of the straw.
Apparently the top soil is in at the nursery so I hope to order a truck load this week so I can finish topping up new beds and gardens.

I think I would like this bed to be full of sunflowers

Next – roped Jeff into putting together the remaining raised beds. Sadly we could only do 3 of the 4 as we were short on the long screws!

Yes I will make these neater.

After I had done other jobs today I got back to this bed and worked to get it level. That was a poo of a job. The whole thing was too heavy for me to lift and move to dig and then replace/check/rinse/repeat. I just had to keep digging under the edges to try to push them into the right spot.
Would help if there was less concrete and stones.

Was getting me really titchy in the end but I was pigheaded about giving up and coming back to it.
Eventually I got it right.

Earlier in the day I got the tripods that Jeff made me and put them in the herb garden. I’ve decided thats where the sweet peas can grow this season.
Generous application of mushroom compost and some potting mix and a lot of seeds

I can’t wait for these to grow!

Little Moo is back in the next paddock. He still runs up to me for some leafy treats.

I brought one of the tables back into the hothouse to make a start on planting some seeds.
I only planted the cos lettuce, two types of cucumber and some zucchini
Tomorrow I will need to write some labels before I forget what I have done!

Check this out! The lettuce that has gone to seed seems to have aphids. The sticky reside they’ve left all over the plant has laminated all the whitefly to them! Awesome!
When I no longer need them as a trap I can just pull them all up and discard!
Never thought I’d feel kindly towards aphids!

Well – its now late and I am feeling a bit achy after todays efforts.
I hope your weekends are going along beautifully!
Cheers

Today I got to meet Samuel Johnson – and got heaps of hugs!!
Sam is an Australian actor in TV and movies.
He also is the face of “Love Your Sister”
His sister Connie battled cancer and sadly passed away a couple of years ago. Together they created a stunning online ‘Village’ of people who supported those suffering from cancer and raising money.
Sam just hit the 10 million dollar mark.
He and his little team are touring Australia and getting face to face with people, sharing valuable information and working on new fundraisers.
What a kind and passionate person Sam is!! He gave everybody who met him time, selfies and big hugs.
Sam swears a lot 😀 (and is beautifully unremorseful about it)
One of his fund raising campaigns was the Swear Jar campaign. I was online a few years ago when Connie was telling Sam off for his language and I posted a comment saying a swear jar thing should be his next campaign.
And boy did he make it happen!
I told him today that he wouldn’t remember but it was me online that night… etc. He was rapt. “It was YOU!!??” “That campaign raised over half a million dollars – thats yours!!” Then I got heaps of extra hugs! 😀
He is really good at making you feel special.
I donated, bought some stuff, took some photos and handed over a present of a couple of jars of raspberry jam which was argued over immediately (like who was going to eat it all)
Their next big thing is to get 100,000 Australians to sign up and pledge to donate $10 a month. They aim to have this number by December next year so they can bring in a million a month to put it directly in the hands of the people who are working so hard to make cancer a thing of the past.
Personalised medicine is the big thing we want. Instead of wasting precious time ‘trying’ different drugs, you can have your cancer tested down to the genetic level and the drug that will work best for you is used.
This is something that is a reality – but the money and the politics holds us back and sadly – people like Sams sister die.

Really glad I went out.
And now I have a “Love your Sister” Hoodie to snuggle in.
And I DO love my two sisters so very much so its an extra great thing to wear!
Cheers!

We’ve been treated to a beautiful couple of days.
Most enjoyable!!

Frankie is really guzzling now. We are hoping she starts eating some grass etc soon. Although that would mean she would be slightly more problematic in the garden

She doesn’t eat anything out of it now. Just bounces all over everything!

Air-Time with Frankie.

And at the end of her day at Lamb Day Care she is pretty happy to see her Mum again.

I managed to finish pruning the raspberries yesterday

I picked up a trailer load of mushroom compost today and yesterday I cleared out the car port. I want to use it for my gardening workshop on Saturday.

I also picked up my big folding table from Ruby’s shed today. I wish you could have seen it! Its quite a long heavy thing. I can manage but Ruby was adamant it was too heavy for just me and she was going to help.
I thought about firmly putting my foot down but did a mental shrug and thought… she’s less than a week off 103 years old. Let her have some fun.
So there’s me and Ruby carrying this bloody great table out and she’s got her walking stick and helping lift it into the trailer.
Classic! I wish I could have watched!!! haha

I feel like my spring has officially started – I planted a tomato!

I put a good lot of mushroom compost in the spot so I hope it will be happy there.
And look! The first self seeded tomato!

The chooks got spoiled this morning. Jeff brought home a heap of leftovers from work. I think sandwiches and muffins were involved!

And Pip got some outdoor time today. He does his best to ignore me when I want him to look at the camera.

This is me setting up a shot for the photo challenge.
We are heading into day four now. I am trying to keep ahead, but I still have 3 photos yet to take.

Day two was Stripes:

Day three was ‘Three’ (A subject that can be widely interpreted and there are some fun shots coming in)

And tomorrow , day four, is ‘Rusty’

I’ll need Jeff’s help tomorrow for ‘Drama’
I know he is eyeing me suspiciously about this. 😀

This did have rocks displayed on it… now that we’ve got a better rock display unit, I’ve commandeered this one to store/display some of my soap. It still needs to have air flow for curing. So they might as well look nice somewhere. Surface space in the library was getting scarce!

I made and cut another loaf of soap. This new fragrance is called ‘Kentish Rain’ Its really rather nice and light and fresh. Was a bit strong at first but now calming down well.

I think I need to bang the loaf tin down harder for longer to get rid of the air bubbles!! (I suspect my mixing technique can improve lol)

Hope you are all having a great week so far!
Cheers!

Oops – again! The night got away from me.
Mind you I was baking those bikkies at 11pm – It was important. haha
So… I better get to bed as its now past midnight and Frankie will be bouncing in bright and early.
Will write todays stories tomorrow!
Cheers.
(I am going to feel so mean getting Pip out of his warm towel to put him to bed!)