Lazy day really – Apart from finally making up the second batch of plum jam.
I enjoyed a bit more crocheting in the comfort of the fire… This is Ruby’s shawl that I started the other day – (not quite one ball in)
These are the progressions on the other two I am also doing –
I also finally took some snaps of the rocks that came back out of the tumbler – this time polished up beautifully!
Still my favourite!
It’s lovely to see a little bit more colour out in the garden – a hint of spring. I get all excited and keen to jump into the garden – then the weather will turn feral on me again – it is after all, the last month of winter, so I have to try to keep that in mind!
Anyway – here are a couple of pretties for you!
Cheers!
Protea BudI love the fluffiness inside the flower
I have a nice little patch of these mini-daffodilsCherry Blossom – the promise of things to come!Winter rose still producing lots of flowers
It wasn’t the sunniest day, but I was grateful for the continued lack of pouring rain – a chance to go out and finish what we started!
We dug in the bridge so it was stable and relocated a few more rocks to finish the edging before mixing in the super compost we picked up at the nursery yesterday. (Mushroom compost and a fancy super rich compost mix that I can’t remember the name of!)
Jeff attends to a stray weed
I am sure there are rules about which strawberry plants to use and not to use. I have never followed them. Something about only using the first runner?? Well… I have Buckley’s or none, chance of sorting out this mess as to which is what – so I just cleaned them up and picked the best
Messy clump
Jeff trotted off next door with his lawn mower to do the neighbours lawn and paddock (way to go Jeff earning some pocket-money) while I cleaned up a lot of strawberry plants!
transformed into two nice little strawberry plantsProgressTa Daa!
It was getting quite chilly by this point of the day! I was happy to get inside and jump under a hot shower!
There are over 100 plants in this new plot – so I have high hopes for strawberries this season – that is if I can keep the chooks away!
And I have leftovers! Will have to find homes for all of these!
Homeless
Hope your weekend is going fantastically!
I say roll on spring! I am seeing the plum blossoms starting to show and I am getting REALLY keen!
Hello – back to Japan today to have a little bit more of a look at the Ise area – check out the first installment here if you missed part one!
We stayed three nights in Ise and it was worth it. We could take our time seeing the local sites and even revisited a few areas that we particularly enjoyed.
We stayed at this crazy cool guesthouse/backpackers called “Kazami”
Five minutes (if that) from the train station and extremely hard to miss!!!
Inside was just as mad –
Amazing driftwood type decor!Steep stairs, artwork on every surface!cool basins in the washroom areaJeff takes a rest on the tatami floor on our still folded up futons!
The guesthouse was great – friendly people, impromptu music nights and art nights. There was a kitchen we could cook in and a comfy lounge area to relax in. A really good way to meet other travellers too!
On our second day in Ise, we took the little train further down the tracks to find the famous Wedded Rocks or “Meoto Iwa”
It was a nice little walk through a sleepy town to get to the sea
The rocks themselves were quite impressive, despite the gloomy day
Wedded Rocks
They represent Izanagi and Izanami, the married deities who created Japan and kami, according to Shinto mythology.
The larger rock is about 30 feet tall and is said to be Izanagi, the male, while the smaller rock, standing around 12 feet, is the female Izanami. The rope that bonds them in matrimony is a shimenawa, a sacred Shinto object often placed over shrines and gates to ward off evil spirits. The rope uniting the Meoto Iwa frays fast due to the wind and waves (as you can imagine), and must be replaced three times per year. Of course, special ceremonies are held each time the rope is replaced.
It was a nice little walk around the area – lots of frogs!! Frog carvings and statues!
We are on a roll here – three nice days in a row!!
We started out today by picking up a load of woodchip to tidy up the side garden
I want to get those grass clumps from the pot to plant at the back here
Best go and see what the compost has to offer…
Sensational worms!
We spread a barrow load of compost here and will plant the grasses in just as soon as I extract them from their pot!
We have been wanting to do something with the patch of yard out the back for quite some time – always hard to know where to start! But we drew up a couple of possibilities up and actually ‘broke ground’
We thought it was time to move the strawberries to a fresh patch. I was keen to dig them up and tidy them up, but we decided to actually make the new garden first, so I can just transplant them rather than try to keep dug up strawberries alive while I procrastinate about making a new garden!
We are going to leave a small path between the current and new garden.
Slow process!
We have got some rock around the property that we want to edge all these new gardens with & Cousin Jeff reckons he can source us some more rocks to play with! Cool.
Resident Snoopervisor.
Time for a hot chocolate and a bikkie.Basic plot dug
Its amazing what you dig up on an old homestead! Glass and pottery abound!
Random pipe unearthed
Heaps of lovely big worms were also everywhere! (Chickens, being on the other side of the yard, missed out big-time today!)
The plot, toward the end of the day was finally taking shape. We think we can find enough rock around the place to finish edging it tomorrow. We will then trot back off to the nursery and get a mix of topsoil and mushroom compost to top up this new garden before moving the strawberries across. Remaining compost mix to be added to the old strawberry patch which I would like to plant with pretty flowering plants.
We are hobbling like ancient people tonight after all this digging and rock moving!
While looking for more rocks I remembered we had this bridge! So I extracted it from the vines that were tangled around it and brought it around to the new patch
I don’t know if it will look dumb, or work – but I do want a middle gap through these gardens as I like to charge straight off the back veranda to go down the back… so we will experiment and see.
So, not a bad days work! We are totally feeling it tonight every time we stand up! haha – clearly out of intense gardening practice! All this rain has got me used to sitting by the fire!
Today was the nicest day we have had since forever!!! I promptly abandoned all my indoor plans, pulled on my gardening clothes and headed out into the sunshine (and yes- threw through two loads of laundry that almost finished drying in the sun and light breeze!)
The side garden was in need of help – we have family coming to stay in about a month and plan to get the winter scruffiness under control so it all looks nice again.
I dug up the struggling lemon tree and plonked it in the ground near the original compost. It can do what it likes now – it certainly wasn’t doing much good where it was!
In transitLemon tree relocated!
Pip did the Siamese thing and lounged about – he was happier sleeping on top of some clothes of mine – in this case my gardening top, so ew!
Jeff worked on clearing out the twitch from around the iris as best he could… next season it will need a total dig up and clear out.
This pot of grasses I planned to relocate is completely root bound! I extracted a few pieces and replanted, but will finish the job tomorrow (hopefully without the aid of a sledgehammer!!)
Partway through the afternoon, Cousin Jeff dropped off another load of wood! (sob sob) 🙂 Actually this lot I will leave exactly as you see it! Its mostly under cover and it would be just wasting energy to find a place to stack it.
Pip got even more comfortable…
Seriously – going by the photos it doesn’t look like we did much! Â I am sure it will look a million times better when we get the new load of woodchips to cover the area with (tomorrow’s job if the rain doesn’t make a reappearance)
Tomorrow’s main job is the ailing strawberry patch!
I made a start on the strawberries and then got sidetracked by a giant slug!
Apparently this is a leopard slug and is a ‘good slug’ not an ‘evil slug’ I don’t know much about them yet…
I will get onto Google tomorrow to read more about them
We ended up with a gorgeous sunny day today and it was so nice to soak it up a bit. The day before was filthy – so I spared you a blog of me sitting about in the gloom feeding the fire and crocheting stuff!
I know its supposed to be Ruby Tuesday – and I am falling down on my Ruby-Gathering stories the last couple of weeks!
We did have a meeting yesterday afternoon with a couple of ladies from the church guild, who are organising food for the big party!!
Its hard to believe that in little over a month Ruby turns 100 years old!! So amazing!
So we were working out a few loose ends about food, times and things that needed to be done.
If any of you who follow Ruby’s stories would like to send birthday greetings – please feel free to do so. I may get a chance to read a couple out at her party  – I am sure there will be a number of messages from people who can’t make it.  If you do write, please let us know where you hale from and even a bit about your garden etc.  I promise I will sit Ruby down one afternoon over a cuppa and read them out to her. I know she will get a kick out of that! She likes to know that more people are learning about her beloved Tasmania!
I went on a wool hunting mission today – I picked up some nice blue wool which I think may make a nice shawl for Ruby – she loves blue. We are not allowed to give her birthday presents apparently. I pouted a bit and asked “What about making something??” Well… that’s ok. 🙂 So now I am in the middle of three shawls again, having made a little start today on the new blue one!
Jeff and I went out Star Trekking tonight!! The movie was great fun! Then we got home to clear skies and wow – stars!!! We stood out in the cold for ages watching the skies, spotting shooting stars and marvelling at how clear the milky way is tonight.
I got a couple of photos, but I really have to do some googling about settings to get it right. Still… you can get the basic idea –
We ‘painted’ the house and trees briefly with a torch right at the end of the exposure – which was about 20 seconds. Amazing how much the stars move in a short time.
Hope you all have had a lovely day!
Cheers
Another shot of my two cheerful Daffodils! I now have them inside in a vase!
I convinced Jeff that we needed to not be in the house and a stroll along Sisters Beach would be good for us.
The small creek that runs into the sea, cut a new more direct path to the ocean. Usually it winds its way down.
The tide was on its way out and the wet sand was giving up some nice reflections in the sun
The landscape of the beach had changed a bit, just like we saw at Anniversary Bay – sand eroded back, exposing new rocks and burying others
lumps of beach rock
I usually photograph this rock as its colours are interesting… but today almost none of it is visible!A lot more seaweed thrown up and the tussocky grass has been well batteredWe don’t normally notice this little stream
Always on the lookout for interesting rocks
It was so refreshing to get outside again! We took the back road off the beach back to the car – just to be different
Which was rather nice as we could admire some of the wattle that was starting to show its cheerful yellow fluffy flowers!
How was everyone else’s weekend? Hope it was great!
Even at the end of the second month of winter, we are still getting small pickings of tomatoes – which is such a treat!
Obviously the secret is a hothouse. I can’t recommend enough if you have the space and can build some kind of structure in glass or plastic covered. There are a million ideas on pinterest for various ways and means that is fun to check out.
We were lucky – we had this dubious looking structure already on the property
I especially loved someones bespoke patch job…
Inside was quite ratty – concrete and buried rubbish, with surprisingly nice soil once we dug it all up!
Inside cleared of rubbish/concrete – dug and covered in pea straw
We really really didn’t need a shade cloth covered structure, so we ripped all that off
(Of course we saved and reused the shade cloth elsewhere!We found screwing on lengths of polypipe to secure the plastic was the best way – the polypipe hasn’t weathered and we could just cut it at whatever length easily. Better than wood beading
First side done
The back had some rotting wood in the structure so we did a bit of Dodgy Brothers Handywork and replaced a few bits
To make it easy, we just covered over the window – the eaves are all open and provide adequate ventilation along with opening the door in summerDone
It was the end of the first summer season of living in Tasmania when we did this, so at first the hot house housed the last tomatoes as they ripened and we grew a late season crop of lettuce
We have been so happy we did this – our growing season gets extended considerably at both ends of the season.
I start seeds, seedlings, and a few hothouse tomato plants way way earlier than I could by direct outdoor planting. Very handy in a milder climate where you have a shorter summer season
Getting ready for springMid Season
And its wonderful to be getting a few salad vegies in the dead of winter!
August last year!! (ie the final month of winter!)
One more month of winter to go and I will be waiting eagerly for the first signs of proper spring with the plum trees budding.
In the meantime – its back to the fire and my crochet for me!
I got a bit excited about trying out the other new yarn I picked up a few days back … so have been enjoying seeing these graduated colours appear in this new shawl project.
I had to reluctantly leave my new love alone and get back to finish the original one. So I popped over to see Ruby and asked Margie to teach me how to do an edge.
Ruby kept the naughty Macca out of the way as he was on an attention-seeking high this afternoon!
Small treats from Ruby!
Ruby had a good night with her foot and is hopeful it might finally be turning the corner. She ruefully admits it has done a fine job for nearly 100 years and she ‘hasn’t treated them kindly’
Anyway – was great to hear some positives today!
After I sorted how to do my edge, I spent some time teaching Margie the basics of the shawl
A grand start!
If anyone out there is keen to give this one a go, here is the link to “Viral Shawl” A lady does a very clear video tutorial. And you only need to be at a basic level of crochet to tackle this one!
And – tonight I finished my first one! Pretty excited about it, although I am less excited about the quality of the photo, which doesn’t have the best light/colour. Will try another snap in daylight tomorrow!
Ta Daa!
On a side note – I also managed to get back outside and finish stacking that wood!! A round of applause and a hot bath please! 🙂
It was a typical changeable day – this was a nice bit! 🙂
We figured we should go down into the back paddock and collect some more pine cones and other decent bits of kindling for the fire.
Heading to the pines
The fellow who runs the cows down here doesn’t mind us tramping though his paddocks to pick up kindling, which is great.
This field will be blooming with wild daffodils soon. Wonder if the farmer will mind if I pick and sell them?? hee hee
Of course we had a small audience!
Stickybeak cowsPlenty of pine cones and kindling – just had to avoid the ones coated in cow poo
Back up to the house
We walked back up to our back fence and slung our bags over the fence, then decided to go back down the paddock to check out the creek
A little more help for the fire
The small creek has widened its horizons!
Slightly further up, the creek had made its own cool little waterways in and out and around the trees!
Gumboots are the ONLY option around our place these days
Of course, during our walk we got rained on and shined on intermittently – and then the inevitable rainbow!
And inevitable cows again
Actually as we walked back up to the gate we caused this hilarious stampede of Mini Cows – they were racing up to us, jumping in the air and everything!
Its hard to see, but the cow behind the leader got some good air time! lol
Then I got licked!
I have to go spend more time with the cows – they crack me up!
