Sunday, September 24, 2006

Our Weekend

Friday night we had our friend Lou and Age over for a bbq. Great night. A few too many wines and beers. Love a bbq and good weather.

Wow what a busy weekend. Yesterday Jason mowed the lawn. It took over three hours using the push mower. The grass is growing so fast lately that it needs to be done constantly. The snakes are already on the move. My MIL has already seen two large ones near her place on the road. The weather began to warm up early this Spring. Way too early. Fruit trees blossomed a month too early. Over the last week I have weeded, weeded and then again. The weeds at this time of year like, the cobwebs on the veranda, are never ending.

We spent hours in the garden this weekend. The weather was lovely yesterday but cold today. Yesterday we dug and prepared the vegie patch for this summers seedlings. It's a little early here to plant but we are willing to risk the loss. Today we went to the market and bought, spring onions, spinach, celery, chilli, capsicum, zucchini, dill, corn, asparagus, cucumber, pumpkin and lettuce. We also bought corriander, basil, parsley and curry plant for the pots on the veranda. These seem to be more tempermental than other herbs and seem to do better up on the veranda in pots. I love planting the garden with vegies. Last year we had so many zucchinis I gave them away with recipes for usage lol My fav is zucchin slice.

My blueberry plants are in flower this spring. Dad bought me my first plant two years ago and this year it will have fruit. We are so excited. I love blueberries. Blueberries take a few years ( 3 to 4) to produce fruit. Just have to hope the Crimson Rosella's don't eat them. I need to cover them before the fruit appears.

The garden is finally starting to look good this year. Every thing is so green due to the recent rain. Wish it looked like this all year. Most of the year it is brown or the grass is non existent. This year we are fearing bush fires more than any other year. Living in the middle of a state forest that has had no burning off for many years makes it prone to fires. We were lucky last year but this year you only have to look at the fires this week to realise the danger is starting early.

Most plants in our garden have been in for two to three years. Everything grows so slow here. Lack of water due to being on tank water (we have had drought conditions for years not that you would guess looking at the colour of my grass in these photos), hot summers, cold winters and we have very poor clay soil. Still we try to make things grow. Some thrive, others are cut down to the ground by the lovely cockatoo's. Last year we lost our tree ferns. They had ten to fifteen beautiful fronds. We came home fathers day to see them chopped to the ground by a lovely cute cockatoo. These birds don't eat what they chomp, that is what is so frustrating. They just destroy. Luckily our home is not cedar or that would be targeted too. Not that they haven't tried taking chunks out of the veranda.

Jason finished off painting the top of the cubby for me this weekend. I needed a ladder to reach the top few panels. Leah has played in it all week so hopefully this will continue.

I had the lovely job of cleaning out the duck/fat goose pen this week. mmmm lovely job. Good for fertisliser though.

The garden is one of my favourite places to be. Love my garden so I though I would share a few pictures of the front and back (most are from the back, we live on just over one acre, the back section is bush. We have left it this way so that the native plants, native orchids etc can grow. We mow some areas so that the kids are safe from snakes etc when riding their bikes around the block)

Today it has been freezing. The morning started off ok but was gusty and windy. This afternoon we had hail showers and snow followed by more snow. Snow is predicted to 600 metres today and tonight. A cool change is coming with the snow. Well we have had snow on and off all afternoon but although it's 1.8 degrees now we still haven't had the change come through. If it does I gather we will be waking up and be snowed in tomorrow morning. It is so lovely seeing the snow fall. It captures you completely. There is nothing so pretty. I can say this because I don't have to shovel driveways etc. We can enjoy our brief snow episodes each year.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi sounds like u all had a busy weekend ,fantastic details but u just go easy ,xxxx

Anonymous said...

I think that greendale knows I am coming down for the next 10 days, so snow rain frost is on the agenda.
Think I will have to bring my winter wollies.
Kady, get the electric blanket on my bed, and extra blankets, and I want the top of the bed, you can have the bottom.
My friend maryanne has gone to the gold coast for 2 weeks, she said that she will come back with a nice tan, and I will come back frostbitten, with chilblains.lol

Paula... said...

Where on earth are you getting all your energy from?? The garden and block is looking fantastic :) I wish I had enough room for a decent veggie patch :(

Anonymous said...

hi dawn... tell your mum to stop whinging about the weather she moans when its hot and moans when its cold.. and concentrate on making you rest .love from all of us uncle pete and auntie rose ect xxxx