garden and more

4:38 PM No Comments

The garden has been going along superbly.  Toni harvested and dried garlic last week, here she is Beautiful garlic enjoying the subtle aromas of one of the several flavours she has grown. Plenty of fruit coming from our mini orchard, Raspberries, Brazillian Cherries, Peaches and Apples at the moment and even a handful of Blueberries !  The strawberries and Nectarines have finished. A plump Raspberry ripe for the picking ! Brazillian...

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Breakfast

9:24 PM No Comments

Toni had headed off early to work, so I woke up, wandered down and fed the chooks, they'd laid two eggs early, so I grabbed them, followed with a handful of mulberries, then wandered over to the garden and grabbed a handful of strawberries.  That and a piece of toast from home made bread was breakfast taken care of.  I released when I got back to the house, I was naked the entire time... Breakfast ! If I had been in suburbia, I would have probably been arrested,...

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always something happening

9:29 AM No Comments

One of the truly wondrous things about living in the bush is that there is always something happening, wildlife wise.  The Kookaburra's are back, nesting in the tree out the front, Kookaburras nesting in the Stringy Bark in the front yard and we spied these guys on the front lawn the other day.  Not sure if they are two males fighting, or a couple making luuurrrrrve? What are they doing, fighting or making sweet luuurve? We were paid a special vist...

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Busy as a bee

2:32 PM No Comments

Well, the bees have been busy, me, not so much. One of the trees down to the chook yard is in full blossom and it sounds like a billion bee cacophony when you walk past. Billion Bee Cacophony Tree   It's full of Native and European bees, all doing their thing Bee Business The White Mulberry (White Shahtoot) Tree has burst forth with new foliage and what seems like a million fruit. Immature...

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Sidetracked

8:47 PM No Comments

I actually wanted to head down to the garden to see what Toni was up to, on the way down, I noticed the Callistemon out the front of the garden played host to a plethora of Scarlet Honeyeaters, they were all over the spring flowers.  I raced back to get my camera, cam back, they had moved to the next tree along and have been joined by their compadres.  I counted at least 5 or 6, 4 of them the males, displaying their gorgeous scarlet colour. Feeding, on the wing, ah la a Hummingbird Lovin'...

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Hail... mary ?

9:03 PM No Comments

Well, the small amount of hail the other day was simply a precursor for the doozy that followed it two days later !  We could here the storm coming from miles away, then rain, it poured, 45mm in about 30 mins, mixed with it a huge quantity of hail.  I am from North Qld and have never really seen hail before, my partner is from Victoria and she said this was the longest hail storm she had ever seen.  It kept coming, we were quite concerned about...

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Busy in the garden

7:10 PM No Comments

Toni has been very busy in the garden, planting crops and getting beds ready for a spring planting.  The garden is looking pretty good Garden looking gorgeous The Snow Peas are prodigious producers Snow peas (left), flowering Choy Sum (right) for seed collection Broad Beans: grow baby, grow ! and the strawberries are starting to produce, yum ! Strawberries A couple days ago we had the first hail storm I can remember, little hail (thank god) about the size of a pea Hail stones...

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Our Orchards morning delight

9:03 PM No Comments

Nature makes a much better statement then I can, from our orchard this morning. Morning dew on peach tree blossoms Anna apple blossoms Anna Apple flower buds Morning dew on apricot blossoms Spiders web amongst the apricot buds  Morning dew on the Dorset Apple flowers Morning dew on the Dorset Apple flower buds Glistening dew droplet on olive lea...

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Wood for winter.. Pumpkin & Sultana Cake ! ...and more

8:36 PM No Comments

Only a small update today... We have started laying in green wood for NEXT winter, to give it time to cure Staring next years Woodpile ! and managed to get around to adding a step to the front veranda, the original was a wooden block that had rotted New Step ! It's just rock from the nearby river and some concrete.  It looks a little "prettier" since I took the photo The garden has had some work done on it by the ever hardworking Toni, a new batch of Marmalade and Persimmon Jam...

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Food 'n Weather

5:39 PM No Comments

Weather Well, Autumn is over it seemed incredibly short as it was quite cool, Autumn leaves taking an early winter swim  making it seem that Winter had come early.   A cold Autumn has continued into Winter.  The fire place is getting heavy use, so we are chewing into the wood pile.  I have started the woodpile for next year, mostly spotted gum, it needs 12 - 18 months to cure for use in the fireplace. Food One of the reasons...

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