Life.......

I am sorry to start this blog with some sad news, which is also the reason why there was no blog last week. Ricks Mum, Hazel, was taken poorly and into Naracoorte hospital Sunday morning. We took some time out to be with her, which was a very special time, she sadly but peacefully passed away on the Wednesday evening.  The care she received from her Doctor and the amazing nurses at the cottage hospital was fantastic, they could not have been kinder to her or the family.

Her funeral is due to take place this weekend but it feels she is already resting in peace.

Then a couple of days later and in total emotional contrast, Kane (Ricks sisters son) got married.  After a quick turn around and repack of the bags, glad rags in hand we were off to Walker Flats for the weekend.

We stayed in a shack beside the beautiful River Murray it is a very peaceful healing place with so much wildlife to watch and listen to. It was very easy to sit and just be.  First thing in the morning this beautiful river looked quite magical with a gentle mist just resting on the surface.

The weather was cold and wet for a couple of days before but thankfully we woke to glorious sunshine on the Saturday.  The wedding (my first Aussie wedding) took place beside the river. Nobody could define for me what an  typical Aussie wedding is but by the end of the day it was decided the one defining element was 'laidbackness'.  It was very relaxed and very lovely.

The tiny bridesmaids, or flower girls, of course stole the show.

The bride was glowingly beautiful and the new Mr & Mrs W looked very happy.






Everything flowed quite effortlessly it seemed. Food was delicious and very plentiful.  The speeches just seemed to happen and for the most part were funny. The band were brilliant and looked like they were having as much fun as the guests.

It was certainly great first Aussie wedding for me.

My week away......

I took the bus from Adelaide down to Naracoorte last Monday for a weeks break with Deb and family.  The journey was long (4 1/2 hours) but a good one, I had plenty of reading material and as ever knitting to do.  The passing scenery was beautiful and we were treated to a fantastic sunset.

Up early every morning to walk Fred at the Nature Park, it was just me, him and the slowly waking up wild life.  Very magical.  The walk was accompanied by Kookaburra's singing out, lorikeets, the Australian Bitterns haunting boom, a couple of bullfrogs (which to me sound like they are playing glockenspiels).  One morning along a barbwire fence a family of tiny Superb Blue Fairy Wrens lined up, 5 babies and Mum.  They looked for all the word like they were being checked over before going to school.

The delightful Fred, mud around nose having helped with the serious job of digging up the garden!

The chooks (now very grown up) have been laying every day.  Not full size eggs yet but quite often they manage a double yolker!  This is Wing Commander Gertie, flanked by the fluffy end of Flight Lieutenant Freckles on her left and a very fast moving Wilma just in the picture on the right.  They look stunning when the sunlight catches their feathers.  They also have very distinctive personalities, Gertie is the leader and the most bossy. She likes to be in on everything.... closely followed most of the time by Freckles.  Wilma and Izzy stick together and are normally quieter.  All of them now squat down in front of you so you can either tickle them or pick them up.  They are lots of fun to watch.  I've now taught them the delights of snail eating, woe betide any pest which ventures into their enclosure now.  They even peck at unsuspecting toes... which makes you jump!

It was a busy and creative week... lots of fun.  Deb and I made fire lighter roses out of old egg boxes, having

made the 'rose' we dipped them in melted soy-wax, which we had coloured with a wax crayon and scented with patchouli.  I think they look quite good, they smell lovely (if you like patchouli) and more importantly are very effective when you light a fire.  No other paper is needed, just normal kindling.

If you're interested a dozen egg box makes 6 fire lighters.

I've finally had a go at spinning to.  My goodness, it's a little like trying to drive a car whilst patting your head and rubbing your tummy!  All the You tube clips kept saying how much like meditation it was.....hmmmmm!

Practice, practice, practice and a think a whole heap of lessons will probably help.  And there is a whole new language to learn to.  There is a little more equipment to purchase, I've learnt the spinning wheel has lost a brake spring, which could possibly make all the difference.  With Deb's and You Tubes help I actually managed to get some Alpaca wool onto the spool.  You couldn't call what I'd produced yarn, infact it looked a lot like dread locks. I'm not giving up, and will practice when ever I get the opportunity.  With tons of patience and practice one day I will spin something which can be recognised as yarn!

I saw my first Wide-mouth Owl sitting on the shed in the backyard and being buzzed by an angry Maggie. Sadly I couldn't get a good photo of this amazing bird of prey.

We visited the block and checked on the trees, they're all doing really well, lots of new growth on everything. The Lemon tree is covered with flowers.  Everything was fed, weeded, watered and mulched and the next time we see it all it should (fingers crossed) look even happier.

And I got the bore water tested (this is a free service offered by SA Water).  It turns out our water is very saline and no good for plants or poultry.  My next project is to investigate the best method of small scale desalination.

Till next time.... have fun!

A little late......

I was supposed post this blog last week..... it is a little late.... so sorry.  Not much happened so I'll keep this brief.

I got very confused when the clocks changed.... where ever you are in the world in spring the clocks spring forward an hour.  Expect, it seems, when you still have Northern Hemisphere thinking about October really being Autumn!  Hmmmm....

Luckily my clever phone and laptop knew which way to go without any directions from me.  Then I confused myself trying to work out the time difference with the UK, as the UK clocks don't change till the end of the month and then they 'fall back'.  Through all this it seems the two places remain 9.30 hours different.  I discovered that it really doesn't help to try and work it through logically.

Its fledgling and learner bird season.  The honey eater family have kept me very amused with their noisy feeding sessions.  It seems who ever shouts the loudest gets fed first.  There was a report on the radio about Laughing Magpies being very protective with their young.  This is the time of year you have to prepare for perhaps being buzzed by these rather large birds.  Some people wear extraordinary headgear (and I just thought people were being eccentric).  Occasionally there have been very serious attacks and injuries caused, so if you're ever visiting at this time of year and a Maggie faces up to you it's always best to give it a very wide birth.

Ooroo!

A wee bit of a quiet week

It has been a little bit of a quiet week here with Rick away, a perfect time I thought to really tackle the garden.  The ground is still soft from the recent down pours and with the temperatures in the gentle teens, very dooable if you were rugged up and out of the chilly southerly Antarctic winds.

The garden is flourishing and everything has benefited from the rain, TLC and general feeding it's been given over the last few months. The lemon tree is covered in its star like white flowers, we'll have an abundance of lemons if they are all still attached after the threatened storms.  I think I may well have waxed lyrical already about the roses before...  but they are beautiful and just starting to bloom.  Their leaves are glossy there is no sign of blackspot or mildew and hardly any aphids.  All helped it turns out by the banana skins we've been putting around them.  As the skins break down they add Potassium to the soil this chemical is essential for plant health and is a great nitrogen fixer.  Very good for crops too.

The few native plants we've got in are mainly doing very well and the weeds are doing best of all, they are enormous and all spare space is covered. How we ended up with such a huge crop is beyond me.  No matter, I convinced myself that if I made a start and managed not to get distracted I could, very quickly make a difference.

Is it me or do other people have similar problems with weeds?  Why is it that they pop up the moment you think you have cleared an area.... do garden gremlins follow us around and planting them when we're not looking?  Well it turned out the difference wasn't very quick in the making, infact four dustbin loads later it still didn't look much different.

Slightly disheartened I thought perhaps a trip to the local nursery to select another herb for our collection would lift my spirits.  Four plants (3 natives) and a couple of packets of seeds later, job done, I returned home spirits lifted.

I sat in the back garden having a well deserved cuppa and listened to the various bird calls.  There were the beautiful Rainbow Lorikeets crying out as the chased each other in a spectacular multi coloured fly past. Peewees singing out with their haunting call and then the familiar sound of a blackbird in full song.  It was beautiful and reminded me so much of the UK.  When I finally found him he was sitting on a forlorn almost dead tree in our neighbours garden by this time he looked like he was sporting a very wild and bushy mustache.  Not realising I was watching he disappeared into the neighbours laurel and I spotted him on a nest feeding his very silent young.

A couple of days later and the youngsters had fledged the nest and the blackbirds have done what they always do and parked the 'learners' in various gardens.  Giving them more chance of survival, they are so quiet and patient waiting in the under growth for the parents to arrive and feed them they are very hard to detect.