El Nino has a lot to answer for, the wet months here have not been as wet as they should have been just very cold and very windy. Well when I say very cold I am talking by Aussie standards. I think I must be acclimatised now as I really do feel cold when the temperature drops from 37c to 20c which I know in my past life would have been regarded as a warm summers day. My rugging up on such days causes a great deal of hilarity here.
The combination of lack of rain and windy days has really dried things out and the fire season has started early. Sadly there have already been fires around the most recent savage one just north of Adelaide. Peoples lives have been devastated, homes and livelihoods destroyed and some lives lost. A shocking time but also a time when the community gathers around and people look after each other.
There is a group of volunteers called Blaze Aid, they travel all over Australia to where ever their expertise is needed and once they have assessed what needs to be done calls are made and droves of volunteers turn up and repair fences, build homes well do any work which is required to get the community back on it's feet. It is awful such services are needed but thank goodness for the kindness of folk.
I hope it doesn't seem trivial to switch the tone and give an account of what we have been up to?
A local garden visit
Early in the month the Historical Vehicle Club were invited to visit a beautiful and local 10 acre garden. Creating it has been a life long process and it takes many hours to keep it looking so beautiful. The lady of the house, also the President of the Rose Society here, is slowly replacing the well established garden with roses. The effect is breath taking and our breaths were taken when the designated day arrived and we awoke to drizzle. To add insult to injury the previous day and the day after were glorious.
A taste of some of the borders there......
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| This huge tree came down during the storm the weekend before our visit and hit one of the sheds. Luckily not demolishing the shed and it's contents just denting the roof rather badly. |
The latest Landy
Has finally got a name, she is called Nellie after the amazing 19th century journalist Nellie Bly. And my goodness Rick has done a fantastic job on her
This was when she arrived and as only a true Landy enthusiast could do Rick and Fred could see her beauty... well I think Fred was more excited about the smell of sheep.
After much crashing and bashing about, rust got rid of and everything repaired and put back to working order she is looking really good.
There were a couple of accidents and much swearing along the way. The worst being when moving the really heavy tray whilst painting it Rick unfortunately dropped it on his finger. He was so lucky not to have lost the finger and heal so quickly.
The Birds
The Magpie families have been enjoying Ricks watering devices, they love having a shower under them and once the ground is nice and soft they have a feast on any insects and worms they can find. We watched a youngster the other day being taught how to take a bath in our cattle trough. It took forever and a lot of patients and demonstrations from the parents for it to understand he was supposed to dip more than his beak in the water.
The youngster took a liking to one of our apple trees and perched on the top. But the apple tree being young and not very big bent till it touched the ground. The Maggie looked a bit miffed when he got off and the tree sprang up again,
In between Rick sorting out the Landys he has also made what we are calling the Taj
All the birds come down to the trough for a drink and love perching on the tree, we even saw a yellow tailed black cockatoo there the other day. So Rick decided we needed a bird table, it is brilliant, the first bird to find it was a pigeon! and then the Maggies discovered it, we will persevere with the wild bird food and one day I'm sure we'll get the rest of them popping in for a feed.
The birds don't seem to mind us being around and we can now get quite close and watch them without them being spooked.
Rick has also been busy in the garden, as you can see ably assisted by Fred
And me?
Well, I've been helping to fix up a new 'home' for the Naracoorte Spinners and Weavers Group. We have moved into an old school which is now under the care of the National Trust. We've also been doing demos for the local school kids which is always great fun.
I'm trying to try restore an old table loom. Having borrowed a book from the library I quickly realised I've also got a whole new language to learn. All good fun.....
And it's been shearing time here for about a week practically every conversation I had I was offered a fleece of some kind. Which is great and I am very lucky as I have been given some amazing fleeces but if I get any more I fear I may be evicted!
We did visit an amazing old time wood event but I'll save the photos of that and the stories till next time.....
Ooroo
