One year on...

Yesterday we remembered Surrey's passing one year ago by being together as a family. Ellen & Rod's blog has a beautiful entry. I can only agree, especially the fact that on an almost daily basis I think... "I must tell Surrey about ... when he comes home." "Ah that phone call will be him now..." "I wonder why this field trip is taking so long?" In fact the other day I saw a photo of him out in some puddle looking at a waterlily and the instant thought was to put an entry on the blog with the photo ..."If anyone sees this bloke can you suggest he comes home now please."

However, one year on and it was fabulous to have messages from friends and extended family remembering that yesterday was a special day, and to spend the day with our little family. It was a great day! Went to the city with the whole family to do Christmas window shopping.

Had lunch with Karen (a close colleague from the Gardens) and Alastair. Then went to the Australian Museum to see the dinosaurs.

 

 

Back home for all and then Geoff and I decided to go out to dinner together to Excelsior, Kogarah, a restaurant owned by Jen's uncle. We had a fabulous meal and good service. I would thoroughly recommend it.

A great day! Exhausting! I think Surrey would have approved, although he would never have been able to walk the distance.

So wherever you are Surrey, thank you for our beautiful family and our great times together. Yes, and even the bad times because they also brought us closer together.

Front of House Changes

Many of you have followed the carport saga and know that Kogarah Council would not give me permission for a carport at the front of the house because there is no other house in the street with one. You will also know that our driveway beside the house is very long and narrow and difficult to drive up the back with the new car. I decided that the driveway was unsafe for people coming and going (including me) and that the front ramp was not really a ramp because it had a step at the bottom and two steps at the top. You may remember it...

 

 

I have now had the driveway widened and paved, the ramp removed and replaced by a beautiful set of wooden steps, the 'pergola' and concrete roof of the porch removed and replaced with a roof to shelter the bedroom window and front entry. The new roof has some clear panels so that more light comes through. The cream 'fence' and handrail still have to be painted brown to match everything else.

War has also been waged on the black bamboo that has been running through the lawn for years. Kim and I have cut and poisoned. I know this will need to be repeated for a few years and dug out but the job is made even more difficult by the fact that the water, sewerage and gas pipes run underneath the bamboo so we can't just get a bobcat in or lots of people with picks and mattocks. Slow and steady wins the race I hope.

This has left me with a lovely clear front garden in which I can now design a new garden. More gardening! Yippee.

Come and visit to try out the new front entry and make garden suggestions.

Christmas Concert

The choir to which I belong - Sutherland Shire Choral Society - is presenting a concert of interesting Christmas music on Sunday 5 December. Practices indicate it could provide some very pleasant Christmas entertainment. I have some tickets ($22 each). If you are interested please let me know asap. You can also buy tickets at the door. Please come if you can.

Eden Gardens

 
Yesterday Leonie and Joc and I met at Eden Gardens for lunch. We had a browse, I bought a little bird stake, I gave Joc yet another boat motor, some anchors and crab nets Kim and I unearthed in the garage, and we generally did lots of chatting.

I did like the chameleon in the water garden.

There was quite a cute bonsai pot with a little cliff and a fisherman. I thought Geoff might like to see that one.

 
Thanks for a very pleasant outing Joc and Leonie.

Lotte's Gift

Anne and I went to a performance of Lotte's Gift on Friday evening. It was wonderful with a great mixture of soliloquy, story telling and classical guitar performance by Karin Schaupp. I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone. Thanks Anne for a great evening.

Sydney Open 2010

Surrey's sister Janice invited me to accompany her on a walking tour of some of the historic houses and fascinating buildings in Sydney last weekend. It was open day for some cool places.

We started with a coffee at Wynyard station then headed east along Martin place for our first three buildings:
National Mutual Building near Wynyard - this has a beautiful old decor and as far as I know the lobby is open to the public.
Commonwealth Bank in Martin Place - with its basement vaults with huge round doors.
Deutsche Bank Place in Phillip St - where the lifts move with lighting speed and there are fabulous views from Level 28 both east over the Royal Botanic Gardens and west over the city.

Then a bus to The Rocks we we spent the rest of the day visiting:
Sydney Harbour YHA - which is very new and built over The Big Dig archaeological site. The rates and facilities at the YHA are excellent.
The Merchants House at 43 George St - a brief insight into the good life in Sydney in the 1850s.
Glover Cottages in Kent Street
The Bond building in Hickson Road - where the photos of Janice and I were taken. They show the fantastic sandstone cliff that has been incorporated into the architecture of the building rather than being hidden behind a wall.

After all that walking I was a bit afraid that my hip/back might suffer but I am pleased to report that the next day I was stiff all over and equally in both legs with no extra pain on the bad side. Looks as though all those exercises have definitely been paying off.

Thank you Janice for a fabulous day!

Ramp Garden Part 1

A major garden project has been the area around the ramp (both sides) and at the end of the ramp. The first part of this is now complete and I am waiting for things to grow whilst trying to keep weeds at bay. It all started with the removal of a very spikey palm and clearing out the first carport. It was just a weed patch really with gardening made difficult by a very old and straggely Hibiscus. This had a bit of history to it. When Surrey and I first bought our house it had lawn, a privet, an oleander and a hibiscus. There was nothing else except some old greyhound sheds which we subsequently removed. We removed the oleander and privet but as the hibiscus was right where we wanted to build the garage we took cuttings and eventually planted one here.

 I gave the Hibiscus a 'boy' prune - a 'man' prune actually. Which then cleared the way for some gardening.

 As I was slowly pruning back the black bamboo from the front yard (it is aggressively taking over the water and gas pipes) I decided on a bit of free form weaving to make a backdrop for the garden. I then planted some native climbers and they are happily winding upwards as I write this.

 

 Next I moved all the bulb pots from under the back windows and the violets from the front garden. I planted beans to climb the bamboo weaving and have scattered various seeds from the cupboard - heartsease mainly and some nasturtiums from Helen & Bob. There is maidenhair fern that is native to the area and grows like a weed if you let it so I am encouraging this to spread from the nearby patch as well.

 

Some extra paving along the path and some scattered pavers as stepping stones completed the garden yesterday when Kim was here to help me. It looks fantastic and when the climbers work their way up I'll post another picture.

Chook Yard Makeover

Having removed three old chook sheds (see previous posts) I have worked to exhaustion for some weeks to give the area a bit of a makeover. It is still in progress and moves slowly but I thought you might like to see it so far.

 The old sheds are gone.

 I was left with a mountain of 40 year old chook poo.

 I am now making a sunken vege patch. Luke and Alex helped me plant pumpkins and sunflowers today. Luke (below) is pointing to where we planted the pumpkin seeds. After I had planted the corn and planted enough beans elsewhere, and allowed room for pumpkins near the corn, I read about "the three sisters" cropping from South America - corn with beans climbing the plants and underplanted with pumpkin to keep the soil cool. What a good idea! Maybe I'll plant more beans when the corn is tall enough to take them (15 cm).

 I have also planted silverbeet, tomatoes (thanks Helen & Bob), rhubarb, eggplants, rosemary cuttings. I am also chook-proofing the garden so that I can strip feed the chooks. I am engineering the mesh fence so that I can move it as needed. The chooks should be able to dig over empty bits of vege patch if I manage it all correctly.

In fact I am planting any hungry plants that I will actually eat (or the chooks will eat). So if you have any ideas for hungry plants please let me know. I am slowly digging out chook poo to take to the block or stockpile for home so am keeping it dry under the sheets of metal so it is easier to handle. If you would like to dig your own just make a date to do so.

Endnote: we put in the wooden paling fence soon after we bought our house in 1971. We had a working bee with friends - probably Dad as well. That makes it a pretty old fence. If the neighbour wants a new one I guess I can do that but he seems to have solved his problems with corrugated iron sheets.