Berry in July

On Friday I went by train to Berry and spent a lovely day there yesterday working on all sorts of little jobs. The garden is looking fabulous as per usual with roses blooming in July! (who would have thought!!) There is also a new "Edwardian ruin" around the water feature since the removal of the huge Camphor Laurel tree. Lots more light can now get in.

Another tree to go in all the rain has been a Murrayea from near the front door. A lot more light here as well and this light streams into the kitchen. The view of the pond is good and of course the ducks are happy.

 

The early morning sun streaming across the paddocks makes beautiful colours in the landscape but the pre-sunrise colours are fantastic too.

Geoff drove down Saturday morning and one of the first jobs  to be done was harvesting four bunches of bananas and cutting down their trunks. We now have lots of bananas ripening for Rauri and Janice, Ellen and Rod, Geoff and Jen, and me of course.

 

 

Other jobs included lighting a huge bonfire to burn off rubbish from the paddocks and another with garden waste. We visited the local tip with a load of metal and of course browsed the tip shop for 'good stuff' without luck. Geoff was able to scratch heads with Rauri over tractor issues and drive down to check the cows and we also tidied up the tractor shed area a little both with the removal of metal and sorting pallets.

Geoff and I drove back last night with very little traffic but now have some sorting of produce and planting of 'cuttings' to do today.

Thank you so much to Rauri and Janice for a short but fantastic time on the farm.

The trees have gone!

Thank you Terry and Ellie! The trees that were across our drive at Underhill have now been removed and taken for firewood. I do hope they keep you both warm.

Fun in the school holidays

Most weekdays during the school holidays I have had at least a few hours looking after the boys after Rod went to work for his late afternoon/evening shifts and Ellen got home after work. There were many rainy days but we filled the time.

All three boys loved playing the Wii and Nintendo and watching movies. 

There was time spent in the Japanese garden at Sutherland.

We found Bec and Bec and their girls at the Playschool concert. What a crowd we made.

We also visited Kobey and we all went for a walk to the shops to buy butter. Luke collected leaves and did some rubbings and of course the holiday started with a sleepover at Ma's and making the name cushions (see below).

I think I am completely boxed out and now have square eyes, as do the boys. But I think the opportunity to just opt out of their normally busy, time dependant life has does wonders for their recovery from the colds and flu that started the holidays. There have even been days were pyjamas were the dress of the day until quite late in the afternoon!

Visitors from all over

Last weekend I was joined by lots of botanical visitors for a Botanical Christmas in July. There were botanical friends from Sydney but also from Mareeba and Canberra. Geoff, Jen, Ellen, Rod, Alex and Luke also came as well as Surrey's sister Janice, also part of the botanical crowd. The two long distance couples stayed over as did Alex and Luke. We all had a great time and the weather cleared enough for a tour of the garden and the quilts upstairs.

Of course, the first question from Alex and Luke when they arrived was 'can we sew today?' and I had to delay the activity until Monday. They had been to Spotlight with Ellen who allowed them to choose a fabric each to bring along. They had also decided that they wanted their name letters as cushions just like their T and J cushions (for Thomas the Tank Engine and James, another engine). Below are some photos of the fun we had entertaining our long distance guests on Monday. Sarah took the photos and Marion sewed for the whole afternoon on my second machine. The boys helped draw the patterns for the letters, cut them out, sew them and stuff them. John and Roger chatted during the morning but after a bit of work in the afternoon John was set to the task of helping to stuff the rest of the letters...

It took a lot of hands to hold the letters in place while Ma did the cutting.

Alex is getting quite good at sewing 1/4" from the edge of the fabric.

Luke can now reach the foot pedal on the sewing machine so he was allowed to sew his L with help from Ma.

Each cushion took lots of stuffing.

Eventually the names were complete and we were all exhausted.

After the boys went home Marion, John and I decided that a Baileys was in order in front of a warm heater. We were all quite exhausted trying to get all 8 letters done by the time Ellen arrived for dinner. What a fun activity it was for the first day of the school holidays.

My advice to anyone else doing this activity is to limit it to one letter each per day. It would last longer and the kids can do most of the steps for all of them. But it was great to have a frantic activity when I had the help of Marion and John.