The Straggly Quince

I went down to Underhill for two nights and was joined by Terry and Ellie with great expectations of doing lots of sorting and tidying. However the weather was so hot that none of us did much at all. One job we did achieve was to remove the non-productive 'quince' that was about 20 years old and had never even flowered! This is in preparation for replacement of termite ridden awnings that look as though they are about to collapse any day.

 

 

 

 

At one stage there were some really threatening clouds to the south and east but this resulted only in a few rumbles of thunder and an immeasurable amount of rain. However, we had had 120mm over the previous month.

The harvest was very light but we did get a fair number of peaches from the tiny peach tree near the caravan. It is in the photo above. 

There were only a few pears left, quinces and apples are not ready yet, and a few sour plums left from our earlier harvest. There are no damsons at all this year. Although we have had plenty of rain over summer we did have a dry spring and some very very hot days between the rain falls that burnt off all sorts of things both at home and at Underhill.

We did a bit of bird watching. They just loved having a bath after the tiny bit of rain. There were grey fantails, striated thornbills, shrike thrush, yellow robins, and at a distance we could hear the magpies.

I must remember for next time - 2 mozzie ends for the tank overflow pipes, a potty and some WD40 for the fire bolts. It would be good to think of some sort of bird bath/trough where we could watch the bird antics more easily.

Thanks Terry and Ellie for your company and chats. It made the whole weekend worthwhile.