How does the garden grow?

While Geoff has been living at mine he has set up a timed watering system that reaches all around my garden. Since it was finished it has rained almost non stop so it has been turned off but for a week or two before the rain started it worked wonderfully and the garden began to take off. It now looks magnificent! Thank you Geoff (and of course the continued rain). I now have beautiful views from my back windows and lots of vegies.

Two visitors we have been able to photograph include:

Blue and red Harlequin Beetle

Australian Blue Banded Bee

A few Australian Blue Banded bees. They apparently live in burrows in the ground. They are extremely difficult to photograph because they fly like hover flies and never stay still for more than a second.

Full House for 3 Months

Since just before Christmas Geoff, Jen and girls have been living with me. Now that baby Heather is nearly two months old and Jen is able to drive again they have moved back to their house albeit temporarily perhaps.

During their time here it has either been in the high 30s or even low 40s during the day and often very hot at night during January/February then teeming with rain for days on end in February/March.

When Heather came home it was so hot that I had to have the aircon running upstairs day and night and the stair room was the only cooler place in the house. This meant that it was a very crowded room both day and night.

So much for swaddling a newborn!

In early March Ned and Gill (UK) came to stay and Chris and Michael came to visit us. Of course Ned and Gill were lucky to see any of Sydney in fine weather as it rained the whole week they were here.

Luckily the really hot weather had all but finished by the time Arianne came to stay with us all while she continues her TAFE course in Sydney. Upstairs now has lots of theatrical costume creations and Bertha is dressed again.

It has been a lot of fun with a house full, in fact the last 3 nights being completely on my own have been very quiet. Of course there have been tensions exacerbated by the heat and rain but in all it has been a wonderful time and I'd do it all again. It is great to have a house full! There have been huge benefits though - I have had lots of time with my grand daughters and Geoff has found lots of projects to dabble in to help me in the house and yard (more later).

Underhill fruit harvest

Early in March we arrived to find plenty of fruit ready to harvest especially from the trees that had been netted. We went down for two separate day trips so work had to be shared and done quickly. Ivy came down with Geoff and I and Nathan, Karita and Brad came down to work with the Lucas Mill.

This peach gave us a huge harvest.

There were a few apples and Nashi pears.

The Burbosc Pear which we had also netted was loaded.

And the pear in the centre yard also had some tiny but ripe pears.

The quince harvest was not prolific but the Golden Delicious Apple that we had netted produced boxes full.

The first job of the day with Nathan, Karita and Brad's help was to change the locking mechanism on the shipping container. All done and locked properly now.

Lots of fun was had testing out the new Lucas Mill that Nathan and Geoff have invested in and we are all really pleased with the results. So much quicker than Nathan's ingenious home made design.

Found in the wood pile tarps. There were lots of them. I think Crinea sp. 

Showing off one of the slabs newly cut.

Of course Ivy was Miss Independence and eager to help with everything.

Shh! Don't tell Mummy how dirty we get.

The surprise was the tree that had been hanging at 30 degrees across our path for many many years has at last fallen so now we can deal with it and perhaps mill it too.