A sleep over and a garden hunt

Last week Jen and the girls came for a sleepover. It is always such fun with 4 in my bed. Ivy is allowed to sleep with me. Of course that means Heather also wants to sleep with me but she won't go to sleep without Mummy. So Jen sleeps with me until Heather falls asleep then takes her out to her cot and stays out there. But 4 in the bed is a bit of a squash.

I had the girls the next day anyway so we went on a photographic garden hunt. Lots of aphids on the roses.

The mushrooms on the orchid stump are interesting too.

But the tongue orchids are just about finished.

There are so many colours in my nasturtiums. As well as the ordinary orange ones there are...

Here is a bee on the Tradescantia. Click on the photo and it will be enlarged.

And finally the grape flowers as we went back inside when the wind came up and made me sneeze a lot.

Climate Change and Global Warming

This great article by Tim Flannery came through on The Conversation today. It has a little video embedded in it that is really worth looking at.

My recent addition of a new solar power system is an attempt to future proof my home and reduce my use of fossil fuels. When batteries become better I'll even consider getting one. Meanwhile I've got myself to Air Con 101 level and am able to program my air cons to come on in the middle of the day and store some of the excess energy I am producing in the infrastructure of my building so that life is more comfortable.

And there are more consequences of the use of fossil fuels (or any fuels unnecessarily) as outlined in another article in The Conversation today about the plight of Pigmy Possums in our alpine regions. That is presumably not the only wildlife to be affected by excess light at night so turn off unnecessary lights at night and save on power and maybe save some wildlife too.

Of course my water tanks store water for me. And today they are being filled by this lovely rain. Hooray!

Rain at last

After several months with very little rain we are experiencing steady but not too heavy rain. Hopefully it will soak right in and my garden can breathe a sigh of relief.

Chooks

I currently have 13 chooks. These are all silkies - 2 geriatric gingers (hatched just before Surrey died), 1 ginger and 2 white roosters from friends at Portland, 2 greys on agistment from Geoff's place while his renos are being done and 6 year old greys I bought last year. They are such a lovely little crowd and I've recently started leaving the gate open from their yard to my back yard where they love to pick at the weeds in the lawn.

We could really do with some rain because the grass in their yard is quite bare. This morning I gave it a bit of water so hopefully that helps. My tanks are getting quite low too.

I just have to remember to shut the gate when Ponyo comes because she thinks chooks are just great to chase.

Hard Work with Kim

Over the last few weeks Kim has visited and we've made huge strides in small areas.

First we tackled the garden shed. Anne had given me her old carpet so everything had to come out so the new carpet could be laid. Now I can get in to all the cupboards. We even threw out lots of stuff.

The next job was the pantry which I have not been able to walk right into for ages. Now it is a clear run and everything has its place again.

In the process there were lots of things to come out permanently. If anyone would like any of these before they go into the bin then please let me know. All the containers have lids.

Then we put together the old cot that Geoff and Jen had borrowed. It is now in use as a seat/small bed in the girl's room. It was Surrey's cot when he was born and lasted him until he was about 4 years old. Then Ellen and Geoff used it when they were small. It is now nearly on its last legs but has a bit of use in it still.

I really feel I am getting on top of things that either need two sets of hands or a tall helper. Thank you Kim.

Stoves new and old

This morning I was up on a very rainy morning to cook my Christmas Cakes. The new stove had done them well and even though we had a storm to start the day, we did not lose power and the cakes cooked quickly in the fan forced section of the stove.

Yesterday Kim and I had our last day together before school goes back in February and we worked hard to get the BBQarea all sorted for play and entertainment. Mind you, I don't have a BBQ at the moment but that is beside the point.

Today the whole area and everything in it is well washed with all the rain we are having. My tanks should be full by now and my soil is well soaked I hope.

I have a new stove

My original stove is 72 years old and was leaking gas slightly so that I had to turn it off at the tap behind the stove when I had stopped cooking.

After much deliberation and mourning I found one I could cope with in my kitchen and yesterday the electrician came to create a new dedicated circuit because my old stove had no electricity. While they were doing the circuit under the floor I was able to clean all the grime out from behind and under the old stove. My new stove was delivered just as they finished the electrics but they could not do the gas.

They took my old stove out to my carport where it is going to be used as a serving bench.

It doesn't look too bad out there.

The electrician organised for a plumber to come today to fit the gas part and now it is fully installed and cooking a rice pudding because I know how rice pudding should work.

Unfortunately, the inside is nowhere near as big as my old stove. The top oven can be used as a griller or conventional oven, the bottom oven is a fanned oven or conventional oven. I just turned it on! I am now learning by my mistakes.

Having never had an electric oven before I am going to have to get some help and practice positioning shelves and working out where to cook things and what temperatures to use. It has always been just guesswork previously. It even has a timer and I can program it to turn on and off when I like but that is another experiment.

So wish me luck. If you'd like to come and experiment with me please do.

I'm Back in the Garden

I ordered a garden kneeler online last week so now I can get back into the garden.

I don't actually need the kneeler part but I really need the arms that help me to get up again. I've even worked out a way to have my phone with me (in the sunglasses case). I should have the sunglasses on anyway. The chooks are loving the weeds they are now getting. It gives them something to think about.

I bought two new hens a few weeks ago and they are slowly integrating into the flock. Geoff found a home at Oatley that had some excess to requirements. He actually wants three silkies to help with the gardening and household scraps so he might get these two and another one of mine if we can't find three siblings.

I have been having a terrible time with vermin eating my produce in the vegie patch so now have netted lots of the beds with Arianne's help.

I also put out some rat bait. But yesterday I found out that my neighbour has a possum in her roof and a possum man is coming today to set a trap for it. I hope it is relocated a long long way away. It even started eating and digging out my asparagus and sweet potatoes! I had already netted my peas and have been getting good harvests from those.

When it started eating the tops out of my carrot crop I harvested them all and made a fabulous carrot cake courtesy of Ellen's friend Bee. I've just had some for my morning tea.

Mr Possum had also all but annihilated my passionfruit but so far the rest of my little orchard is doing well.

Ben came and gave the lemon tree a man prune so it now has a chance to produce some nice lemons that I can reach.

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.

A new life for my cat cages

As Geoff and Jen will be moving in later this year it was time to consider how their cat will take the move. We decided to move one of my existing cat cages to outside the room they will be sleeping in and allow it to go in and out through the window directly into the cage. This will avoid a cat roaming at will so close to the highway and killing all the birds in the area.

So many thousands of steps and much weight lifting afterwards the task is now complete.

In 2012 Kim and I completed the paving and moved the old recycling box to the southern side of the cat cages.

Bananas were planted on the northern side near the gate to the chook yard.

The cat cages loomed large and were quite useful for container storage and the occasional visit by cat or chooks.

Early September 2016 work started on the removal.

Once Geoff and I figured out how to move one of the cages that was bigger than both of us (we used two trolleys and took it very slowly) it is now in place under the window and Geoff's task is to make the escape route for the cat.

My next job was to dismantle the remaining second cage.

I used the far wall of the second cat cage to make a new fence level with the chook yard gate. I needed help to move this which was gratefully received from Elaine. Again the piece of fencing was too large for one person to move even though it was only light.

This left the recycling box to move. I was able to get it this far but then it got stuck on something so I had to wait for Geoff to come with Ivy one morning so we could move it just that tiny bit further.

 Once all the major parts were in place it then took me about 18000 steps to clear the rubbish (waiting for our next council cleanup or a trip to Underhill) and smooth out the area. I am using neighbours green bins to deal with all the garden waste the project is generating. I still have to empty and move the double laundry tubs. I have the space but again I need to be patient and wait for a few people with more muscle than I have to move them into place. Soon I will plant some grass and then only time is needed for it to become a pleasant part of the garden.

A busy few weeks

The last few weeks have been quite busy. My cold made my hip muscles seize up so that has made me miserable but there have been some joys too.

My orchids are flowering profusely and lighten up my house.

One achievement was the completion of my latest quilt for me. This one is from shirts of Surrey's and other bits and pieces, some of which he bought for me. It is for my bed at Underhill and I had hoped to take it down this weekend but I'll not be going as I'm sick.

There have also been my regular days with Ivy.

Walks in the cold.

Visits from Pernilla

 Then this Thursday it was so wet we experimented with what you can do with a basket and a box.

You can sit in it

You can fall out of it and say bonk as you do. This results in much laughter.

You can wear it as a hat but it falls off. You can even play Boo.

A box makes a great boat for singing Row Your Boat. Then when it falls apart it becomes a slippery dip for girls and cars and balls. Then it becomes a tunnel too.