Merry Christmas

To all those who have been following this blog through good times and bad - Merry Christmas. This year I cut and decorated one of the trees Surrey planted at Underhill to use as Christmas Trees when they were big enough. This one is big enough!

Those of you who have received my Christmas Newsletter either by post or email will recognise the photo below. If you have not received it I am sorry, please let me know.

I have had a few babysitting days with Alex and Luke in the last month and they both came for a sleepover with Ma a few weekends ago. Christmas is getting very exciting for them. Their lounge room will not be as tidy as it is below after Santa comes.

Desert Limes

Surrey planted two desert lime trees (Citrus glauca), one at home and one at the block. Both are growing well but the only crop has been from home. I recently harvested 600 gm of full sized ones and some tiny ones that I stewed and strained for lime ice blocks (to use as flavouring juice).

So far I have frozen them whole and have thought of or found ideas for sorbet, curd, jam, ground into savoury dishes, ground with sugar to add to drinks. Anne and I crystalised some and covered them in dark chocolate the other night. That was fun and they taste great. If anyone has ideas or recipes for what to do with them I'd love a comment left here.

Underhill in December

After so much rain last month (over 150mm) Underhill is looking so much greener and we actually have fruit on the trees. Geoff, Jen and I went down for the day yesterday to check it all out.

One problem that Geoff noticed was that one of our remaining ring-barked Eucalypts was actually bending one of the star pickets and straining the fencing wire in an attempt to fall over. As the direction of fall will not do much damage unless someone stands under it, he cut the wire, releasing the tension. Hopefully this tree will be down by the next time we go.

The grass is growing and it all looks so much greener. There are apples, pears, plums, quinces, damsons, peaches, almonds all coming along. Hopefully we will be able to harvest at least some of them in the coming months, that is unless the birds get them all.

The dams are a lot fuller though they are not overflowing as yet.

Our harvest this time was 'blackberries' and they were delicious. Not enough for cooking but a delicious nibble for us all.

We also selected the biggest of the Callitris trees that Surrey planted for Christmas trees. It now adorns my back room and is all decorated. I will put up a photo later this week.

Thanks Geoff and Jen for coming with me. Geoff even did all the driving.

Bamboo War

One of Surrey's favourite plants was Bamboo. Hence, in the early 1970s we planted a small clump of black bamboo in the front garden. At the time he understood that it could be kept as a clumping bamboo by pruning off new shoots from escapee runners. I continued to do this for 39 years. We thought it was working. However, with this wet spring and summer and the revamping of the front porch and driveway it became obvious that unless I waged war on this plant I would soon be living in an unmanageable bamboo forest. Nice if you are a panda.

Hence I am working with all comers to the point of exhaustion at least twice a week digging it back. Everyone who sees the size of the task has said there should be an easier way. Well this morning I did a quick google search and lo and behold there is not. I found two very helpful links that suggest exactly what I am doing. I have listed them in my Plant Links on the right. They also suggest that this will be a continuing job but that once the main clumps are removed it will become easier. At least I live on easy-to-dig sand.

I am therefore putting out a call to anyone who would like to experience bamboo at first hand or to others who might like to help me for a few hours. Just ring and we can make war with the bamboo together. I would really like to get the major job done this growing season and all the outlying runners dug up back to as small a clump as possible with the aim of annihilating it completely while I still have my strength. When I am an old lady I do not want to be buried under or lost in my own forest of bamboo.

Christmas is coming

What a busy weekend has just passed. First there was the Kindy Concert. Alex and Luke both did extremely well in their performances and there are more photos of Alex's graduation on Ellen and Rod's blog.

After the concert I had a few hours to kill so  visited Jules Patchwork shop at Loftus and had lunch at the little cafe next door. Very delightful and I did not even buy any fabric.

I then met up with some of the ladies from the Rainbow Connection quilting group for a Christmas afternoon tea at the Hazelhurst Gallery at Gymea. It was a pleasant afternoon together.

This was followed by dinner at cousin Ruth's (far left above).

Sunday afternoon the Sutherland Shire Choral Society had our Christmas Concert. It was excellent and of course I put so much energy into it that I came home exhausted but refrained from going to bed till 8:30 pm when I just collapsed and slept like a log.

Underhill and Berry in November

During November Geoff and I went to Underhill on one day trip and then to Berry on another day trip.

Underhill is looking green with the bottom dam almost full, the berry yard quite green and the ground cover improving. It is unfortunate that our best apple tree near the bathroom shed succumbed to the drought and goat ring-barking.

Our jobs for the day included spreading chook poo, pruning our next Christmas tree so it is ready for our December visit and a walk to the far dam to investigate how full it was. There was even some Austrostipa growing as understorey so the rain has done something.

 At Berry our job for the day was to drive around measuring the gate openings in preparation for new gates. Unfortunately it started raining quite substantially just after we left so we continued on our way. The photo below does not actually show how wet I really was. Janice just had to take it as a record and reminder of the experience. The icecream container was a bit too late to protect me at all. Luckily Janice had spare clothes for us to change into after we had a hot shower.

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.