Good Bye Summer??

Today was the last day of what probably has been one of the coolest wettest Summers l think l have spent in Australia! There is rumour that March and April will be warmer and drier than average but l will not be holding my breath on that one! Geoff and l spent the day doing not a great deal!!! A lazy start feeding animals in-between breakfast, reading and rain showers!
l did however get stuck into a very rewarding job that didn't take me long at all with a great result we are both very happy with!! l had noticed the other day that the big hedge that divides the front garden from the orchard was in fact three very distinct separate bushes all melded and meshed in together over the years.

With my constant snipping and pruning they have become quite bushy recently.....

But not enough for me to very quickly be able to hack a gorgeous secret garden arch way through two of them!!!

l just love it!!! l will take the three wrought iron loops l bought a few months ago to our local steel fabricator and get him to weld them into a pretty gate

With an old bench in place so l still have a place to sit in my favourite spot.....

 It looks like it has been there forever!

And a few dingly danglys of course!!!!

And a candlestick........got to have a candlestick.....! Very happy indeed!!!!

We topped off the day with a bit of Archery Competition! Geoff winning of course!!!! l am more often than not, battling to hit the hay bale let alone the target!

 Most of my shots go flying left or right of this!

Three of these ARE mine though!!

Good fun!

 

 

 

A splash of red!

Everything was grey, foggy and misty........................

Brown and dull...........Even the sheep looked bored!!

So a bright, unplanned but fully co-ordinated splash of red on the side of the barn was a nice cheerful surprise on an otherwise dull misty morning!!!

Very chirpy!!!!

 

A Door to somewhere???

Last week it was a bridge, this week it's a door! l saw it at one of our local Salvage Recycle shops in town. l don't go there that often as it is either too expensive OR l see something  LOVE and have to have, but it's STILL too expensive!!! So generally it's a good place to avoid!!!! But this time l DID call in and found a door!! l think (although l am no way certain) it's an old church door from one of our local surrounding areas. We have lots of little white wooden churches around here and several locally have been recently spruced up and upgraded. It looks very similar in style. Anyway regardless of what its origins are, l think it's rather gorgeous and perfect for our soon to be built da na NA.......courtyard! Well,........not 'soon to be built' more like........ 'one day down the track when we have nothing else to do courtyard!!!.

And it has all the right fancy wrought iron bits for what we have in mind

Just perfect!!! But for now it will sit in the barn until construction begins!

In the meantime, my mosaicing spurt is still going with my latest project being an old recycled basin which l have mosaiced (is that a word????? My Spell Checker keeps wanting me to put a 'k' in there, but Google tells me to ditch the 'k' so now l am confused!!)  and sunk into the garden under the birch trees (not a good place when all the leaves fall off l guess!!!)

l plonked a submersible water plant in a pot in the middle to hide the plug hole!

And l just need to paint the rim a different colour apart from its original rather clinical white.....l should have done that first probably but l was a bit keen to get it in the ground!

A few more understory plants to go around the edge so you can't see the edge and l shall see how it goes! l quite like it l think!

ln an ideal world l should like to see frogs and tadpoles in it but reality tells me it's going to fill up with dirt......smell.....or go green AND slimy....... empty out constantly due to evaporation.......cause the drowning deaths of several species of beetle and other insects and probably last three weeks then get pulled out!!!! Stay tuned!

 

 

 

 

Shots from the Weekend

Late in the evening at the end of a lovely weekend and a warm (if not a little cloudy) Sunday. Just a collection of photos taken over the past few days. Dinner tonight! Geoff has become a fine connoisseur and salad maker this Summer! Dishing up some delicious and very inventive salads! Helped by the constant supply of food coming out of the greenhouse and vegie garden.

Clips in front of the house in the hay paddock. Love this shot.

And Pushka sitting in the hay. Hopefully catching mice for tea!

A lovely weekend.

To Market to Market!!!

This morning Geoff took off with a full load of produce from Candlestick Farm! Not quite to Market , but to various deliveries around the Huon Valley! First on were 9 bags of wool to drop off at the local Farm Supplies. It gets sent off to be classed and some time down the track we should receive a cheque for it! No idea how much so we shall wait and see!

Next were my two favourite lambs, luckily sold to very good friends of ours as lawn mowers.

l loved this little lamb! He was such an inquisitive little fellow from day one. l'm glad he is not going to end up on a  dinner plate!

Also 10 bags of horse poo to deliver which was our barter for the free bridge l got last week! A full load!

It all fitted in quite snugly!

Bye bye little boys!!!!

Geoff's Little Mate

Maxie the Small White Terror  (Terrier?? He certainly has the same attitude!..)rolls every morning. Without fail when l open up Clips' yard to get him out, Max slips past and has a lovely dusty roll (or a muddy one depending on the weather!) in the exact same patch every day.

It creates some interesting patterns if l give him a good scratch all over!!!!

He is getting closer and closer to having to earn his keep! Geoff now hops on and off him quite regularly.

He seems to take it all in his stride. As long as he can furiously chomp on to his lead rope at the same time!!

He really is such a little character!

And Geoff's little best mate!

Candles and Dogs

It's not called Candlestick Farm for nothing!!!!

They are everywhere!

On posts......

And tree stumps.........

Big and small!

Talking of big and small.............Lilli enjoying the late afternoon Sun....

And old Treek............

 

Bathroom Progress

Today Geoff pulled out the horrible little sliding aluminium window in the bathroom and replaced it with this great big beautiful cedar one! Looks fabulous!!!

A vast improvement on the old one!

Even with two layers of tiles visible, half painted half unpainted ceiling, diagonal 70's pine lining and holes and gaps everywhere, it looks great and we are soooooooo looking forward to bath hunting next Friday!

We have our eye on one of these. As the window drops down lower than the level of the bath , a stand alone bath is the only option. We have tried a jelly bean style but found it a bit too cramped. (Well....................l didn't!!!) The old style traditional claw foot seems to be the best option so far! Roll on bath time!!