February 2017

February 2017 seemed to be quite a busy month! First and foremost on the agenda was the arrival of the rather magnificent Barney who came to stay with us for two months. He was just gorgeous and the girls absolutely adored him! However..........not enough to produce any calves 9 months and 10 days later..............but they adored him all the same and so did we.

He really was a big lovely gentle boy....

So apart from our failed attempt at calf production , we had more success with our duck pond building.........The overflow from the creek comes via this area so we let it run dry in Summer and dig it out a bit deeper each year as it silts up.

Waiting for it to fill up............

And the ducks DID well and truly appreciate it when it was full and overflowing with creek water...

Lilli suffered for her art..............and let herself be poked ,prodded and squished by two favourite little friends of ours on a visit....

As did little Insky ,when two budding young equestrians emerged in the same visit!

Although he TRIED to show his displeasure!!!! Not sure if he is crying or grinning!!!

Happy days with the arrival of a new member to the family . Little Georgie... This girl has a long sad story behind her which l will go into on another day. She probably deserves her own page all to herself sweet little thing that she is. Anyway, she arrived, and the boys loved her. Insky LOVES her and they are now an inseparable pair. Maxie 'loves' her too but in his annoying, aggressive, arrogant,irritating way..........bless him............

And my pond building began! Why I decided to start digging a great big hole in the ground in the middle of February is beyond me, but l did........

And l DO recall digging out about 900 daffodil bulbs out of this one hole!

Plastic went in........pond filled up...........

And landscaping happened. It was such fun! It was meant to be a frog pond but it was a bit too shady and it soon filled up with mosquitoes.........so l got fish and they love it......AND no mosquitoes! 

Then l stared my great divide! Aiming to create a garden room within the garden. Using the original vegie garden gate (which l filled with an old bed end to create a window ) and lattice to create a screen, l split the long area in two. I've planted Boston Ivy, Virginia Creeper, Jasmine ((((((((((Geoff doesn't know that bit yet as he hates the smell!!!!))))))) and Clematis. Maybe (hopefully) one day it will be a crazy riot of colour all times of the year with a window to peek through to the garden beyond.....

And looking back towards the house from the other side. Now with two pencil pines in place and hollyhocks galore. ONE DAY this garden will be spectacular!!

And pictures from mid Summer.............always beautiful.............. 

And always time to appreciate it................. 

Phew, February makes me exhausted just looking  at it l wonder if March was any easier?? !

January 2017

January as usual is mainly focused on the hay. Has it grown? How many bales might we get? Will it rain? When will we get it cut? And so on.................
It doesn't take much memory recall to make me remember 2016 season as it was wet all Summer and the hay crop boomed... It was a bumper crop state wide.
We had ours cut................and then it rained and rained and rained.............. I rang our hay man and asked him how much rain could cut hay cope with and he said about 10ml.....We had 17 ml overnight and it then rained all day..........l can't remember the exact amount but it was over 20ml that came down on our precious harvest.
HOWEVER..............The Rain Gods took pity on us that day and the next morning we sky rocketed  up to a dry 28 degrees , blue blue skies and a fresh gusty wind.
The hay got tetted up into rows and by a miracle it dried! Geoff and l went out constantly the next two days, kicking over wet clumps with our boots , trying to ensure that it all dried.
When Brandon  (our hay man) came back and it all went into windrows it didn't smell, it WAS a bit yellow but it baled beautifully and we were very happy and very lucky!

 Yep! He's happy!

 Always a few problems with baling!

Then in it comes..............from memory the last bale (this WAS the last bale) came in just as the rain started to fall yet again.....

Good reasons for smiles all round!

 

Rest of Dec!

Well looking at photos taken but never posted starting from the day AFTER the blog ended is a rather overwhelming experience! There are a lot! In no particular order here is a quick run through of the rest of December 2016.
The sheep were shorn by our lovely shearer Barry.

 Always humorous to watch the confused state of the girls afterwards.

We filled in the sides of the big gypsy wagon (it's STILL unfinished even now but hey, you can't hurry these things!!)

 

Finished (to a point) and painted red........Perfect place for a glass of wine!

And a visit from beautiful Bethie...

 So many places to wine and dine now! Spoilt for choice!

Christmas (judging by my photos) must have been a complete non event! l think we had drinks on Christmas Eve and did nothing on Christmas Day which l would imagine from memory would have been quite nice!!

And the epic arrival on New Years Eve of the Almighty Toze Family. En masse from Queensland and the ACT. Descended on us on the very last day of 2016 for 5 wonderful fun days.

 What a good thing we finished the Courtyard just in time!

 

 

 

 

 

Poppy Love

Not Poppy the cow this time but the real thing!!! l seem to have an enormous amount of poppies in the garden this year! Some we brought from our old house, some l was given as seeds. They certainly have taken over somewhat so l will have to be a bit more careful how many seeds l sprinkle next year and make sure l do NOT let them self seed themselves!!

 l love how they shed their petals!

l seem to have hundreds of these pink frilly ones!! All on stakes as they are so heavy and laden down they are falling over!

But the bees love them!!

 

There are about 8 hidden in these frills!!! The buzzing is tremendous!

And without a doubt my favourite! And he hasn't even opened yet!!! Check out this face! Isn't it best!!!

The worlds grumpiest poppy!!!

 

 

Patio Progress!

The past few days ,Geoff and l have put a huge effort and amount of work into the patio area we call the courtyard. Levelling out the dirt..............

Barrowing in load after load of rock dust to bed the bricks in..............

So we could at last start laying bricks!

Eeek!!!! A long way to go!

About 20 at a time was about my limit!

Which got piled up in neat little stacks as Geoff started to lay them down.

Now you might think that a brick is a brick is a brick! But trust me ........... that isn't so!!

We had four pallets all gathered at different times and places over the past year. Some are redder, some are browner, some  have paint on the sides, some are bigger, smaller, narrower, tapered, fatter , thinner............you name it...... it's in these four stacks!

So barrow loads had to be fed off all them at the same time to ensure the same bricks of the same colour didn't all end up in one row or corner!

10 down, 1590  to go! TWICE!!! Into the barrow AND out of it! My poor thumbs!

We had a few interruptions and escaped visitors.....

l think they approved!

And slowly they started to go down.....

Looking fabulous!

l soooooooooo can't wait to get flowers, colour and candlesticks (don't tell Geoff!!) in there!

Waiting for the sand in-between.....

The fun part!! Filling in all the gaps!

Then time for a wine to appreciate our hard work!

Two days in and we have about 400 bricks left to go down. Good job me and him!!!