April 2017

Beautiful April... A lot colder and more advanced last year maybe compared to this year. We are still having relatively mild mornings and nights.

This particular Maple Tree is not even hinting of turning this amazing shade of red yet.........

And the shrouding mythical mists we love so much have yet to eventuate...

The Pond Garden took on the look of a construction site as the bridge (well it's a pretend bridge really) went in and l tried to determine what way to put the rails....

 

This way won!

As these guys looked on..............

This stunning row of Salvias were absolutely magnificent until a heavy frost at some stage came along and completely killed the lot of them in one fell swoop! A good lesson to learn for me about putting all my eggs in one basket as far as plants go!

This year the same flower bed ended up a riot of colour, filled with Nasturtiums, Lupins, Poppies, you name it....l found a seed l chucked it in!

It has been fabulously colourful all year...and hopefully (unlike my poor Salvias) most will reappear next year!

Talking of colour........The Walnut Tree started to shed its harvest........... leaves........

And Walnuts galore !

And it was April that l obviously decided my garden wasn't big enough and started on the driveway........

 

Both sides..............

THEN decided THIS side wasn't big enough............

 

And made it bigger.........

And l definitely remember planting a tree (a poplar) and wrenching all these rocks out of one very tiny hole!!

l hope the tree appreciated it!!!

The Forestry Fires began and the sky (as it is this year) filled with smoke.

And turned everywhere a slightly surreal shade of orangey pink

Horrible but always pretty at the same time.

And THAT was April!!

 

March

 

March....but for starters here is a photo l took this morning of my lattice screen from the February post. Still a long way to go but the Boston Ivy is slowly creeping its way out there even though the main contenders for space at the moment are the crazy Nasturtiums which l just love...........until the first big frost and then they will all be gone!

So now back to March (which seemed to be a lot less busy than February!)

We had our first frost by the looks of it........

And l took lots of photos of flowers..........Not that THAT'S unusual!

And baby chickens in hats!!

l then decided to build my SECOND more ambitious pond in what was the old netted vegie garden. l pulled out all the netting, ripped down most of the old fence and started to dig. This pond took me a while and l don't think l actually started to fill it up with water until November but this was the very beginning!

And because l am sooo proud of this area here is a sneak peak of what it looks like today...Hard to believe after less then a year isn't it? l still find it hard to believe how much it grew..

Autumn colour must have been late as the front veranda looks still pretty green here.

As opposed to today, almost exactly a year later the whole front is turning brilliant red already. 

And Georgie decided the very best thing in the whole wide world of her new life was the stable....She loved it and still does to this day. She adores coming into her yard every evening and most mornings she greets us covered in shavings.

And Barney kept on eating grass..................

Yep, March certainly was a lot quieter!

 

 

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?? !