This, That and the Other

I thought it was about time that I had a little catch up here.  I seem to have lots of bits and pieces to share.  Please tag along as I jump randomly all over the place.

Firstly, we had the pleasure of Chookyblue and Fairy Girl coming to visit. There was food, lots of talking and laughing, coffee, shopping, a little stitching in the sun…..

I’m making slow progress on my Nundle Bag.

More food (had to do a test run for the Bathurst Blog Meet) ….

And there was even a little motorcycling. It was really nice to have their company.

The weather has been a little crazy.  The last week of winter was glorious.  The first day of spring wasn’t too bad, but then it turned somewhat feral.

Followed by a run of big frosts and cold days.  Not the best for the blossoms.  As I say each year, I’m glad I’m not a commercial orchardist.

There was a lovely rainbow one afternoon on my way home from work.  You can see a really faint second rainbow to the right. (Don’t worry, I did pull over to take the photo.)

On Saturday afternoon it built up for storms, and the afternoon light was gorgeous, but nothing came of it.

However, there was another stunning rainbow.

We’ve continued to be busy outside at home.  There has been another trailer load of prunings taken to the tip, though not as big as last time.

We had left things a little late, so some of the trimmings were already coming into blossom.  Too good to waste, so out came all sorts of vases to show them off.

There was a lovely, subtle, soft scent while they were all grouped together.

They are now distributed around the house.  I will take some more photos as they are now in full bloom.

We also have had a gorgeous bunch of roses in the dining room that were a gift.  The colours are stunning.  This photo was taken after a week in the vase.  We are amazed at how well they have lasted.

Back outside, the wattle is in full bloom.  I always wait impatiently for its wonderful display.  I marvel at the fact that a little, tiny tube stock that we planted has grown into this tree.

At the same time we planted a second wattle, of the same variety under the gum trees at the bottom of our garden.  It has been slower to grow, but is now a lovely splash of colour in among the trees.

We were down to just one chook, who was looking rather lonely, but still continues to lay one egg a day, now that the weather is warming up.

We now have another four to keep her company.  They are settling in well.  My goodness, it is a challenge to get a photo of them all together.  Hopefully we will have lots of eggs before too long.

The have the run of our little orchard area, which we affectionately call the “Free Range Avery”.  You see, when we first got some chooks we used a feeder in their chook shed….which attracted mice…….which in turn, in the summer months, attracted those long slithery, hissy things that I don’t particularly like.  Therefore, we just throw their feed out into the orchard each morning, which attracts all the local birds.  There can be up to about 30 birds there at a time.  We get choughs, crimson rosellas, eastern rosellas, magpies, crested pigeons, currawongs, cockatoos and galahs, to name a few.

Last weekend when I was pruning, there were quite a few crimson rosellas that weren’t in the least bothered about me.  They were quite happy to have their photos taken.

 

In the orchard, the apricot tree is always the first to blossom, and every year it gets frosted.  Unfortunately, we’ve never had a crop.  You can see some of the damage here.

However, some of the blossoms weren’t out yet, so there is still hope of some fruit.

We have a flowering plum, which never seems to get frosted, which is rather ironic, as it is the one that isn’t even meant to fruit.

It is such a lovely tree, with its ever so slight pink tinge.

We have a few bits and pieces in the vege garden.  I’ve been waiting patiently for the peas and snow peas to emerge and this week they got a go on.  A bit of rain and no big frosts has made quite a difference.

 

Of course, Joey is never far away and is a great help.

Last Sunday was Father’s Day, so we lit the barbie for Mick’s family.  Naturally the footy came out and the boys had  a bit of a play.

I just had to take a photo of these lovely snowdrops.

And finally, we had a huge thunder storm last night.  There was one enormous rolling thunder clap.  You could hear it coming, a deep rumble.  The whole house shook and then you could hear it rumbling away into the distance. We received 16mms of rain, which filled all the tanks and watered the garden nicely.  Just what was required.

When I went up to feed the chooks this morning I thought there was a stick on the grass, but no, it was a worm.  Not an inch worm, but Mick called it a “foot worm”.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen one so big.

Oh, if you were wondering, no, our house hasn’t sold yet.  All things come to those who wait, so we are waiting patiently for someone to come along who will love it as much as us.