Looking Back at 2014 – October

I’m back with some more of our doings in the month of October last year.  You can see what we got up to for the earlier part of the year here.

Once we reached October things were getting a little crazy, but it is that time of the year.  It is the best of spring weather in our area so there are heaps of things happening. Of course, we never want to miss out on anything.

LUNAR ECLIPSE

Firstly, there was a stunning lunar eclipse.  I did enjoy popping outside every now and then to see how it progressed.

MAYFIELD GARDEN

Remember we went exploring to Oberon Dam and mentioned being near Mayfield Gardens back here here.  Well, we visited them.  They are the largest cool climate gardens in the Southern Hemisphere and cover something like 300 acres.  We visited 9 years ago when they first opened.  At the time we said, yes, very impressive, but we’ll come back in  about 10 years when the plantings have matured.  Well, in July we went to a charity trivia night and won two tickets in the silent auction.  Perfect.  That meant that we had to go. No excuses.  You see, the entire garden is only open for a four week period in autumn and spring each year.

We’re very pleased we went along.

The story goes that a merchant banker decided to build a little weekender and put in a small garden.  Maybe do a little landscaping along the way………like move a hill because it was blocking the view.

It would be nice to have some music, so build an amphitheatre and a little water feature would be nice. A few veges out the back, too.

A few silver birch would look nice and what about a chook shed (or three).  The budgie and cocky would need a cage too.

His daughter decided to get married, so they decided to just have a simple wedding in the garden at home….but you need a chapel for that.

Joking aside, this is the most stunning garden.  It has developed so much since that first open weekend nine years ago. One of our best mates did a lot of the metal work on the aviaries, the conical roofs of the chicken houses and the forged iron in the chapel.  We love seeing what he did. In the last year, there has been a cafe and nursery added and the water garden (in the top photos) is now open year round. If you get a chance to visit, do.  Make sure you allow all day.  You need it.  Oh, and bring your comfy walking shoes.  You need them too.

OPEN GARDENS

As always, my friend Lisa and I had our annual outing to the Bathurst Open Gardens.

There were a few new gardens open, which is always good to see, as well as watching other mature over the years.  We were treated to a trombone ensemble at one garden.  They really were good. My favourite walled kitchen garden was looking a treat.  I loved the way they used the fruit tree prunings as trellises for their snow peas and broad beans.  Too clever and very attractive.

WEATHER

Generally, October was hotter than average.  Spring started out rather early.  We had some storms and stunning rainbows.  However, the most surprising was ***SNOW***!!!  There was heavy snow in the blue mountains to about 5 kms east of us, but none settled at home.  This is the heaviest snow we had ever seen from our place, although we have had some light falls in the past.  It was so very unexpected and rather destructive in the mountains and particularly at Lithgow, about 50 kms east of us.

That was the last hoorah of cooler weather.  After that we had three weeks of howling, hot westerlies, which burnt everything off.

October also is the month of the church fete.  I helped on the White Elephant Stall and a few little things found their way home.  I know, I’m supposed to be downsizing and de-cluttering, but some things just have my name on them.

In the backgrounds, lots of people were inspecting our home, so we were still cleaning, tidying and keeping out of the way when inspections were taking place.