What I’ve Been Up To

So much for me doing weekly updates.  Time has got away on me.  Let’s see what I’ve been doing so far this month.

Can you believe it, on Sunday we went for a motorcycle ride, this time taking “Olga the Old Girl” BMW sidecar.   We were supposed to go on another ride on Saturday too, but the weather turned cold, so we wimped out.  

Sunday was perfect early summer weather (for a change), so we rode out to the village of Rockley to attend their Artisan Markets.  These have been going for a few months now, but this was our first time to attend.

There was a good variety of stalls, this is just half of them.  We came home with a nice little variety of things.  Lemon Butter, locally made cheeses, Romanian Eggplant Zacuska, local honey, wine from our former next door neighbours and a couple of cards.

The Christmas decorations and lights have all been set up.  Not much different from previous years.  As can be seen from the above photo, there has also been test cricket watching.  Joey isn’t all that interested, rather just being happy in his usual spot on my lap on the lounge on Uncle Chris’ quilt.

The weather has continued to be all over the place.  We very nearly had a frost last week, with all the frost tender plants being covered.  This morning got down to 1 degree C, so the covers were once again out.  That is just plain crazy for mid December.  It hasn’t been nearly as wet, but we have had some very strong winds.  There has only been a couple of days that you could call warm. Most days it is struggling to reach 20 degrees C.  So much for summer.

In the garden we have a new Mock Orange Plant.  We have had one of these in our two previous gardens and do so love the fragrance.  Even this small amount of flowers were quite fragrant.

Our hydrangea down the side of the house is really starting to put on a show.  We have a couple of newer plants that still have some growing to do.

We are now getting zucchinis and the first couple of snow peas.  

The tiny tomatoes have had green fruit for quite a while, but they don’t seem to be ripening yet.  Fingers crossed for Christmas.  The beans are starting to flower.  Meanwhile, the spinach and beetroot have been fighting a losing battle against a pesky little sparrow.  Mick has now netted them, so hopefully they will survive.  The eggplants are a bit slow, but are gradually growing, so we look forward to plenty of fruit later in the season.  

The strawberries were very fruitful, but have now finished.  They weren’t as good as last year, as the plants were getting too crowded and matted.  Mick has ripped a lot of them out and the ground was rock hard underneath.  He has given it a good dig with the tiller, so will be ready to plant again soon. This photo is before he started.

The “Peace” rose had its first buds just before we went away and has now been in full bloom.  Sadly, the wind had made a bit of a mess of it recently.

We have loads of sweet peas that were self sown, so rather wild.  They have put on quite a show, but are nearly finished.

Who’d have thought that this oyster plant died completely back in the drought.  It is now thriving.

We have several bottle brushes, most of which have finished flowering, but this one is still looking lovely.

Our old faithful Indigo is also starting to put on its summer show.

Yesterday, I started reading an e-book and finished it before breakfast this morning.  Once again I was binge reading.  It was “The Family Inheritance”.  It is quite different to the detective or murder mysteries I usually read and I did enjoy it.

Felicity is celebrating her 50th birthday and during the party she learns that her father has just died.  He leaves a rather caustic Will and the story follows the ramifications of that Will and the subsequent revealing of family skeletons in the closet.  I also found it interesting, as I have prepared Wills for many years at work and this just the situation you try to avoid. 

I have continued to play in the sewing room, but that can wait for another day.