Sunday Catch Up

Not sure where the last five or six weeks have gone. I didn't mean to stay away from the blog, I guess things just got busy and before I knew it, quite some time had passed. I can't even remember everything that has happened, so below are just a few of the goings on.

Megan attends an Agricultural college and is doing the agricultural course (rather than trades or mechanics), but every so often they have to spend a certain amount of time doing parts of the other courses. Above is the metalwork she made for me in trades. I love it and think she did a brilliant job.

At the end of September I finally managed to find a white manual car within budget for Megan as her first car. I had heaps of trouble trying to find one. I was looking for white or light coloured (I just prefer that as it is more visible on the road), manual (found so many automatics, manuals are becoming harder to come by) and in budget and in good condition. Was so happy when we got this one. We were starting to run out of time as Megan had her driving test booked for mid October (which she passed yay!) I have always had manual cars until my latest one, so I didn't plan that very well. All worked out well in the end though as both Megan and I are happy with this car and it's a great little car to drive. So she has now passed her practical driving test and is on phase 2 of her L's.

My gorgeous boy BJ has been slowed down a bit this week. Last Saturday I noticed a lump in the top corner of his eye. First thing Monday I rang the vet and she thought it might be a grass seed, so we drove the 100klm round trip to the vet, but it wasn't a grass seed, but she thought it was a cyst. So she told me to take him back in Tuesday to have it removed. When I picked him later that afternoon, the vet said it was a tumour. That was my gut feeling all along. It is gone now and he has a couple of stitches which need to come out after 10 days. the vet said because he is getting old now, the chances are it may come back or he may get another one somewhere, I really hope it doesn't come back and that we don't find anymore.

We have cherries yippee!!

We have mulberries too.

Lots of mulberries!

We won't be eating any of them this year though, as the local shire has been fogging

for the mozzies which are in plague numbers. They have been fogging along our

back alley each evening and the chemical fog comes over the back fence and

lands on the mulberry tree. Not happy.

Not sure why, but the last week or so we have had so many crows visiting our yard.

The roses are looking beautiful and full of so many buds.

This one is Apricot Nectar.

Double Delight.

All the bottlebrush shrubs are covered in masses of flowers.

And the bees are going bonkers over the flowers.

This foxglove is planted out near the washing line and is so pretty

to look at while I am pegging out the washing.

The snapdragons just keep on flowering!

Time to go and bring the washing in and cook tonight's tea, yummy nachos and salad. Then I think I will try and google what the best type of smoothies are to help reduce inflammation as I have have been having lots of problems with swollen and sore joints in my shoulders, elbows, hands, knees and feet. It is leaving me feeling really blah and makes doing anything, less than enjoyable.

Spring Beauties

*Ginger*

 



*Sam*

 



Love their crazy hair-do's!

 

Two photos of the spring beauties out in the garden was all I was able to take.

We have gale force winds out there. Again.

It was way too hard trying to get the flowers in focus, they were moving about

all over the place.

Well lunch break is over, back to work for awhile this afternoon.

Back out into the freezing cold wind.

At least it is not raining...yet.



Before The Rain

I had a look around the garden to see what else was flowering.

Gorgeous purple Beadered Iris

Clivia in the shadehouse.

Another pretty cornflower, slightly different colour from the last one.

Jess

Billy

Of course around this place I can never walk around the garden or try and do something in the house without having one or two + 'companions'. In this case Jess and Billy were on hand today, with both the dogs deciding it was just too cold to go outside unless absolutely necessary.

Somebody forgot to tell the weather it is actually spring!

It was so cold today, had to dig out the real warm winter woollies.

Back to warm jumpers and soup weather again!

Sunday In Pictures

A lovely Sunday pottering around, doing jobs both inside and outside. It's now time to go feed the menagerie and cook our dinner before ending the day in front of the fire watching a bit of tv. Hope everyones' Sunday was a lovely one too.

::Ten on Ten:: September 2013

10 pictures on the 10th day of the month.

{Document a snapshot of your life and find beauty among the ordinary things in your day!}

Joining in with Rebekah for this months Ten on Ten.

 First thing this morning was to get 3 loads of washing out on the line

as a series of storms are supposed to be moving in.

At least the strong breeze got it dry in no time.

Taking a wander around the garden, I noticed my first cornflower

had opened. Can't wait to see the rest of them open up.

Late morning I started working on a small project.

My kitchen is blah and boring, so I am trying

to do a few small things to brighten it up a bit.

I made a start on brightening up the pin-up board on the side

of the pantry, with this happy looking polka dot contact.

Unfortunately I ran out of time to finish it off.

 Hopefully I will be able to get back

to it at the end of the week.

Less fun to do today was finish off a job application

and do my tax return.

Thankfully that job is now out of the way.

After tackling my tax it was time to have a cuppa.

A herbal tea in this case, trying to cut down

on the amount of coffee I'm drinking.

Once again I pulled this fabric out ready to start cutting it up,

but once again couldn't bring myself to start as I am

afraid of making big mistakes with my cutting and

ruining the chance of being able to do anything

with it.

Today's egg count.

My beautiful boy BJ.

He was in his usual spot in the kitchen

waiting ever so patiently for his dinner to

appear in his bowl.

This was the sky about 5pm.

Apparently some heavy rain and gale force

winds are on the way!

I certainly wouldn't make a food photographer!

It mightn't look much, but this creamy mushroom pasta

and salad was yum. And the best thing is there is enough to

have for dinner again tomorrow night. Tomorrow is going to be a

loooong day at work. I will be on the road all day, I have hundreds

of kilometres to drive. I should hopefully finish about 7pm.

Should be fun with all the rain and wind coming in!

At least dinner will be easy to rustle up. 

I had fun participating in my second ten on ten and finding the beauty in the everyday. Looking forward to next months ten on ten.

Wednesday

Feeling very ho-hum today. Some big decisions that need to be made, are weighing heavily on my mind. Some I thought had been made, but it appears not. Arrived home from work around lunch-time and feeling pretty deflated, a walk around the garden seemed like a good idea. As it turned out, it wasn't the best idea. I knew there was a broccoli ready to be picked, which I thought we could have for tea tonight. So armed with a knife and the camera I went out to pick said broccoli.

Only to find the broccoli and cabbages are covered in yucky grey aphids. The blurry photo above only shows a small patch of the infestation. Horrible stuff. I have had problems with it in the past, but not this bad. Last winter was really good, it was the best winter vegie garden I have had yet. There was no grey aphids.
So why so bad this year? I have no idea. Needless to say I didn't pick the broccoli.

The poor beetroot are being smothered too, but in a different way. They have millions of carrots trying to overtake them. One time I couldn't get carrots to germinate, hmmm don't have that problem anymore. That is only a small section of them, where the cauliflowers are, there is gazillions of carrots in that spot. Speaking of cauliflowers, there are leaves, there are giant leaves. But no cauliflowers. Something is going on there too.

On a much happier note. The snow peas are finally starting to flower! Yay!! At least I will have one vegetable from the garden to eat. That's not true, there are two. The kale has been doing okay. Not great like it usually does, but okay. Okay enough that we can at least get enough for some meals from it.

Even the chooks didn't want to talk to me. Once they realised I had nothing in my hands for them, they all walked off. Never mind girls. You will have broccoli to eat, plenty of broccoli. And while you are at it you can eat the aphids too.

Today was supposed to be lots of blue sky and sunshine. Cold but sunny. It was this morning when I was at work. Now we have a grey overcast sky. Figures. Oh well, maybe tomorrow. Now to figure out what to cook for tea tonight before I go next door for my weekly coffee and chat with my sprightly 93 year old neighbour. All I know is tea tonight won't include broccoli!!

Ten On Ten :: August 2013

10 pictures on the 10th day of the month.

{Document a snapshot of your life and find beauty among the ordinary things in your day!}

Joining in with Rebekah for my first ten on ten.

My first coffee of the day and some vegemite on toast for breakfast.

We have had some beautiful much needed gentle soaking rain over the last
four or five days. With some heavier rain expected over the weekend, I
decided to pick a couple of the daffodils to put in a vase
on my dresser, as I didn't want to see them all ruined by the rain.
Couldn't bring myself to pick too many, as they look so
cheery when I look out the back door and see the pots of
daffs out there.

Seriously Mum, more photos.
I walked into the bedroom to find Billy curled up asleep.
He wasn't very impressed being woken up and he
doubly wasn't impressed having his photo taken - again!

Daniel had been cleaning the paddock up, we had a few tree limbs that had
come down in some recent wind. Not really sure what he was doing
here. He said this branch was the next one to come down the next
time we got some wind, so I think he was being pro-active and
trying to bring it down first, rather than it fall on our fence.
(which needs replacing anyway).

You can't do anything outside in the yard without Jess
coming to inspect what you are up to.
She always has to be in the thick of the action.
She definitely likes to know what is going on
at all times!

It has been a bit on the cold side today.
This was the highest it reached all day.
Glad to come home to a warm fire.

Megan had a netball game this afternoon.
She was tired by the end of it, as first up
she had to umpire a game, and then she
played all four quarters.
The girls lost, but it was probably one of their
better games. They are getting better and
better each week.

Everywhere you look around here, it is just a sea of yellow.
I can't believe how many paddocks are
planted out with canola.

With a break in the rain, I went for a wander in the garden.
Good to see the bees were busy in the fruit trees.
An apple in this case.

With the rain we have been having I thought it was a good opportunity
for Megan to get in some driving on some of the local gravel roads.
I have taken her out on them in the dry, but felt it was important
for her to get a handle on how the rain changes the conditions of
a gravel road, and how easy it is to lose control.
She did really well out there, I have been really impressed with the
way she listens and always asks lots of questions.
Still it's nerve wracking having a child old enough to drive.
Now someone just needs to wash the car!!