Spring Solo 12 & 13 September 2014

Not too much to say for this entry.

Came up by myself on the Saturday morning.  It was lovely weather - sunny, blue skies.  Wore my "Summer " overalls for the gardening/weeding

I was pleased to see new flowers from bulbs/corms that I had planted.  But was a bit cross that all of the poppies that I had put in from Jill have been eaten, as have the Asian greens.  I might try for some more, but don't know what's eating them - snails? harlequin bugs? something else?

coloured freesia

ranunculus

grape hyacinths

And I was also pleased to see that quite a few of the almond trees have small nuts forming.  Let's hope that I get to harvest some this time - and that they're not all destined for the cockies/corellas

almonds forming on the tree

The rest of the fruit trees are staring to blossom too

some sparse blossoms on the nectarine

 And I pulled out the dead olive tree, and replaced it with another one.  The only thing was when I cut back the dead one, it wasn't actually dead....No leaves though, and it certainly looked dead, but the branch was still green/supple.  Oh well I've planted that one back in Melbourne now, and hope that the replacement olive (pictured below) will thrive

replacement olive tree

 

And speaking of gardening and fruit trees, Rodney the guy that I bought a few of these fruit trees from dropped in to see how trees were faring.  So I gave him a garden tour.  He recommended that I severely cut back the gooseberry as it had been badly burnt by the frost.

Given that it was such a lovely warm sunny day, I thought I would have my first Gin & Tonic of the season up on the veranda after I'd finished with the gardening, so I did, and it was glorious.  And, given that  I was by myself, I thought I would experiment a little, and sleep in the upstairs red room.  Alex had said that this room has the best bed, and it now has the blackout curtains, so the light wouldn't wake me in the morning

Well, I did sleep there, and yes the bed was very good, but I still woke up rather early - even though the room was dark.  Oh well

More weeding/trimming etc on Sunday and I'm pretty sure that I saw a baby snake in the garden bed in front of the fence.  I initially thought it was a large skink, but it was pale, and I didn't notice any legs.  When it escaped it didn't seem to run either, I guess more of a slither.  So I better get rid of all of the long grass, and make sure that I wear gloves/boots etc.  Although I must admit that I don't really like wearing garden gloves for smaller/fiddly weeds, but better that than being bitten.

Ice Challenge and Bowls

Fraser, Justin and I arrived in Inglewood on Friday night, after having had a pit stop at the KFC on the Calder for a non nutritious dinner.

Wasn't too cold over night, but I had to try out my new  babushka hot water bottle from Merrill

fancy new hot water bottle

Made us all bacon and eggs for breakfast which we ate outside in the sun

Unfortunately the salt had got a bit damp in the salt cellar, Justin tried to fix it - not sure how successful he was

what's wrong with this thing?

sort of working now

Alex & April arrived mid morning while I was off having my hair down at Michelle's.  She'd put some red in it last time, and the brown (and greys) were starting to become apparent at the roots.

I was quite pleased with the outcome

my new do

  
Spring was certainly in the air, trees in blossom, and a sweet smell from the flowers. Given that it was a nice day, I gardened - ie pulled out some rampant weeds, and Fraser did some wood chopping after I made sure that he was wearing steel capped boots and gloves

chopping #1

chopping #2

chopping #3

chopping #4

Alex went on a long :- 21km run (training for a 1/2 marathon)- and came back nice and hot, and therefore not too fussed about having a bucket of ice chucked over him for the Motor Neuron/ALS Ice bucket challenge.

Fraser did the honours - and I'm sure that there was a certain amount of schadenfreude involved, after all who wouldn't want to tip a bucket of ice over someone....

Getting ready

there it goes

off for a hot shower

pretty funny wasn't it

One of Michael's home brews before dinner

enjoying a homebrew

Given that everyone loves pizza, we had that again for dinner, with Justin being the firemaster for the pizza oven.  He makes sure that the oven is at the right temperature before he puts the pizzas in, and cooked them all at once - so we had 5 to choose from.  Yum!

Pizzas by candlelight again

Sunday morning and a bit more weeding for me, whipper-snippering for Justin, and scraping the front door for Alex

Alex scraping the front door

Sunday, and I invited Nicole and Damien and their guests to come for afternoon tea - as I had wanted to test out the new little bench top oven for making scones.  They worked a treat, and all scones were eagerly scoffed down.   Damien didn't end up coming, as he was at the Bowls Club, but Nicole came with Greg & Laura (their friends who both coincidentally work in Glen Iris) and Greg's Mum who was visiting from America.  She was telling us how she is on a Grand Jury  - and that their responsibility is for 18 months.

We ate the afternoon tea outside under the hoop pine, and it was very pleasant, and I forgot to take any photos.  Too busy eating scones I suppose.

Afterwards we all went across to the Bowls Club which was having an Open Day.  Damien took us under his wing and gave us some instructions as to how to hold the ball, and how to throw it.  It was quite fun, and I surprisingly did quite well - must have been a fluke. Various people came up and said hello to us, and how they were pleased that we had come across.  Justin and I will become social members for a bit of fun

surveying the field

wondering what to do 

Damien lining up the balls

the game is action