5 day lockdown 12-18 February 2021

Whew, another Victorian Covid lockdown for 5 days because of an outbreak at the Holiday Inn at Melbourne Airport

Once again 5km radius from home, out for only 4 reasons - food/essential shopping, exercise, work/study, and compassionate care

But this time there was no ring of steel between Metro Melbourne and regional Victoria

We had already planned to go to Inglewood for the weekend, but then Justin was a bit snowed under, and decided that he couldn't go, so I had already planned to leave on Friday before the lockdown was announced.

I arrived on Friday afternoon, and didn't leave the house/garden for 5 days....

Brought plenty of supplies with me - so I didn't need to

As always I did a tour of the garden when I first arrived

Was pleasantly surprised to see that the kiwi fruit plants had regenerated (after having been fried to a crisp last time we were there)

I was also surprised to see that the grass was green (where we had grass).  Normally it's dessicated in Summer.  And Gordon had just cut it, so it actually looked pretty good

Had brought a sushi bento box from Melbourne for dinner.  Had it on the back veranda with a cheeky glass of rose

And was very surprised to see a huge green stick insect on the opposite chair

Given that the days pretty much merged into one - I weeded, tidied up around the garden, tidied up/cleaned part of the house etc

I had once again brought some cuttings/excess plants from Melbourne to plant

The pebble paths were full of weeds/calendula/euphorbia seedlings - so I cleaned them up

There was a leak at the kiwi fruit watering system - so I tried to fix that. Changed the barb, but it still leaked, so had to call in a professional  - hopefully it will be fixed by the time we go back

The apples from Helen's tree are ripe - so I had one - pretty nice (but small)

I also managed to harvest a few ripe almonds - that the cockies hadn't destroyed

However, the yellow cling stone peaches are ruined - bloody fruit fly.  It's apparently struck the whole of Inglewood, mainly the stone fruit.  Basically you need to gather up all of the fruit, put in a secure plastic bag and leave in the sun for at least 5 days to kill them - which is what I did 

It was so disappointing - I was looking forward to those peaches

I also wanted to organise some kiwi fruit mulching, but wanted to get rid of the pebbles that had been mixed in with the soil there.  The pebbles had been in a pile (left over from the path pebbles) - but what with the trellis fence being made, and the disruption of the underpinning digging etc - the pebbles had been spread out all over the place

So, I got my old trust colander and sieved out the pebbles from the soil.  Pretty boring work, but....

I had borrowed some audio books from the library - and listened to them while I did this and other work around the garden.  

The first book I listed to was Where the Crawdads sing - which was mesmerising.  From memory it was about 11 or 12 hours, and I listened to it in a day and a half 

My second book was Harper Lee's Go set a Watchman - read by Reece Witherspoon

This was  written before To Kill a Mockingbird - although set after it chronologically.  It was never supposed to be released, in fact, it was a sort of draft for to Kill a Mockingbird

To be honest, I found myself drifting off - as it wasn't anywhere near as engaging as the Crawdads book, but that said I'm glad that I "read" it, and there were some great parts to it 

 I also trimmed the front hedge and tidied up around the front.  Below is the before shot.  I thought I had done an after photo too, but obviously not 

But, I do have an after shot of the kiwi fruit area with mulch - except around the leak area

Also contacted Chris to see if his cabinet maker mate might be interested in making up some more cupboard doors for the scullery.  Justin has already made 3, but we need more

I would also like some of them to have glass inserts, and would also like some further cupboards on the other side (above the dishwasher/washing machine)

And speaking of the dishwasher - looks like we can get a new one at 30% of retail - yay. Because  this  one is part of a recall batch

And this good news is offset by some not good news.....looks like we might need to do the underpinning on the kitchen side of the house also.  As I had contacted the original engineer's company who had said that the cracking on that side was superficial, and could be left alone.  However I was a bit concerned as the crack has gone through into the kitchen.  and we're planning on a new kitchen - would hate for that to be compromised because we hadn't fixed up the house properly.... 

On the Wednesday Dan Andrews announced that the lock down would end at midnight, and that we would be free to move around again after that - but still wear masks

I went and had a  coffee with Terry on Thursday morning, and he gave me some tomatoes and plums etc - yum - and not effected by fruit fly 

  

 

Vahland and Nectarines Fri 29 Jan - Sunday 31 Jan 2021

Haven't been to Inglewood for a little while....it's Summer, so I've been going to the beach a bit

Anyway, it was decidedly unsummery weather on Friday - basically raining all day

Justin and I drove up in the afternoon and it rained pretty much all the way there

Had a quick inspection of the garden, only a few weeds had poked through the mulch, but - the kiwi plants leaves were all brown and dry - looked somewhat dead

I trimmed off the leaves, and luckily the stems are still green

Got Justin to investigate - and seems as though the watering system tap was turned off - grrr

Given that the stems were still green, I crossed my fingers and also snipped off a few and planted them (where other kiwi plants had actually died)

Anyway, had a nice leftover dinner with Justin  - and a quiet night

Saturday, and a leisurely start, as we were by ourselves.  Justin brought me breakfast in bed, and then joined me also.

Did the crosswords and sudoku, read The Age - very pleasant

Given that it was such a dull and miserable day yesterday, it was surprising that today was so lovely and sunny and blue - but not too hot - just nice

Got up eventually, and put on my overalls - and got rid of those weeds coming through the mulch

Also transplanted some 4 o clock plants - which had self seeded in the path

This is what they look like when in flower -photo from the internet.

And they're called 4 o clock plants because of the way they bloom.  The flowers open in the late afternoon, typically around 4pm or so, and then remain open til the next morning.  Then they wilt, and won't reopen 

Some of the cuttings that Clare gave me at New Year have also survived - yay

And the naked ladies were also in bloom

Given my lack of success with tomatoes this season (they all fried), I was surprised to find a self seeded tomato plant near the grape vines.  I carefully moved it to the vegie bed - and also got Justin to make sure that the water timer was on.  With luck this one will survive (although it might be a bit late in the season)

And the grape vines were looking very good, had grown quite a bit (must love being mulched, and also the rain), and all of the citrus trees are looking happy.

The orange tree that Cheryl and Andrew had given us years ago already has about 6 little green oranges on it, and most of the other ones have blossoms

Had a visit from a Bendigo author who is writing a book on William Vahland - a famous 19th century Bendigo architect.  Showed him around, and he was very nice.  Told us that the veranda columns are concrete with tin wrapped around them 

After this I went back out into the garden and pulled the tall weeds out of the "lawn".  Having had so much rain in the last 24 hours or so - the ground was nice and wet  - and the weeds were relatively easy to pull out by the roots

Made piles of these all around the garden - had planned to pick them up and put them in the trailer, but didn't get around to it 

 I made a nice dinner for the 2 of us tonight - eye fillet, caramelised onions, cream mushroom sauce, salad. Yum     

Sunday, and I made Justin breakfast in bed (and then I joined him). Had bought 2 dozen eggs from David yesterday - so did some scrambled eggs on toast

After breakfast I persuaded Justin to measure up the kitchen and bathroom for me - with the new laser measurer that I'd bought in Bunnings a while back

Worked pretty well 

Terry dropped in while we were doing it - and we had a cup of coffee and a chat.  He came to tell us about the upcoming Music night in March, and to also see if I'd like any nectarines.  And of course I would, so I said I'd drop by with a bucket after lunch

Terry's nectarine trees were incredibly laden, I filled about 1/2 a bucket - and could have taken 10 times that amount without making much of a dent

Once I got back to our place, I also pickled some of my yellow peaches from my so called nectarine tree (these were the first ones to get ripe).   

Left for Melbourne late afternoon, and Madeleine, Hughie and Fraser made us a delicious roast chicken dinner - which we ate out the back - lovely!