Garden Update

Mermaid's cave

Nothing much to say except THIS is just down the hill from where we live. Nice!

Garden Progress

First, the box seedlings. Growing growing. Brassicas under attack from cabbage moths but nothing too perilous.
Then, our first no-dig bed...

The frame.

Newspaper, cardboard, lucerne and grass clippings.

Then comes the cow poo.

The finished garden bed.
First to be planted were some strawberries that have been waiting for a week for a new home (I hope they're ok!).

Green Things

In the past I've been rather hopeless at keeping garden records. Here is as good a place as any I guess, so I can happily report that yesterday Meri and I planted our first raspberry cane (how exciting!). Our "box" seedlings seem to be doing well despite visits from the local cabbage moth population. I removed some eggs this morning but no caterpillars.
On another, even more exciting green note - here is Paul's Green Tara mandala that he got back ready to hang last night!

Finally our new abode

First, the driveway. Somewhat of a feeling of seclusion don't you think? That's Nellie the Elephant sitting at the top of the driveway.
Next, the front garden. Sloping but relaxing and lovely. Although the agapanthas and the orange flower in the foreground are actually classed as noxious weeds in the bush up here.
Now this...
garden bed at the side of the house was a lovely overgrown thing when we inspected the property. Full of potential we thought. After we picked up the keys we discovered this monstrosity of white gravel had been dumped (and planted with natives, ok) here and on the driveway. Sticking out from the edges we could see that they had not lined it with weedmat or plastic but old lace curtains. Um, how will that stop the weeds growing through?
And of course, the backyard. There are more photos but blogger seems to have had enough. To the right of the shed there is a gap in the hedge which leads to a lovely shady overgrown patch which needs to have chickens installed in it post-haste. We just need to manifest somewhere for them to sleep.

Quinoa soup?

In an attempt to move away from the excesses of the solstice period I made a menu plan today. Tonight's fare is Peruvian Quinoa Soup. I'm not sure it'll be a hit.

A little fear released

Today I bought the first item for the new baby! Although I had stuff I'd picked up in various disastrous pregnancies I didn't buy anything at all for Meri until after the foetal anomaly scan. Not having any ultrasounds this time means a whole different way of dealing with that fear.
We were in the local op-shop and Meri was looking at swimwear meaning I had to browse near her or risk her running out of the shop which she had done in a deli five minutes earlier. Having a choice between baby clothes or men's suit jackets I went with the baby clothes. Lo and behold, right there in front of me was a little top and pants set in perfect condition. That would be good for EC I thought, remembering our desperate shopping trips to find pants for teeny Meri when we discovered how useless all in one suits were for taking a baby to the toilet. When I picked it up not only was it not an all in one suit, but the pants were split-crotch! Perfect. So since split crotch clothing is virtually impossible to find unless you have it custom made (or make it yourself) or know someone who lives in China, I had no choice but to "feel the fear and do it anyway".