Autumn April

As Autumn is finally here - weather wise - there’s been a few things happening around the garden and household.

Pruning,

propagation and planting,

harvesting - along with a little home produced craft and

the last flush of blooms.

Last Saturday we visited Murrumburrah/Harden and stopped by this place for lunch.

Some clever person made this to commemorate the cottage’s decade of trading after repair and refurbishment.

I spent much time looking at the handmade items there and even purchased one. A very nice lined and quilted sewing machine cover with a side pocket. It fits very well on my Janome Decor.

PC was very interested in the building itself and the original architecture.

Thanks for visiting!
Cheers,
Robyn Louise XO

Snip, snip?

No, more like whirrrrrrr.....

I gave PC a haircut today. Man deserves a medal for being so brave :P! It didn't come out too bad - considering he has about 6 crowns and his hair grows in 50,000 directions.....hahahaha......

I won't be allowing it to become this long again. Fear of messing it up delayed the procedure but made the eventual clipping take longer than expected as the hair kept clogging the clipper blades. It's not as even as I would have liked either. I'm looking forward to some pillion rides on the motorcycle now he can wear his helmet comfortably though :).

Cheers,
RobynLouise XO

Cataplexy

You may have noticed the assistant/supervisor/observer in many of my photos, over the years, as she was born a couple of months before I started this blog. This is a bit of a tribute to one of my best mates, even though most of the time she is voicing her opinion or asleep, and the best little rodent catcher I've "owned"! She always knows the best places to sleep but still be aware of all the current events.

Apologies if I've duplicated a photo or 2 that have been posted previously.

Gardening is so physical that it's nice to have somewhere warm and comfortable to have a rest.

 Can everyone see the photo crasher in the background at the top left?

House chores

It's always difficult to decide where to begin house cleaning. From top left to bottom right in a clockwise direction - kitchen, bedroom, office or living room.

After "driving" the forklift all afternoon all one wants to do is curl up on a favourite chair, in the company of a friend, and have a snooze.

Cheers,
RobynLouise and the Mad Cat (aka Maddy) XO

Busy, mischievous chooks

I've always delighted in watching any chooks that I've owned. I love hearing them "chat" to each other and I've acquired a group now that also "chats" to me and follows me around whenever I'm doing jobs outside. The rooster, Figjam, is a real comedian without even trying. He reminds me of Basil Fawlty. His partners do what they like and he pretends to run the place and strides pompously around making noise about it.

The flock was allowed run of the 3 acres last week and, of course, they wandered down to the pile of grass/weeds behind the compost bins and turned it over for me! The closed off north-western section of the chook run is flourishing after the rain and will provide some greens for them over the colder months.

Sunday I noticed the dye berries were ripening in the eastern sheds so I collected those and they had a mini feast.

Yesterday, I discovered some naughty girls had found a nice corner (far left back in picture), in the back shed adjoining their run, to lay their eggs. PC had left the side door open so they had alternate shelter in case it rained heavily again....lol, spoilt chooks....and closed the main double entry doors. I closed off the access last night to encourage them to use their nesting boxes again. Lastly, Henrietta likes to supervise anything I do around the chook pen/yards so she had to jump up and investigate the eggs when I placed them outside to take a photo.

Cheers,

RobynLouise XO

p.s. - to enlarge photos click on them :).

A bit of this and a bit of that....

MrHM made a request to know what's happening on the 'farm'. To this end I'll be doing a daily update for the last few days of March. It also gives me an excuse to play with the photo arranging :).

After the rain last week these began popping up. The huge ones on the left are some kind of toadstool I think as they are completely enclosed. The centre is a regular mushroom and on right is the underside. Shame the rain was so heavy it impregnated them with sandy/clayey dirt as there were enough to fill a 2 litre ice cream tub.

The dwarf beans also benefitted from the rain by shooting up about 15cm and flowering. The difference in sizes is due to staggered planting times....and an ant bean seed eating invasion...grrrr.

My worms are breeding up nicely and making lots of fertiliser. The bottom tray (left) is worm cast and some adventurous worms, Middle tray (centre) is filled with shredded paper to 'catch' those who venture down from the top tray. The shreddings are also damp from worm wee so they can be used as compost for the garden. Right picture is some bedding from the top tray and the, hopefully, worm free bedding/cast from the top feeding tray separated into the box to be used to either make worm tea or as compost or a potting mix addition.

I had begun to remove these  a few weeks ago as we had no idea what bulbs they were. Now that they have flowered I think I'll keep some and plant clumps of them in various places as they are so cheering to look at. I will research what they are as well. Anyone care to help by naming them for me?

The end of the day today and my two "assistants" are having a rest. They are good mates to each other as well as to us.

Cheers,

RobynLouise XO