Frog

A stitch in time

Apparently I have a problem with plastic bags but I wouldn't need to hoard them if someone stopped bringing them home. 

Anyway, all those plastic bags now have a better home rather than being let loose in the back of the cupboard after I made these bags for bags. I made them from the bodies of two old shirts with a little bit of ribbon to perk them up. It only took me about two hours. Two hours over the course of two years, that is. 

Bromeliad Bud

...and almost two years after I planted this bromeliad, it's about to be in bloom. I'm fairly certain that a flower on a neoregelia is not a sign of imminent death as it would be on some succulents. Fingers crossed!

Baby Bromeliads

I planted these bromeliads last Easter and they've produced pups already - I'm thrilled but I'm not sure what to do next - remove them and plant them elsewhere or let them grow in situ. I think the latter option is considerably less risky so I'll stick with that. Less work for me too. 

Lily leaf

Stick insect at sunset

Bug

Breakfast

A home for honey bees

Our local beekeeper brought three hives round the other week and installed them on our land. He's lost nine hives to damp on the bush block on the other side of our premises so he was pleased to find these hives a place in the sun. 

I don't expect that we'll see a great change in pace in the regeneration of the bush in our back paddock but I know the bees will be doing the best they can to speed up pollination of the native plants. And we might even get the odd jar of honey...

Early sighting

Our chickens are just unstoppable this year! We had 27 chicks at the end of last year and now there appears to be another 11 on the loose. The cunning hen hatched her brood in the bush and hasn't been close enough for us to catch them yet. 

I think we'll let them grow up a bit then cull the roosters (and cook them like poussins?) and keep the hens. We'll have to get rid of our mature rooster too seeing as he is both their father and brother and we really don't need any more chicks. 

The Sugar Plum Fairy

Look! It's our first and only plum! I snatched it off the tree before the birds could get it and now I'm waiting for it to ripen up on our kitchen bench. 

Limelight

The other good news from our garden is that we have limes on our lime tree. Lots of them! Looking forward to lots of lime juice and south-east Asian cooking when they fatten up. 

Weed Control

Hurray! Great news! One of my raised beds is ready! Or at least ready in the sense that construction is complete. It needs a bit more work before I can grow anything. 

The first task is to kill off the evil kikuyu grass which currently occupies the bed (see bottom right photo). Having read on the internet that smothering can be quite successful, my weapon of choice is old underlay saved from our renovations. I laid it out and pegged it down with tent pegs, narrowly avoiding the white tail that was clinging to the underlay. 

Now we just have to wait and work out where we're going to get 12 cubic metres of good, weed free soil from.

Sacrifice

I had a very sad task this morning - stripping off the unripe apples from our tree. I should have done it sooner - one branch had already broken. I was very disappointed as the ripe apples were so tasty last year but it has been a very squally summer and I felt sure that more branches would break if I didn't take this step. 

I then had fun throwing all the apples into the long grass so that pests aren't encouraged to hang around the tree. I'm sure the possums will be delighted until they realise that the fruit isn't quite ready for consumption yet. 

Sun and shade

When it hasn't been raining, it's been scorching hot here. The rabbits and the chickens sunbathe for a bit and then tuck themselves into the shade to recover, a bit like us.

Remember this?

Does this play kitchen look familiar to you at all? 

Yep - that's right! It's the old vanity unit from the original bathroom suite that's found a new lease of life after being ripped out during our renovations. It makes a pretty fine kitchen, doesn't it? 

Red Herring

I was excited to see this wild strawberry trailing down our retaining wall, close to the house. I was rather disappointed to discover that it is not a Wild Strawberry but rather a Mock Strawberry or Indian Strawberry with edible but tasteless fruit and a noxious weed. Oh well...

Grass Seed

The heavy rain has helped the grass grow and I've been astounded by how many different types of grass have grown and gone to seed along the fringes of the lawn. I counted at least seven different types along six feet of lawn - plus some chives which must have escaped from a long-disappeared herb garden.

Happy New Year!

2012 brought some homegrown fruit, lots of baking, some interesting nature finds, home comforts, my first cheese-making attempt, exotic visitors, new arrivals, several big machines and a homemade Christmas.

What will 2013 bring? Who knows?!