Monday, August 31, 2009

Thanks to the Mad Gnomes

Many thanks to the Gnomes for a pleasant afternoon yesterday. Delicious afternoon tea, /coffee, and Raspberry wine !! (Kel, it was Yummy!) It was lovely to meet some local "bloggers" :-) . I didn't take my camera so couldn't post a picture of the table laden with wonderful food, so I've chosen one from my library of photos. Thanks to Maggie & Bob for the horseradish plant.
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Sunday, August 30, 2009

Raindrops...........

..............keep falling, etc, etc. Picture is of salad burnette with raindrops. Looks better in real life than in the picture, but I'm a very poor photographer. I had to take MANY shots to get one slightly in focus. Perhaps it was the breeze blowing the plant while I was aiming the camera at it? Oh well........

On wednesday I'm off to Canberra to see my favourite son (I have only one son, but he'd still be my fav. even if I had more) and his delightful, beautiful, lovely wife. You guessed it, she's my favourite daughter in law. !! LOL. Seriously, he does have a wonderful wife.

I shall be back home on the 9th. armed with memory card full of GREAT pictures, so there wont be any excuse not to post a blog every day. :-) Floriade starts the week AFTER I get home, but there should still be some of the flowers in bloom. At least there wont be the crowds of people, to beat a path through, with my walking stick.!!
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Friday, August 21, 2009

First new chicks

Cute little brown chicken, hatched yesterday
Some of its friends, hatched today and huddling together for warmth.
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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

I cant help myself.......

I just LOVE this time of year, when the trees promise an abundance of fruit with masses of blossom. Remember this picture taken on the 14th? August
Here it is today, the 19th. almost all of the flowers are open and the bees are buzzing around. If you click to enlarge this picture, you'll see I have actually caught one in flight. I'm "chuffed" about that, I have waited for hours trying to get a shot,close up, of a bee at work and here it happened by accident (well maybe not hours, but, you know...)
The flowers are soooo beautiful, I am a lover of white flowers. I could waste all of my time just looking at them.
Another pretty is a yellow peach tree, grafted onto a dwarfing rootstock, which we moved to a better position during the winter months. It didn't bear any fruit last year but its looking hopeful for this coming season.
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Monday, August 17, 2009

Boys Toys

The wood splitter, ready to go.
The incubators are already on the move, both loaded with eggs for the new season chickens. At this time of year I have to beg for eggs, Usually I get a couple of dozen at a time ...but now I have to ask for them....and the reply from Popeye is..."how many?" :-)
A close up of the eggs in the incubator, through the "window" There is also a thermometer and a wet wick. The wet wick tells the humidity inside.
Now here are the Mums and Dads to the chicks. The is Rocky and Rambo, the 2 largest roosters. The one on the right side is the apprentice rooster. We haven't named him as yet, he came to us as Rita, but he turned out to be a boy. They are very hard to tell the sex when they are young. The dark hen is Rosie a pure breed Rhode Island red (as are the roosters) The lighter coloured hens are the Isa Browns we purchased as day olds. Excellent layers.
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Sunday, August 16, 2009

My New Toy

I had to have it. Once I had seen it, I hungered for it, had dreams of making HEAPS of pasta with it, all different shapes and sizes.
Let me warn you, if anyone has the idea to do the same, it is not easy !! A two person (very slow) job. The machine is hard to operate and the pasta does not look the same as the spiral pasta that is commercially made .

This is the product of about one and a half hours work for two people. Bah !Hah! I'm going back to the old method of rolling it out and cutting it into strips.
It was a good idea to start with, the day outside is cold, windy and with intermitant rain, better I thought than watching the footie.
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Saturday, August 15, 2009

Pretty things all in a row

Stellata Magnolia waking from her winter sleep, so pristine, white........... lovely.
The first daffodils, spring MUST be here, although it is still technically winter.
And then there is the beautiful deep purple irises, intense colour....... beautiful.
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Friday, August 14, 2009

Late Pepino and early Plum

There are three Pepinos growing on this bush near the garden tap. Somehow they have survived the harsh winter and a few frosts. I think they should have ripened in the autumn, but not having grown them before, I dont know when to pick them. I have been told they develop purple stripes when they are ready. Maybe if we get a few warm days now, that will bring them on. They are much bigger than I imagined the fruit to be, still in the pot they came in, but I'm sure that when I try to move it the roots will be well grown out of the drain holes and into the soft garden soil.
This picture shows the Santa Rosa Plum, absolutely over laden with blossom buds. Too many, I think. I hope we get some nice fruit from this tree, it is my favourite plum. Its about a month earlier than usual, the fruit doesn't ripen until late January, so it could be a disaster this year. Not only too many flowers but not enough bees.

Its a beautiful day outside today, so I'm heading out to do some weeding...........long overdue.
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Monday, August 3, 2009

Spring is just around the corner

A lovely day today in the hills surrounding Adelaide, a little cold though. The plum trees are about to burst into bloom and it looks as if we will have heaps of plums by Christmas time.
The jonquils are blooming along the driveway, the Erlicheer variety are a little later than the common type.
Yellow jonquils and the Paperwhites (last blog) are the first to bloom so these are a tad 'past it'
The Almond trees, very neglected, are flowering, although we never get any nuts from these trees because the parrots always get them while they are still un-ripe.
I managed to hobble up the driveway to take these photos, so my mobility must be getting better. Hooray, at last, for that.
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