Greetings from the deck

What a changeable week it has been weather wise. There have been glorious days out in the garden and days huddled in front of the fire, escaping the rain. There have been mornings when we had breakfast out on the deck and days when the lawn was thick with frost. Just today we had a magnificent (and busy) spring morning and now the rain clouds are blowing in.

The black cockies are making their presence felt, pruning trees and eating our banksias and proteas. A couple of ravens have decided that playing 'knock down Ginger' on the bedroom window is great fun and the kookas are staring at us from the comfort of our balustrade again. All's right with the world!

Today I am writing from the comfort of our Balinese bed. Sitting here you catch the sun without the wind and except on very overcast days it's almost like summer. The bed was an impulse buy at the very start of lockdown and it's a great spot to chill and enjoy the garden. The dog loves it too!

It's so great to be out in the garden again, weeding, planting, building, creating. Today Lindsay concreted in front of the green house so we don't have to machete through the weeds to open the door, and I continued with the task of bringing some order to the cottage garden. The cottage garden was straggly trees, overgrown lilies and a rabbit warren that was a thriving metropolis when we first got here. It is also one of the most fertile parts of the garden probably because of the run off from the property next door. It used to be owned by retired farmers and their garden was magnificent. This garden has grown from a few daisies and foxgloves to a huge bed thick with flowers, shrubs and grasses. It hums with the sound of bumblebees throughout spring and summer. Whimsy is now taking over. An old iron bedhead supports a bluebell creeper, Lindsay's old bike marks the end of the garden and we are looking for the right spot for his dad's 1945 cement mixer.

Other jobs, between showers, this week have included: weeding and fertilising the veggie garden; planting out part of the back garden with over 40 grasses (this one was finished in drizzling rain); and transplanting self seeded plants happily growing in the wrong place. The chooks are giving us eggs again but one newcomer doesn't take kindly to us taking them.

So that's it for another week. I am looking forward to tackling our ever growing list of little jobs in the garden, grateful that the massive projects seem to be over.

Wine time!