A New Year!

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Annnnnnd here we are in 2018!!

Didn’t that last year just zoom by with ridiculous speed?!?
Thats one of those things about getting older – the years definitely feel shorter…

Its been a hot dry few weeks, and the gardens – and Us – are definitely feeling the unrelenting heat, which we still have a few months left of.

Its been a ‘quiet’ start to the cyclone-season – touchwood! – with only WA having had one small one blow through so far.

We’ve planted out a couple of climbers along the fence lines in the last few days – including some passionfruit vines that we grew from seed, from passion-fruits collected off the vine at our house in town, so we’re pretty pleased that they have grown so strongly and healthily – as its a little bit of the past, coming with us into the future…

One of our big-ticket wins last week, was finally installing the industrial fan we got for ourselves as an early christmas present, back in September or October.

The ceiling fans make the house too hot during the day, so we have been using pedestal fans, and only using the ceiling fans at night, since we moved out here – but as of a few days ago, after a few weeks of umming and ahhing – we worked out the best placement and best method of attachment – and up she went!!

Its a mammoth ¾ of a metre across, and whilst its a little akin to a 747 on takeoff, when it is on full-blast, it makes a huuuuge difference to the temperatures inside our little home.
We don’t actually use it on full-blast, as we think it might well blow out the side wall of our little abode.
(not to mention that we’d be at risk of industrial deafness!! lol).

Eventually we’ll get an aircon once the finances aren’t so tight – probably round the same time that we sell the house in town – but for now, this will make a big difference to our comfort levels during the heat of the afternoons, especially.

But of course – as ya do(!!) – we spoke too soon about the fan.
A week in, and it started making horrendous noises.
Not ‘oops theres a loose bolt‘ kinda noise, but more of a ‘oh gawd the motor is chewing up a sprocket‘ kinda noise!!

We took it back down, did some tinkering, put it back up and tried again – but alas – it will be going back to the shop.
Its not a go-er after all… 🙁

Around the garden – our coleus has gone nuts, and as you’ve seen on previous posts, we’ve taken a pile of cuttings off it, but its finally outgrown the bed that it was in, so we’ve pulled it out, bashed a hole into the bottom of the bed (which is actually an old metal bathroom cabinet) so that the roots of the new plant that we’ve put in there, can grow down into the ground.
The new plant is a beautiful little butterfly & bee atttactant bush (Gaura Lindheimeri), which has gorgeous pink flower sprays coming all over it, that are just stunning.

We’ve also decided on the location of yet another garden bed.
It will be somewhere close to the first corner, as you come down our driveway – so that (in time!) you’ll be met with a sea of colours and textures, as well as signage for our little Farm.

We’ve cleaned out and replenished one of the raised beds in the house-yard, and have put beetroot and carrot seeds in, and are waiting see what the ants haven’t ripped off, and what actually manages to sprout 🙂

We’ve also put in some more lettuce and beetroot seedlings, in the big house-yard bed.

Salad vegies are a biggie for us!

The purple beans in the big bed have grown like crazy, and produced mobs of gorgeous fat beans, and we now have a freezer drawer full – that will last the best part of the year…

Celery is flourishing in Horatio bed, as are two different types of basil, and some edible flowers.
The borage has self-seeded (thankfully – as we thought it was a goner from the heat!) and we have a couple of lovely new little plants popping their heads up.

We’ve also planted out a yellow frangipani where we can see it from our dining room table, as a visual nod of remembrance to one of our past relatives.

We’ve had a few days of rain this weekend, but managed to get most of the mowing done, especially the house yard – right before the heavens opened.

It hasn’t bucketed down this time round, just a few days of mizzle after one day of soaking rain.
At least it has toned down the temperatures for a little while – which we’re extremely grateful for!!

By now you’ll hopefully have noticed that the website has a new look.
So far we’ve only had ONE comment on the new design – which has been a bit underwhelming – so perhaps it isn’t a design that you guys like so much?
Let us know….

While the site was being updated, we also added the old blog from our NZ travels – so if you didn’t ever get a chance to have a peek at those – take a look and have a read!
There’s some pretty lovely photos too 🙂

We sat around the other night reading back over the NZ adventure ones, and it gave a both a lot of giggles remembering the fun we’d had, as we relived each entry.
It was a happy evening…

And in final news of interest – after a wholllllle lotta years of us not doing it – we have restarted doing jigsaws!

Jigsaw #1 we figured should be an ‘easy’ one – so its only 500 pieces.
500 pieces that at the start looked all the bloody same!!!

Ok – not reallllly – but for a while there, we felt pretty dense 🙂 🙂

It took us about an hour and a half on the first night, just to get the edges done!!

We’ve been at it about 2 weeks now, on and off, and nearly have it completed, but have found that we need to cover it with a table cloth for a lot of the time, otherwise we get sidetracked as we walk past it – and wind up doing a half hour of jigsaw, instead of the dishes, the gardening, varies chores or tidying up. lol

Its been a fun way to spend some evenings though, and ensures that we dont get stuck, too much attached to our phones, computers or the tv – and spend time talking instead, as we look for pieces and build the picture.

So thats it for this round!

Hopefully next time we’ll get to tell you about our clothesline!!
Gosh we live exciting lives… 😀 bet you’re envious!
xx