House & Garden

whats going on in the Home and Garden

  • Popping In

    Popping In

    . Well, here we are – back again – after a blogging break of almost two months! We’ve needed the break to be able to regroup after a few events that shook us up a lil, and we’re still somewhat licking our wounds a bit and are trying realllly hard not to do that childish foot-stomping and yelling of – “it’s not fairrrr”….!!! Whilst we were away, ‘Tuffy’ (our Mother / Mother-in-Law) took a bit of a tumble, and the events that followed resulted in her and her hubby moving into an Aged Care facility – which had been desperately needed for a while – but they were both very…

  • Countdown

    . Its only a few short days until we head off for a couple of weeks of much needed leave. Its been two years since we last ventured away from home, and Life has certainly change a lot from what it looked like back then…

  • Hive of Activity

    . Its a hive of activity here this morning, with bags being dragged out of the shed where they have been packed away for the the last 18 months or so. Lots of going-through, separating, tossing/donating and washing to be done. Larry, Lucy and Katie are super-excited to be over-seeing all this activity, because they know that it won’t be long until all of us are heading ‘home‘ for the first time in two years, for a well-earnt break and some down-time… As many of you may recall, Larry does have a habit of posting on the website from time to time when we’re away and whenever he can sneak…

  • March Monsoons

    As happens in the monsoon season — its been raining. And raining and raining and raining!! Its definitely been a proper wet season so far this year, and one that we have needed, as despite how wet it was this time last year, we really didn’t end up getting our ‘usual’ amount, for where we live. We heard on the radio the other evening that Darwin has had over a meter and a half of rain already!! The front wheels (literally) fell off the mower a couple of weeks ago – yes the new one (!!) – and so it has been into the shop for repairs. It seemed to…

  • A New Year!

    . 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…

  • Guest Post #2

    . This is Guest Post #2! This one is from our youngest son Thomas – and is his perspective from a visit back in August… NOTE: if anyone one else wants to do a ‘Guest Post’ – just write it up, email it to us, and we’ll get onto the business of formatting it and putting it up!     Well…! HOW INCREDIBLE!! For those of you that know Selina and I, you know that it really doesn’t take much to get us excited! So to try and put into words how amazing this place is, is a challenge to say the least! We arrived back on the Tablelands at…

  • Festivities, Family & Fun

      . We had a lovely few days surrounded by Family, with everyone getting together for the first time in ages, for the Wedding of our youngest daughter to her beau of 11 years. Its surreal to think thats its already a week ago! 😐 The Friday before the wedding was when all of our family members (except one – sadly Patrick couldn’t join us until the next day) arrived, so we had a barbecue in the evening down on the lakeside. There were about 15 of us all up – and despite the winds picking up and most of the Southerners being caught out by the cold, it was a…

  • Hot & Moist

    . We’ve had a couple of weeks of extremes on the weather scale… This time last week we were in the midst of a deluge, and were out in said deluge digging drainage trenches, and watching our 10kg doorstep float away!! The good thing about the rain is it replenished some ground-water, which was badly needed. Everything was getting very dry! It also meant that for the best part of a week, we got away with not having to water the gardens and orchard. This week, we are suffering through 32+ degree heatwaves. [35 today!] A lot of the plants – especially those in the nursery – are sagging from…

  • Time flies…

    . Firstly – we’d like to thank all of you wonderfully kind folks who sent your thoughts, love and support (and $$s!!!) to our Family members who’d been through the trauma of Hurricane Irma… Between the worry for our Family, a bit of down-time with illness, a sneaky weekend away, and work interrupting Life (as it does!) there

  • Kiwi kidults return!

    . We’ve had the kidults that were in New Zealand for most of the last year, back home for the last two weeks. (aka the KWL team) They stayed at the house in town, and have been doing some wonderful work for us while they visited. There has been a lot that they have achieved over the last fortnight