Tired…just the usual ya know…

But time to update:

Our beautiful Pepper :-).  She is so much fun and we love her to BITS!!

The Chookens are very entertaining :-) - especially me trying to work out if they are gals or guys!  I am now thinking Rosie Posie is our only girl and not a Roger Poger at all!!  Here they are today – the Wyandottes are still in the ‘ugly duckling’ phase, but the Brahmas are looking very pretty.

If you can enlarge the photo you will see:  Twilight at the front left, then (clockwise) Peggy (who is the boss – and probably a boy seeing as wattles are definitely developing red!); then Midnight (blacker Wyandotte); Fred the other black Wyandotte, then Sunset and finally Rosie Posie who has the most developed comb but it is certainly still very yellow, so it looks like she is a girl.   As I said, she might be the only one, I think…gotta check their legs, that is apparently another way to tell before they crow…

Sunflowers are still pretty in all their stages :-)

I just love this one (it is not the one above, but a different one):

Look at all that shaggy gorgeousness!

Most everything in our garden has gone to seed, so that is good for having lots of chook food :-).  I am very, very behind on getting in a summer crop – still hoping I will get some seeds started this coming week – and in anticipation, we got this potting bench sorted today :-) – yay!!

And it has had a coat of Sikkens, so is looking slick now and will be ready tomorrow to be put into service.  We plan to put it next to Cluckingham Palace and build a lean-to roof over it and have outdoor blinds around it to be a year-round hot house :-).  Very excitement!!

And of course, it is spring – so cleaning is happening.  It might be a big one because I am reading some of the minimalist, major de-clutter blogs!!  The family has been warned.

First up – the kitchen benches :-):

Pray it lasts!!!

Van Gogh would be happy with these sunflowers – don’t you think?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A close-up – look at how perfectly motley they now look J.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And because I was having fun editing the photos – that one above is my original, just resized; this one below is edited with “one step photo fix”, twice – I love the orange coming in…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then in computer Van Gogh style, add the painterly effect and you get this masterpiece:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Nicola.

Last Monday was an interesting day!

Good = 37^o outside, 23 inside J.  And that’s with us all just coming and going as usual – these strawbales are doing lovely things to keep us cool and cosy.

Not so good = bushfire alert L.  We could see and smell smoke in the late afternoon and while we were searching for info on the internet, got the phone call to put our survival plan into action.  The kids and us followed through our survival plan very well and were ready for evacuating if we needed to but we are very glad to say the bushfire was under control within an hour.  This was a perfect outcome all around – we got to test out our practice bushfire drills – and confirm their worth.

(And blow me down – I look outside after typing this up on Thursday – and see smoke again!).  Luckfully, it looks like it is blowing away.

Here’s another sunflower photo instead:

 












Did you know sunflowers don’t follow the sun?  Can you see it glaring there in the side/background?  Its late afternoon in this photo so the sun is approximately west – these sunflowers are therefore facing approx. north and the one in the back, east!  They seem to like east best, most are facing that way.  I do reckon they moved with the sun when the tiny flower buds first formed, but once the head was ‘set’ they seem to stay put.   Will have to observe closer with the next batch.

So, it’s been some time (again…).  It’s been some busy times, relaxing times, happy times, normal times.

We’ve had end of school events (lovely celebrations) and our first Christmas in our new home (just the six of us).  We waited until the big girl got home from her school trip to get a Real Christmas tree and then it got all decorated – isn’t it beautiful?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the Santas got sat out in the entry hall:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a wee little display on our drawers:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, Christmas was our relaxing time – it’s been the usual busy otherwise – and mostly with (you’ll never guess!) paving of course!!  Michael went the extra mile this time – in fact extra 200 miles – to pick up 12 tonne of pavers from a property in Mandurah and relocate them to our verandah – and that is the literal pick them up off the ground too! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I tell ya, this house sure has been a paving adventure – and still not quite finished yet – but getting oh so close…

We have also updated the garden beds – we have been harvesting so many tomatoes and silverbeet and just the last week, giant zucchini:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, they are on the menu today to be cooked up into passata, spinach quiches and zucchini relish – yum!

And because I was inspired to take an ‘artistic’ photo of the sunflowers in honour of Vincent van Gogh – here they are:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now I don’t say I know much about van Gogh, but the Dr Who episode is very touching – so touching that I added a “For Amy” to the famous sunflower print (it will hang in our library, after going to college with the eldest I think, she’s the Whovian) and it led us to buy a beautiful book, ‘Sunflowers for Van Gogh’, by David Douglas Duncan at a garage sale, which has in turn inspired the photo.  More photos to come I think…really would love to get the wild, unkempt look of the paintings…