Winter Break

Despite the heat, my little pansies are surviving

After a quiet winter as far as blogging goes, I’m back again. My posts may have been inactive, but I was very actively enjoying everyone else’s and reading lots of books, quilting, cross stitching and getting sick with the flu. Also busy in the garden, pruning, weeding and mulching every tree and plant in sight.

Winter is a nice time to recharge, snuggling under a rug with the cats, eating chocolate and watching movies. The chocolate part was fun at the time but I’m regretting that now I’m back at the gym. I see some hard work ahead!

Now we are officially into Spring, but it feels like we have jumped straight into Summer! The temps have been soaring in Queensland to mid 30’s (c)!!! Everything is dry and brown and the fire danger is high. Yesterday we had a brief storm which resulted in about 5 mls of rain, but we need so much more. The grass is actually crunching underneath my feet, but hopefully we’ll get some good rainfall soon and everything will suddenly turn green again.

Just back from a nice little getaway in New Zealand. More on that next time.

Catching Up

Lavender

Frangipani

Chickens

Yes – catch up time! On weeding in particular. It’s taken me a few days to look closely at the garden after being away for over a month. The first reason was because the grass was so high that I couldn’t actually see the garden, and secondly, I just didn’t want to know how much work was in store for me. As you can see, I have some work to do!

The grass is taking over!

More work needed here,,,

I don’t know about you, but when I have catch up on chores like sorting out the filing system, cleaning out the fridge or in this case – weeding, I tend to procrastinate for an inordinate amount of time, only to realise that the job would have been over and done quite quickly had I just got in there and made a start straight away.

So yesterday I bought a magazine featuring some garden ideas. But rather than making me feel like rushing forth armed with my favourite gardening implements, I compared my bit of weed covered earth with the glossy images of perfect tropical paradise, which the owner modestly proclaimed was a bare, wind swept desert only a year ago, and wondered why I haven’t achieved a lot more in the last two years.

One step at a time, I remind myself, so on that note I will venture out and start on the cat’s garden. This was last year’s project of which I was quite proud – after much consultation on the web, a cat’s paradise of only good, safe plants such as herbs, rosemary and lemongrass. As I lovingly tended it, I could just picture the two cats finding shady spots to laze on a summer’s day, nibble on cat grass and roll in the catnip.

DSCN1890

Unfortunately, the reality was that after some time exploring said garden, Samurai discovered, after 6 years of doing nothing more active than chasing the odd garden lizard which always got away, that he could jump the fence and became far more interested in exploring next door’s open, empty patch with hardly a plant in sight! Higher fences proved no challenge, with the result that the cats now have three connecting cat enclosures; so rather than being in the garden they now look down on it.

The tunnel

Cat enclosures

Even so, the least I can do is to give them a weed-less view!

C’est la Vie

This is all I have to show after spending a great day at the annual Craft & Quilt Fair last week. Yes, I did remember to take my camera and yes, I took lots of photos of some beautiful quilts which featured in two quilt challenges – True Blue and Lest We Forget in honour of the Gallipoli landing, as well as demonstrations and workshops. Unfortunately, after downloading them onto my (new) laptop, it decided that it would not turn on the next morning and I had to take it back to the shop – for the third time! Too bad I so efficiently deleted the photos from my camera after downloading.

So the good news is that I was given a store credit to replace my laptop (a different brand this time!) but the bad news is that I lost all my data.

As if that wasn’t enough, I just purchased a new washing machine in the last few days and used it for the first time yesterday. The first load went through perfectly; unfortunately it broke down on the second load, which then got rewashed about 4 times while I tried to get the water to drain out, which it refused to do. Result – a very clean laundry floor and a new washing machine being delivered tomorrow.

They say these things happen in three’s …… can’t wait to see what happens next!

Back to the Blog.

I’m afraid I have been very remiss with blogging for a long time. I guess I have not been in the right “head space” for posting or even Facebook for ages, due to my husband’s brush with cancer. It’s been a very full-on year. However, good news at the first 3 month check, with a very positive report. Of course, there will be ongoing checks for 5 years, but all good so we can move on with our lives.

After the disappointment of having to cancel our second round the world cruise earlier in the year, we were very happy when our refund cheque arrived in the mail this morning (finally) from the travel insurance company! So now we are concentrating on our next vacation which will be leaving Brisbane on 26 February for a 42 night cruise to China and Japan.

We are lucky that the “Sea Princess” is now based in Brisbane which gives us the opportunity to cruise to some places not previously visited, and we don’t have to fly to Sydney to board. Flying is not our favourite thing so we will make the most of it.

Lots going on around the house and with the cats, but they will have to be the subject of future blogs as I realise that I haven’t taken any photos for months. Not that I have been idle with lots of craft and gardening happening which I will share soon.

My Cats Garden is Nearly Done

Last year I was planning a garden for the cats. Well, for them and for me. They have a fenced-off area along the side of the house and I thought a narrow garden along the fence line between us and our neighbor would be nice for them and create some interest from the street view.

So recently, with a little bit of help to sort out the string line, I did the edging myself. Maybe not absolutely straight in parts, but I am pretty happy with my efforts and I’m sure it will look fine once we have finished the planting.

So the dream becomes a reality. Great – one more item we can cross off the “To Do” list!