New frangi

I spotted this a week or so ago, near Booval. Thought I would go in and ask if I could have a piece. When I got there today, the place was deserted, and as the tree was spilling out onto the road, I decided to help myself to a chunk of it.

It's gorgeous.

Moon waning

6.30 this morning - lovely moon in the sky, and nice view of the growing things. (Hate the look of those blasted power poles - maybe I can reconceptualise them as art installations? They need painting - bright colours!)

and peaceful, dewey view of the tubs and passionfruit...

Hoya hoyed!

Some great growth happening here. Hope it flowers soon.

Bleeding Heart

has started to bloom again in its new location, in the vegie patch. It's a beautiful thing.

Sadly, a few days after these photos were taken, this plant died! I have no idea why the sudden change. Won't be getting another. I have no time at the moment for 'sensitive' things!

Grape vine #1 reaches the top!

Finally! I so wish it would spread sideways, but I think the fence is too hot. I need another creeper to cover it quickly so others have something to cling to that does not get hot. Ficus, I hope to get from the nursery in about a month.

Update: 24 Feb 2016

Its still travelling very well, and is trailing over the top of the pergola now. More, please, more!!

I wired the climber at the back

It would be nice if this would climb all over the fence though I fear it might get too hot. If the grape vine would only spread sideways more, then this might have something more bio to cling to.

UPDATE 3 March 2016: This climber continues to proceed gaily upwards. I have extended the original wire with a jute line, leading to the top of the fence. This is the junction, below -

I don;t know why these are loading sideways

and this is the whole as is today

The furry girls

Janey with 'robo-cop' eyes, and Saffy, in the foliage.

Ye flame tree burgeoneth

See! see! see! New leaves bursteth forth!

See?!!

Update 24 Feb 2016: the leaves have grown fast and there is a whole new 'storey' atop the original...

The feathery girls - Dorothea

Sweet little girl.

Morning View #3

The plants HAVE grown. The house desparately needs a repaint.

The feathery girls - Henrietta

The dominant chook

Red robins

Small hedge-type bushes growing at the front corner.

They seem to be going ok, although of course I wish they were faster at forming a hedge-type barrier. I do like the red tips of new growth (they look like small robins about to take flight). Yesterday afternoon, I pruned them so that they were all of the same height.

The lily-pillies are frustrating me with their slow growth and I believe they may be replaced with hibiscus trees, pink Ruth Wilcox variety.

Beautiful blue

I was charmed this evening when watering the garden by a stunning bright blue butterfly fluttering about the water bowl out the back (for the chooks).

I stood still and tried to snap it, and here is what emerged. Electric blue it was. Gorgeous. What a wonderful, sweet and lovely thing.

Are these the same thing?

Maree at Pee Dee Nursery told me this plant (below) was a 'today, tomorrow, always' bush.

And yet, it does not seem to be the same as the one I already have (below). They look different, or is it that the top pic one has not yet 'taken off'? It seems so much more 'uptight', whereas the one below is 'loosy-goosey' sending out legs everywhere.

Need more hay to hold in the moisture for it (likes a lot of water) and some blood and bone to boost the growth of the newest.

Did the crepe myrtle just stand up straight?

It looks today like it has leaped up a bit, like stood up straighter or something...

Maybe it just looks more green than this...

No, no - when I compare the two pics, there has definitely been some new growth. Yay! I continue to water it every night.

Red robins trimmed

I trimmed the ones along Gum St to be the same height as the lower ones, so there would be uniformity and so that they would all thicken up some. I want them to join together to make a hedge.

There's some weeding to be done. It all needs more hay to hold in the moisture, and some more horse poo. The aggies need some blood and bone to grow more vigorously. Some are doing ok, some are dying, it seems.

Dusk

And yet another effing power pole in the shot!

Thankyou Bridget March

for this fabulous drawing/watercolour of a chook.

I just love her art work. More about Bridget HERE, HERE and HERE.   Bridget's Pinterest Boards are HERE.

The flame tree come aliveth!

Finally, I see incontrovertible evidence of new growth! So, the repotting worked. The tree didn't like the sticky soil of the ground, with poor drainage. Happy to see it growing but where will I place it when it gets bigger? Hmmmm...

White frangi

Have driven past this tree several times now, wishing for a piece of it. 

I love the slightly more delicate, smaller, clean and white flower, with the whorl of yellow in the centre.

Finally I called in to ask for some. The guy was older, very nice and gave me a huge hunk of it, as seen in the back seat of my car, below.

He looked somewhat Chinese, but he explained he was from the Solomon Islands, where apparently the Germans employed Chinese to work in the plantations there. He said he had Chinese and German in his past family. This is history about which I know nothing, but about which I will now do some research!

Here is his tree (below) in the guy's garden, the tree on the right. Lovely.

Chook fun toy

Found this at the markets this morning- such a fun toy. Make the ball underneath twirl round and round, and the chooks peck up and down on the painted grain! Ingenius!

I'd seen these first in China, and bought one, but one of the threads broke and I couldn't be bothered to fix it. I have it still, somewhere. Maybe I'll get around to fixing it, so my nieces can have one toy each some time when they come down again to visit, and play with my chooks.

Bed cover lace

Saw this lace 'thing' hanging up on a stall at the Sunday market as I drove past last weekend and happened upon it again today when I attended.

It is apparently a large table cloth, it even looks like it once belonged to a church, because of the cross on the top. I was once told that at some time in my past lives, I was a nun, and very devout. Maybe it's coming back to me now... but I'll prefer, in this life, to consider it a 'diamond' shape. I'm using it as a bed cover with a coloured under-sheet (my bed is a small double. I don't plan on sharing it any time soon, except with my cats).

I love it, and best of all, it was only $10!! My Valentine's Day gift to myself. Think this will be a summer-look, as not enough weight for the winter cold.

The evidence stacks up against Henrietta

Henrietta (in the foreground, with her tail towards us) has been exhibiting her ability to fly more and more lately. She likes to scale the temporary lattice barriers I have erected, especially the one around the back.

Poor Dorothea, whose wings are properly clipped, is left behind and can't partake of any spoils like spilled seed that H finds near the bulk containers I have for their pellets.

I can tell when H has been investigating, because, ahem, she leaves a trail !

Even though this looks (and is!) a mess, I scrape up this poop on the weekend and add it to the compost. The garden loves it, and the path is none the worse - no traces left, clean as a whistle. No problems.

Counting coop

This coop I bought for too much money is really disintegrating fast. It really does not have so many months left to be of assistance in sheltering the feathered girls.

I keep a piece of plastic over the top as sort of help during rain, but it really won't keep the chooks warm during the winter. Not sure yet what I am going to do to help them stay warm outside there.

When my neighbour and I were transporting this thing, bought second hand, the nesting boxes flew off! I use one of the plastic litter boxes as a nesting box now. It's inside the hutch under the flap seen above.

In this rudimentary hutch-cage arrangement is one of the nesting boxes, with an egg in it, from today's produce. I have at least 6 eggs in the fridge currently, and am happy that the girls are laying two eggs a day (between them).

I love that they are laying! Bought them some extra pellets today and mash. I was concerned that were always hungry but they appear to be happier with the more substantial pellets. Fuller crops!

Le compost

Well that's one way of attempting to put a suave French name to a pile of rotting stuff! Le compost.

When I went to Masters and Bunnings to find one of those square shaped compost bins, some time ago, there were none in stock.

So, because I didn't have much money at the time, I compromised and bought a cheap plastic bin with a lid to put my scraps in, and garden stuff, although I knew it would not hold everything. (I put the extra residue from a garden mow in the recycling bin. One shouldn't...but everybody does).

This bin seems to be holding up well enough, and certainly the stuff inside is breaking down quite quickly. Now and again I upend it all and expose it to the sun and air and chook scratching, and that is good for it. Then I shovel it back into the bin. So far, so good, although I am not quite sure when I should or could use it as mix for the plants in the garden. It looks crumbly and has no smell, which is the way they say good compost is, but I keep adding chook poo to it, and they say that's too raw for plants and can burn them.

I also bought one of those stick-stirrer things (the green stick to the right of the bin in the photos above), but I find I don't use it much as the up-ending process does the job of aeration just fine. It's not a big lot, so I can manage it at the moment.

When the black plastic bin begins to disintegrate due to sun-'brittling', I'll get one of the square ones.

What I would really prefer is a tumbler, like this

or like this

I think I prefer the second one to start with.