Photos are so important

When one despairs of making progress, one only has to look at past photos to see how things have taken shape. Hence this blog.

We've come a long way in 5 months - Sept 6, 2015 to Feb 6, 2016.

The before shots, just to remind me how ghastly and bare it once was. Now, I have a profusion of growth...and I want more!!

Grandfather's whiskers

There are shoots of brighter green new growth in there (below).

Triffids

These frangipani shoots are the last word in scary alien looks!

I hope they don't attack during the night!!

Update 24 Jan 2016:

One has remained an alien (not sure why it's not growing - will reposition it and see if a new place works for it) and the other has taken off nicely.

New growth on the Mandarin

Yep, the mandarin orange is growing. It looks a bit insect-eaten too, but still, there appears to be some resilience. Great!

This new growth is heartening, but oh! the tree is still so small against the fence! (in the middle square pot).

Liquid gold #1

Water. So precious, so vital.

Whenever it rains, I try to catch some in these giant black pots. This serves to water the plants on days which are not so wet. It's really only enough for one watering occasion.

In the short term, I want to buy one of these from Bunnings (plus the black stand it sits on):

Eventually, I want two huge volume but slimline water tanks, a la this:

I'd hate to have to buy in water.

Flit the bird #3 - it's a girl

Take a look at her now - she's identical to the female's and immature fledglings HERE (I do reckon she's a girl though).

She looks fab and is so much stronger now - I have her up on a branch for balance practice. I might put her outside, but in the safety of a cage, in the next few days, so her kind can help feed her, as per the link above.

I've had him/her for a week today! I love the little hint of green on his/her wings.

More photos of the appearance stages of figbird life - HERE

Taffy tries it on

Taffy attempts to get to Flit, in his box and cage arrangement.

"No, darling, you cannot have him!".

Council acts

Finally, after two appeals, ICC have come round to examine the corner upon which I live. The sideway (can hardly call it a 'walk', as one would break one's neck, or twist one's ankle - certainly can't jog on it, can't push a pram along it, and I can barely mow it, such is the angle of incline/decline towards the road - I physically cannot push or pull the mower along - it is so potholed and undulating with chunks of concrete and old tree roots within - no one uses it. It's impossible to trevass.

So I wrote to Council asking that they 'do something' preferably build a wall, such as the one made of brick up on the top corner of our block.

The guys (3, older) turned up this morning, and I happened to catch them surveying as I went out to feed the chooks.

They confirmed the Council 'had no money - can't even pay our wages', and that the only thing they would be doing is putting a coating of loam over the holes on the sidewalk. I protested (nicely) that this would surely just wash away with the next rain, but, alas, that's all that was going to happen - at least today. They went off to Sapar's supplies to get the loam, and lo! I caught them a short time later, hand-piling it on the sideway lawn.

"Where's your gadget?", I asked. I thought surely they would have a bob-cat type of machine to do this heavy work for them, but nope - they man-spaded it all along themselves.

Appalling that they have to do it manually, and appalling solution to the problem. It's something done, I suppose. I shall keep complaining about it though.

 

Thanks for not very much at all, Sheila Ireland.