Against the odds

An amazing thing has happened at my school over the last few months. A pair of Willy-Wagtails (small black and white birds) decided to build a nest in August. Not so amazing? But wait, there's more... they decided the very best place to build this nest was not in one of the many trees, well away from noisy children, flying balls and twirling skipping ropes. NO, not for these intrepid avians. The place they chose was on the top of a netball hoop. Yes, seriously. And a netball hoop in the busiest part of the playground, above asphalt. A hoop the children used most days before school, at break and at lunchtime. Over several days, they brought mud and grass and built this incredible, perfect little cup-shaped nest.

The children stopped using the hoop, but not the area. The birds swooped in and out among them, ignoring the noise, the balls, the ropes... and after a while, the female began sitting. After another while, three eggs hatched and three tiny black heads began peeping over the top of the nest, looking down with interest at all the activity going on around them. The children were able to see the whole process, including the parents feeding the chicks. Until last week, when the babies were fully fledged and the whole family abandoned the nest, although they are still spotted around the school frequently. And then, some boys threw basketballs at the nest until it came down to the ground. So the birds will have to build again next year. But those boys waited 2 whole months until they were sure the birds were safe. An amazing thing in itself.

Hope your day is amazing, even against the odds.

Lyn.

The case for Spring

It has been beautiful gardening outside this week. The hellebores are in full bloom, and they are one of my favourite plants. They look so delicate yet are really tough, shrugging off my heavy clay soil, winter frosts and summer dryness. They come back every winter and the patches grow slowly year by year, with all sorts of variations on white, pink, cream, maroon, spots and stripes. This is a patch in the front 'forest'. You can see a Meyer Lemon too, with its Winter fruit.

Another favourite at the moment is the Viburnum Tinus, another tough character. The pink buds open to small white flowers, but the buds are beautiful in themselves.

Another Winter gem is this Iris, which lights up if the sun is on it.

But really, despite all this talk of Winter-flowering plants, today in the garden it was impossible to believe it is Winter. There is a gentle breeze here that feels like a big, warm hug. The scent of Jonquils is delicious. In fact, I've decided that Spring is here. Yes, from now on, on my calendar, August will be the first month of Spring. It is the month of Jonquils, Daffodils, Snowflakes, Peach, Plum and Almond blossom. There are buds on the roses, although I haven't pruned them yet. Yes, we're still getting frosts, but we get them in September and October too. And there's just that Spring feeling in the air.

The chickens obviously agree. They're laying full sized eggs, after a few smallish ones (for practice). Two of them lay brown eggs, and one lays white ones. They look lovely in the laying box together, among the straw.

The chickens themselves have finally learnt how to dig in the dirt, not just move the mulch here and there. They have discovered that worms are not only edible, but actually delicious! Now when I dig, the three girls are at my elbow in a moment, hoping for treats. And under the mulch the soil has been warm, moist and full of fat, pink, glistening morsels that they snap up with excited little noises. I didn't photograph the worms, but here are the chooks.

The weeds are sure it is Spring, too. They are greener and lusher now than they are at any other time of the year, and battle has been joined this week. The war will never be over, but we do suspend hostilities over the coldest months. The current battle is for the broadbeans, held hostage by green guerillas. I am determined to rescue them before they flower.

So happy Spring to you, wherever you live and garden!

Lyn.

Alien Plants on the Loose!

I haven't been doing much computing for a while, just living life in the real world instead of the virtual one, and things are going pretty well. I've just come back home from a few weeks at Hawks Nest , a great spot on the coast with water on three sides - an ocean beach, a river and Port Stephens. We rented a house between the Port and the river, with balcony views of both, and had a restful time. Friends joined us for one week. It is terrific to get away from the cold winter of Bathurst and we do it every July.

The plants of the area are very different to the ones we are used to at home. This one, for instance, that we came across on the bushwalk in Myall National Park. It was very imposing and made us feel it might pull up its roots (like a subtropical Ent) and start walking around at any moment.

But it was not nearly as alien as a bunch of plants we saw at the Hunter Valley Gardens on the trip home. These are Baobabs in flower, and they just took our breath away. I felt like I was in Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth (well, except for the sky).

On closer inspection, the understorey was pretty strange, too.

I am familiar with all of these plants: Kangaroo Paws, Yuccas, Euphorbias, Bananas, Echiums, and Cycads (you can't see them in this picture, they were on the other side). But to put them all together struck me as an idea of genius. The photo doesn't really do it justice. It truly looked like vegetation from another planet, and I would like to meet the person behind it. The Hunter Valley Gardens is really a series of themed gardens and is well worth a visit, as the travel shows say, but this small garden was not named at all on the map. Yet it was one of the sights I enjoyed most and one I will remember. In my mind it is the Alien Garden. If I had a lot of land, I might try something similar, but I don't think it would work in my backyard...

Back home, it's much colder, but I'm excited about potting up my first ever attempt at hardwood rose cuttings (a gift from Hunter Valley Gardens). The jonquils and snowdrops are flowering, the chooks have begun to lay and Winter is two-thirds over.

Watch out for those Alien Plants!

Lyn.

Quiddity

I am doing an experiment. I am trying to appreciate the "quiddity" of things, people and events I encounter each day. Quiddity means the "what-ness" of a thing, that is, what it really is, as opposed to what you might expect or want it to be. It's the dogginess of dogs, the Winteriness of Winter, the sheer toastiness of toast.

The trick is not only to recognise the essence of a thing, but to actively appreciate it. This is easy with dogs when they are playing or sitting at your feet looking up adoringly, but not so easy when they are throwing up on the carpet. I am doing well with toast, though.

At the moment I am trying to appreciate the raininess of the rain, instead of blaming it for not being sunshine. I am cheating by doing this through a window - even for an experiment I am not going outside with this virus I have now had for 2 weeks. (Could anyone really appreciate the fluiness of flu, I wonder?)

This idea, by the way, is not original. I found it in the writings of two authors I am very fond of: GK Chesterton and CS Lewis. Both apparently were known to go out walking in the wildest weather (and this is in England, mind you) just for the sheer exhuberance they got from the experience. Lewis wrote that he loved weather - not any particular kind, just weather. As I was complaining about the weather in my last post, I thought I'd give his way a try.

I thought appreciating the chookiness of chooks would be easy. I love the way they wander around burbling happily and pecking here and there, the way they fluff out their feathers, even the way they suddenly take fright at absolutely nothing and hurtle across the yard at top speed, yellow legs pumping and wings flapping madly. But yesterday the chookiness of chooks was a bit of a trial.

Our three ladies had the brilliant idea that the wattle tree would make a much better place to roost on a winter night than their snug, safe chook dome. Only a chook could think this. And once they were there, their chookiness meant they were not budging. They were too high to reach and the branches were too thin for me to climb. I shook the tree. They crouched lower on the branch and gripped tighter. I poked them with a garden stake. They flapped and complained, but stayed put. I lectured them sternly on how stupid they were being. They were deaf to my insults. Finally, in desperation I shook and poked at the same time, and they finally decided this tree wasn't such a great place after all and flew down. They then followed me into their house and hopped in as if nothing unusual had happened at all. I'm not sure I can think of a way to appreciate this...

Here they are behaving much better in the vegie garden. They've really changed from those little fluffballs we brought home in January.


Thank you, Kylie and Berys, for your comments. It's easy to appreciate the quiddity of you!

Lyn.

Missing Autumn

Grey skies frown and weep
Cold tears drumming on the roof -

Winter is crying.

Yes, the mood for today is a trifle depressed. Cold outside the house and cold inside my head, both dripping. It's the greyness that gets to me at this time of the year. Autumn was cold but beautiful, golden rather than grey. In May I couldn't walk through the house without stopping and drinking in the views from the front windows.

Now all I want to drink is hot tea with lots of honey.

In May, I picked Feijoas from the ground under the tree, and tomatoes from the plants hung upside down in the garage to ripen away from the frost.

In May, I made Feijoa and Apple Jelly and Tomato Relish in a steamy kitchen, I made more colourful bags for friends, relatives and the relatives of friends. Now it seems like too much trouble to make my bed.

I miss Autumn.

I think I need a Winter project. In Spring I grew my life by becoming a blogger, hosting a Tea Party, growing food and flowers and sewing. In Summer I made Christmas presents, baked and preserved, began keeping chickens, gardened and kept journals. In Autumn I spent time outdoors, appreciated beauty, read interesting books and did more growing, preserving and sewing. So what about Winter? Well, I've always been attracted to the idea of being a writer. Maybe now's the time...

Lyn.

In the Pink

It's been a long time since I blogged, but I want to start again. My foot is finally feeling a lot better, and I have been able to get back into the garden and do other things with little or no pain. It is such a pleasure after 4 months!

With the lower Autumn light I have been noticing how the pink flowers in the garden really glow at this time of year, so I went out this morning and photographed a few.

Indigofera australis, like a shrubby wisteria.

This is a dark pink Gaura in amongst a Eucalyptus gunii. I keep the eucalypt as a shrub rather than a tree by cutting it back hard in Winter and then trimming once or twice in Summer. I love this combination of pink and grey.

Salvias and Gaura.

I even have pink vegies! I grew rainbow Chard, but this one with the pinky-red stems has done better than the other colours and I now have seedlings coming up from one plant I let go to seed, so I'll have it all through winter too.

Of course I have pink roses too. This is Queen Elizabeth, just past her best, and below is a bud.

And here is Madam Isaac Pereire, which is always a darker pink in Autumn than in Spring.

With the morning sun behind her, she is a gorgeous lady.

I hope you are in the pink today too!

Lyn.

Back to Basics Challenge

Sowing Seed or Planting:
None, I'm afraid - I'd better do some next week! Oh, alfalfa sprouts - does that count?
Harvested:
3 kinds of tomatoes,
zucchinis,
rainbow chard,
rocket,
basil,
rhubarb.
Planning for the future:
Found recipes for next week's meals.
Marked the calendar with next month's activities.
Researched to see if I could save money on phone and insurance plans.
Working for the future:
Made Zucchini Pickles and Beetroot Relish.
Sorted out clothes for a clothing swap with friends.
Moved the chickens outside to the chook dome.
Tied up the tomato plants that were falling all over the ground.
Building Community:
Volunteered at school.
Lead Junior Youth Group.
Went to a coffee morning to meet new parents at school.
Organised playgroup.