Nothing Beats A Bird Sitting On Your Foot

It's been a bit of a bugger over the last week when I could barely move with blasted sciatica.  Damn and blast it, I am supposed to brimming with health and vitality, not a whinging, drug filled invalid!  Anyway, thankfully over the last few days things have improved and I am mobile once again.

We continue unpacking boxes and sorting our possessions, working out sensible places to keep them.  I have become a blue and white china lover over the last few years, and decided that rather than have my favourite things stuffed into a cupboard, that it would be much nicer to put them where I can see them.

It's been rather windy here of late, which is good in that the temperatures have been very comfortable, but bad in that the sand that surrounds our house is being blown all over the place.  I left the back path unswept for a couple of days and those two rectangular mats were virtually invisible under all the sand!!  Looking forward to establishing a kitchen garden/rockery thingy out here in a few months time.

We are finally being able to pick tomatoes that are not riddled with holes.  We haven't got around to spraying yet but notice that the cabbage white butterflies are not as prolific as in December, maybe that's just how it is.  Anyway, we are picking them half ripe and leaving them in a warm spot in the kitchen to ripen.  Fried herbed tomatoes with sausages was on the menu the other night, it was yum!

The beans are finally starting to produce. 

The chives are in abundance and look so pretty with their mauve flowers.

We have monster fennel plants.  We actually stuffed up here, what we meant to grow what globe fennel, with the fat bulb thing at ground level that you can roast or slice into salads.  These 6 plants never did that, they just grew like flippin' trees with no bulb thingies in sight.  They are over 2 metres tall and covered in flowers which the bees love.  We found out that there are two sorts of fennel so this is obviously the other sort!  Not to worry, I am waiting for the flowers to go to seed and shall collect the seed to use in the kitchen.

I keep finding hidden ginormous pumpkins!  Can't wait to try one.  I believe we have to wait until the foliage dies down and the stems start to die and dry before cutting the pumpkins, so a while yet.

This little bird, a fantail, absolutely made my day yesterday.  I'd been doing a bit of gardening, being fed up with being incapacitated, but was feeling really sore and miserable.  I noticed this gorgeous little thing dancing around on the grass, tail fanning, catching little insects amongst the lawn clippings.  It was totally unbothered by my presence, coming really close while I watched.  Then I kicked around some lawn clippings to send forth more little bugs for it to eat, when, bless its little cotton socks, it landed on my boot and sat there for about 20 seconds until it spotted another bug then flew off to catch it.  Amazing how unbothered a wild bird was in my company.  I smiled for the rest of the day.  :-)

Now we have moved over to the house I have to start thinking about where to put the clothes line.  It's so funny here, having 5 acres of land, it makes decisions about where to put things so hard - too much choice!  In the end I decided to just string up a temporary line to try the position out.  This is at the back of the house and I am quite pleased with it, there is always a good breeze there but more importantly, it gets afternoon sun.  I discovered unexpectedly here, that if clothes are on a line in the shade after about 4pm, not matter how warm it is, they get damp, so that was a good observation and will factor into the final decision.  How do you like my recycled paint bucket to keep the pegs in.  :-)

As you know, I go on and on and on about kangaroos and how much I love them and love watching them.  Well I do!  And we still feel so privileged that the roos are happy to graze on our land.  This is the joey that is in the process of being turfed out of the pouch, mum chucks him out for most of the day now.  I say him, but haven't been able to definitely ascertain this.  All I can say is that this is one feisty little joey!  He is really funny to watch, he'll pop out of mum's pouch, then go mental for a bit, hopping all over the place in his uncoordinated, gangly way, then will leap all over his mum, box her ears, zoom around a bit more, then take a flying leap back into the pouch for a nap.  I've been trying to take a video of his antics, no luck yet.

He's quite different from the last few joeys here, they have all been a lot quieter and scared to leave mum's side, but this one is going to be mischief maker!  These two photos were taken through our bedroom window, they were about 5 metres away from us.  I love roos!!

I spent a few hours in my sewing room yesterday.  It's been sitting there full of unpacked boxes.  I wanted to wait for the right time to start unpacking and sorting, didn't want to spoil it by rushing through it.  So yesterday I had the pleasure of finding all my stuff again and working out where to put it.  I think I now know where most of the bits and pieces are, the only big job left is to deal with the huge pile of wall art - my darling husband needs to get busy with his drill and picture/quilt hanging doodads. 

Off on a slight tangent, I found this in amongst some crochet patterns.  It's rather timely as our dear daughter has just celebrated her birthday, and this recollection is from a couple of years ago when she has a significant birthday.  Maybe you just had to have been there, but I giggled and giggled when I read it and remembered...

1. Decide to surprise daughter by having flowers and chocs delivered to her place of work for her birthday

2. Email back and forth with florist to ensure they will do lunch time delivery rather than late afternoon delivery as daughter works 7am - 3pm - ok, they will make an exception.

3. Find out by chance at 10.15am that daughter has decided to have half-day flexi and finish at 11 am instead of 3pm. Panic

4. Ring daughter's work colleague to confirm this, see if he can think of way to keep her at work ("this is Michelle we are talking about" says work colleague.... "stubborn" LOL), threaten to strangle daughter...
work colleague thinks this is a good idea

5. Ring daughter and try to maintain sensible conversation whilst subtly trying to determine daughter's movements.

6. Ring florist and frantically get delivery redirected to daughter's home, with worry in back of mind that apartment block is confusing and awkward for any sort of delivery. Florist will ring deliverer on mobile
to intercept delivery, which is enroute already.

7. Ring daughter again with another subterfuge conversation to determine movements.... daughter says she is going shopping if boyfriend wants to go with her. I suggest I might visit her in my lunch break (to try and
keep her at home)... daughter is incredulous over sudden need for mother to visit.

8. Ring and text daughter's boyfriend frantically to get him in on the act to try and keep daughter in one place for more than a few hours, and to tell him he does not want to go shopping.

9. Run around like a lunatic to make time to drive to daughter's house in lunchbreak. Decide that if visiting should take birthday present which is currently not wrapped as was going to give to daughter on Saturday at family gathering. Race home and wrap present.

10. Stress about florist delivery instructions and email them with more info to identify apartment building.

11. Text daughter's boyfriend repeatedly to hear of delivery... nothing yet. Think grateful thoughts of boyfriend who is trying to help situation

12. Spend pleasant hour at daughter's house and wonder where delivery is

13. Go back to work and decide that if delivery has failed then will pay redelivery fee the next day and try again. Think more thoughts of strangling daughter

14. Get text message from daughter's boyfriend to say daughter has had phonecall from a lady up the street who has found a delivery on her doorstep, with daughter's mobile number on docket. Think kind thoughts
of lady who rang daughter to let her know. Daughter enroute to retrieve mystery delivery.

15. Daughter rings her mother to say thank you and then has to listen to entire saga of mother's day. Lots of laughter and penny dropping as to mother's weird phone calls.

16. Mention to daughter that florist deliverer was going to phone daughter's mobile if problem delivering, so it could be sorted. Daughter says oh yes, I did have a call from a number I didn't recognise.... didn't answer it. Smile sweetly and think more thoughts of strangling of child.

17. Remember never to order flowers for daughter again, unless trapped in hospital bed with broken leg.

18. Arrive home - drink wine