We've had more visitors this week, this time we had the pleasure of the company of my dear friend Angie and her cousin Pauline who was visiting from the UK. We had a great few days and we spent one of them doing the touristy viewy type things that are so lovely round here. Here are Pauline, left, and Angie, right, at the Middleton lookout. The views over the water are wonderful here.
A visit to the wonderful Wind Farm was obligatory, and the scenery was as magnificent as always. I never tire of the wonder and power of these turbines.
The Salmon Holes were looking mighty fine too. There were a lot of people fishing on the beach, and one fool fishing on the sloping rocks that take lives with monotonous regularity. We noticed that he had a rope around his waist but no idea what he was tied onto. Anyway, I hope he is still alive and well.
We were kindly treated to a lovely lunch by our visitors, and we chose Willoughby Winery/Boston Brewery near Denmark, which is a fabulous place for lunch with a terrific atmosphere. Photo courtesy of Angie. It was lovely to have to you to stay ladies. :-)
Once our visitors had left I put my mind back to a pressing task. I spent the morning creating a makeshift fence using all our scrap wire, in order to protect the native plants I planted last year from the kangaroos. Our furry friends have suddenly decided that they would much rather nosh on acacia and grevillea bushes instead of grass, and what were once the beginnings of respectable looking shrubs are now tattered mere sticks. Enough is enough!
Later in the day....
note the mournful expression of the roo, perplexed as to the sudden obstacle in the way of her favourite snack. Eat the grass girl!
Speaking of roos, today was idleness day, with about 10 roos lounging around down the hill for most of the day. They look rather contented don't you think.
We took Jimmitu out for a drive, along the Torbay Inlet track onto Mutton Bird Beach. Boy the sand is deep in parts of that beach, and all squeaky when you drive on it. We made it through though, and Steve is enjoying the fact that no walking is required to go fishing. Alas there were also no fish but it was a nice outing nonetheless.
As Jimmitu has now had the 1000km service and all is well, we finally went and bought a trailer. It is already proving its worth and usefulness. Our inaugural use was to transport 10 big bags of horse poo for the vegie patch, yeehar!
Steve has been busy cleaning up the vegie garden and digging in the horse poo and other goodies, all ready for planting out the autumn seedlings.
My experimental above-ground planting of sweet potatoes seems to be going okay, there is certainly plenty of leaf growth anyway, time will tell if there is anything below the surface. They will need to grow for another couple of months so I shall continue with water, compost and kind words in the hope that the plants give forth many kilos of yummy sweet potatoes.
I mentioned a while back that we planted the wrong fennel last spring, we wanted the bulb fennel but the seedlings ended up being the herb fennel, and they grew into monstrous plants. A couple of weeks ago I cut all the seed heads off and stuffed them into a pillow slip that I hung in the shed, to let the seeds dry out. It is now time to start separating the seeds from the plant matter, which I discovered takes a bit of effort. They don't just fall off, they have to be manhandled! So I sat on the terrace, rubbing the seed heads between my hands to coax the seeds off. I have half a large jar and I've barely scratched the surface! There are trillions of fennel seeds to be dealt with! I'm not quite sure if I should have picked the seed heads while the seeds were still green, or wait until they turn brown, I must look it up. There are some of each.
Steve cooked a lovely lunch today, King George Whiting and Sweep with home grown potato salad (flavoured with fennel seeds ha ha ha), home grown snow peas and broad beans from the freezer, and locally grown sweetcorn. It was very very nice.
And to finish, another gorgeous autumn sunset. Ahhh....
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