From Green To Brown

Life is pottering along happily down here.  Our weight lost campaign is going well, we have both lost 5 kilos so far.  The weather has been lovely, low twenties, and we watch on horrified at the heatwave that Perth is already experiencing! However, we haven't had much rain over the last couple of weeks and it is amazing how suddenly the pasture has turned from lush green to browning off.  The kangaroos haven't been around much this week, maybe they are in search of greener grass.  In saying that, last week a couple of them made themselves comfortable in the shade at the back of the house.

Check this female roo out, damp from rain, seriously she needs to chuck that child out.  Have you ever seen such a massive pouch!

I've had to start hand watering my plants, the tiny little natives that I planted behind a big fence about six months ago will need watering probably this summer and next, before they are established enough to fend for themselves.  I'm really pleased actually, I planted about 70 tiny plants and I've only lost 2, and it is very satisfying to see them growing, safe from the munching mouths of kangaroos and rabbits.

The veggies are still doing well, although there is not a huge amount harvestable at present, as there are lots of new seedlings just planted, but the broad beans are just finishing and we've had heaps of those.  I pulled a heap of baby carrots, yum, and Steve's gigantic onions are almost ready.  I pickled a heap of beetroot recently and can announce it delicious, and the second round of beetroot is maturing in dribs and drabs, which is fine as I really like picking one at a time and using it freshly grated on salads.

 

I wanted to grow a few more pumpkin plants, I have some growing already, but since reading that pumpkins are both liked and are good for chickens I figured the more the merrier.  Turns out I didn't need to plant any seeds, this is a photo of the bottom of the compost bin outside the kitchen.  I dismantled it as I used to compost food scraps but as we now have feathered velociraptors scoffing every scrap around, the need for composting food scraps is no more.  Anyway, this is the compost that was left in the bin, with fifty trillion pumpkin seeds sprouting!  I figure I'll leave a dozen or so to grow in the compost and hopefully will be blessed with many fine pumpkins.  And the feathered girls of 300 eggs will love me all the more.

 

Our friends Mel and Sheila came to visit for the weekend which was nice.  Sheila came down with a huge container of bunting that she was going to make up for her granddaughter's 21st next week, she was going to hand sew it all, which sounded like a horrifying amount of work to me, so instead we did a production line of Sheila ironing the bias tape in half and working out the order of the coloured triangles, and me on the sewing machine sewing the triangles of fabric to the bias, all done and dusted in a couple of hours. 

Meanwhile the boys playing in our little forest gathering up dead wood and cleaning up.  Whilst in the forest they came across our resident wedgetail eagle, who we haven't seen much lately.  The reason for his absence became apparent, the smart cookie has figured out where the main rabbit hole on our place is, and parks himself quietly in a big tree above, watching, waiting.  And he appears to be rather successful in his hunt, judging by the windswept piles of rabbit fur we keep finding on the ground near the hole.  Good!  There are far far too many rabbits around here, there are little craters all over the place where they keep digging.  It is so cool to have one's own resident eagle! :-)