Little Bit O' This, Little Bit O' That

It's Fathers Day, happy day to all fathers everywhere, but especially to Paul, Steve and my dad xx  I unearthed this photo from the sixties of dad, looking amusedly at moi, the baby with the permanently grumpy face.  Do you remember this dad?

 Steve had phonecalls and gifts from his kiddies from afar, thanks Michelle and Paul xx

 Neo thoroughly enjoyed the gift opening process, and delighted in upending the mailing box and scattering packing stuff everywhere.

 The picture of innocence....

 I whipped up to Perth for a quick parents and children visit last week and while I was away, Steve busied himself restocking the woodpile that has become sadly depleted.  When I got home Steve got the chainsaw out and dropped a very dead, old, rotting Jarrah and was able to get some decent wood from it for the fire.  We have chainsaw rules here, you are not allowed to chainsaw unless someone else is here!

 I've been busy making batches of lime butter, which is a handy recipe if you have a gazillion limes and gazillion eggs.  The fabulous yolks from our hen's eggs make it really really bright yellow! Yummy :-)

 I'm still in the process of making orphan joey pouches, but my sewing machine has had a hissy fit and refuses to cooperate, so I think it might be time for it to have a service, as it is annoying the crap out of me.

 My crocheted blanket is all joined up, hip hip hooray.  Now I am working on the border, there are ten rows and I'm just starting row four.  Photos when it's finish, hopefully before the end of the month.

 Spring appeared for a few days, lovely sunshine and warmth.  The Splendid wrens are starting to colour up.

 And here's the female.  She may not be as pretty but at least she knows how to pose for a photo!  I love their red beaks.

 I spied this handsome Blue-tongued lizard trying to be incognito in the garden bed. 

 The best thing this week is that Patience's joey is finally having time out of the pouch, learning the hopping thing.  It's a scrawny little one but boy can it hop.  Not sure of the sex yet, I can't see a pouch mark on its belly so I'm thinking it's a boy, but time will tell. The joey is staring intently at a couple of magpies near the front door, not sure what to think of them, next minute the joey hopped right at them and scared them away!

 Sooooo cute!

 And here's a short video of this funny little joey

 The Hardengergias are looking lovely at the moment.  They grow wild here, I love the colour of their flowers as the vine makes its way up the trunks of the peppermint trees and around my shrubs.  Sometimes they get carried away and then it's off with their heads!

 This flower is rather insignificant, but the leaves are something else.  The plant is a citrus geranium, and the pungent aroma of citrus from the leaves is amazingly strong.

 After a couple of days of spring weather, the wind and torrential rain returned, we had over 20 mm in 3 hours the other day, and because the ground is so saturated, the creek went crazy.  It never looks much in photos, but this is the waterfall belting along, with the water right across.

 And this is the creek lower down, completely flooded and overflowing all over the paddocks!  A few hours later it has all calmed down, back to a gentle flow. 

It's still windy but the rain is settling down now.  I need the wind to settle too as I need to respray the stone fruit trees with copper to hopefully keep the leaf curl disease under control this year.  I managed to get one spray in last week when it was warm, but if I can get another done then it's extra insurance.  We would really really love a huge crop of stone fruit, pretty please! :-)

So, my mission for the next couple of weeks, while the weather slowly turns to spring, is to get my crocheted blanket finished, that's kept me busy all winter, and then I can turn my mind to more outdoor things.

Til next time xx