What The F*#% Is Iron Bacteria?

It's been a bit of a challenging year, 2016, things breaking down and unexpected expenses.  The current pain in the arse is the bore, which has already had its share of issues after last year we discovered the water is pretty crappy and not in abundance.  Since then we've spent lots of time researching and putting into action ways to use the water the best way possible, hence things like putting in drip systems so as not to get the bore water on the leaves, and setting up sensors in the bore pipe so the pump moves water to the tank when there is sufficient.

Since we reactivated the bore after winter shut-down, it got slower and slower and slower, with the water being pumped into the tank gradually becoming only a trickle, then the pump died completely.  The fix-it guy turned up on Friday with his winch and hauled all 50 metres of pipe out of the bore hole, so he could have a look at the submersible pump.  Have you ever heard of iron bacteria?  Neither had we!!!
We have Googled ourselves stupid and know a bit more now, apparently it is not uncommon in deep bores.  It occurs within a certain set of circumstances, things like quantity of iron in the water plus the combination of other minerals,  it causes this thick, slimy, clay looking stuff that has completely and utterly jammed up every tiny bit of our almost new pump.  Far out.  The guy has taken it away to clean it up and hopefully it will still run afterwards.  Then we need to discuss chemical treatments, watch this space...

Hence we have had to watch our water usage, so watering grass has been cancelled for now, gosh it's browned off quickly.  We've had a lovely drop of rain overnight, and more happening right now, so that is wonderful, the grass should green up quickly.  And once we get the stupid bore pump back, all will be well and sparkly green once again.

Okay, moaning over :-) All the plants, vegies and trees are looking really really good and growing well.  This is the vegie patch, in the foreground are potatoes, we always seem to grow good potatoes.  And in the background are sweetcorn.  They have grown like the clappers, having been planted late due to the delay of spring, and they are all looking strong and healthy.  We've also got loads of small tomato plants and a few carrots, beetroot and red onions.  The scarlet runner beans absolutely refused to germinate this year, despite two separate plantings.  The weeds are under control at present, what with the mulched paths, plus the fact the drip irrigation only waters the vegies and not the paths, yay!

 Look at this rhubarb, magnificent!  Steve moved it last year, he dug it up and chopped the crown into four and planted them into just about pure cow poo.  It's like a jungle trying to reach in to find the best, fat, deep red stalks to pick.  We had stewed rhubarb for brekkie this morning with some chia pudding, yum :-)

 I usually pick loads and cook a big batch, then freeze most of it, so good to be able to grab a batch from the freezer for a spontaneous rhubarb crumble!

 Now what do you think this is?  A garlic tree?  ha ha.  That is the sum of our garlic growing this year, very pathetic, six whole globes, and the only reason we have them is that they came up randomly in my flower garden.  I've hung them over a bare shrub in the photo to dry them out, now they are tucked away in the pantry.  Garlic was a disaster this year, the weather was wrong for a start, way too wet for too long, but when Steve went to the shed to get his cloves from last year that he'd put away for planting, he found he'd put some old seed potatoes on top which must have been damp, and the whole lot had rotted.  It's probably a good thing in disguise as we want to buy some different varieties of garlic to plant next season, so this will be the impetus for that to happen eh!

 This, on the other hand, is terribly exciting....this is a photo of four of our EIGHT, yes EIGHT cherries!!! Don't you scoff, the first fruit off a young tree is very exciting we think.  And I heard on the news this morning that there is going to be a cherry shortage this Christmas, so if they are ripe then each of our family members visiting for Christmas might get one each!  That's if Steve and I (or various bird or insect or rodent species) haven't scoffed them first :-)

 Our Bartlett (aka Williams) pear tree has also put on a wee bit of fruit too, lots of the tiny ones fell off but we have about six growing nicely.  I can't wait to try a pear straight from the tree.

The plums have been a bother this year, we have three trees, an Italian Sugar Plum which is the pollinator, and a Greengage and Coe's Golden Drop.  Unfortunately the sugar plum only had half a dozen flowers on it so what happened is that the other two trees flowered like mad and it looked like zillions of tiny fruit were forming, but they then all fell off because they weren't pollinated.  Bugger.  We are thinking of getting another pollinator tree or even hand pollinating with a soft paintbrush if that is possible.  Anyway, end result is no fruit on the Greengage or Coes, but the sugar plum has four fruit on it.  So I made up little bags from an old net curtain to keep the bugs and hopefully birds off them.

 Apples apples everywhere, we get the impression that our soil is apple growing soil, they are the least bother, they grow well, flower well and fruit well.  This is Sundowner apple tree, a dwarf variety but it is the most productive tree we have.  The Granny Smith has quite a few on it too, the Bramley will give us a dozen or so, but for some reason the Cox's Orange Pippin and the Red Fuji are quite sparse this year.  It's all a big mystery this fruit growing hey!

 Our stubborn mandarin tree has finally seen the light we hope.  It's been in the ground for five years, tried hard to die for the first three years, gave us one mandarin last year and this year so far it has lots and lots of tiny fruit.  Crossing fingers that they don't all fall off. 

 The fig trees have been really late getting started this year with the cold, wet spring we had.  But there are signs of tiny figs happening.  Whether we or the birds get to eat them will remain to be seen!
It's been such a learning curve growing fruit here, although the fruit production is up and down, all the trees are growing well and look strong.  Even the poor stone fruit trees that had such terrible damage from leaf curl virus, have finally started growing healthy leaves.  It's so interesting though, there's nothing I like better than finding a problem then settling down with books and the internet and educating myself on how to fix or at least improve things.

 The wonderful banana passionfruit vine just keeps on keeping on.  I keep it well watered and fertilised and it rewards us with beautiful flowers and fruit all through winter, and it's revving up with another crop now.

Like everyone, we are busy getting organised for Christmas, tidying up, shopping, making lists, working out beds.  This is a photo of me wearing my dear mother-in-law Barbara's Christmas present.  Barbara has Alzheimers, lives in a nursing home, and she spends most of her day walking, particularly outside, so I thought a nice big hat would be a good gift for her.  I didn't like anything I saw in the shops, so I bought a big, comfortable, plain hat and blinged it up for her with some ribbon, lace and a handmade flower and a feather.  I rather like it!  I hope she does too.

Unexpected Finds In The Hammock

And the visitors continued....
We were delighted to see our granddaughters, who with Paul came to stay for five days.  It was a full house with them and Michelle and Michael.  Lots of fun, lots of noise, lots of presents! 
Stevie and Riley loved the kangaroos and the chickens, if they had had their way the eggs boxes would have been checked twenty times a day, collecting eggs is so exciting, particularly if you then get to eat them for breakfast! :-)  Riley loved catching chickens and giving them cuddles. 
We set up a couple of hammocks under the trees that proved very popular with everyone.  Poor Riley had the shock of her life when she found she was sharing the hammock with a tree frog.  I don't know who was more shocked, her or the frog!  While Stevie was making pastry with Grandad Steve, Riley and I found the teeniest tiniest frog in my little pond, it was the size of my little fingernail, so cute. 

Paul gave Stevie and Riley these nifty bed tents that they both enjoyed,  They just hook over the edges of the bed so quick to put on, and quick to remove.  Not quite so quick to remember how to do that twist and fold manoeuvre to get them back in the box to take home though, ha ha.  So I got to sit on the floor between the beds to read bedtime stories while little heads poked out of the tents.  The girls like to have a turn at reading some of the story, it was wonderful to see how well they are both reading, kids are amazing.

 The girls did a bit of gingerbread decorating, these are two of Riley's people.

 And these are two of Stevie's people. 

We visited the new Wildlife Park at Discovery Bay, behind the Whaling Station museum.  It was nice to be able to stroke the kangaroos, there were some very tame ones there, and a lot of albinos, I guess they are less likely to survive in the wild so end up in wildlife parks?

There was lots of sleeping going on at the Wildlife park, look at this wombat, thoroughly content.  The size of its head amazes me.

Look at this camouflage.  These are curlews, just sleeping in the sand out in the open, which surprised me until I looked at them from above and realised how well hidden they were in plain sight from predators.

 We adored this quoll, who couldn't have given a darn about people watching him.  He remained sprawled out on top of his shelter, fast asleep.  Very cute to look at, but rather a vicious and effective predator as far as I know.  Love his dots!

 We did playgrounds.  This is a rebuild of a playground at Middleton Beach, isn't it fabulous, like a pirate ship, and kids can climb down inside it or be up on the deck.  It proved very popular with Stevie and Riley.

 We risked visiting Boston Brewery during busy time.  Far out, so did hundreds of other people!  But to Boston's credit, they let people sit on their own picnic blanket in their lovely grounds and order food.  I was mega impressed with their ability to cater for a huge crowd of people and we all had a nice time.  They have a great playground there so the girls had lots of fun too.  Although in the car when we were almost home, poor Stevie discovered the after-effects of spending a long time on the fun spinny ride in the playground, and lost her lunch.  A nice warm shower and a change of clothes and all was right with the world once again.

 We did beaches.  It was like winter most of the time, cold and windy and we rugged up and had fun climbing on rocks and walking on the sand.  Steve and I had discovered a wonderful beach some time ago called Lights Beach near Denmark, with lots of rocks and pools, so we went there again.  Here are Michelle and Michael.

 And Paul and Steve.

We had a walk along Frenchman's Bay beach after the wildlife park and came across an interesting discovery where the beach meets the bush.  The is Vancouver Spring.  This fresh water spring was discovered in 1791 by Captain George Vancouver when he travelled from England to be the first reported visitor to the Albany area, where he named the sound King George Sound.  It was fascinating to come across an unexpected piece of history whilst having a simple walk on a beach.

 

 We ate, oh my goodness we ate.  Steve and I have our diet booked to start on the 17th Jan, we figure the house will be empty of Christmas goodies by then! 

 

Here is Steve trying to look fierce in his Xmas hat, eating amongst myriads of pink megabloc creations.  :-)

 

Everybody went home a few days ago,  it's been wonderful to see everyone.  xx
We spent the weekend cleaning the house and putting Christmas away, and washing.  Then we had a couple of days of utter sloth.  I read a great book written by one of my favourite authors - Kate Morton.  It was her new book, The Lake House, and I enjoyed it very much.  Oh yes, ha ha, and Neo finally came out from behind the bed, where he took up residence for most of the week. :-)

Meanwhile, in the garden, the zucchini plants have quietly invaded the world.  So many zucchinis!  Front left are two cucumbers so that gives you an idea of the size of the zucchinis!  We will have to start picking them more regularly now to keep the size down, they literally grow before your eyes.  I had never tried raw zucchini before but we've been eating raw slices with picky plate lunches and we both really like it.

 I've been scouring recipes for using them, I made zucchini bread yesterday (yum) and we had grilled zucchini and runner beans with mashed potato and sausages for dinner - also yum, and satisfying as all the veg was from our garden.  I'm going to try pickling zucchini next, and also try a chocolate zucchini cake recipe too. 

Happy Happy Birthday to our darling daughter Michelle.  The start of a new decade in your life lovey, enjoy!  xxxxx  ooooo

Christmas Wrap-Up

In the weeks up to Christmas I had my usual fun of cooking up a sweet storm. I like giving my family a plate of homemade treats.  On the menu this year was Cranberry and Pistachio Biscotti, Vanilla Shortbread, Ginger and Orange Biscuits, Vanilla Fudge, Toasted Muesli, Strawberry Jam, Caramelised Onion Chutney and Pickled Beetroot.  The chutney, muesli and  beetroot were extras for my kids.  :-)

I love that I have the time nowadays to enjoy the packaging and wrapping process.  A stash of pressies and plates of goodies ready to pack into the car for the trip to Perth.

We had a wonderful Xmas lunch at my brother and sister-in-law's house.  The food was delicious, the company was great and the weather was good.  Thanks Pete, Cathy, Steph, Matt and Dylan for having us, it was a nice afternoon :-)

On Boxing Day morning, on our way back to Torbay, we stopped in at Paul's house along with Michelle for a second mini Christmas, this time with the company of two special little granddaughters!  Here are Michelle and Paul.

And here are Riley and Stevie in mid unwrap.  There were lots of lovely girlie goodies to be had.

Here is big, grown up, six year old Stevie who is starting Year One soon! 

And here is big, grown up, four year old Riley who is starting Pre-Primary soon!

And here we are, happy after a splendid couple of days after staying with mum and dad (thank you for your hospitality! xx)  and seeing all the family.  It was a really good Christmas. :-)

We arrived home on Boxing Day later afternoon to find Patience at the front door.  "Where the hell have you been?"  she demands, "There was no breakfast this morning!" We obliged with a handful of Kanga Mix.

Lucy was up near the door too, waiting for her delayed breakfast.  She occupied her time by giving her 'newly out of the pouch' joey Ghost a nice big wash.  We've called him Ghost as his head was almost white when he was a tiny pouch joey, and even now he is very pale compared to the others.  So Ghost seemed like a good name.

The stoic and very very well behaved Neo was glad to be home.  He is such a good boy in his carrier in the car.  Not a peep out of him for the five hour trips.  He enjoyed sprawling himself on his tower when we got home.

And the he decided he was irritated with his journeying and took to booping me with his paw as I walked past.  See that slightly crazed look.....  back to normal!

We were blessed with some lovely gifts.  We are very excited about the voucher for a scenic flight over Albany (including an extra 15 minutes so the pilot can fly us over our own property - how cool is that!) - thanks mum and dad!  Michelle spoiled me with a mug with my favourite poem (Desiderata) on it, pretty little blue and white plates and fridge magnets, my favourite Raffaelo chockies, nifty silicone bowl covers that look like lily pads, and the best exfoliating glove in existence (yes lovey I take your point, I felt like I had been flayed when I used it for the first time ha ha). Thank you darling girl xx  And thank you Michael for a voucher to our favourite shop - Dan Murphys! :-)

 I spent this morning playing with my present from Paul, he gave me a vacuum sealer, which is a brilliant present considering that I spend a lot of time freezing our veggies when we have plenty.  Look Paul, I did some runner beans today!  I'm experimenting with different versions, some unblanched, some blanched, some cut up, some not.  It will be interesting to test them out and see if there is any difference in texture and taste.  Thank you Paul, this will get used and used and used! xx

Yesterday Steve was ordered to stay at home, (he can be tiresome to take shopping like most men)  and I spent a pleasant four hours (I know! Marathon!) toodling around Albany shops spending some Christmas money from Steve.  Couple of t-shirts, a new bag, a tiny bottle of Anais Anais perfume and this gorgeous metal bread bin.  I happened upon it at an Emporium unexpectedly, and it called out my name and said 'buy me!'.  And I did.  And it only cost $11 - bargain!  Then I hit the Spotlight sale and replaced our ancient,'to go straight to the tip' bedding.  Looking forward to sleeping on a 'topper', with my head on a new feather and down pillow,  and under a pure wool quilt tonight!

So, after two days of family and fun, spoiled rotten with gifts, we look ahead enthusiastically towards 2015.  Happy New Year everyone!  xx

Christmas Pageant

Since we have got braver re crowds since surviving the Anzac commemoration intact, we ventured into town on Saturday evening for the Albany Christmas Pageant.  :-) 
We parked down at the harbour and walked into town over the pedestrian railway bridge, I love the town view from this bridge, it looks over Stirling Terrace which is filled with period buildings.

This is the view looking down the main street, York Street, whilst we awaited the floats.  It is such a pretty town.

I think every large flat-top truck in Albany was commandeered to hold a float.  There were pre-school floats with little people dressed as animals, shepherds and other colourful creatures.

There were primary school floats with little people dressed as creatures of the deep.  Not sure about the big person, Mrs Pirate Pete perhaps?

 There were church group floats with lots of pretty little angels flying by.

 There were dance groups walking between the floats regaled in colourful costumes.

 There was a Rock 'N Roll dance group float of people twisting and jiving in their big, twirly skirts.

There was an interesting float of sisters in red, the background of which I did not discover.  They were a colourful highlight!

 A colourful dragon wound its way up the hill courtesy of the Tai Kwon Do group.

 A beautiful, balloon festooned float went by, I think it was the Philippino Community Group.

 My favourite float, Trail Blazers, went by with a huge toothy shark atop.

 And they were pulling a trailer of pirates and mermaids on their pirate ship!

And the final float was of course the big fellow himself, Santa!  And running alongside were Santa's elves, throwing lollies into the crowds.  The sudden descent of little kids to ground level to find the lollies was rather amusing!

After the floats had finished, the crowd made its way up the hill to the new town square, where there was entertainment and food. 

 The duo Zap Circus dazzled us all with their daring fire twirling show.

A pair of young lady trapeze artists did amazing things with their very lithe and flexible bodies.  The girl at the top is standing on the feet of the hidden one below, the only thing keeping her on the trapeze!

 Steve soaking in the atmosphere at the town square.

As it got darker, the Town Hall was lit up, doesn't it look lovely.  Moi is standing in the bottom left corner.

Then the major, Dennis Wellington, did a brief speech, announced the float prize winners (Trail Blazer third, Philippino Community second and one of the playgroups was the winner), and then it was the turning on of the christmas lights on the huge tree outside the library.

 We slowly made our way back down the hill to the car.  I turned and looked back up the hill with a smile at the pretty street and the happy crowd.  It was a great evening.  :-)