checking in ~ september through october

Dear friends,

I am sorry to not have been around here a lot lately.  As much as I would love to blog on a regular basis, my motivation has waned. With my mum dying and helping to care for her for the seven months from diagnosis, it has taken a toll on me.

I have good and bad days, lately mostly bad. But the better days are starting to re appear.  Today is one of those days.

There is so much going on here on our little place of dirt. Spring has been slow to emerge but the last week or so we are getting more hot days. Thursday was a terrible spring day, it blew a hot wind from the north and we have a couple of fallen trees and branches as well as stone fruit that were hurled to the ground. The last of my mulberries were instantly dried on the trees that's if they weren't blown into oblivion. It was such a shocker of a day. The day before, I had done some spring cleaning outside, washing things down and sweeping up dirt and leaves and it was looking quite neat and tidy. But now I have to do it all again because everything is covered in red dirt. And the worst thing of all, we didn't get much rain, just 2.5mm.

Yesterday I caught up on laundry. I toddled outside for a looksee at any damage from the wind from Thursday. The good news is that my veggie patch is relatively unscathed. So that is a huge relief. 

I have a lot of photos to share that I have been taking in the hope that I would feel like doing a blog post.  Well today that happened.

We had a new bigger rain water tank installed when the old one developed a leak. We have about 28,000gallons of storage now.

After a bit of thinking we relocated and repaired the old tank using plastic weld.

Tiny daffodil my daughter gave to me for Mother's day as a bulb.

Native flowers for arid lands.

Bird of paradise grows well in these parts.

More gifted bulbs from my daughter.

Mum's blanket has pride of place in my little pop-top van.

Out back... 

In the orchard, the Citrus trees have flowered.

And there were plenty of blossom on the stone fruit trees.

Apricot.

Nectarine...the bees were in heaven!

The pigeon peas continue to flower and are now producing seed pods. Apparently the seeds can be used for making dahl.

Pumpkin seeds have been planted here.

My huge crop of potatoes haha!

A gift from a special friends garden x

Out the front...

Tulip pelargonium.

A little rearranging to create a nice sitting area in a space not used for anything. A lovely spot for my morning cuppa.

The wormery is doing great! I have been using some of their compost around about.

I had a dehydrator that stopped working, but I think I should still be able to make use of the little shelves. I have parsley drying in them at the moment. We will see how they go.

This citrus blew off the trees during the strong winds.

Make do and mend. I'll get some more miles out of these sneakers and shopping bag.

I made this sign up for putting out the front of our place, because the council insists on spraying along the roadway.

My mum xxx

My little grand daughter watching TV with the blanket I made for her.

Some of the dust from Thursday...

I am creating a potted herb garden.  I have tidied up an area just outside the kitchen so it will be handy to just pop out and pick some herbs when needed.

Basil seeds just planted.

This is par-cel, a cross between parsley and celery. Have you heard of it?

Some baking for lunch time. Veggie pasties and quandong pastry parcels.

Zucchini quiche made for Phil to take to work using home grown zucchini and eggs.

I have been doing a little crocheting. This was given to Mum years ago by a lady that was very ill with  cancer. It was only small when Mum gave it to me to finish off because she didn't crochet.  I had forgotten all about it until I stumbled upon it a couple of weeks ago. I have almost finished it now, but run out of one of the colours so had to finish with a pink row instead of the darker green.

I had a practice run of Attic 24's Yuletide crochet. The pattern is so pretty, so I have found and bought some more yarn to make a bigger version.

Fathers day came and went...My daughter in law made these.

Purchased a pretty daffodil in a pot at local markets.

Lemons from my little tree, these are quite large, with spiderwebs and all!

Still enjoying citrus for our morning breakfast.

The stunning out back colours have returned. Love our beautiful sunsets. The Flinders Ranges in the back ground, taken from our yard.

Ooops this turned into a mega long post. Hopefully you made it to the end.

I'm off to spend the weekend with my Dad. He really is finding life lonely after 64 years of marriage to Mum and now there is just him. He has had to learn how to do things like pay bills, house keep and cook meals. All in all he is doing okay. He has help from his family whenever needed, and at 85 years old he still has his car licence so still very much independent. Mum was very strict about being independent and Dad is continuing on the same way.

Wishing you an enjoyable weekend where ever you are and most of all be happy. Life is way too short to be anything else but happy.

xTania