Morning pictures

Well this morning when I woke up it looked like a lovely day, albeit a bit chilly outside, there was frost on the lawn, I think I now know why this section of the lawn is looking a bit sad, it is the area which gets the brunt of any frost that we get, so until we get out of the frost risk time it wont be getting mowed. When look closely I can see that it isn't dead, there are new shoots underneath but their is a layer of dead stuff on top, a mow would probably tidy it up nicely, but then leave all the green shoots vulnerable in the next bout of frost.

The citrus trees are still surviving even with having some of their leaves blown off in recent very windy storms. I am yet to find out what the problem with the orange tree is, it has rusty coloured areas on the underside of some of the leaves. I am thinking it is from winds or cold because it is all from the same direction

This photo I took because the sun glistening on the morning dew on the leaves just looked wonderful, but as good as my camera is I don't think it quite captured the moment

And here's evidence of my recent weeding activities

Cold gloomy wet days

Well yesterday it was lovely, sunshine blue skies, even warm enough at times to take my jacket off. I spent quite a few hours out the front pulling up knee high plus weeds out of the garden beds and reclaiming a few dieties plants which had become engulfed in grass and stinging nettles. I am wondering if it is possible to build up an immunity to Stinging nettles. I remember as a kid being so itchy after running though a patch of them (before I knew what they looked like) and it was a solid learning experience not to go anywhere near them.

Well that was before we moved here and they started taking over the garden beds. Thinking I was doing the right thing, with gloves and long sleeved shirts but the little buggers still managed to find any little exposed part of skin. When I started pulling these up a month or two ago I would try to be as gentle as possible grabbing them from the base but pointing the rest of the plant away from me as I pulled them out of the ground and straight in to the wheel barrow to avoid any unnecessary double handling. Even with doing this I would still end up with stinging itchy lumps between the ends of my sleeves and my gloves, which I would put up with until it just got unbearable and I had to give up, go inside wash my arms and turn to the trusty Neem oil or bepanthen or any other anti-itch stuff I could find.

Yesterday I noticed that yes the little buggers still manage to sneakily attack me, and yes it does sting, and itch but after the initial sting it seems to go away, leaving a little bump and then it disappears all together, am I getting tough or are the nettles just getting weak in their old age.

Today I think the rain has set in for the day, yet again, so it is a lazy Sunday inside, although as I sit here I think of all the things I want to (or need to) get done outside, but then there are also many thing that should be done inside too, and how sitting on the computer is not getting any of them done, So I am going to engage some self discipline and sign of for now and enjoy the cold wet gloomy-ness from the comforts of inside.

Rain = Weeds = New mower

Well I'm not sure if this year is a wet year here, or if I am just really not used to winter with rain after spending three years up near Pt Augusta, but everything seems to be rather soggy around here.

The weeds are absolutely loving it, so much that we decided that we would buy ourselves a ride on lawn mower to try to keep it under control, so as owners of a John Deer we are now propper country people!!! LOL!!!! It has definately made things a lot easier, taking just over an hour to do most of the yard, which I think we spent close to that doing the little bit which is out the front with the normal mower (and almost killing the poor thing).

Now our huge patch of weeds could almost (well with squinted eyes and a lot of imagination) pass as a nice lawn area (well green and tidy area).

Since I last posted I have put in the citrus trees (Eureka Lemon, Washington Naval orange and Lemonade) These were planted around the 12th June, I am hoping that they have not been affected too much by the few frosts we have had or the few windy storms that have come through, I am looking forward to spring when they will hopefully start to grow nicely.

You can see from the pictures that the weeds are growing really quickly, and this photo was taken about a month ago. I also got the apple (Granny Smith) planted last week, now to get the Moorepark Apricot and the Elberta Peach inthe ground.