The reason I keep dropping off the earth is because I prefer to do my blogging from home, and our 'net reception is - being rural - bodgy at best. We've been trialling NextG but it's borderline at best, and unreliable ... I need reliability over anything else; speed, cost, included downloads.
So we're finally biting the bullet and going with our last resort, satellite. If we'd done that when we got here, we'd be out of the minimum 18-month contract by now ... but regret is one of those silly things one should never indulge in. So we're signing up.
And now back to the food-related stuff!
1. It's cold. The blood oranges are colouring up beautifully. I am SO proud, although I'd like them to stop sitting in orange phase and start getting the blood-streaks so I can pick them!
2. I've enclosed the Tahitian Lime in its very own greenhouse, to survive this winter. I'm so proud of this tree; after all its trials and tribs, it's still determined to go beyond surviving into thriving.
3. Most of my warrigal greens have died, although they'll re-seed in spring (I hope), but the two patches stripped by the chooks are coming back rather well indeed. Particularly since I enclosed that garden in netting (hah! Take that, chooks and other assorted birdies!!).
4. I feel like a real gardener. I have put down compost and straw and dug in soil and put down lime ... I have seeds of random winter greenery popping up from almost-organised 2-3 week sowing intervals and - ta-DAH! - green manure sprouting excellently ... I even sort of have irrigation in spots. MUCH better than last year!
5. The local nursery is selling midyimberries. Gracious. Apparently they're someone's "2007 plant of the year" or something. However, decidedly to my irritation, they're calling the plant "bush snacks", and the word "midyim" doesn't appear anywhere on the label. For those of us even on the fringes of the bushfood industry, this is incredibly annoying. I am NOT going to call my small white sweet berries "bush snacks" for anyone; but if this plant takes off, I risk splitting interest. I had a little rant about the topic at the nursery and they watched in highly entertained fascination, evidently recognising a botanic obsessive at work.
Anyway, I bought five and am planting them just outside the house, in the bare patch the dogs run across. This area will be planted with native wildflowers (yes! Pretties!! Inedible pretties!!) and the spreading midyims, which will keep the general theme very well indeed, without blocking light.
6. We have also bought two olive trees. These will be rather ceremoniously planted in the two raised beds and surrounded with appropriate mediterranean plantings come spring.
AND!
It's raining!!!!
Eggs:
Despite it being winter, and despite three chooks in moult, we're still getting an egg a day. In fact, one chook has just come back into lay and is dropping enormous 80g eggs (that's large for a chook egg!).
We're not selling any, however. Selfishly, we're keeping all eggs for ourselves right now :)
Produce supplied:
None, but I may actually be able to supply warrigal greens - in small quantities - during winter. Cool.
Rain:
It's been very scarily dry. The tanks have dropped down four rungs because I've been watering with those tanks. However, we'd had 7mm in the last 24 hours, which is topping us up nicely, with a steady drizzle that's just soaking into the ground.
Plant obs:
We're sneezing. That is, the wattle's out. The red wattle starts off - it started comng out in late March/early April - and now the spiky horrors are in full bloom with their fluffy gold balls. Along Mayfield Rd, the lemony-yellow wattles are just starting as well. One of these days, I'll actually learn all their names ...
And the gums trees are just about to start blooming, which should give new meaning to "hayfever season".
Domestic obs:
The puppies are starting to receive obedience training, finally. I do not wish to go into the fright received when they went on An Adventure that ended in gunshots and my conviction they were killed chasing sheep, but we now have considerably better control of them, and are much more confident it won't happen again. On their first day of training, they were essentially impossible and we despaired again ... but 15mins twice a day of directed, focused commands and on the second day, they could have won awards for "most improved". We feel so much more confident.
Wildlife obs:
Wombats are wombling all around the place, startling the daylights (well, nightlights really) out of the pups. Even more startling to them were the sugar gliders feeding in the trees just outside our back door (!!). The birds think the chookpen is the best feeding ground ever and we have every chough, parrot (king, crimson rosellas, and easterns), wattlebird, and shrike-thrush in the locale hanging around. The red- and yellow-tailed black cockies are grouping in the same large numbers as last year.
And we have 17 roos at last count :)
... it would look better if I actually posted more but hey, it's getting there ... :)
Posted by: Eat Aust | July 18, 2008 at 10:58 AM
Gidday Fi, Great to read your blog and catch up on your news. It's looking fab-o!
Posted by: Ali | July 15, 2008 at 09:22 PM