Tuesday, March 6, 2012

March 2012


So the beginning of the year has not gone exactly to plan. I am busier than I would like and this is despite cutting back time in one of my two jobs.
Life is very full with two working adults and two teenagers in a house and the demands of work and school leave us all exhausted. We have had a round of sickness in the house; only a bad cold but enough to keep me off work today, hence the time to do some blogging.

The garden has had very sporadic attention and the only things I have grown to eat this summer are chilli's, capsicum, basil and a few zucchinis, a sad state of affairs.
On the good news front there are lemons and figs, limes on the lime tree as well as a few Persimmons on the Persimmon tree. Nothing as yet on the Pomegranate but it is growing well so it is only a matter of time.

Writers Week this week and I will make it there but have not been so far. Had a ticket for last nights special event but had to give it away to someone well and non infectious!


The Lavender has been beautiful and full of bees.

Perhaps too full of bees. We had a swarm that tried to set up house in the shed (and stung me while I was watering) and then moved to the Rosella box in one of the Casurinas out the front. We had a bee man come and take the box away and add the bees to his hives.

We did have a family of Rosellas living in the box in the spring which was a treat. Very noisy when the three young ones were learning to fly; the perils of having a native front garden just outside the bedroom windows!


I started the year with great intentions of getting out on my bike more and having a couple of good rides a week. I did well in December and January but since school went back that seems to have gone by the wayside. I plan to get back to it this weekend, it is a long weekend so no excuses. We are only going to go to one day of WOMAD this year, much as I love it I think if I do the full four days again I will need a week off to recover.

I love going to our local Organic Market, check it out at www.organicsustainablemarket.com.au
have only made it there twice so far this year, that gives me some awareness of how overcommitted I have been!


The Iron horse at North Haven.


The sky at Henley.

What a joy and a privilege to live so close to the beach.

My youngest finished Vac Swim at Henley this year, the end of a great tradition of a week or so in January of lovely mornings at the beach swimming, socialising and developing skills for the kids, and swimming, walking, socialising and drinking coffee for the adults. I will miss it.


As usual we spent the last week of the school holidays at the Port Elliot Caravan Park. It was a lovely week and very social catching up with friends and family either staying at the Caravan Park or living nearby. The young people had surfing lessons at Goolwa Beach with Kingo. I would highly recommend it.


Goolwa Beach, initial instructions.


Around Christmas as had another addition to the Zoo, not one with parental sanction as we would not have chosen another cat. Despite saying no, no, no! Sebastian arrived one day and had soon wormed his way into everyone's heart. He was the runt of a litter of six left out in the hard rubbish collection to starve. He was 412 gms when he arrived. As it seems he is a good climber he will shortly have a very large and loud bell to wear around his neck.

We also had Screechy living in our birdcage for a week. S/He is a Rainbow Lorriket I found on the road with eyes glued shut. I fed him and cleaned his eyes and eventually he recovered and flew away. Sunny (the dog) was very sad about this as she spend every day that Screechy was here hanging around by the cage wagging her tail.

A Rainbow Lorriket




Sebastian making himself at home.

We have had the annual Tomato Sauce making day the Saturday just gone and it is a delicious batch. Based on the "Kathy's Tomato Relish" recipe in Stephanie Alexander, with less sugar and a few other variations. It is a great way to catch up with friends and make something delicious for the family as well. We had 20kg of tomatoes between three of us and ended up with just under 3lts of sauce each. We would have had a little more but managed to burn some.

This weekend I am hoping that everyone in the family will be fully recovered from the cold and we can have some enjoyable family time at home, get out into the garden and down to the beach, see some of WOMAD and soak up some Fringe and Festival atmosphere.....


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