Heat-enforced end to blogging break...

Hi. I just had to come out of blogging seclusion to say:

Where is Autumn? It is way too hot for mid-March. We got up to 39.7 degrees (celcius) here today. That's just crazy-talk. Our garden is dying a slow death. When people ask what is in the veggie patch, I say, "Crisps."

Also, did I mention that there has been no rain? We are on tank water only in our area, so can water our garden at whim, but: last week our tank ran dry. It was a really primally scary thing to run out of water. Yes, we called a tanker and had some water delivered, but still. We. Ran. Out. Of. Water. The long-threatened event that is in the back of our collective minds had a preview at our house! And let me tell you it was not fun. Not in the middle of a heat wave, anyway.

We're meant to be heading for more moderate temperatures in the next few days. Wish us luck.

Crafting roundup

Despite all appearances of inactivity, there has been a slow trickle of crafting over here in the last few months...

Winter knitting, with first a hat for Poppy, who chose the wool herself. A little persuading out of a very fluorescent shade of pink took place, I must confess. I'm not confident that I could knit whilst trying not to catch sight of bright salmon pink wool. Fuschia was much more bearable:

Then a pair of wristwarmers for me. These had the virtue of being finished in time for winter wearing, and also featured my first attempts at cabling! I was very pleased to actually finish a project for myself in the actual season I began it in...and the best thing about these? The wool was such a bargain at our lovely local op shop. And I still have 3 balls of it left!

Then I was at a friend's house for a fortnightly craft group and made this:

Everyone was a little nonplussed. Myself included - I'd meant to try making these a long time ago, after seeing them here. I think it's been about 2 years since I first learnt of them, and how to make them, and now I discover that they are called Penny wheels or yo-yos, and also that they are springing up all over the East coast and North of Australia. Who knew?

Not quite beach weather

Today we visited my cousin's grandmother, known to us as Baba Luba. She lives in a place called Black Rock, in the bayside suburbs of Melbourne, which turned out to be only about 45 minutes by car from our house.

Poppy was very excited to learn that Baba Luba lived very near the beach. Delighted, she proclaimed that she was going to bring her bathers...but we ended up having to wear this kind of thing instead:

Such is Spring in our part of the world.

Much fun was had at the beach, though. We found shells, glass worn smooth on the edges by the waves, seaweed to take home to feed the garden with, and Poppy's new favourite thing: rockpools!

All in all, a successful foray into beach territory, but a little more warmth, a little less wind (and rain on the way home) and a little more opportunity for actually getting wet, with actual seawater, is being looked forward to with great anticipation at our house.

Note: being responsible citizens and all, we did not souvenir seaweed from the beach for feeding the garden. We did not brandish great bunches of it whilst walking, and festoon a certain neice's pram with the stuff on the way back from the beach. I did not stuff it into a garbage bag to take home and then almost lose the lot to the dog before I got to soaking the salt out of it. That would be plain rude, and, I'm led to believe, illegal. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Sprung!

Hi there.

So we were minding our own business, being chilly, wiping winter lurgy drips from our noses, complaining about the weather and how dark it was in the morning/evening/anytime, envying overseas friends who are in the throes of summer; also known as wishing our lives away.


Then one day, it wasn't. Chilly, that is. I actually had to take off the scarf that I think was starting to somehow become part of my neck, and lo! We looked out the window, to find that Spring had Sprung!

The evidence is everywhere: The blossom is out next to the woodpile.

The broad beans in our vegie patch have suddenly started to grow before our eyes, and turn to follow the sun each day.

The bare-rooted strawberries have only been in the ground 4 days, and yet! Leaves!


They even beat the raspberries that we put in a week ago:


We're hoping the kale is too small to attract the notice of possums, though some snails and slugs have already succumbed to a beery trap:

All this greenness and new shoot-ness has inspired MrWildflower to use his holidays to create another vegie patch. Just because. (and also, I am not busy enough while he's at work. I need another thing that needs looking after. I do, I tell you. Be quiet, of course I'm grateful.)

Aerial view of said vegie patch construction. Particulars: no-dig, terraced as we're on a hill, whacking great stump in the middle for...trellis attachment? seating? sacrifices to the vegie gods? who knows! Note also that all paths planned for ease of working in the vegie patch have been forgotten in the excitement of construction. Much scratching of heads ensued.

The dog is now worn out from all the attention and outdoor plays the good weather has afforded him.

...and then there were two

...pets, that is.

First in our home was Gilbert Lightfoot, a scrawny stray who fell over my back fence when I lived in the inner city, and didn't have the strength to leap back out again.

I think he might possibly have some other reason for not being able to jump over a fence now. That is 7 kilos of premium cat you are looking at there.

Second is our recently acquired pup, Sharik. Chaos on four legs, but so cute! And so willing to please for any form of cheese, it's almost unbearable.




Gratuitous cute cat shot to close:

Uh...hi!

Hello. It seems that I've been on a rather extended blog break.

Not wanting to bore anyone with details, May and June were a morass of birthdays and winter setting in, a visit from my mother-in-law, debate about where best to site the vegie patch in Spring, fending off winter lurgies, and acquiring a puppy.

yes, a puppy. Stay tuned for photos. Technology is not my friend tonight.

And just to keep you amused while you wait for pictures of the unbearable cuteness, some books that have been read around here lately:

*The Ubiquitious: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. All in the household have now read it, all are now officially in mourning for the series' end. Very satisfying, and far pacier and tighter than the last few in the series, imo. Daughter #1, 4yrs old, is totally confused about what a Snape is. She had a nightmare about it last night.
*The PoMo yet readable (oh ack, can't believe I said that!) : The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler. I know, I know. I'm so behind the times. This is the Eastern Regional library we're talking about. We take our time out here. Interesting, got me in, lots to recommend it, but still a book about a book club. Lovely characterisations.
*The Unmentionable addiction: like hot chocolate with marshmallows, sticky sweet and ultimately drinkable, The Wizard of London by Mercedes Lackey. Love me an author called Mercedes. It's gotta be a pen name. Me? Trying to replace books about a boy wizard? Is denial a river in Egypt? Forgettable fluff, great when you've got a cold and a baby who has a cold and a 4 year old with a cold. Did I mention we had colds?

And that's it for August so far.

that's a lot of tree...

...in our backyard.

We recently found out that a venerable old gum tree, growing right next to the house, was full of dry rot. Before we knew what was happening, it was time to say goodbye. Then, there was this:

And a lot more sun.

The kookaburras had a feast of witchetty grubs and then hung around the garden like beady-eyed sentinels, hoping for more. We climbed around and over the logs, marvelling at the spongy soft bits threaded right through, then chopped most of them for the upcoming winter's firewood. And we saved some larger ones for cameo roles in the mystery children's playspace we're planning soon.