A Taste of Spring to Come.....this is on my mind.

 Joing in with Rhonda's "This is on my mind, Friday" @ http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com

All the signs are here... I'm getting excited.... Spring is just around the corner.

On the way out the backdoor I spotted this lovely Camelia and picked it and took it to school so I could invite my Prep class to paint it. Here are the results. Pretty gorgeous, I think!

Meyer Lemon with a Hardenbergia growing through it.

When my daughter, Renee, was little, she used to call daffodils, fildilliums. I stil always think of them as those.

A very ruffled camelia.

Very early tulips.

Almond blossom: from my sacrificial tree. I have a deal with the possums and cockatoos. They can have as many almonds as they wish as long as they leave everything else in my garden alone. Sometimes it's successfull!

Broad beans are thriving and beginning to set pods after the frosts, shocking them into it. 

ThIs is on my mind.........

My husband was rushed to hospital in an ambulance after collapsing last night. He has never spent any time sick except for the odd cold here and there and now they are going to do exploratory surgery. So my mind is with him at the moment. I'm sorry, I'll have to do away with any photos today.
Linked to Rhonda's blog:http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/

On My Mind

Today I am getting ready to go down to my shack for the weekend. Some of you may know, that is where my DH and I intend to move to in a year or two when we get ourselves established.  We are setting it up in a permaculture fashion, give or take.  We have been building and renovating, putting in water tanks as we wont be connected to town water just relying on the rain (it is Tassie but one of the drier parts), and building fences. Very soon we will have the carport and the driveway finished and we can spend time getting the garden established. 

Well sometimes things pop up that make you prioritise your list of jobs and that happened this week.  My husband regularly looks on Gumtree (classifieds online) just to see if there is anything useful being offered, when he came upon an ad for 2 three year old column apple trees for $10 each. He is addicted to apples and seeing that they were situated 500mtrs from our house we had to have them. They are being planted this weekend. I have another 7 espalier apples arriving in the next month or so. 

                                    pic from Google images


Also I have just been pruning all my roses here at home and after having my hands and arms ripped to shred by thorns I vowed that ONLY smooth roses would be planted at the beach house. So I will be planting 14 of them over the weekend.

Pic from Google Images

I culled 2 of my old hens tonight and they are coming as well to be buried in the apple tree holes.    

I hope I don't get too distracted as last weekend there were 2 whales in the bay so maybe some whale watching might be in order if we get another visit. 

                           From Rhonda's blog: http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com

Have a lovely weekend everyone :-}

On my Mind

Things I am thinking about today: Linked to Rhonda's blog.

http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com 


The design of my new garden.

The circles are raised beds using recycled galvanised water tanks, The ones marked with WB means they will be wicking beds.

And will my chook keep laying over winter?  I have 2 old girls who lay about 1 egg a week and 3 young layers. I make sure during winter they have a boost to their protein because if they are replacing feathers , they can't lay eggs unless they have the extra protein. I give this in the form of a large can of dog food twice a week. Last year it worked a treat and I had eggs all through, so I am testing it out again.