I do miss not having a camera, my neighbour has been great in lending me hers, however not keen to borrow it too often, I value our friendship!.lol

Okay I have begun my vegie garden with the sunken terracotta pots (no holes) that I purchased some time ago.  They have been dug into the bed and the saucers have become there lids.  I mulch over the lids when I fill the up.  The first two weeks they have been working well, as in I filled them and the tomato seedlings, beans and aubergine are surviving.  This week we have had 37mls of rain so I have not needed to refill them.  So far I only have organised one of my beds this way.  I had to cover this bed with hessian as the temperatures during the day and at night have been somewhat cold.  We have been having a fire in the house for a few nights a couple without and again needed on last night.  It is summer down here truely..lol
It does mean that I have still to finish putting my other seedlings out.  They look healthy and happy so hopefully this week.

The chooks are settling in well, and one hopes that at sometime Toby will stop rounding them up.  He does not do it all the time, and they ignore him often, but everyso often I look out the kitchen window and he has them all going round and round the silver birch.  They pop into the chook taj mahal and out the other side or just to escape him at times.  The two that are bigger have tried to let him know that they want to be left alone, by pecking at him.  The smaller two just flap and run often, so of course he chases them and rounds them up.
They are just begining to get the redness in their wattles and combs, they are about 13-15 weeks now and how delightful they are.   They are getting their full plumage now and the Barnevelders pattern is really lovely.  I love sitting in the sun stroking one they feel so soft, and the soft noise they make as they sit is beautiful.  I also love it when they lay in the sun with a wing up!


I noted raspberries on my vines today, not quite ripe so I have netted them a bit.
My cherries are hopeless this year!  I went out to net them but the birds had basically taken most and theyare still green, there were a lot that had not developed correctly either. I am putting it down to our weather and perhaps shock from when the tree was removed that was quite close to them. 

I have been getting some strawberries every day, just a good handful, as I am the only one that eats them apart from the lizards and snails, it is good.  I also had some lovely sugar snap peas the other day.  Morning tea consisted of strawberries and sugar snaps on the deck with a cup of chai.

The broad beans are nearly finished and have been a terrific crop over 10kgs.  yum!

I pulled some of the garlic on Monday as the leaves were almost dead as Toby had jumped on them, and as we were expecting more rain was concerned that they would get water inside and begin to rot.  Wonderful and I will have photos hopefully next posting.  (camera I hope will be back end of next week)

I went to the local herb and alternative therapy market last weekend. The weather was lousy but I was able to buy some horse raddish and other herbs, mostly for the chook run.  So they all have to have beds made and be put in, or I may put the wormwood in a large pot and place it near the Taj Mahal, to keep flies away. 
The others will go into a bed or two, and be fenced off until they are big enough to cope with the girls in and about them.

My kiwi fruit is flowering well one is, the other has buds, as they both have to flower to cross pollinate for fruit I am really hoping that very soon the other one's buds will open so fruit is on its way. 

My passionfruit has gone downhill, and I am going to buy another. If I can get one that is not grafted I may try that, or I just may get two.  One grafted and one not, and compare them.  I have decided these will go along the out side of the chook run fence. 
Well cool, wet and windy here in tassie.  I am not complaining as water tanks are full, things are green and growing.

Procrastinating..as I am not a domestic goddess

Not being a great fan of house work, and having let the house work get away from me, I made a decision to get on with it yesterday.

So first thing I took the wonder dog for his walk and game in the morning, in the rain.


I realised that I needed to get my bare rooted nectarine tree I purchased the day before on my trip to Hobart, into the ground quickly.  I noted it had buds forming. I  had the almond and a lilac that I had taken from the front of the house(driveway entrance east gets little morning sun and that is all), to put in the back yard, west facing.  So off course I decided to get these done first.

Wonder Dog catching the ball, (not taken yesterday, as you can see the sun is shining, but I love this shot)

 I removed the walnut and nectarine that had not survived the lack of water last summer and too much water now, and planted the nectarine and lilac in their places.  I also dug a hole for the almond to go in the chook run, to provide the chooks when they arrive, some shade.  Trees planted.







Lilac bush transplanted to new home
hmm what was it I was going to do today?

The dog was having fun out side so I played with him, in the rain, as it was drizzling off and on as I did all the planting.

I noted that the raspberry patch needed to be weeded and the canes from last year cut back.  So I did this, as it really needed to be done right at this moment.  Their is already great growth on the new raspberry canes, and I must wire them up a bit better this year.   

Hmmm now what were my plans?

So after this I weeded some of the flower beds a bit, and sowed some parsley seeds, as you have to keep parsley seeds moist, and it was raining again, so perfect time to sow them.  In went triple leaf and Italian parsley.
 
One of the possums that comes to visit us, at the kitchen window.  It is an old photo but show you their dexterity, and cuteness.  (I love them but they do a like to nibble on my plants)

Funny there is something at the back of my mind I was going to be doing today, what was it?
Having sown the parsley directly out side and some flower seeds, I thought I should plant up some more seedling punnets.  I have planted climbing tomatoes Black Krim, Black Zebra, and Wapsipinnicon Peach, along with Rockmelon French Charentais, so my hope chest is filling again, and I have replanted my beans quite a variety.
 
What a handsome Scarlet Robin.. he was watching as I weeded

This is looking NE up the Huon River in a general direction towards Hobart, one of my routes to work/Hobart takes me along the river, the following shots were taking at about 6:30am as I was heading to Hobart 70kms away to do some shopping.  Don't ask why I was leaving at this time, especially as even eating breakfast on the way, I discovered the shops don't open till 9am in Hobart.  So wondered about for 45mins.   

The photo on the left is looking across the river the sun is just coming up but we are looking west here.  I am not sure which mountain range these are.  The road is very windy it takes between 45minutes to an hour.

Below some people fishing down in ront of our place

I dont rush as it is such a pretty drive and I have to watch out for possums, wallabies, potaroos, bentongs, quolls and rabbits.
I really do not want to hit any of the wild life well maybe a rabbit would not be a bad thing....
  We do not have wombats or Tasmanian devils in our area.
 Very little house work has been achieved today..ah well it will be there tomorrow and so will I..lol

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