Path of destruction

It's us, we are the path of destruction, as we prune and chop and dig our way around the house. I know it has to be done but I feel very sorry for some of the poor little shrubs that were just doing exactly what they are meant to be doing - growing and making pretty flowers. But they are all four foot across, with leaves only at the edges and massive dead twiggy hearts and they have to be chopped right back, to look sad and forlorn and covered in frost. 

Dad here is the rosemary that I didn't dig out but cut right back after you said that your one didn't die ... so if it dies it will of course be all your fault. 

This is a before shot of what I thought was going to be a small bed, quick to dig .... it was not. It was a nightmare of grass and bulbs and unidentifiable shrubs - that's a clematis (we think) over a dead tree and it's built up against some very old fence posts and random bits of concrete. And a brick.

This is what it looks like now. Much better! The old tree is very rotten but I figure the clematis will hold it up. There are red hot pokers over the back, and those early jonquils have grass all though them so we'll have to wait until they've died back and dig the lot up.

And here are the apple trees! What a difference. Actually I think two are apple and two are possibly pear trees ... whatever they are we pruned them for jesus and hope they'll live. The 'pear' trees have ferocious spikes on them, but were all very satisfying to chip. 

Isn't that a fabulous apple branch? Quite an old tree I think, and has clearly had a number of solid prunings. We will spray for moth but a proper treatment requires us to clear the bed below, which sounds like a lot of work, so we'll see whether we can be bothered. 

Brad took a lower branch of one of the smaller oaks - half an hour with the chainsaw then half a day getting the branch cut up, chipped and moved, or stacked for firewood. The cows were weirdly interested ... they just stood and watched, especially when power tools were involved? What goes through their minds? 

We raked up all the oak leaves and dumped them underneath the pines were nothing grows anyway (except mushrooms). There are some plants that like an acidic soil apparently (rhodos? Sounds unlikely) so we have a long term plan for a garden bed there. 

Yes, Pam, I do miss my grown babies, but they are very good at messaging / facetiming at odd moments and they are living interesting lives ... Melbourne is about 750 km from here so a good eight hour drive with stops - it takes all day but anything you can do in a day we think is a reasonable drive! It's the overnight ones where you might seriously consider taking a plane ... 

Melbourne and surrounds

We have just returned from a few days in Melbourne which was wonderful except for the weather which was TERRIBLE. Freezing cold, wind, rain and bleak. I took basically no photos which is unusual but it was not very picturesque. We spent time with number two every day, which was really really nice. This did mean a lot of amazing food - we had fabulous Thai, Vietnamese, Korean and an excellent cafe where number two goes for business meetings ... theatre people like a good coffee shop. I took a photo of my meal.

We also did a fair bit of shopping, including some very groovy shops that I would never have found on my own, and then boring grocery shopping to fill up the share house fridge in the time honoured parental way, and op shopping for two dining chairs which they needed. Ten dollars each, bargain. Number two also got the three of us free tickets to this play - it was definitely more peculiar than we are used to but funny and interesting and we really enjoyed it (or my husband and I did, our playwright child was a bit more judgy).

My husband had the Australian Model Expo to visit (he entered a model, got a Commendation which was very pleasing) and I had a quiet poke around and lunch by the river ... I sat outside even though I got a bit rained on.

And we did a day trip up towards Daylesford where friends have recently retired to a seven acre block, although they've had the block for years. It is basically the complete opposite of us - it was a sub-divided farm, so a completely blank canvas, and they built a hempcrete house themselves, and various sheds and outbuildings and planted everything new ... they are going as self-sufficient as possible so goats for milk, alpacas for wool (she spins and knits), ducks and chickens for eggs, huge gardens of vegies and fruit ... it is amazing and we were in awe. They built a greenhouse using recycled materials, have solar panels, feed the goats from farm waste and only need to heat the house when it's not sunny because the insulation is so good!!!! Utterly diametrically opposite to what we are doing (they don't even have a chipper because they are growing not chopping) but it still looks incredible and they are having so much fun. Just like us.

This is feeding the goats. It SNOWED when we arrived. Not much, just flurries, but my god it was cold. We went into town for lunch though and it was so pretty. I would like to return when the weather wasn't so awful.

Another quilt finish

Here is another little quilt finish. Tiktok made me sew it ... or at least the creator that I saw using the $4 IKEA fleece throw as batting. Batting is expensive, so I bought three $4 throws and thought that if it works it will be a good alternative! It's quite thin polar fleece, so could be OK or could be dreadful .. and it was really good. The main problem is it's only 120 x 160 cm, so you're limited to a small quilt, although I suppose there's no reason you couldn't join them? Hmmm, might think about that one some more.

It quilted up nicely and will probably wash as well as anything else I do. I might give it a wash and experiment, although I don't pre-wash any of my fabrics either, despite what the internet says, so it's likely to ruffle up. 

The fabric is largely from the scrap bin with some yardage to pull it together. It's very bright and cheerful and I like it. It's called "Rules for drinking" because I was listening to Annie Lou's song "Grandma's rules for drinking" while I did the binding, and I couldn't fit the word "grandma" on as well. Great song, ordinary quilt name.

Little updates

Here is the after shot of the front beds where I pulled out all the rosemary - not very exciting but much tidier. I've staked up the roses before their winter prune, and we are ordering a wide variety of hellebores to be decorative but close to the ground. It was a satisfying bed to do - not the endless invasive grass - and delightful to dig in. I think it has been a garden bed for 150 years which is not at all what I'm used to.

And Dad here is visual proof of us putting the mulch back through again ... it definitely makes it a lot finer but I don't know if we can be bothered to do it routinely. We have SO MUCH to chip and we're putting the mulch on the ivy covered beds and it can kill whatever it wants until we get around to them. 

We've also built some firewood storage to keep it off the ground. It's not covered but that doesn't matter too much round here. Bessa bricks, stakes, random offcuts of wood we found in the garage. There are four of these side by side on the way to the clothesline. We put brand new mulch from the chipper underneath so in a season or two we can figure out a more elegant solution for the firewood and turn the area into garden beds, as originally planned. We have a lot of plans.

Here is another after shot - we did this a while ago but the kitchen stuff is in the kitchen where it belongs and the books are in the bookshelf. Double stacked, but we did do a big clear out of books down the coast so will take some there ... and get rid of others, honestly. This is one of our two new double-glazed roof skylights - we had just the corrugated see-through stuff which isn't insulating at all, and replaced it with a double-glazed unit in this room and the kitchen.

Custom built of course, at vast expense, because nothing is square, and they don't open. The advice was to leave the laser light in because you don't mess with things that don't leak, and just put the glass underneath. I am a bit nervous about something completely inaccessible for reasons of condensation / cleaning ... but nobody else seemed bothered so we will just wait and see. It does seem to be noticeably warmer but it's hard to tell because it has become so much colder! The bird bath was frozen over until midday.

Long weekend

It was a long weekend in Canberra ... and we didn't notice and didn't care! How amazing. Although that's not strictly true, we noticed eventually because we went to the beach for a few days and there were a few more Canberra people than usual. It has settled into the cold and clear real winter days, which are beautiful down the coast. Beautiful at home too, but pretty cold. We've been having the fire on 24 hours and it definitely takes the edge off.

The beach was just sparkling and lovely. This the kayak hire place which is absolutely pumping now they've started selling coffees. People bring their kids / dogs and just sit in the sun most mornings. It is very delightful. 

We came back up on Sunday for friends who drove out to Canberra for afternoon tea. It was wonderful to see them and show off our country slice of life! Everyone is either recently retired or nearly retired and doing it in all sorts of different ways ... mostly downsizing and lowering maintenance, rather than our version. Oh well. 

This is probably the only photo of the two of us and the house that's been taken yet! We look vaguely old fashioned, maybe it's the knitted jumpers. Side note, both of those were bought from a truly marvellous knitwear shop on Norfolk Island (average winter temperature 21 degrees) which has, for reasons unknown, an enormous collection of no-longer-made knitwear. We think she bought it all ages ago and just keeps it in the cellar? Anyway mine is 100% wool, made in the Shetlands by Judane, which according to the internet went bankrupt in 2008, and was bought by me, in its bag, tags still on, in 2025 for $130. Brad's burgundy number is McGeorge, which at least still exists, but I don't think they've made that cable knit for a decade ... and it was also 100% wool made in Scotland and even cheaper than mine. Anyway it's an amazing shop and if you're ever on Norfolk Island you have to go.

Appropriate clothing

As we know, all human endeavour is improved by wearing appropriate clothing. I have been struggling with gardening clothes - originally I thought I would wear athletic gear like leggings, but I need way more protection against the branches, thorns, prickles and spikes that live in my garden. Then I moved to jeans - which are a bit restrictive for digging and bending - then elastic-waisted pants which are fine except I've lost about five kilos since stopping work and I can't put anything in the pockets without sending my pants to my ankles. So ... I have put sense before fashion and bought myself some dungarees.

They are awesome. Tough, lots of pockets, no plumber's crack, super comfortable and great for stomping about in. All the bits and bobs are adjustable including several sets of waist buttons for pregnant gardeners (not going to happen to me, but I might get fatter) and just general fabulousness. 

I think I am giving hipster, permaculture, millennial vibes ... but I am not. I am giving fat toddler vibes. And I know this because of the seven photos that exist of me as a child (third child out of four, parents rarely remembered I existed) one of them is this delight. Fifty years on, haven't changed a bit.

Finished a solids top

I have no memory of sewing this top, so I think it must be from 2020, when I was doing a lot of solids and everything else was a bit of a blur. For everyone. 

It is super simple, just rectangles. Was I trying to use up leftovers? Not impossible, or maybe I just felt like something very straightforward. Solids look good in simple blocks. I called this quilt "Sensible decision making" - not because I feel that the quilt represents sensible decisions. I think I am trying to manifest sensible decision making in my life, so calling a quilt that seems like a first step.

It was blowing a gale while I tried to take these photos - the quilt was horizontal half the time. We have had massive rain, followed by a sharp cold snap. Our fire doesn't take much encouragement to stay banked overnight, and is easy to wake up in the morning. It's lovely ... but a bit of a trap if you want to go out into the weather and do some gardening, and not spend the morning sitting by the fire reading. I have come very late to Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels and my word they deserve all the hype. I have been transfixed.

Simple quilting too - like a meander? I did the binding at quilters, very easy to sit and stitch while chatting / listening. Or not! The group can spend fifteen minutes in silence, just sewing away with their own thoughts. It is very peaceful.

A new toy

My husband is getting a lot of 'how to manage a small acreage' advice from his brother, who has had a similar sized place for quite a few years, and number one advice was Buy a Big Chipper. And after a few dozen trailer trips to the dump of green waste we moved it up the priority list, and bought this beauty. Also a connecting thing so it can be towed about by the ride on mower.

Like all fabulous things it is made in NZ, and can allegedly do a branch up to 7 cm in diameter, but it stalls a bit at that size so we're taking it easy until we are used to it. (Luckily number two advice was Buy a Selection of Chainsaws so anything bigger we'll use as firewood). 

So after a bit of try-and-fail with set up and starting we have had a couple of excellent chipping sessions. It is so satisfying to see an enormous pile of branches and prunings reduced to a lovely manageable pile of mulch. Because our garden is so overgrown we are absolutely in a trim and chop phase, and we have lots of uses for mulch. 

I am slowly moving my way around the house, and next on the list were these rosemary bushes. I felt a bit sad about them, because they were not a bad planting, and looked very cute when we bought the house ... but rosemary won't grow on old wood and these were far too high for the verandah. So I chopped them back to stumps (thank you small electric reciprocating saw, new favourite tool) then mattocked them out. 

This is the pile of rosemary bushes.

And this is the much smaller pile of woodchips! It was a delight to chip, it flew through the chipper and smelt AMAZING. Next on the chipping list is the pile of weed trees that garden guy has cleared from the creek .... not so much fun. 

Dad, I think you avoided the black chairs because they are murder on anyone's lower back - that curve was evil. God knows why anyone would buy them to be honest ... and no we didn't put down newspaper on the weeds ... mostly because we don't get a newspaper any more! We are having to light the fire with bank statements.

The black chairs

You may have seen these two chairs - and matching footstools - in the background of photos over the years. I tried to search my google photos to see if it would find any shots but the google photo search is WILD. When I searched 'black chair' I got four hundred photos of our black cat, which was very lovely, but not what I was looking for. Although co-incidentally she is sitting under the chair in this photo.

When I searched 'black sofa' I got this shot of the dog, the fire, a footstool and my glass of sparkling red ... I think I sent this to my husband when he was travelling somewhere to show that I was missing him dreadfully and having a terrible evening. 

And when I searched 'leather chair' it turned up this shot of the time we borrowed the prime minister's jet ... this is why I sometimes miss my job. I'm not usually this happy on a ten hour flight.

Anyway, the point of this blog post is to tell the story of these black leather chairs, that we bought when we bought our second house in Weetangera in 2001. We went from our first house - 1950s cottage, un-renovated, three bedrooms, one bathroom, one cupboard - to our 'forever' house - 1970s orange brick mansion, four bedrooms, four bathrooms, family room, study, basement, the works ... but of course had absolutely nothing to put in it. So we bought a lot of furniture from the sellers, who were downsizing, including these two black leather chairs and matching footstools. The owners did a big reno of their house in the 1980s (lots of grey and peach curtains, a chrome bar and a 16 seater marble table, we didn't buy that) and these chairs were probably the most stylish part, and we bought both sets for

 $400. Here is an action shot of when number one was about four months old - my petting zoo - there is a tortoiseshell cat in the black chair although it's quite hard to see. (We also did buy that incredibly uncomfortable moulded plastic desk chair for $40, bargain).

The chairs have done well over the years - indestructible for the family room, make excellent forts when tipped on their side, beloved by pets - but they take up a lot of space and don't really fit the vibe of our new place. We were tossing up whether to donate or use as porch chairs (because nothing says classy like a lounge chair on the front porch) but then decided to google if they were worth anything ... turns out they are highly sought after Tessa chairs, so we took the easy route and emailed a collective of furniture dealers asking $1000 for the lot - got a call back within half an hour from a guy who drove out in his ute that afternoon and took them off our hands! One email followed by a wodgeful of cash to end the day, and a nice clear space in the lounge room. 

We are quite startled that anything we own could be worth something ... I like watching the antiques roadshow very much but neither of us are from 'old stuff might be valuable' families. And this blog post has taken me about an hour to write because I got distracted by google photos AND old photo albums. Retirement!

Deliveries

My tiresome weeding of the bigger garden bed is nearing the end, so we ordered another few cubic metres of mulch to cover it with. There's no way I can get the grass out, so it is dig / smother / poison ... repeated for the next twenty years. Which is fine. 

Delivery guy brought his tipper truck to drop off the mulch, and also some road base that we are using to fill up the worst holes in the 'driveway'. There are rocks and tree roots and other things that wear away - and which wouldn't be a problem if we had a proper vehicle, but we have weak little city cars that are bottoming out in the chasms. So ugly road base it is, and at some point we will get a professional in to grade the driveway properly and put something down. Delivery guy dropped it in a couple of spots, which was very kind of him. My husband was very taken with the tipper truck, but I don't think we need one.

All expenditure is theoretical, because we still can't sell the Canberra house. We are going to have to drop the price I think, which is depressing, even though it's imaginary money, until someone buys it. Then we can get a larger car, a decent driveway and NOT a tipper truck.

It's that time of year when the mushrooms sprout - we are fairly sure these are edible but we are still not eating them ... we let cupboard guy know about them because his partner is an experienced forager but we are watching beef wellington lady on the news every night and aren't brave enough to eat them. Beef wellington lady is something of an Australian obsession at the moment, it's got a lot of twists and turns. 

We also have the classic toadstools arranged in little fairy circles ... definitely not eating those.

Canberra days

 Sunday was a Canberra day and Wednesday was another one - they seem to roll round regularly, which is actually nice. Gives us a change and we enjoy the quiet days at home more. Sunday I went to urban sketchers, which had over thirty attendees! There had been a news item on the local radio about it, because we are tying in with a museum exhibition about a local architect. And on Sunday we sketched the Dickson Public Library, which is one of the architect's triumphs. In a very 1960s way ... flat roofs, concrete, and little courtyards that were probably a good idea but are now very neglected.

Someone who used to work there said it leaked like a sieve and they had terrible mould problems. Surprised? No. Different levels of flat roof and ornamental downpipes into a water feature? Recipe for disaster.

Although at least the architect did put the downpipes flowing into the water feature (which has a drain) in contrast to my drawing of it, which has them just gushing anywhere they want. I tried to get the vibe without worrying about being too accurate because it was fiendish to draw. A lot of the others did the autumn trees and people having coffee, which was probably a better idea. 

Wednesday I went in on my own to a work morning tea for a colleague who's off to NZ to get married next week! It's in a particularly dull piece of the countryside less than an hour from where I grew up but I didn't say that out loud ... I'm sure it will be very lovely.  It was wonderful to catch up with everyone and get all the goss - they are gearing up for the start of the new parliament which is an exciting time and I miss it a little bit but not a lot. Lots of the same old bullshit really, and I am not pining for any of it.

The Canberra days involved two trips to Ikea, so I could frankenstein this excellent ironing station. It's a $45 metal trolley with a $12 tabletop ironing board zip-tied to the top and it is AMAZING. I was getting annoyed at having to get up from the sewing machine to iron things - instead of just turning around - and this has solved that problem. It is very solid and has smooth wheels - the things you see on tiktok! I love tiktok, and I have found myself on quilt-tok finally, with lots of ideas and inspiration. The ladies at quilters on Tuesday were bemoaning the lack of young people taking up craft hobbies ... which is simply not true at all, lots of crafts are thriving ... but 30 somethings aren't going to show to the scout hall at 10 am on a Tuesday morning in rural NSW. I did not say that out loud.