Other people's gardens

 It was the preschool fund-raiser open garden even last weekend, so we wandered through five of the six open gardens and judged other people's choices / found inspiration as the mood struck us.

Mill Pond Farm was interesting, especially the restored old mill. The gardens had a nice mix of recent plantings and very old, half dead pines, which we could relate to.

Longsight was a lovely old house with wraparound verandahs. I love wraparound verandahs - and broad gravel paths - and am thinking how we would get the same vibe in our not-so-posh cottage. It should be possible?

Everyone's dahlias were amazing. Such variety! One guy had converted an old chook shed into a dahlia planting bed supported by the wire and they were absolutely incredible. 

We also went out to Mona Farm which operates primarily as a very expensive wedding venue with guest accommodation, although they do have kitchen gardens for catering, pigs, and some super cute furry cows with horns. I love furry cows with horns. The property was very gorgeous but not inspirational because you could tell they had an absolute army of gardeners and were happy using all the water in the world on the lawns. They had a ten year old stone bridge, which probably tells you all you need to know about the gardening ethos.

In our garden, the last of the big dead pine tree finally came down. Like all trees, it was truly astonishing how enormous the branches were when we finally saw them on the ground. God only knows how we are going to split it for firewood, it will take some professional help, or at least professional equipment. I'm sure they'll let us hire a hydraulic log splitter!!! Surely!!!

They managed not to squash the shed but did put a hole through the fibro. Could have been worse. The strawberries got well and truly flattened though. I saw a TikTok about how to build your own cold frames out of recycled materials and I'm tempted to give it a go, and maybe put them there, backing onto the odd concrete wall....

It's not the destination, it's the journey

On Monday I had the most boring destinations imaginable - back into Canberra for a mammogram, go to Spotlight and do some grocery shopping - but it was all about the journey because I went in my NEW ELECTRIC CAR. It is blue, and shiny, and you just plug it in at night! Amazing!

We went with the Skoda in the end because it was most like all the other cars we've ever owned. Which is a terrible reason to pick a car, but some of the electric ones are designed for people who just love all things new and techy. That's not us; we like light controls on stalks, and air vents with little handles to move the air direction. And not having to do those things through a touch screen, while driving. 

I have also taken it down the coast for a quick overnight trip, which was lovely fun. New cars are always a step up, and this is a bit bigger than our old ones and the electric makes it extra peppy. Our timing was perfect - we finally stopped faffing around and ordered it three weeks ago to pick up last week and we made it just before the crazy rush on EVs. Normally when you buy a car they make a bit of a fuss, but not this time, the guy basically threw us the keys and said the manual's in the glovebox. Actually I think he showed us where the QR code is to get the manual up on our phones. I can barely manage the toaster settings, this could be interesting. 

Knitting

I picked up some blue-grey bamboo/acrylic blend at the destash sale at the start of the month, but didn't want to commit to a whole garment in it, so made a hat!!! A very basic hat, with the simplest pattern of all, but it was a new adventure for me, and I followed the pattern and everything. With a pompom.

I'm glad I only did a hat because it wasn't nice to knit with - both slippery and sticky at the same time. Yuck. I also bought some lemon yellow acrylic because it was incredibly cheap, and a full cone of pale green mohair for $5, so decided to knit another hat with both fibres together.

I'd never heard of holding two yarns together before I started cruising through ravelry but apparently it's really common, and gives you a nice fuzzy yarn from the mohair but stronger and not as scratchy. I didn't think it would be any good at all but it was (a) easy to do and (b) lovely when knitted up. It even made the two quite ugly colours look reasonably pretty! Astonishing. 

The yarn was a bit thinner so I should have added more stitches so the hat is a bit smaller. Not that I needed even one beanie! I will see if either of the children have cold heads. 

The cat was not too thrilled by our photo session. This is back to the time of the year where the sun buckets in the kitchen door ... she lies there sunning her fat tummy and occasionally a tiny lizard wanders in and she can stalk it. Cat Heaven.

No-dig bed

After being inspired by the community garden, I set up a no-dig bed - after the very-much-dig-several-times bed with the horse poo I thought it might be an easier method. We have had mostly unsuccessful experiments with this before (potatoes in the front lawn, not great) but now we have more time, no expectation of results, plenty of space and way more patience. So I've gone with another patch in the western paddock, under some maples.

The grass was not happy there, as you can see. I did a layer of cardboard, then a layer of compost, then a layer of horse poo and then gave it a good soaking. 

I will chuck some broad bean seeds on it this week (low expectations, it's quite shady) and then put some dry mulch on it (or wait for the leaves to fall) and see what grows. Spring will probably be planting potatoes in the traditional ground-breaking way, but I'll see how it's travelling. 

It was a damn sight easier than the mattocking, digging, digging again, mulching and weeding of the other bed ... but not as easy as it would have been if the garden hose would reach that far! I seasol'd the compost layer by carrying a watering can fifty metres each time to the tap ... telling myself that I do it for exercise and fresh air so the more carrying of watering cans the better. Hmmmm.

To contrast with someone who actually knows what he is doing, garden guy is building us a new bridge over the creek. It was thirty years old so had lasted quite well. 

I don't think I mentioned but my husband rang the couple who originally laid out the garden about 25 years ago - they retired into it and she was a very keen gardener - they planted so much, set out most of the beds, worked with the old trees and existing beds, planted all the roses ... he was on the phone for about an hour and a half wandering around the garden while she asked questions about where everything was at!!!! Amazing, because they are quite elderly now, but she seemed to remember all the details about plants and trees. Anyway they said that the bridge was done by the people before them, so that was in the 1990s. The uprights are still OK but we're having to replace the joists and treads so it's strong enough to drive the ride-on mower over!!! Nothing could POSSIBLY go wrong...

Artwork

My art classes operate on a six week term which is a nice opportunity to change focus. The classes just keep running without a break, but we renew and pay every six weeks, and I've been doing something different each time. After the foray into charcoal portraits I thought it was time to get back to some watercolours, so the first three weeks I painted this house, which is at the end of our street, back towards town.

Here it is half way through! I love that the teacher makes us take photos of the progress, it is good to look back on.

This is the original photo. Some artistic license may have been involved in the composition and colours ... this house also has alpacas but I am NOT up to alpacas yet. Oddly shaped.

I did use the charcoal skills in the art group drawing session though, where we had a (fully clothed) model reading a book. These two were both the same guy, and neither are particularly like him. I really didn't capture the essence, but it's hard to see unless you know the person in question. 

But it was fun, and as ever I enjoy seeing what other people do. Mine are quite careful, compared to the others, I need to loosen up.

Melbourne

We've just had a few days in Melbourne to see number two's new play!!! As a writer, not an actor ... it is very exciting to see an actual professionally performed production written by our child. The play was great - very funny, very well-paced and, entirely objectively, a work of complete genius that should be studied by future generations :) It had a two week run with good houses and mostly good reviews - as in largely positive but with some criticisms - and all in all a wonderful experience in going from draft script to closing night. We are obviously very impressed!

And of course a few days in Melbourne is always a nice change. Number two has moved flats again so we got to explore another new part of town - an airbnb on the 10th floor this time. It was a really nice area, and good to see the spread of the city out to the edges. 

We caught up with old friends who lived on the bay, so went for a walk with them. It's not one of the world's great beaches but good to walk your dog, and there's some nice swimming spots. 

We went out to Abbotsford Convent which is now a community centre of varying stripes - beautiful gardens and interesting buildings. And had a poke around the shops in the middle of town of course (art supplies and yarn stores! yay!!!) and went and saw Book of Mormon which is having a Melbourne run. Hilarious, we laughed and laughed and listened to the soundtrack on the nine hour drive home. 

Wagon o' poo

Next step on the new bed was to dig in this wonderful load of horse manure, from the neighbours over the back, who have two miniature horses. Nothing miniature about these turds, let me tell you. We also had the neighbours over for a drink - it seemed a bit rude just to use them for their poo - which was very lovely; they are great company.

I think I will keep the seeds in pots over winter, our frosts can be quite brutal. But then I need a greenhouse! What to do? We got the guy who builds the veggie cages around and we are now planning how big we want it (probably 12 m by 9 m, for six beds plus fruit trees) so we can get a quote and get it built! Very exciting.

We've had a bit of rain so everything's green again, and the roses are getting another flush, which is affirming. I am not sure that I did anything right with the roses but they seem unstoppable. 

Here's a photo from July last year when I was worried I'd pruned a bit too close to the sun with the front beds ... and then one from a couple of days ago. Turns out, no need for concern! In fact it could probably do with a bit more of a tidy up this winter....