Berry

We went with the garden club to visit some open gardens at Berry - a little town on the coast about a two hour drive away. The garden club took a bus but I am too motion sick to think about that so we drove separately ... good decision as the road is quite windy. All sealed (except for about 5 km) but still not something I'd be happy doing in a big bus.

The gardens were all lovely although Berry is a very different climate - higher rainfall, higher temperatures and not the deep frosts. It was stinking hot when we were there; only 32 degrees but humid enough to make the shade very welcome.

The gardens were all different but not really anything we felt we wanted to re-create at home, and not just for the climate differences. They were all very manicured - although, in fairness, if I was having several thousand people traipse through my garden I would have it quite manicured as well - and very designed. We did think that having a bit of garden art might be a good idea though. This ballerina framed a view and looked super cool.

Some of the broader views were just amazing. So lush.

This photo was taken in an old turpentine  plantation where they'd kept the big trees and underplanted entirely with shade loving plants. And lots of seats (we need to put in more seats). It was really charming, and not just because it was out of the sun. 

Summer weather

We've had some hot and windy days here - hotter than usual for this time of year and things are starting to dry off quite quickly. It is still flowery and green but I'm not sure for how much longer - although we are meant to have storms tomorrow. The changeability of spring...

I took advantage of a hot dry day to scrub the wool rug that was in front of the fire and showing signs of  soot ... as suggested by absolutely no-one (including Ikea who made it) I hosed it off, scrubbed it with hand soap and laid it out on the grass to dry. It worked surprisingly well, and was a very good task to spray the hose about after getting super hot from weeding.

I did the little rug too. Friends brought it back from Esfahan in Iran when they went on holiday there about 20 years ago ... other friends were there on posting and we would have liked to go and visit, but it's not really feasible with two very small children. And I don't know if I'd go now, the age window for adventurous travel might have closed. Not that Iran is particularly adventurous, you can do it quite luxuriously I think. Anyway they make a nice rug and it's held up well to constant wear.

So here is something completely different on the needlework front - a crazy quilted pillow! We had a lesson at quilters with one of the ladies who is an amazingly accomplished crazy quilter and has absolute buckets of glorious laces and beads and braids and fabric to do it with. The piecing is quite straightforward but then you spend ages and ages embellishing ... shiny things and fancy things and pretty things and all the embroidery stitches (well, not from me, I only know three stitches but I did them in different colours). 

I very much enjoyed doing one block but that was about my limit, so I made it into a pillow and it sits looking very old-fashioned in our very old-fashioned front room. Good to do something entirely different. 

Yet more flowers

The flowers keep popping up and looking pretty. We are still working our way around the beds, with a LOT of mowing, and a big project to fix the dodgy footbridge over the creek. The roses are gratifyingly healthy despite my massive prunes. The pompom tree is out and we can see it from the dining table.

The clematis is a very pretty pink and just about to explode in blossom.

Most of the irises are purply but this is a lovely pink ruffly one.

Here is purple iris with purple lavender and purple sweet peas. And many happy bees.

And in non-flower gardening news we put to use our new incinerator ... tractor guy asked if we wanted a 44 gallon drum (only possible answer 'of course' even though we had no idea what to use it for) ... he put some holes in the bottom so we can burn rubbish that's too bitsy to chip, too twiggy to compost, too small to use in the fireplace and not enough to take to the tip. Not 100% sure it's legal but we figure on a nice calm day what harm could we do.

We started with the personal documents we forgot to take into work for shredding before we retired. Very satisfying.

And finally an after shot of the buddleia bed - the buddleia was higher than the garage roof but appears to have survived its hacking. We're not sure what the long term planting will be - it's a rare north-facing bed along the shed wall so we might need the micro-climate for something more delicate. But in the meantime, it's (largely) under control.

Arty things

I'm still going along to the weekly art classes and enjoying my adventure into pastels. The next project was a drawing of our shed. It was a learning experience and I'm not super thrilled with the result ... but I definitely learned something.

This is the photo I drew from. 

I also went along to the art group drawing sessions on Saturday (bar open) where we drew with non-traditional materials this time; sticks, blossoms, bark, feathers... it was actually heaps of fun but I'm not sure if the end result is any good. Drawing with sticks is hard!!!

We were drawing a heap of branches/flowers so if you squint you can see pine needles and waratah flowers and dead agapanthus heads in there. Kind of. 

I knitted some socks

I'm not a knitter - I know the basic stitches but have never done anything more adventurous than dishcloths and scarves. But I have always wanted to knit socks, and I love all the pretty sock yarn, so I did some googling, found the most basic pattern that also had a real-time Youtube instructional video (Crazy Sock Lady's vanilla socks pattern, can 100% recommend) and I went and KNIT SOME SOCKS.

I am most unreasonably pleased with myself. The needles are smaller and the yarn finer than I'm used to, and it took ages. There are heaps of mistakes and I think I made them too big ... but still, I knit some socks. It has a slip stitch heel and a gusset and everything. Unbelievable.

I have cast on another pair already. Same pattern but I'm hoping it won't take three months this time.

First swim of the summer

We had the usual unseasonably hot week that happens sometime in October and surprises everyone every year ... it is usually a sitting week and was again this year but guess what? it doesn't matter! I can go to the beach for a few days anyway!!! Hahahahaha, the novelty has not yet worn off.

The sun was warm but the water was COLD. I wore a wetsuit and still did a lot of squealing. I was on my own so ate a lot of potatoes and made more library bags for the local school ... the quilt group has a mysterious stash of fabric that washes into the shed. Donations I guess but it's fun to dig through and make library bags from.

Yes Pam, 1830s is definitely considered deeply historic. Canberra heritage lists buildings from the 1930s for fun so anything European-built from the nineteenth century is like the middle ages round here. 

Bedervale

Another Arts Trail activity we did was go out to Bedervale, which is a historic homestead just out of town. It's interesting because it had seven generations of one family there from the 1830s - who never threw anything out - then passed to the current owners in the 1970s who sold the contents to the National Trust to raise some cash but kept everything in place. It's unusual in Australia to get something with original contents; often they buy them back in when they start opening it to the public. 

It has the most amazing setting just on the other side of the ridge line from town. It was a beautiful day with a very big sky ... they'd invited a plein air painting group out for the weekend so the gardens were dotted with happy people behind easels and wearing shady hats. We did a house tour too which was fun - the owners still live there but not in the older rooms, which were freezing. It must be impossible in winter. 

We continued to get ideas beyond our station in life ... and available gardening manpower. At one point is was 36 000 acres - mostly cattle - with 58 cottages on the property - mostly convicts - and self contained with everything from blacksmith to granary. Serious outbuildings and lovely old trees.

We'd met the current owner at gardening club, so were able to ask some more detailed questions about planting ... including a wonderful bunya pine. They take 100 years to grow but I think we're going to plant one anyway.