Here and Now .... new link-up fun to join in

..........and an update on my Mirrhi 

Thanks to everyone who commented on my last post with messages of support and concern. Mirrhi's certainly feeling better, and is pretty much back to normal, enjoying being outdoors and rolling happily around on the grass with her ball.....a different girl to the one who could hardly lift her head last week. 

As for me, not so happy.  I finally tracked down the attacking dog's owner, and unfortunately she was belligerent, argumentative and downright unpleasant, actually commenting, amongst other things, that the attack was probably Mirrhi's fault as she's part-border collie!  Apparently this breed is 'stand-offish and unlikable' and because of this, her dog isn't keen on them, and has had a go at another border collie in the past. She also made demands about wanting to see photos of the injuries, to be sure they warranted vet treatment, and in a recent email, intimated she won't pay the bill if I don't take photos of her injuries, not taking into account that Mirrhi's ear is still swollen, bruised and sore. I'm left a little speechless ....unusual for me!

***

So onto more pleasant things and Here and Now.  I've just started following Sarah at Say Little Hen, and her blog is full of happy chattiness about things I love like gardening, knitting, chickens......and border collies!  Her here and Now link-up encourages us to stop and look around, to think about, savour and recognise all our little moments, happy and not-so.  

So here goes, my first Here and Now......

Homegrown papaya

Chai tea in the mornings

Weeds crowding out the fig tree

No weeds !  A blank canvas ready to plant up.

Loving //  The cool nights and mornings of early autumn. The days can still be quite hot, but without the energy sapping humidity that our sub-tropical summers are known for.

Eating //  Papayas straight off the tree. One ready to eat, one still to ripen, and some left on the tree for the fruit bats. Delicious with a squeeze of lime from a neighbour's tree.

Drinking //  Water, water kefir and this delicious local chai, a gift from a friend to say 'thank-you'.

Feeling //  Tired from all the stress and worry over Mirrhi, upset at the other dog's owner's attitude, but relieved my girl is ok.

Making // Progress with getting the weeds under control after a hot,wet summer. Just doing a little every day makes it seem doable.....and my back thanks me.

Thinking //  About joining Sarah's Tea-Mouse knit-a-long

Dreaming //  About what I'll plant in my newly-weeded garden beds.

Linking with http://www.saylittlehen.com/

........till next time.

Delights

Fog across the river to the west

Hello Sun!

Rosy skies to the east

Mt Warning wreathed in colour

 I'm up and out early most days, I just can't get enough of this early morning light and colour. There's been fog the last few mornings, making everything look ghostly, then the sun burns through, revealing beautiful rosy skies and amazing clouds.

More delights to enjoy, with the arrival in the mail yesterday of these F2F blocks from Christina. Thanks Christina, perfect soft low-volume colours.  I just have one set still on it's way, and my own 3 to make, then I can start to play with lay-outs.  

On my to-do list today is making a start on Kate's F2F blocks. She's chosen this sparkling palette of black and white and lime green....nice! Kate has already received some gorgeous blocks, you can see them in the gallery, just scroll down almost to the end.   For those new to my blog.....or returning.....there's a blurb at the beginning of that gallery page, telling the F2F story.

This delightful girl has been waiting patiently for a while, with her ball at the ready, so we're off for a walk now. 

till next time.....

Catching

This handsome fellow glided in ever so quietly as I was having my first cuppa in the garden this morning.  It wasn't at all bothered by my presence or Mirrhi crashing and banging along the river bank, enjoying the smells of overnight visitors....... it was just focused on catching it's breakfast.

Across the river, the white cockatoos are still massed in their overnight roosts, waiting to catch the first warming rays of the sun.

A different kind of catching!

Enjoy your day

***

Scrappy March

Joining Angela at  superscrappy  and all the other RSC players again for the rainbow scrap challenge.  

Our colour for March is yellow and this is the last Scrappy Weekend for the month.

I made a wonky star right at the beginning of the month, but then my camera declined to work, so this is the first chance I've had to post some yellow.  I also made 4 yellow string blocks.   And as there's still a few days until the end of the month, I might get a chance to use up some more scraps.

Wonky star and string blocks

3 stars so far

I decided the yellow strings needed company, so made some pink and blue as well.

These aren't joined yet, I might want to make some in-between shades ...... blue-green, yellow-orange etc.....to link them together later when the challenge is finished.

Pop over to Angela's blog to see more yellow scrap projects.

It's been unseasonably hot and humid here, no cooling off yet for autumn, and too hot to do much in the garden or the sewing room, but I did pick a colander full of volunteer cherry tomatoes.

I cooked these up early one morning while it was still cool, and made some jars of tomato sauce, and then added eggplants, okra and zucchini to the remainder for a delicious ratatouille....all popped into the freezer for later.

And how's this for the cutest rainbow girl............the louvres in my kitchen have bevelled edges, and if the sun's in the right spot, they throw pretty rainbows through the house. Mirrhi just happened to be napping in the right spot.

'til next time ......

New Years Day

hee hee hee got a bit ahead of myself yesterday, post title should be new year's eve.....now it's new year's day!

Hello there...........

The day's already dawned hot and humid. the temp was 29 C overnight and is now 30C  and is set to climb to the mid/high 30s C.  I've been up since 5am and have done the laundry, walked the dog, tidied the house, cooked ratatouille/pasta sauce, veggies for the dog, pumpkin and seeds for the chooks and started a dish to take out to lunch tomorrow.  Phew!

Brenna eyeing something tasty

Speaking of pumpkins, I have this maurauding beast that's taking over the garden. it's a volunteer and doing really well and it's even growing baby pumpkins but it's smothering everything else.  And it's in my flower bed, not the veggie garden......not that you can tell that there's any flowers there any more!  My dilemma is do I leave it or pull it out? I hate to remove anything that's growing and thriving but it's sending out sticky fingers to grab more of my garden for itself.  It has a lot of flowers, and I'm wondering just how many pumpkins I can eat or give away.  It probably doesn't help that I don't like pumpkin soup, or that could be a good solution. I think it might have to go, what do you think?

pumkins forming

Now these tendrils can climb and spread, I don't mind, they're on my cucumber plants.......with a companion spider.

Hmm, maybe one plant would've been enough?

I've been getting into the garden in the cool early morning, or late evening......good old daylight savings! and doing some tidying and rearranging in the veggie patch.  This messy spot was full of radishes, collards, silver beet and calendulas, a few weeds too.  All gone now, and will be replaced by some trees, not sure what yet apart from a pomegranate and maybe a pawpaw.   I want plants that will grow tall enough to give some privacy from next door, and to shade the side of the house from the vicious afternoon sun.

Looks like this now, I left the parsley there.  still some weeds to be dug up.....sigh!

And I added this raised bed to the other side of the patch,  for beans, capsicums and some lettuce, or bok choy. The beans will grow tall enough to shade the lettuce.  Collards in the background, left there for the chooks, this bed will eventually go too, and be replaced by fruit trees.  Spring onions in a styrofoam box to the left. I planted these 2 years ago, and they just keep producing for me, even when I neglect them.

Just one more game, pleease.

 I was given this sweet potato plant, so popped it in a tub on the side path.  It provides some green and a splash of colour in an otherwise hot and boring area. And....it won't take over the garden!

Molly in a contemplative mood, using the kitchen floor as camouflage 

 I'm off to the Farmer's Market now, want to come too?  Oh good, I'll take my camera with me and you can see the sights tomorrow next post.

I'll leave you with new year wishes.....have fun whatever you do tonight, stay safe and don't worry about making resolutions, just decide to have more of everything.

 til next time..........

What's that dog looking at

We have some regular night-time visitors, and as soon as Mirrhi heads outside, she looks for them, and is instantly riveted when one is spotted.  She knows all their hiding places and gently sniffs around, under and on until she suddenly goes on alert and points her big snout in the visitor's direction. ( The odd yellow cast to the pictures is from the yellow fluorescent light which is meant to keep insects and bugs away.)

Oh look! I think I've spotted one.

Yes, there it is, on the shoe cupboard.........a big green frog!

 

A quiet reminder to "be gentle" and she hunkers down very slowly and carefully.  Frog stays still while she edges closer.....

.... and closer

Mmmm, love this froggy 

Oh bliss - touching.....but still ever so gentle

Ok dog, you've had your fun, time to leave, places to go, bugs to eat.

Oh, no, please come back out, don't go.

 There's actually about four or five frogs that gather nightly for supper under the outdoor lights, and sing very loudly in the downpipes when it rains.  They're very welcome visitors to my garden, and a sign that it's a very healthy space.

Til next time..............

Let's all light up...and in the garden

I haven't been posting much lately.  I've not been at my best, because of my new neighbour who is a heavy smoker, and spends her days on her deck, enjoying the sunshine and fresh air, and smokes the day away.  While I have to close my house up tight to try and prevent the smoke coming in.  It doesn't work.  I'm living in a dirty ashtray!  And the smoke makes me terribly, horribly sick.  And sad, and mad.....in varying degrees at varying times.  The smoke has infiltrated my whole life......my house and yard smell, my animal's coats smell, my car parked under the house, smells, my clothes, fabrics and knitting wools smell.  I can't use my deck, because the fresh smoke blows across onto it.  I'm not in a good place, physically and emotionally. I've spoken to her about how her smoking so close to my house affects me, but there's been no change.

But I can still escape to my garden.  I've been slowly turning this weedy area that I've fenced off, into garden beds, it's my space where no feathered or 4 legged creatures are allowed.  There was really nice lawn growing here, but this side of the yard gets the most sun, so it seemed silly to waste it on lawn.  It's been hard work though, and it seemed as quickly as I  dug the grass out, the weeds crowded in because I wasn't able to get to the next stage quickly enough.

 

But here it is, a week later, and I've cleared a large area and put two beds in.  They've been prepared  with compost, composted horse and chook poo, and rock minerals.  Today I finished putting trellises in for the beans, peas and broad beans that'll be planted here, with greens.....kale, bok choy and Asian cabbage .....planted in front.  Photos of that in another post when I've planted up.

 

..............and here's one I prepared earlier.  In here there's cabbage, rocket, kale, silver beet and collards, a couple of parsley plants and climbing the wire fence on the left are sweet peas.  It's very satisfying to wander out and gather a good handful of greens for a meal.  The cabbages will be shared with the chooks!

 

On the other side I've started potatoes in used chicken food bags.  These are Nicolas, and I noticed today they're sending up shoots already.  I'll keep covering the shoots with soil and rolling the bags up, until the shoots reach the top......then I'll wait for the yummy harvest.  I grew potatoes this way a couple of years ago, and had a wonderful crop. 

 

And here's a couple of things that remind me there's lots to be happy and thankful for when I feel like I'm taking my last gasp through the smoke haze......this beautiful face

 

and the colours of an autumn sunrise...............

 

 

.....till next time.

all that rain

 

Mirrhi was excited to find "her" park was a lake when we headed out for our walk yesterday morning.  Constant heavy rain for nearly 24 hours had resulted in some localised flooding and the river breaking it's banks.  This park across the road from my house is usually a grassy play area for the school on the corner and local dogs.....the fence encloses the playground equipment.

 North towards the bridge and 'Hospital Hill'......we usually walk under that bridge to a park on the other side....not this time, we'd have needed a boat!

 

Looking towards town across the river.....people come and fish at that gap in the reeds



I took these photos late in the afternoon when the water had already gone down a bit, it was still raining too heavily when we walked in the morning to take photos.  The reeds in the centre of the above photo mark the river's edge and stand about 2-2and half metres tall.  We usually walk along there, but stayed on the top of the levee bank yesterday.  Once the rain stopped the sun came out and the afternoon was hot and steamy.

 Looking west to Mt Warning and houses on the opposite side of the river

 

 Ibis flying home at sunset

 

 The road home....underwater, too deep to wade through

 

 Early morning today....most of the water has drained away and everything was quiet and spooky- looking with fog.  Birds come in from all over and enjoy the feast of insects and worms, frogs and whatever else lives in the mud.  One year when it flooded we had hundreds of pelicans swimming gracefully along the park, enjoying all the bounty.  The noise last night was deafening as the frogs...those not eaten.....came out to play.

The sun's out now and I have a muddy chook run to muck out!

Whatever your weather, enjoy your weekend..........