of pootling about

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 27 April 2008 08:19:00

yesterday we did that ... I made ANZAC bikkies and a lamb chop casserole, I think that's about as creative as it got ... Mr Tasmania worked on his car and got some things done that he'd been talking about for at least a month, if not more!

We watched 'Death at a Funeral' - and loved it! How do the Brits put such hilarious films together? And it's a really quiet little film in a lot of respects, but there is absolute bedlam going on constantly! Loved it, will put it on the buy list!

Today we went up to town early as Mr Tasmania had to do some sanding of the bonnet of his dad's car and then spray paint it. We picked up the papers, he sprayed, I did a little remedial pruning on the clear felling job that a couple of siblings in laws did on the parents in laws garden, we went to church, then up to the block for some weeding and pruning. The grevilleas and bottlebrush, as previously mentioned, have gone berserk in the last month as we've had rain and sunshine, and the ground is still quite warm. A cold snap has come through today, which may be the beginnings of Winter. Anyway, I pruned the wild lairy arms off the grevilleas and brought them back to solid bushy lumps - we realised they'll have been in 12 months this May ... and have grown from spindly little things in 3 inch pots to vast 3/4 metre monsters ... they've still got a long way to go, with most of this lot eventually (I hope) being 2 - 2.5m high/across, but they've made a very very impressive start! I"m going to buy them some native plant fertiliser as a treat this week.

We're planning a big day up at the block next weekend.

We visited friends after that (Mrs Somerset looking VERY pregnant now) and have now come home to relax and read the papers. I'm still trying to regain my energy levels after 2 goes of gastro in the last three weeks so have piked out on walking JD - Mr Tasmania has headed off, enjoying walking the dog in daylight for a change! (We walk before sunrise and as the sun is setting at this time of year).

Ooo, and we stopped at the nursery in Somerset on the way home and I found a plant! Hooray, it's one I'd seen in a catalogue and really really wanted but had doubts that it would come to Tassie ... it's called "Purple Bl*b" and it's a sedum. It's going to be one of the plants I put in my new garden outside our kitchen window - yay! - more info here - http://www.pga.com.au/view_plant.asp?plant_id=221 - If you think of our house as a rectangle with a concrete porch stretching half way along a long side and out from the house about 3 metres ... you enter at the corner of the short/long edge under the porch roof (laserlite). At the other end of the porch, making up the rest of the long edge, is a small garden, which is directly overlooked by our kitchen windows. This currently has some self sown cot*neasters, the stump of a banksia serr*ta, and three dwarf conifers (planted by Mr Tasmania), as well as a couple of sad nasturtiums and some sweetpea seedlings. It's all covered in sawdust and cow manure and looks quite nice actually, however I've decided that I'm going to get large white pebbles and cover the whole thing with those, preferably the quartzy ones which shine when the light hits them, and make it into an annualish garden. I'll take out the cotoneast*r and b*nksia, keep the conifers, border with maybe black m*ndo grass or red fescue grass, and add things like the purple blob and maybe some houseleeks, which keep their colour and look interesting, and then add seasonal annuals. The white will make it bright all the time, the colours will look fabulous as you enter the house, sit on the porch, or look out the verandah windows. And I can work on it over winter, as I can whack in whatever flowering annual happens to strike my fancy in the potted colour section of the nursery on any given day - love it!

In answer to some questions ... Ian, if you go to my flickr site (Mrs Tasmania) there are pics which have bits of the garden in them - I'll put in other pics as time progresses. There's also some pics of me planting grevilleas at the block - these are of the first lot of 10, which have their first birthday next month.

and in answer to the question of what the gloves are - they're SHOWA brand, 370 Assembly grip - got no more info than that, sorry.