And a woman needs a garden bed…

Yes, I wanted a garden bed in front of the fence for a long time. But just the thought of digging that soil to make it, let me  very doubtful it would ever happen.

Then when the pile of freshly excavated dirt kept growing during the making of The Shed, I started making plans and  finally went into action.

After three days and 34 wheelbarrows (only 20 {woman} shovel full at a time though) of  rich and heavy soil  (wet with the showers) going up the driveway, I finally had the start of my garden bed…

I won my bet with Svenne who said I would only need a third of it and I used over half of it...

Planting all the cuttings I had made previously  was much easier and hopefully will grow better. (I call it "Determination"...

We bought 2 large bales of hay mulch, which fitted snugly and perfectly in the trailer.

And after spreading it generously  around the plants it now looks like a real garden bed. The rain we've had recently is helping them  and (as a bonus), I've noticed a few nasturtium plants starting to shoot (from the seeds that were in the relocated soil from the shed).

My next project is to weed out the rest of the place  and spread mulch. I swear weeds start growing back as soon as you turn your back on them. Hopefully the mulch will slow them down a bit, ...for a while at least.

Meanwhile, the bananas are getting bigger,  (when will they ripen???)

The passion fruits, chokoes, oranges, custard apples and  lemons  are producing more than we can eat.

Free lemons anyone??? 

A man needs a shed…

When we moved to our new home, a little over two years now, this place only had one garden shed, which became quite quickly  chockablock  with paint, tools and other things, not to mention the ride on.

So the quickest way to have more storage, was to erect a second garden shed, next to the first one.

Then, this one became very similarly jammed with all sorts of things.

One day, in March, Svenne decided he wanted "A" shed, "A" real shed, "A" man's shed!

And so began the making of this little beauty. All made with recycled material (apart from the roof).

You have to understand that this is a hobby job… Something he 's working at in between other jobs and rain showers which have been with us almost every day. We're not complaining though, as we needed it after a very dry summer.

Here is the step by step development of the "Grand Shed'.

First the digging and erecting the posts...

Then came the roof...

First wall...

The relocation of the first shed and concreting...

Second wall... and window...

More digging and removing tree roots and concreting...

Making the drain...

Third wall and door...

The relocation of the second shed and concreting...

Fourth wall, window and double doors...

It's taking shape all right. 

However, there's still more digging to do… and concreting… and flashing... and connecting electricity... and shelving… and finding a place for everything ...and putting everything in its place!  

And after a good coat of paint it will become "Svenne's Grand Shed"

January 2013 - Part Three

With the mercury high and rising, (as you can see by the melted candles we have in the kitchen…)

 We decided to invest in a pool, but needed a slab for it. So, "sitôt dit, sitôt fait"  (French for no sooner said than done) that's how I describe Svenne… form work went up. But we needed some fill, so  we went to the…. Tip and collected 2 loads of rocks in the ever so useful van.

When it was time for the concreting to start, we discovered this spider, living in the concrete mixer, quite big and a bit scary.

There must be a few living around as I almost walked through this one, one night,

when we went toads hunting.

At last the slab was poured and cured 

And we could set up the pool.

Ahhh! What a relief from the heat…

BUS FOR SALE - SOLD!

Since we've been living in Yungaburra," Kvinna" (the bus) hasn't been moving except for short trips every couple of weeks to keep her in good nick.

For the last 10 years, we had such good times  with this motor home. Went places (Sydney, Cooktown, Tasmania, Tinaroo, to name a few) to escape the hustle and bustle of Cairns. Our favourite place was Kauri Creek (Tinaroo Lake), where we'd go camping…  every couple of months.

She was very comfortable thanks to Svenne who has done a lot of work inside... and always reliable.

But what's the use of having a motor home if you don't use it? Let's face it. We don't need to go anywhere any more in order to relax. This is the place!

So we came to the conclusion that it was better to sell her. And it didn't take long for somebody to grab a good deal!

This is how she looked.

  

It was hard to let her go and say goodbye, but she still has some guts in her and deserved to go places.

Her new owners are Roel and Luke, and we wished them all the best in their travels around Australia.

 Who knows… we might still see her again one day, as they said they would come past when they come back to Cairns. …

Goodbye Kvinna and Have fun!

January 2013 - Part Two

The rain also helped the Surinam cherries to plump up and ripen. We've had so many falling on the ground and it was Freja's delight to gobble them up.

Then she helped her full belly to digest by lying in the sun. Her favourite spot and position…

I managed to finally make some jam and jelly from all the collected fruits . But Oh!  What a job! Spending a good hour to take the pips out of them before I could cook them...

They turned out good but I was a bit disappointed with the loss of the very definite taste that you get when you eat them raw.

I don't think I will try that again  as it is so time consuming. But who knows. Maybe next year I will change my mind.

We celebrated Australia Day with a good Aussie dinner (snags, baked potato smothered with sour cream, creamed corn, beetroot, mint peas and of course… fried onions). And last but not least a nice cold VB.

Freja paid reverence to the Aussie Flag, lying on the landing of the "look out".

I couldn't resist to put this picture of fungi that look so much like a miniature  parasol.

And the moon (as always) was stunning.

To be continued...

January 2013 - Part One

All up in January we had 372 ml of rain (only). But we're not complaining as it has contributed to the greening up of the grass  and are keeping the cows happy.

It also helped the lake water to come up a little bit and have these spoonbills and birds contented for now.

On one of our trips to Cairns, we saw the Pyramid flowing again with water.

I've never seen this pot plant flowering  and it looks stunning just looking at the formation of the flowers before they bloom.

And then blooming and attracting the honey eater with their sweet nectar.

The snakes have been particularly active this year, like this python... (Sorry quick picture and... I was running away...   ☺ )

So are the frogs (this one looks very different from the front,  probably to deter predators.)

And of course the bugs by the millions at night  and this not so humble moth.

To be continued…