Not dead yet

I was just checking on my plants and was very excited to see that the Bird of Paradise that was on it's last leaf, is actually looking a bit healthy.

It has some new growth and fingers crossed it is going to come back.

I also noticed that we are about to get our first bottle brush flower (Purple Cloud Calistemon) which is pretty exciting!!

Yes, small things make me happy :-)

Haemorrhaging Money

Andy is 'shirking' at home yet again today..............

As many of you are aware I sail on Saturdays and one of members of the crew is soon to be Andys boss again. After the race on Saturday I said to him 'for gods sake Seppo (he's an american from some place called n'york), get andy back to work with you ASAP as she is running about 'doing' lunch with her mates and boosting the profits of the local nurseries spending money while she is supposedly 'working' at home !!

As she dropped me off at the train station this morning I asked her what she had to buy today. She correctly answered 'wood for the deck........ ' , but then followed it up with '......but I also might just pop into a nursery just for a look'

Dear reader, Andy going into a nursery for a look, is like an alchoholic popping into a bar ........ just for a look

But then again its also like me going on ebay 'just for a look'

Peace out :)

J

Stage 6 started

8:00am Saturday morning and John jumped out of bed, quickly finding something to wear because Dave was coming to help put the posts in for the front entrance deck thingo.

Of course there was a tight deadline to adhere to ... 23 degrees, slight breeze and he was going sailing for the day so there was much to be done before he left!!

So step 1 complete and we have 3 pink posts at the entrance (pink so we didn't run into them and knock them while the concrete was setting).

I'm at home tomorrow (working .. ha ha) so after lunching with a friend I'll head down to Mitre 10 to pick up the wood that we need for the bearers. Then stage 2 will be complete on Monday then it's Dave on the job to finish off the deck.

I did get a giggle when we were talking about what needed to be done though .... Dave was trying to be extremely polite about John's 'lack of knowledge with deck building' and made it blatantly clear that as he wanted the job done 'properly', he didn't want John to participate in Stage 3. All I could do was giggle. Of course it was me that received the middle finger :-)

Photos of the front ... at Stage 5

Stage 5 complete

Well yesterday I worked from home (read: worked in the garden). I enjoyed the morning driving around various nurseries, working out who had the best plants and were reasonably priced. Ended up going to my favourite nursery on Blackburn Road.

I also had a delivery of river pebbles for the garden beds and the path. As opposed to the black pebbles that were trialled and then painstakingly removed, I will NOT be removing these pebbles. Not that I want to .. they really look great.

So Stage 5 is now complete (photos to follow when hubby sends them to me).

Stage 6 is the entry deck ... we are relying on a neighbour to help us so we have to fit that in when he is able to. He is the king of the decks (that's decks with an 'e'). :-)

On an unhappy note however, I think one of my Birds of Paradise plants is going to die. He is looking very brown and unhappy and I have been told that no matter what I do it won't come back to life. I'll try cutting off the bad leaves and see if that helps. :-((

To my dear husband

Bite me

:-)

Ahhhh the Joys of Mobile Phones

Lonely Old Me..........
The minister for war and finace left town yesterday to go to Sydney for work. I spent the day at work planning the mischief I was going to get up to at home that night..... feet up on the coffee table, watching episodes of Stargate SG1, geeking out with my computers, eating macca's, Playing my xbox 360 and if I was feeling extra naughty, NOT USING A COASTER (HAHAHAHAHA Im so evil :-) ).

I was nearly home when the old boot called to nag me about how I dont listen to my voicemail messages. I listened intently, said 'yes dear' in the appropriate places and then told her that I was missing her too and if she felt the need, she could call me again later that evening to nag me some more if it made her feel better.

I was told in a rather loud voice the GET F'D !! Im hoping she meant that Im on a promise......... but Im tipping it will probably mean the couch again *sigh*

I am convinced dear reader that the original intent of a mobile phone is not to make business easier, not to make it easier to call and say that your caught up at work and going to be late, but rather to make it easier for that special someone in your life to give you an earful whenever she feels like it.

Still, I am looking forward to going to pick her up from the airport tonight :)

J

Brown thumb? I think not

OK ... so for those that have been following the saga of the front mud patch, you will remember that it has been a bit of trial and error. More error than anything (we remember you dear Nandina's).

Anyway ... after having a look back at the old pics of when we first put in the front garden bed, I think you will agree that something is going right because we have growth!!

This is the pic I took on the 17 July when we first planted the front bed:

Well this is the same garden bed (minus Nandina's) on Saturday ....

and my very first Rose!!!.....



And the new garden bed to the left of the house. From this ...



to this ...

This weekend I am hoping to put in some of the feature 'pebble' areas and plant up the little bed on the other side of the path.

Then will be the hebel wall, followed by mulching the rest of the front .. then finishing off the path.

For those that are interested, planted in the garden bed above are:

- Camelias (1 red and 1 white)
- Calistemon (1 red and 1 yellow)
- 3 x Bird of Paradise
- 4 x Boronia (the pink flowers)
- kangaroo paws (yellow and red varieties)
- Agapanthas along the border (white)
- Dietes (front border)

Cool huh! I like it anyway :-0

Marriage and landscaping don't mix

A little while ago I posted that John and I should never try landscaping together.

Well it appears in the moments of wedded bliss we forgot about our previous attempt and got stuck into digging the holes in the back yard for the paving area.

Went something like this ....

A: "Why do we have to dig so many holes?"
J: "Because they need to support the paved area. Just dig the hole will ya."
A: "But we're not holding up the Great Wall of China ... we are putting in some pavers."
J: "Just dig the hole will ya."
A: "Why are you over engineering this?"
J: "JUST DIG THE HOLE AND STOP YOUR BITCHING".

Aaaaah the joys of married life :-))

On a positive note however, ALL of the holes have now been dug (yes, I only dug 2 and the hero did the rest!!) and we have some of the biggest pieces of wood in the universe to act as the posts.

The front yard is starting to look good now. I have made a garden bed to the left of the house and have graded the front yard ready for finishing off. We are going to make a small feature wall out of Hebel blocks and in the next couple of weeks we are hoping to have the front deck finished.

We have also agreed that we will get the driveway done by Christmas so hopefully within a couple of months all I need to do is water my plants and keep the weeds out.

Andy out