A late update

I have been as slack as all get-out in doing anything about this blog. However since I gave a few birding colleagues a roost about using blogs I have started to explore what can be done with this one. So here we are now.

We have survived most of our first Winter here and have pretty much settled in to the rural lifestyle. I suspect the stuff we have been really looking forward to enjoying is just about to start happening as the trees and bulbs start blooming and then the vegetables will start growing and being harvested. I'll try to summarise the first few months with some pictures below.







The first of these is a picture of the house and the main lawn. When we first moved in the area was in a major drought so the green lawn was a major feature.


Keeping the lawn in order required some attention, in ways that varied between seasons.





This is how it got mowed in Summer .









In Winter we got a bit of help from the locals.








I think I implied that the drought had broken? This photo was taken standing in our drive during a rather wet period in June. Fortunately I am looking down the Creek notdown our drive!












As well as the rain we have had some strong winds. The two in combination converted this Yellow Box (Eucalyptus meliodora) in the prostrate form (E. m. lateralis). It took me the best part of a week to saw up most of the beast and cart the wood off to a shed for storage. We have got about 3 tonnes of firewood sawn up; another 2 tonnes waiting to be sawn; 6 sacks of kindling and 3 trailer loads of foliage being used in erosion control on the top of the property. Fixing up the internal fence which got creamed by the descending tree has taken a further couple of days, and still requires a bit of thought to get it looking more or less fixed.

This is a view looking up from the ford over Whiskers Creek towards the house. It is a somewhat arty-farty photo showing some of the 300 daffodils Frances has planted. A careful look might let you see the wire netting around the beds: this was to stop the 'roos and rabbits from munching the bulbs. In fact the only trespasser seems to have been a wombat, and that merely blundered through (until I strengthened the supports for the mesh).
Having mentioned rabbits I will now emulate the most Wascally of Wabbits and say "Tttthhhhatts All Folks" until I compose another bit.

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