Another day in the life
Several months back I put up a post about how we filled in our days now that we are no longer wage slaves. Here is another one of those.
We got up at 6am and had a cup of coffee:
Back to the house (close to 8am) and my immediate task is to give the small dog her food for the day. Frances has meanwhile started her daily foray into weeding the periwinkle from the garden bed on the Eastern end of the house. This gives my second job of emptying the barrow full of periwinkle from yesterday onto my bonfire heap. (For those not familiar with periwinkle, count your blessings: it is an incredibly invasive weed and I suspect very resistant to composting. It probably won't spread after a good dose of flames )
Next task is to pick the strawberries. Still quite a good crop. While doing this I notice a rather unpleasant smell. After reviewing my shower situation for the last few days reckon it isn't me and mentally schedule looking for dead things later in the day. Having picked the fruit off the strawberries I start cleaning the plants up so as to encourage a second crop. By the time that is finished it is close to 10am and time for another cuppa,
Before doing that I find a phone message from another resident of Carwoola talking about a bird nesting in his hayshed/garage. For the time being that is simply recorded as an interesting observation, but I must go and photograph it sometime.
About this time Frances finishes the main weeding task and moves on to other duties. Small dog comes indoors having spent two hours chasing things - mainly reptiles, and as far as we can determine with legs - around in the fenced garden bed, and munching on a bone. I remove the wire mesh from around the patch where we grew broad beans - the mesh is to keep the small dog out, since this is prime reptile habitat. The mesh is installed around some olive trees, which are hopefully going to fruit this year, to persuade the 'roos to keep away.
Some acacias have started to droop over the drive and some cypress trees are blocking my way to an area of the garden. These both get pruned and the resultant mess added to the bonfire heap. (Note: the existence of the bonfire heap indicates my optimism that at some point in the next 6 months we will get enough rain to allow me to light up the pile.) I have noticed that the Common Bronzewings (fat pigeons for the ornithologically-challenged) are appearing regularly to munch on the seed.
I then had lunch and checked emails etc. At that point Frances comes in and says that she has also noticed rather unpleasant odour, but while she was fixing up the tomatoes. This caused me to remember my added chore so I went to look for dead stuff. Eventually I found a 3 foot long brown ex-snake tangled in the bird netting around our currant bushes. It was not only dead but blown: cutting it out of the net was one of the least pleasant tasks I have ever done. A 3-week dead possum in a fireplace was bad, but that could be removed with a shovel: this snake required up and close and personal attention. Despite having just had lunch I didn't puke, but I did dry retch several times.
A main task in the afternoon was carting several barrow-loads of mulch to place around the olive trees. This is further evidence of hope that we get some rain this epoch so that there is water to conserve.
The small dog was taken for a prowl around my Garden Bird Survey site to see what was around. She loves coming for these walks, but it must be very frustrating for her since I am convinced that most of the smelly things she identifies have less than 2 legs. Thus she doesn't get to follow up on them. We didn't find many birds!
Not exciting, but I have no memory of feeling in the slightest bored during the day.
We got up at 6am and had a cup of coffee:
- me sitting at my 'pooter checking emails and what has gone on in the world;
- Frances sitting up in bed reading an art book; and
- small dog (without a cup of coffee) sitting with Frances.
Back to the house (close to 8am) and my immediate task is to give the small dog her food for the day. Frances has meanwhile started her daily foray into weeding the periwinkle from the garden bed on the Eastern end of the house. This gives my second job of emptying the barrow full of periwinkle from yesterday onto my bonfire heap. (For those not familiar with periwinkle, count your blessings: it is an incredibly invasive weed and I suspect very resistant to composting. It probably won't spread after a good dose of flames )
Next task is to pick the strawberries. Still quite a good crop. While doing this I notice a rather unpleasant smell. After reviewing my shower situation for the last few days reckon it isn't me and mentally schedule looking for dead things later in the day. Having picked the fruit off the strawberries I start cleaning the plants up so as to encourage a second crop. By the time that is finished it is close to 10am and time for another cuppa,
Before doing that I find a phone message from another resident of Carwoola talking about a bird nesting in his hayshed/garage. For the time being that is simply recorded as an interesting observation, but I must go and photograph it sometime.
About this time Frances finishes the main weeding task and moves on to other duties. Small dog comes indoors having spent two hours chasing things - mainly reptiles, and as far as we can determine with legs - around in the fenced garden bed, and munching on a bone. I remove the wire mesh from around the patch where we grew broad beans - the mesh is to keep the small dog out, since this is prime reptile habitat. The mesh is installed around some olive trees, which are hopefully going to fruit this year, to persuade the 'roos to keep away.
Some acacias have started to droop over the drive and some cypress trees are blocking my way to an area of the garden. These both get pruned and the resultant mess added to the bonfire heap. (Note: the existence of the bonfire heap indicates my optimism that at some point in the next 6 months we will get enough rain to allow me to light up the pile.) I have noticed that the Common Bronzewings (fat pigeons for the ornithologically-challenged) are appearing regularly to munch on the seed.
I then had lunch and checked emails etc. At that point Frances comes in and says that she has also noticed rather unpleasant odour, but while she was fixing up the tomatoes. This caused me to remember my added chore so I went to look for dead stuff. Eventually I found a 3 foot long brown ex-snake tangled in the bird netting around our currant bushes. It was not only dead but blown: cutting it out of the net was one of the least pleasant tasks I have ever done. A 3-week dead possum in a fireplace was bad, but that could be removed with a shovel: this snake required up and close and personal attention. Despite having just had lunch I didn't puke, but I did dry retch several times.
A main task in the afternoon was carting several barrow-loads of mulch to place around the olive trees. This is further evidence of hope that we get some rain this epoch so that there is water to conserve.
The small dog was taken for a prowl around my Garden Bird Survey site to see what was around. She loves coming for these walks, but it must be very frustrating for her since I am convinced that most of the smelly things she identifies have less than 2 legs. Thus she doesn't get to follow up on them. We didn't find many birds!
Not exciting, but I have no memory of feeling in the slightest bored during the day.
Comments
Glad things are ticking along nicely for you.
Cheers
Denis