23 Feb 2018

It's so easy to get a bit behind . . . Hopefully I'll catch up a bit this week. Although it has taken me a few days to write this post so we shall see!

The 23rd Feb was last Friday and a special day for Sunshine who turned  6 years old! Sunshine loves unicorns!

We all went to her party at home, a family dinner, hosted by Moneypenny and A-M Prof. It was a lovely time. Spending time with the grandchildren is always special. I had cuddles with Blossom as I walked her in the baby carrier. At nine months old she is a bit heavy for me to just carry in my arms. She was tired and I was able to get her off to sleep for a while.

Earlier in the day I went to my Life group and when I got home I found Braveheart, Halfpint and Battler had come over. Frosty got busy with the weedeater and later Braveheart got stuck in as well. It was great as they got a lot of the backyard mowed which means it looks quite a bit tidier  😁

While Frosty was busy further up the back I got busy picking up all the fennel I'd cut down a couple of days ago. I filled a whole chook feed sack!

A number of years ago Boar brought home some old ceramic stormwater pipes and dug them in as garden features. There was one that had a sycamore growing out of it and Braveheart managed to get that one out . . . after removing the pipe from the ground! Another one had a clump of grass in it and I managed to get it out without removing the pipe from the ground.

The roots had found their way all the way to the bottom of the pipe!

I think I'll plant some herbs or a creeper type plants in the pots. Something useful and pretty to look at.

The next challenge was to clear one of the gardens. In the photo below there are two gardens. The windbreak and wood sticking up in the air is actually a taller frame we built quite a number of years ago. Underneath it is one of the shorter frames. They are both on the higher of the two gardens. The one I began clearing is below it . . . yup, the one with all the blackberry, long grass and weeds etc! According to my old garden diary notes it is garden number seven.

I pottered away, after putting on my leather gloves because blackberry = thorns. Over about an hour I had cleared half to two-thirds of the garden bed. It was made a lot easier as the grass had been mowed in front of the garden. Before this it would have been quite high, nearly the height of the garden, if not higher! There is still a clump of fennel in the corner of the garden, well the stalks have been cut off. It will get dug out.

I cut up all the blackberry stems and for now have put them under the seat so no young children stand on them. They run up the back barefoot so thorns in feet would not be a good thing!

That was it for that day! A good day where quite a lot was done. The party at the end of the day was a lovely way to finish the day  😊