My Helper

It's funny - at home, Buster is my helper around the garden.
He's always hanging out with me.
But when we come over to Pendlebury Hill, Skeeter is the one who keeps me company.

Here Skeeter and I are picking the Granny Smiths off the apple tree.
These will become Green Apple Jelly which is the base for many of
Christine Ferber's jam recipes.
I'm going to attempt two of hers this year:
Apple Jam with Caramel
and Apple jelly with Ceylon Strong Breakfast Tea.

In the above photo we have some weeds.
A bit of a climbing geranium.
The northern side fence.
A half dead Photinia tree - (who knew they were trees? I thought they were just hedges).
Two new wild plum bushes - I cut one tree down and got 2 in its place!
And some bulb type arrangement.
Anyone know what it is?
A Nerine?




Photos: 28th March, 2011

First One!

My very first raspberry.
And it even tasted like one!



RASPBERRY 'CHILLIWACK'
Photo: 30th Dec 2010

Cold Drinks!

So exciting to have a fridge at Pendlebury Hill.
Now I can keep some homemade lemon cordial nice and cold for those
days when I'm digging in the garden like a mad woman and my face
goes red like a beetroot.
And milk for my cups of tea.

Loving my yellow macrame owl Leigh sent to me.



Photo: 10th December, 2010

This is a bit gross......

but it's kind of beautiful, too.





Musk lorikeet.




Photo: Pendlebury Hill - 5th Dec, 2010

Spring 2010

Well, it's nearly a year now, since we became the owners of Pendlebury Hill, and progress has been very slow but that's okay, it was always meant as a hobby.
The fence needs painting.
We HAVE painted the other side at "other house"- a nice paley eucalypty green - but it takes A LOT of paint - it's over 50mt long.
When the weather is sunnier and hotter - we'll do it then - in that same nice green.
Over on the left is the beginning of a flat pad for Hester the Fiesta caravan, but it isn't level so we are filling it with dug-up concrete and other bits and pieces.
And where that pinky-rose and lavender is - that will be flattened out and paved with crooked old bricks to make a nice outdoor eating area under the big old gum tree.

This is Felicia- pretty, isn't it?
I'd like to strike some more from cuttings to put around the garden.
I love the big purple poofy clouds it makes.

The apricot tree.
I put bags of manure under it during winter coz it was looking a bit sad last year.
It certainly did wonders for the weeds!!!!
They've gone berko.
We'll put layers of newspaper down and lots of pea straw to keep the weeds at bay and keep the moisture in during the heat of summer.

Succulent and (again) more weeds.
Not in the garden bed where we managed to paper and bark but
in the cracks of the stones - sneaky devils.


Photos: iphone - 31st Oct, 2010

Where it Begins

~ a crappy old shed to call my own and I'm in heaven!



Late last year, in an attempt to add to our nest egg and stave off old-age penury, we bought a house in town to lease out to tenants.
Because, when Vince and I reach retirement age -
which, with the way the govt keeps pushing it out,
will be somewhere in the vicinity of 85 -
the govt pension will cease to exist.

(ummm...just in case you're confused, these photos are of the shed not the house)



I've always been very paranoid about being destitute in my old age.
I don't know where this insecurity comes from.
Perhaps I can blame 'A Current Affair'.
It's always showing stories about pensioners having to eat cat food coz they can't afford anything else.



Anyway........
the house came on nearly 1/2 an acre.
Tenants don't want to look after 1/2 an acre.
So, now we have 1/4 of an acre to puddle around in.



It comes complete with a crappy old iron fence.
A dirt road
(the property had dual street access).
A 4 room garden shed.
Electricity.
3 vegie patches.
Fruit trees - apricots, plums, and 6 different kinds of apples.
A big old gum tree.
Lots of native birds, parrots, kookaburras and wrens.
A rose garden.
A compost heap
and enough room for my vintage caravan, Hester.
(that's Hester, the Fiesta made in Mildura 1970 - I'll tell you about her
another day)




It's called Pendlebury Hill (after the original owner).
And I think it's the ants pants.




Photos:
Pendlebury Hill - Jan, 2010.