heritager and heritager

 When I said I wanted to look Monetesque in the garden, I had something like this in mind:

Lauren Bacall, the heritage bicycle, is, of course, all over it.

Here she's seen surveying the Broad Bean Magic Square,

and here she is flagging after a day on location.

After the excitement last week of discovering I had a heritage bicycle, we discovered this week that our house is heritage listed!  This was rather startling news from Council, but nothing we can't handle given what our attempt to make modifications to the house keeps encountering.  Yesterday we were told it was a mistake.  Disinheritaged.

One constant is the pleasure I derive from my contact with the school.  I did Lunch Project prep again on Wednesday.  As I was leaving, the Book Week Parade had just returned:

Handy man

 Steve has developed a passion for drawing hands, so here are my hands doing what I do best.

I was wandering through the garden when he approached me in artist mode.  I was feeling Monetesque.  Perhaps the light was wrong.

Catch up, again

Thursday before last I caught the bus into Hobart.  I've been wanting to do this for a while.  It was a pleasure talking with a white horse and waving to Mr O'Henry and Jazz while waiting for the bus.  One of the reasons I wanted to travel this way was to not have to drive and to be up high so I could have a good look around.  I was particularly interested to see the native vegetation patterns close-up, something you can't really do when you're driving...  Very educational it was, and I arrived in Hobart itching to get home and start gardening.  Fortunately I'd promised myself a pain au chocolat and sushi, delights not available in Triabunna, so I managed to while away the 4 hours until the return bus.  I had a lovely time avoiding the main shopping drag and visiting the quirky little places I love.

yarn bombing seems to be having a renaissance in Hobart

On the bus on the way home, I saw the statues of Mawson's sled dogs wearing colourful woolen coats, but too late to take a photo.

Getting home, I was greeted with another of Judy F's sponges - most welcome after 1.5 hours return on the bus.  How the school kids do the trip twice a day is beyond me.

Can't remember the weekend, probably garden, garden, garden.  Sunday was the Village Market, including a British Car Rally.  I put in an appearance because Steve txt me to say it was the best Triabunna market ever, and I agree.  So many of my friends are there with stalls showing off their arts and crafts, it's like a party.  Naturally I didn't buy anything, but someone did give me $24 donation for the Suicide Prevention Network.

Monday I had the Breakfast Program at school, then stayed on to help with the Lunch Program.  Again, it's like a party with people I really like and admire, plus the kids get really good food - lasagne and salad, followed by baked apple and pear with yoghurt.  And they loved it.

Tuesday turned out to be frantic, starting with zumba and coffee which was the relaxing bit.  In the afternoon I had to fit in picking my bicycle up from a service, going to the library, cleaning the house a bit but particularly the bathroom for a builder to have a look at, and a webinar at 5pm.  Bruce, who runs the bike hire on Maria Island, is very impressed with my bike.  Remember Lauren?  The Bacall bicycle from Malvern Star?  Turns out she's vintage and a collectors' item, particularly if you also have the Bogart Men's Bicycle which I don't.  I promised Bruce, who is rather bike mad, to practise using my new bike pump on an old inner tube, plus executing smooth gear changes.  But time has not permitted so far.

platinum morning at Raspins Beach

Wednesday was School Sports Carnival, so no lunch to be prepared.  This gave me the chance to join the Orford Community Group planting out at Raspins Beach.  The plants, all native pigface, were grown at the Spring Bay Mill by the Pulchella Community Nursery LandCare Group - the plan is coming together.

I went home to enjoy my First Weekend (Wednesday afternoon and Thursday) but got a call from Amanda to say some council indoor staff were going to plant marigolds in the Vertical Garden.  I hot-footed it over there (ie over the road) and helped fill the containers with new soil.  Personally, I'm not too keen on petunias, pansies and marigolds in this space but I know lots of community members who'll love them.

and here's the Flying Pig and cyclamens in the space of the former carport,

there's some re-thinking going on around here

So, lots happening but not many photos.

Bird week

Bird Week is actually this week and these photos were taken last week, however it's been busy and I'm tired and devoid of ideas for meaningful blog post names.

So I named this post after the first photo.  Last week I set out to photograph my garden within an inch of its life to show you what's happening but then realised that may be a little dull for you, though wildly exciting for me.  I took this photo of a starling who was waiting for me to go away so she can nip into the roof of a cabin in the caravan park to feed her noisy chicks.

I have deleted a number of the photos and thought I would just show you how The Magic Squares are coming along.  This one is lying fallow waiting for Steve's tomatoes (which have since been planted).  The back drop is self-sown and I watch with interest.  Next to this square is

the pea plot, hopefully nitrogenating the soil for the next crop.  I also have leeks, miner's lettuce and corn salad in here.

The adjacent square lies fallow, though bordered on 2 sides by self-sown parsley and a cuppla poppies.

Next to this is the broad bean square, again hopefully nitrogenating furiously.

On the Monday we went en famille to Rosny Park to try to disentangle our building modifications' debacle.  Some progress was made.  En route we stopped at Seven Mile Beach so Jilly could have a romp before we did battle at Rosny.

As you can imagine, Jill PD was delighted by the doginess of the beach

and I am pleased to show you a beach without Maria Island in the background.

We all had a lovely time until Jill had a battle with a blue heeler and his mate.  Jill is definitely a lover not a fighter.  Having extricated ourselves unscathed we returned through the sand hills to the car.

This was a very good lesson for me.  Here is the native pig-face growing in sand.  No wonder it is struggling in my garden.

Likewise the native pelargonium.  I have it planted in a far too shady and damp spot.

After a very good but totally overloading meeting with  a building surveyor, we scurried back to Tribes

stopping at the Bushland Garden near Buckland to look at the new sculptures and be soothed by the waterfall.

Harbingers (from the week before last...)

It usually rains once the tamarisk is in its fully glory.  And rain it did, though somehow the flowers dried out and resumed their fluffiness.

I read Steve's Scorpio horoscope on Wednesday.  It more or less said 'If you think things are bad, they are going to get a lot worse'.  How do the stars know?  Firstly we had the news that things we thought our builder was doing re our building modifications had not been done, and that he is retiring!  Because we believed work was to begin in mid-October, Steve had organised for the demolition of the carport.

The chaps came on Friday evening and I must admit I rather liked the results.

rather a good look

They returned on Saturday with machines, and worked furiously.  It is disconcerting to see blokes standing outside the kitchen window.  I stayed well away in the garden so as not to give way to my control freak tendencies.  Steve reported to me that the carport was going to be a little bigger than expected...

Once they had driven away, I checked it out.  My cursing and raging rang through Triabunna, and possibly further.  The carport was going to go across out north-facing windows and block out all the sunshine which makes the house perfect all year round.  My wrath rained down on Steve, who was visibly shaken on many accounts.  I calmed down after about an hour and apologised.  We had a group sob in the laundry.

To further reconcile (and possibly build bridges) we drove to Orford to see where the bridge had been washed away in the heavy rains, and replaced in super quick time by a temporary one-lane affair.  We also had a calming ice-cream at the Fish Van.

Fortunately the Silver Princess allows calming contemplation.

Bolly Zumba

Anna, at the front of the photo, was supposed to be on tour in India this month.  She's very glad she's not and, whether to celebrate or commiserate I'm not sure, we decided to do Bolly Zumba on Tuesday.

What are ripping lot they are, though I still think Her Majesty on the left above looked more like a tiger hunter.  After zumba we all go to the East Coaster for coffee.  The staff always brace themselves for our number, and were very intrigued by our ensembles this week.

Back in the garden yesterday with the beautiful self-sown poppies and what was to be a soulful record of the back of our house, which was to be demolished and re-configured later in the month.  Not so.  An email from the builder this morning that has thrown plans into disarray.  I'll keep you posted.

I am toying with ideas for the orchard.  Currently, a Grande Allee with Steve's blue bowl as the focal point.

Steve's Golden Delicious is looking absolutely classical.

And yes FF, I have borage. It is self-sown but encouraged, like the poppies, and the bees really do love it.  I let the marigolds, dill and borage self-seed because they attract good pollinators into the garden.  Today (Thursday) it has rained all day, as forecast, and the garden is under water.  Sadly there is wind too, and I'm not looking forward to closing the Gatehouse.

a weekend for reading

I haven't been reading much lately.  Not quite sure why.  I had to take Mists of Avalon back to the library only 1/5 read.  Couldn't extend it because someone has a 'hold' on it.  The Land Girls book caught my eye at the library.  I've always thought I'd make a good Land Army candidate.  We had lovely, gentle, nurturing rain all weekend so I curled up and read the whole book.  It was an unexpected delight, and not just because of the fabulous knitwear on the cover.  The storyline was very predictable but took place in many places I knew: Adelaide, Adelaide Hills, Port Noarlunga, Mildura.  Also Melbourne and Batlow but I'm not so familiar with them.

I did venture out to The Village to look at The Other Exhibition, ie not Steve's, but a display of what people have been creating during the Covid isolation.

I was particularly drawn to these.  The wall-hanging is by Fiona who you saw last post in a small wooden boat.  I don't know the creator of the red paper dress and masks.

This mask I find both beautiful and terrifying.

This is my favourite piece - mainly because it was so unexpected.  It's a catchy slogan that I had not seen before.

Of course, Jill PD and I had to do a couple of turns around the garden.  The quince tree is an absolute joy.  The plan is for it to replace the red umbrella in a year or so.

And then there are the lily of the valley.  A long held dream and fascinating to watch unfurl.

the artichokes are doing their thing

the wild experimentation in the garden shed continues

Indulge me

These photos are from a cuppla weeks ago.  I was walking home and noticed how perfect our house looks, at least to me.

The garden is developing as I hoped.  The Silver Princess graces the front garden as did the one in Bellerive when we lived there.  The apparent gate is just a bit of fence now. It really annoyed me when we first moved in but now I am charmed with its alignment to what was the front door before the sunroom was added.

I have found myself doing a lot of thinking recently.  You know of  my childhood dream of living in the cottage on the cliffs at Porth Clais.  It has only recently occurred to me that it could have come true had I stayed in England.  I've always seen myself as some sort of London professional (a la The Split) had we not emigrated.  But, thinking of my cousins, St Davids seems to have us enthralled, and a number of them moved from England to live there.  Porth Clais will never be mine now but I'm perfectly happy with The Flying Pig - and it's much closer to the shops.

As I said, these photos are a cuppla weeks old.  This is the self-sown broad bean, elegantly supported by a pair of pantyhose.  There are now a large number of beans ready to be picked.  In fact I just picked some.

This pear tree looking promising,

likewise this apricot.

A view of the native Tasmanian garden that I don't think I've shown you before.