days of heavy lifting

Yipppeee.  Mizzling rain today so I can stay inside.  The garden is showing promise but there is not yet much of horticultural significance to share.  The deck is finished

and there have been one or two days of sunshine to enjoy early morning coffee on the tiny bit of east-facing. I shall show more of the deck at a later date.  Its completion has led us to redesign the garden (to some extent).  This involves digging up the pavers that currently form the path through the back garden.

To say they weigh a ton would be to exaggerate, but only slightly.  Steve has undertaken to dig one up each day. I clean it and move it via trolley to the back of the garden and manoeuvre it into place for storage.  Of course, I had to create a storage space which involved reconfiguring pavers we had moved some years ago to dismantle the airline runway we had down the centre of the garden when we bought the house.  I am very tired and have put my boxing career on hold until the end of daylight saving.  But it is a rewarding pursuit because progress is readily apparent.  It also involves moving the lavenders again.

Georgia has returned our chipper after a sentence of hard labour at her place.  This is timely because 

one of our Silver Princesses split in the wind

and I've got a lot of chipping to do.

This all coincides with me adopting a new garden mantra:  a garden isn't complete until nothing more can be removed. I can't remember where I read it but it is, unsurprisingly, of Japanese origin.

All these foxgloves, hellebores and aquilegia were due for removal last year.  Fortunately I never got around to it and they are having their best season ever.  I did remove the stones that bordered them so, perhaps, that made a difference.  The plants were destined for my English Dell but that hasn't happened yet either.

Preceding the entrance to the anticipated English Dell is the Wildlife Pond - but that needs a bit of work too!

And here you have the garden in waiting for Spring burst.  Though the pear tree's looking speccy and one apricot tree has blossomed and now is fruiting.

I haven't totally confined myself to the garden.

The wind has sometimes confined me to a sunny window in the house and a good read.

I have ventured for a walk at Luther Point

where the bay reminds me so much of Caerfai.

I have communed with my mate the white-faced heron who seems to have developed a liking for urban living.

And I have ogled Georgia's wisteria - the stuff of dreams.

words fail me (I can't think of a name for this post) but there are a lot of words...

Blog World has been  quiet.  I think blogs have had their day but I shall continue because I enjoy the reflection required and I find it very useful to look back over the years and see what my garden was doing.  I'm not sure why I missed 3 weeks of posting!  Last week was busy with driving - 3 trips to the city!!!  Lunch with Cynthia in Bellerive on Monday, ultrasound at Rosny Park on Wednesday, concert on Friday night.  I have no photos of these events.  Presumably there are some ultrasound images around somewhere but the medical practice hasn't summoned me so I assume there is nothing urgent - just an overzealous doctor or one with shares in the pathology company.  Hopefully these words will not come back to bite me.

The TSO concert was at the Federation Concert Hall.  Locals have a name for this copper clad, bullet shaped building but I can't remember what it is.  I was lured to do the long drive by Slava Gregorian.  I think of him as a friend because he once performed on a small boat going up the Darling River as part of the Mildura Arts Festival.  It was a blissful experience until a former headmaster told us to stop looking at the scenery and pay attention to the guitarist.  Slava looked a little embarrassed.  

I got to last Friday's concert very early.  I gave myself plenty of time to drive from Triabunna, and had the cunning plan of parking at Rosny Park and catching the bus into Hobart.  This was a very good plan because the bus trip is only 10 minutes and requires no hunting for parking spaces on the waterfront on a Friday night.  It all went so well that I had an hour and a half to while away.  Hobart shops are closed at 6 pm so there was only window shopping.  I then explored the new (to me) waterfront eateries.  There are so many of them, all looking very austere and not able to draw me in.  In fact, by and large, they looked devoid of customers though it was, of course, very early.  With 30 minutes to go, I gave in and traipsed to the concert hall which I then had to circumnavigate because I couldn't find the entrance.  It is quite well hidden beside the Grand Chancellor hotel.  Very confusing for a Provincial.  I whipped out my printed ticket and presented it but it wouldn't scan.  Oh just go in, said the young chappy, so I did.  I presented my ticket to the usher who also couldn't scan it.  I peered at it, without my glasses, and realised it was the wrong ticket.  It was for the Brian Ritchie concert I had attended the week or so before.  I pointed this out to the usher and managed to produce the correct ticket.  Scanning and scamming crossed my mind.

I had booked a seat in the middle of the first row so I could gaze admiringly at my mate Slava.  Naturally I had the concert hall to myself for a while but people began to trickle in.  I discovered that there is a group of people who always sit in the front row.  They don't know each other otherwise but greet each other and exchange news of their doings since the last concert.  The world is an endlessly fascinating place!

I drove home carefully in the inky dark and, to the best of my knowledge, did not kill or maim any animal.

With the exception of one heaven-sent perfect day, the weather has not been clement - strong winds and squally rain.  Most of my gardening plans are on hold but I have caught up with some reading.

I re-familiarised myself with the Hmong people courtesy of Margaret Eldridge.  I was familiar with part of the story from my days at Foreign Affairs and Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs, but there was much more to learn.  I felt it necessary to know all this because the Hmong vegetable growers now come to our monthly Triabunna Village Market.  The range and freshness of their vegetable displays have stunned the locals, with a number of people cursing and swearing because they forgot the market was on last Sunday and now haven't got their veggie fix.  It is a wonderful development and I hope the Hmong keep coming.

Sadly I have finished my affair with Monty Don.  I had hoped the book would continue into infinity but, after the maximum number of renewals, I had to return him to the library.

I have also finished People of the River.  It has taken me months to read because it is so enjoyable, educative and challenging to my previous knowledge.  I emailed Emeritus Professor Karskens to thank her for writing such an amazing book.  She wrote back, simply signing herself 'Grace'.

Last night Georgia and I attended a soiree at The Barracks, newly converted to top end accommodation and not yet open to the public.  Georgia arrived early to quality test the bath.

I left at 5 pm, just as it got going, to catch a uni webinar in which I'd enrolled some time ago about the art of the Black Wars, eg https://nga.gov.au/nationalpicture/.  The webinar was not particularly well put together technically but very interesting, making me realise yet again how much I don't know about a period of history I've studied.  Glover and Duterrau were the main artists discussed, but Wainewright also got a mention, which made me remember a book I'd bought at PUBS but so far have not read.

So, another book to read.  It can wait until I've read the Birdman's Wife still on loan from Rob.

For fun, nostalgia and a hit of Corfu weather, I've been re-reading Gerald Durrell's family saga, borrowed from Her Majesty.  This has been pure indulgence as the wind, sleet and showers have buffeted the house most days.

This week

is Great Eastern Wine Week.  I have been wanting to go to Boomer Creek vineyard for a while, but it is just up the road so I've never got there!  They offered a wine tasting and oysters event as part of the Wine Week, so I had to go.  Sadly my Easter oyster sharing sisters are still in their respective states, so I had to go it alone.

waiting for the others to arrive

 The 2 ladies are from St Helens and we became event buddies.

still waiting

but having a good look around

As you can see, it is a lovely place.  Finally the slackers, bar two, arrived and we set off following farm tracks to the oyster beds,

past this intriguing shed.

The posts marking the edge of the vines on the right.  It's a diversified farm with cattle, sheep and olives too.

Perhaps I should have zoomed to the oyster lines... but they are out there.

Walking back along the road and we passed sharpened posts for more vine planting - stirring memories of Griffith and Rosie, whose first Dad was a supplier of these posts.  We returned to the cellar door and sat at tables for six.  Trays of oysters came out and I was very happy.  A taste of the bubbly Sparkling Joy and I was replete.  But the food kept coming - Wicked Cheeses, Bream Creek cheeses, charcuterie and more oysters.  More wine tastings - whites, TGR and pinot - not my type of wines but perfectly acceptable. My St Helens' buddies were at my table, plus a couple from Hobart and a younger man on his own.  His pregnant wife had dropped him off and gone for her own adventure with their 3 year old.  It was Fathers Day, after all.  My table chums were fair and generous people and we decided the residue food should be taken to the thoughtful wife.  It was a lively and peaceful 3 hours and excellent value at $65.

 Back home now.  My cyclamen farm is small but promising.

I was given some free tulips with my 90 daffodils.  I'm not crazy about tulips so planted them among the self sown broad beans.

Jill PD and I play a game in the mornings where I throw the ball and Jill hides it somewhere.   Can you spot the green ball?  She is getting dashed cunning.

We call these early morning games 'look sees' because it gives me a chance to check out things in the garden.  This raised garden bed is more or less neglected.  It has onions at one end.  I planted hearts ease / johnny jump ups / kittens because I'd read they are companion plants to onions.  Both hearts ease and onions are doing well.

 

Finally, back to Georgia's japonica hedge.  It now has what I think is hawthorn flowering through it.  Classic hedging material. 

But LAST WEEK was Mum's 95th birthday!!!!