Country Style

Guess who got a stack of Country Styles from the library yesterday?  Thank you Fleurieu Floozie for reminding me I need a magazine hit occasionally.  These coriander stalks have been hanging around the garden, hopefully doing their self-seeding bit, for quite some time.  The Country Style high, plus Steve's laundry / shed re-organisation, have brought it all together - briefly.

while my back was turned

Truly the gods / dogs use us for their sport.

I noticed this part of the front garden the other day.  It has developed itself into a pretty little picture while I've been working on the back garden and leaving plans for the front garden in limbo.  First it was to be a rainbow garden, ie a red bed, an orange bed, a yellow bed, etc.  The area above was to be the red section, hence the geraniums behind the japonica.  Then I decided on a blaze of marigolds with cornflowers / nigella / borage interspersed.  But then the lupins came, and I've always wanted lupins.  So I put it all on hold and it went its own sweet way.  I had decided to blog it as above and entitle it as above.
While I went out to take the photo, The Pharoah Dog helped herself to the pieces of flake I was cooking for my lunch.

Down on the corner, out in the street

It was market day yesterday and it occurred to me to give you some garden respite and show you the corner of Vicary and Melbourne Streets, Triabunna.  Looking up Melbourne Street (Northish) across Vicary Street in the above photo, you can see the school to the left, part of Mel's property on the right, and then the banners heralding The Village.

Looking easterly up Vicary Street with Mel's house on the corner.

From Mel's looking westerly down Vicary Street.

Jake thinks the pencils outside the school are hilarious - cutting edge technology for a STEM world.

Again from Mel's corner looking south down Melbourne Street, what I call the Paris End of Melbourne Street.

And looking diagonally from Mel's, the service station - maybe 40 metres to our place as you stroll southerly and seaward.

Mel is a dog and cat loving darling, Environmental Services Manager at the Council and great friend to Elizabeth and, now, ours.  Jill the Dog and I went sledding with Mel and Snowy.
The Village is where Steve is currently spending 4 days a week, other artists three days, at The Village Creative Art Studios.  The aim is to raise the profile of The Village, the classes held there, and the work of the artists.

rainy day blues

It's raining for the first time in a week or so.   Lovely soft rain.  Just what I'd hoped for.  Over the last couple of days I've been ridding the bed below of grass and grass runners in preparation for planting the final lot of Liz's fancy irises.  Irises fill me with a little angst cos 20 years ago I was the gardener for a Mrs MacMillan who loved irises and had collected them over her long lifetime.  I did my best but I really had no idea what to do with them.  Hopefully I know a little more now.  My thinking is that in 3 years time these irises will need digging up and thinning which will also give me the chance to do a serious de-grass again.

I'm also thinking that once the irises grow, they will prevent Steve's pot from rolling over.  I hope the goddess (and Liz) is listening.  Liz loved that pot and was aghast that we didn't keep it in the house. If I had a bigger house, I would.

Preparing the garden bed unearthed these oyster shells which, in the above arrangement but around a hollyhock, used to be Sarah's favourite thing in the garden.  Which, of course, has set me thinking...

The Pharoah Dog cunningly slipped the red ball into the picture.  It is an artist's trick, from what I've read, to have a splash of red in a picture.  To the right you can see what has become the Italian Lavender and hollyhock bed.  The lavenders are selfsown.  The hollyhock seeds came from Mintaro courtesy of Lady Jayne (who can now stop looking for them).  At Mintaro the hollyhocks were singles in a stunning pink

but the goddess has played with them, creating many shades of pink to red, and this double.

My friend Jools and I decided to go to Maria Island for the weekend.  Maria Island is a 40 minute ferry ride from Tribes.  It has no shops, electricity or other mod cons.  You go there to bushwalk, mountain bike or commune with nature.  Despite its proximity I had not spent more than 20 minutes there previously and, though it is beautiful to look at from Raspins Beach (where I zumba), it has always struck me as a tough, rugged place, and a little forboding.
We arrive around 12 noon.   The ferry disgorges the incredible amount of baggage that people have,  then there is much friendly banter as people compete for huge metal trolleys to carry their goods to the campsite.  This was the most exhausting part of the day and evocative of labouring convict gangs.  Once we had set up camp we returned the trolly to the ferry terminal, only slightly less heavy than before.  A spot of lunch, then down to the beach for a swim.  It was the ideal day -  sunny and warm.  After a lazy afternoon we decided to have dinner on the beach too.  We returned to camp to get the provisions and encountered others out for a feed.

Some continued to get the greatest exercise value from the day

while we just enjoyed the view and being there.

And eating, of course, with an elegant drop of white.

Here am I looking more sun-pashed than kissed.  It's a long time since I've been sunburnt.

The warm, moist air was balm and very reminiscent of St Davids cliffs and beaches.

Returning to our tents, we both noticed how lovely the light was on the hill and cottage

so we investigated.  It turned out to be the Visiting Magistrate's Cottage, long abandoned.  How lovely that, at some time, someone sought to establish a terraced garden here.

Having got this far we thought we'd keep going,

making many friends along the way.  This wombat has a baby in its pouch.

We went as far as The Painted Cliffs which are famous for their bright colours

though somewhat muted by moonlight.

That night we returned to the campsite and I was amused by the tents glowing like toadstools.  They don't have quite the same effect by morning.  I was a little embarrassed by my old tent but Jools convinced me it was Vintage, possibly a little shabby chic.

The trolley gives it the air of a bag lady but was perfect for carrying the tent bits and sleeping bag, and really I could have managed without the massive trolleys provided at the ferry.  Which was demonstrated the next day when we broke camp and carried all our belongings back to the wharf.
We were well ahead of schedule so sauntered off on The Reservoir Circuit.

We got a little distracted when Jools noticed the snake (thought to be a tiger snake) sunning itself.  The day before we had watched as it hunted in and out of the crevices in the stonework beside the creek.  My shadow reveals that by now I had taken to wearing a hat.

Back up to the rangers' cottages and other stone buildings we went.  As usual there was no escape from Art.

These fig trees caught my attention.  Sadly I could see no ripe figs and didn't fancy stepping into the longer grass.

We made it to the convict built reservoir.  After the forest tracks, it seemed like a lush lido.  The photo below does not capture it at all.  We would have lingered but a raucous multi-generational family got there just before us and shattered the green calm.

On the home run, just before getting lost, we saw this magnificent building and suspected Kevin McLeod must be in the vicinity.  It is The Engineers' Building and seems to evolve from the rock face behind it.

After a small panic and nearly going in totally the wrong direction (for which I have a talent) we did our best to keep up with a family of super jock mountain bikers who were returning to Darlington but refused to dink us.  We did well enough to find a familiar and correct path.

I spent some hours trying to think of the best word to describe Maria Island and the best I can come up with is 'benign'.  I recognise that this is partly because we had such perfect weather and because there had been recent rain so there was soft, green grass.  It is also to do with the abundance of animals we saw close-up and the beautifully maintained buildings.  Tomorrow I will go off to Zumba and the island will not seem so distant to me.

The rain, the park and other things

Well I was sitting comfortably on the back porch, reading my book about dogs and gardens, when I looked up and thought 'This garden looks good today' so I took a photo

using the zoom.  Then I thought 'Don't be pathetic.  Show it as it is'. So I did.

Which is fortuitous cos it shows the book I've been reading.

A Christmas gift from Rosa Norte and perfect for anyone who loves dogs, gardening and Monty Don.  As I do.
Earlier today my Papaver Poppy from Woodbridge Nursery finally came in to bloom after the slowest striptease in history.

It is rather lovely but I suspect won't last the day in the wind.  There is a pink one but that is still in the leaf stage having spent the last cuppla months under sweetpeas.  Hopefully they'll selfseed like crazy.  The garden is responding well to the self-seeding approach.  Today I discovered a self-sown strawberry plant.  The only problem is that only I can do the weeding for fear of losing some little treasure.
We had 2 days of gentle rain earlier in the week.

coriander in rain

misty love-in-a-mist

 some lupins for Tamasin

Finally, the artist working on a glass box with a patient pup in attendance.

Easterish

Jake's work  uniform makes a girl think of Easter.