bulbine bulbosa byebye

I am going away for a week so thought I'd do a quick bulbine post.  I have just returned from deadheading the bulbines at The Gatehouse, my garden away from home.

All the ones in the foreground are self-sown and I have been indulged by my council co-workers to let them stay because I believe they can become 'a host of golden bulbines'.  It looks as though it may work.

It's a joy to watch them develop buds and flowerheads.

Here's the experimental patch in my own garden.  I'm trying to merge my veggie garden with native Tasmanian foods.

I'm also trying them out in pots.  It they work, we can sell them from the Gatehouse produce stall.

Nicky from the school currently has pumpkin and zucchini seedlings for sale.  She also reworked the board with the most golden pumpkin yellow chalk.

These are very clean leeks from Mel's garden.  They inspired me to make Welsh Rarebit for tea last night.  One day I'll have a go at making it with the bulbine bulbs.  I have read that they have a mild onion flavour.

Springish

Lovely cards from lovely friends set the scene.

Yesterday we had the first sausage sizzle of the season.

And I am basking in this book, savouring the Corfu delights and Durrell's observations of fascinating animal behaviour.

Then I have Gerald's sister's book - a lesser known Durrell.  I got so enchanted with the Spring weather today I inadvertently closed the Gatehouse early.  The sun must have got to me.  24 degrees Celsius.  Perfect.

a garden that sounds interesting

The Floosie has commented that my garden sounds interesting.  And, having said that, shoots off to Mediterranean climes.  Very few people who have visited my garden would notice much difference.  But I have a plan, and I think it is starting to take shape.  Slowly.  And very subtly...

Hopefully more will become apparent as the weather warms.  The mornings can still be very frosty.

I'm hoping the wind will not blow away the apricot blossom as it did last year.  No apricots.

I've had a beautiful display of hellebores, sometimes looking good enough to eat.

Here is one new thing, but not particularly exciting yet for the viewer.  This is the garden bed under the carport - east facing, then devoid of sun.  I am gradually getting daffodils to grow here and have just planted that tiny clump of green, which is a daphne bush.  There is a daphne at the school that has been flowering for at least 2 months and is an absolute visual and olfactory delight.  May I be so blessed.

I have been blessed by this daffodil which has flowered for the first time this year.  I didn't even know it was a daffodil previously, suspecting it to be a snowflake, but when I returned from Adelaide there it was greeting me in all its glory.  May it thrive and prosper.

The other day I was disturbed by the sound of a chainsaw.  Eventually I traced the source to a chap cutting branches off this pine tree in the caravan park.  My first response was horror, of course,

but thinking logically, its demise would allow a lot more sunlight into our garden.  It is to the north-east and casts a long shadow.  I had no sooner thought this through with a rising sense of anticipation, when the wretch downed tools and has not been seen since.

The Bean at the Bot Gards

The weather here has been cold and sleety.  Saturday was an exception which was very lucky because it was the day of the Opening of the Botaniko exhibition at the Tasmanian Botanical Gardens.  Botaniko celebrated the Gardens significant anniversary with '200 Years - Through Botanical Illustration'.  I attended at the invitation of Jean Green Bean.

Basking in the sunshine,

I made my way to the refurbished Pod, situated between Pete's Patch and Tino & Milly's 'garden of recycle' seen in the most recent episode of Gardening Australia.

Were I sensible, I would have taken photos before the hoards got there, but where's the fun in that?  If  you want to see the artwork, you'll have to visit the Gardens.

Walking back through The Patch, I was struck by the glitter of the rainbow chard - though not very well captured in this photo.

But I did see this bandicoot scooting through the hellebores.

I was so inspired, I slaved away on Sunday tidying up our vegie patch, sometimes scurrying inside as the rain got too heavy.  Felt very satisfied.  And Jill PD had about a thousand throws of various toys.  I can report:  3 emerging asparagus spears; emerging comfrey; life in a redcurrant plant I thought dead; neatly trimmed edges around the raspberry and rhubarb raised beds; and a weeded native plants bed.  I had bought an elderberry plant, a daphne and a cumquat plant en route to the Gardens, not exactly impulse buys but not prepared for.  Doing the weeding and trimming freed up my mind to work out where they will be planted.
Stay tuned for more exciting garden adventures...

Cumquat May

Last weekend was windy, sleety cold.  Jean GB had given me some cumquats so it was an ideal opportunity to bottle them.  I'm very happy with the results.  They are delicious.
When I was a child, my mother had three set sayings that always amused me and my sister who became 'Helen Highwater' after one of them.  Another was 'come what may' which became Cumquat May because May is Mum's middle name.  I'll tell you the third one when I remember it.

Tales of Miracles and Wonder

The first miracle occurred while still in Triabunna:  my tweezers, which had been missing for over a year and replaced, suddenly turned up on the bedroom floor.

The second miracle was the re-appearance of my lacy cardigan on Mum's living room floor, having been lost since Easter.  I am fervently hoping the third miracle is the return of my Cruella de Ville jacket, much loved from my scooter days in Griffith, which mysteriously disappeared some time ago.
In other wondrous events, Pearl and I decided to meet at Plant 4 on a Friday night.  I gave myself an hour and a half to get there because I would be travelling into the city traffic at the start of the weekend and I wasn't quite sure how to get there.  I got there in less than 30 minutes, demonstrating how superbly situated is Klemzig.  So I had time for a good look around.  Plant 4 is in the old Clipsal factory building in Bowden.  Bowden is undergoing huge urban renewal which I find very exciting.

So here we have it.  Large apartment buildings which would have amazing views over the city and parklands.

Very trendy with underground parking for bicycles.

Hopefully the charm will remain, if not be enhanced,

as with their groovy book cupboard.  Which brings me to the last post...

Reading Adventures

I took two PUBS books with me so that I could read them and then exchange them at the Lochiel Park book cupboard but, in a stroke of genious, I thought to investigate the Walkerville Library and there discovered a world of gardening books which I devoured over the first 3 weeks.  I particularly liked the one above - much more useful and to the point than the big, beautiful coffee table books.
I finished Josephine Tey's 'Brat Farrer' but it didn't make it to the LP book cupboard because Mum wants to read it.

I also finished this book which was a slog totally in keeping with the story of China's entry into WW2 via then Burma.  It also has not made it to the LP book cupboard because I found it so thought provoking that I may need to go back to it.

This one came from LPBC.  I was thrilled because you may recall that I had discovered 'Perfume From Provence' at our PUBS and never expected to see its sequel.  'The Promise' and 'Trampled Lilies' display such different attitudes to war.  Perhaps there are national characteristics.  This book is also languishing in my Klemzig bedroom if anyone wants to read it.

I also read this one on loan from The Floosie.  Not my favourite Bony story.  For a while I thought I was re-reading Hemingway's 'The Old Man and the Sea', reading which seemed to take up half my adolescence...  The other half actually being fishing with Mum and Dad at Outer Harbour.

And then I found 'Circe' in the LPBC.  I had only just read about it in The Adelaide Review so was somewhat amazed to find it in circulation so soon.  It also seemed a long read but I thoroughly enjoyed a female interpretation of the Greek gods and heroes.
I certainly owe the Lochiel Park book cupboard a few!

THE   END

Adelaide Odyssey continued

Adventures in Klemzig and environs
There's not much actually to report from Klemzig.  It is being reconfigured.

The primary school Helly and I went to has been demolished.  New houses are being squeezed in all over the place.  I went to the auction of a very ordinary 1960s brick cottage, no garden but an average size block for the '60s, $553,000!  Golly gosh.  The Trust Homes are demolished, presumably as they become vacant.  The land opposite our old house in Cullford Avenue is unrecognisable.

There is, however, a cafe opening on Fourth Avenue.

Will definitely be watching that space.
Over the river at Lochiel Park, it is starting to feel very established - it has after all been being developed for at least 10 years - but it seems newish to me.  I made a cuppla forays over for books from the book cupboard and also once for an exhibition by the Ripples Art Group which turned out to

be the mosaic-ed stormwater drains that I have been admiring for some years.  This 'outside the square' one a bit OTT for me.

I discovered that Lochend House is being jazzed up by the Campbelltown Council, including a tea-room.  It is reminiscent of the Rosny Barn and School House development for those in the BHS know.  The Campbelltown Historical Society is doing its darndest to fill out the rooms with its collection.

This item filled me with horrors from days gone by.
Lochiel Park bills itself as 'eco-living' and I was very gratified to see chooks in a front garden.

A local told me that he and other residents drop their green-waste in the coop for the chooks.

I'm very interested because the chook house is a similar idea to one I have in mind for our place.  Sadly I could never catch the owner home to chat with her / him about it.

In keeping with the green claim, there is a native bee house,

complete with trendy gabion.  Front view.

Back view.

Dog Tales
A few doggy things to report.

Rosie, who lives in the house next to Mum's, waiting patiently for her chaps to come home.

An idea for Triabunna down the track.

And one on display at, I think, Quest Apartments.

Further down the road, and difficult to see, a doberman on duty guarding his tradie Dad's van.

Jill very cosy on her present from Adelaide.