Ecology meets glamour.

I keep on seeing a blue tongue lizard in the garden. In fact, it seems to get around so much I am starting to wonder if there is actually more than one of them. Tonight I spotted it loitering under the agapanthus, and whipped inside and grabbed a bottle of 'My Chihuahua Bites,' by O.P.I., and dabbed a wee bit on it's back, so now whenever I see my scaly friend I'll know if there's more than one, or not. I hope it's a girl and it appreciates the colour.

(And I'm also hoping it will wear off eventually and I haven't given the poor bugger a permanent orange-red splodge. It's a very harassed lizard, I accidentally poured half a bucket of recycled laundry water over it tonight, not realising it was sitting in the strawberries).

Not the best photo, I expect she was annoyed and refused to face the camera for me.

A pocket full of peas.

I picked some peas today. Not having any hands free, I stuffed them in my pockets; the pods squeaked and creaked as they rubbed together: SP tried to take them out of my pockets again.


Meanwhile, some of the masses of seeds I planted are poking their noses out of the warmed earth. The corn seems to be shooting up in front of my eyes, the squash are also growing super quickly, and the carrots have finally appeared (fingers crossed a few survive this time!)




My little apricot tree is putting on a second round of blushing leaves.


And the coriander, which went to seed quite a long time ago, has a pretty crop of rose-pink and minty-green seeds drying to dun-brown.

My favourite kind of day

There was a change in the weather today: from the hot hot hot, stems drooping, leaves crisping and scorched concrete kind of days we've just had a few of, to a change in the weather: cool, lustrous, air, sweeping in as dark clouds across the Gulf. The garden is refreshed and gleaming; it was a good time to put my lavender hedge in yesterday, although perhaps not at 8:30pm when the light was fast fading.
It's beautiful, is it not?

Rather nice.

What better way to unwind after work, than to wander around the garden with SP on my hip, watering the plants, and picking armfulls of roses?


And then what better use for armfulls of roses than to make blousey overblown bouquets in big vases?

Photo update

Yesterday I promised progress shots of the garden, and today here they are.
First up: the extended vegetable garden. Those red frames along the fence are the old front gate which we found behind the shed. D would like to put them back up, but for now they're support for some beans, which I hope will sprout shortly.



And while I'm here, I must show you the roses. Ironically, the best photo I have of them is from my mobile phone, snapped out of the window of the car as we left the driveway the other day!


They're like a sea of white petals. Very pretty.


Though I think the prettiest part is below our bedroom window.



The very decrepit rose by the letterbox, which I cut back hard and hoped for the best, is blooming like a trooper with the most lovely red blooms. Underneath are my nature-strip nasturtiums, and some pink snapdragons.


What's up next? A hedge of Hidcote lavender along the fence. The black weedmat is peeled back, the ground dug over, manure and blood and bone are added, and the plants are bought. All I need to do is get them in the ground.

Busy, busy!

We have done so much in the garden over the last few days. SP has been unwell - her first genuine lurgy - and so she spent a lot of time asleep, which meant that we were able to achieve quite a lot.

I doubled the size of the vegetable garden (and boy, did my body feel it the next day), we extended the irrigation system down to the front of the garden, got my lemon tree planted in the lawn, and the lime trees repotted into bigger pots, not to mention more heritage carrot and tomato seeds planted into pots. And then bok choy and basil seeds, corn and pumpkin seeds, and 'assorted' squash. And then there are the artichoke, capsicum, yellow zucchini, and rhubarb seedlings. And some ancient strawberries, thyme, and miniature roses to be replanted. And I've even started work along the front fence for the lavender hedge (Hidcote). Whew! Out of breath yet?
And do I have pictures of any of it? Nope! SP woke up before I could get organised for that part. Tomorrow's mission is to take photos of all that we've done so far. I do, however, have pictures of my idea for this year's Christmas baking: cookie trees. A rush job, because really I just wanted to try out my new star cutters, but very simple and I think I could work this up into something quite cute.

Restless night.

Yesterday it was hot, and the heat seeped into the house and lay in pockets and corners and bedclothes. At night, it was still hot, and not one of us could sleep easily. The wind stalked around the house, rattling the windowpanes impatiently and tugging at the blinds. Our Small Person woke up at midnight and couldn't get back to sleep, she thrashed and tossed between us in the bed. And who could blame her? When we all finally fell asleep at 2:30am, our dreams came in fits and starts, a series of disjointed and nonesensical images: a red armchair, a bending tree, running and confusion. We woke in the morning exhausted.
Today the weather has changed: cool but not cold, drizzly and beautiful. The air and soil are damp and scented, and white rose petals scatter the front garden like confetti.