Where does time go to!

It has been nearly three weeks since I last wrote a blog, each day passes by very quickly and yet I seem to just float along, without achieving much at all.   Amazing how one can fill a day, without actually doing anything.  And then I wonder where the time goes to! 

Time to get moving!   The first item on the list was this blog, then two more blogs about our travels before we were all required to stay at home, or close to home.

Darren and I spent 10 days on a front garden makeover, and definitely I was very busy and involved in that.    I have also cleaned out our sheds, and washed the windows and patios..   I have weeded and pruned the garden, and then realised that enough was enough there.   I have killed all new citrus trees, through giving them citrus fertiliser when I should not have done so.   I must learn to leave well alone with some plants.  

I know that I should be focusing on fitness, strolling along with Piper does not equate to improving my fitness levels.   I tried an online exercise course, and hurt my foot, not seriously, but it caused me to lose interest.   I know I should cycle a few times a week, but have not done so.   It is going to be a shock when the U3A walking and cycling groups start up again, I will definitely not be the fittest person.

Travel wise.   We should have been leaving to travel to the Netherlands at the end of May, but that has definitely been put on hold for at least a year.   We were so looking forward to catching up with Aaron, Kylie, Mia, Abi and Raphy.

However, we are now allowed to travel within South Australia, and camping grounds have opened up too, so we are definitely planning to see some of the state, places like Coober Pedy and Port Lincoln.   Areas we have never visited when we lived here during the 1970s and 1980s.

Onto the photographs, some of them were taken last August, before disappearing into the archives.

I have cleaned our garage out, and put all our camping and caravanning gear up onto shelves.  Only my bike remains at the back of the shed, and so far we have not hit it with the car.   We put our twenty year old Honda in the garage, due to spending a couple of thousand dollars getting the rust cut out of it.   Instead of travelling we spent our money on the car!   And it looks good too, and there is no danger of the boot door falling off anymore.   Although old, it is a brilliant car, and a really good work horse type of vehicle.   

The caravan has been moved to the paving on the other side of the lawn.   Walter backed it up brilliantly.   I have lost confidence, as I jack knifed the caravan and hit the back corner of our Kia, and now it needs to be fixed.   I completed a caravan towing course in the UK but reversing a big heavy British caravan is quite different to reversing a light weight pop top caravan.   It should be easier I know.   But my brain does not accept this.

A photo from the past, last July in fact, when Darren brought all his pieces of watering equipment, and we laid it out on the benches.   So much stuff from Darren's garden business days.

I sorted all the smaller bits and pieces and put them into boxes for him.

And now they are in our tool shed.   And I have had a big clean up in here too.  It is all so clean and tidy.  For how long?

Last July we put dripper hoses through the back and side gardens, all put into shallow trenches and held down by hooks.   Hard work.

And then we covered them with a thick layer of organic compost.

One year later most of the plants are growing well,, except for killing three kangaroo paw plants, a protea tree, and recently a kaffir lime tree.   Mostly due to the area not getting enough sunshine, and a bit too much citrus fertiliser on the kaffir lime.   It has also taken me a year to realise that much of the back and side gardens are in shade for seven months of the year.

All our pipes are hooked up to the multi pipe connection which I brought from the UK.   And the automatic timer also came with us.   Both systems work brilliantly here.   Every three days during summer the garden is given water, without me thinking about it.   Love it.

And we found the sprinkler system which had been put into the grassed area, but no longer worked.   Now that we have replaced some of the parts, we have a fantastic sprinkler system.  And lovely green lawns.

Even if we cannot grow our own citrus trees (so far I have killed three lemon trees, and three lime trees) we have access to the most delicious lemons which hang over the fence.  I guess we contribute to some of the water that runs under the fence and ends up in the lemon tree roots. 

Darren and I had a clean up of pot plants at his house.   All looking spick and span there now, and happy plants with more space to grow.

Darren made a wooden box, so that Jay had some plants outside her window.

And while we are on the subject of houses and gardens, a view of Scott's block of land where he will have a house being built soon.    All very exciting.   Great views of the coast too.

And now we have shops opening, plus restaurants and cafes able to have people sitting inside and outside eating food and drinking coffee.   Limited numbers but still a great improvement.   I never got used to walking and drinking coffee at the same time.   Coffee needs to be sipped slowly in a relaxed way at a table.  Life is definitely getting much better.

Garden Makeover

Another blog, amazingly after only a few days, due to having time, now that the weather has turned cold, and wet, and I cannot be outside.    This morning I took Piper for a walk on the beach, first time for days, and got absolutely soaked from the rain.   No waterproof coat, or over trousers, so I learnt a valuable lesson, go prepared for the worst.   Piper enjoyed a good run on the beach.   Her fur repelled the rain, unlike my down jacket.   The waterproofing solution did not work there.

A garden makeover, two weeks of hard work, for both Darren and me.   Darren had two weeks holiday, and spent half of it working on our garden.   He planned it, measured it all out, did most of the hard work, and came to the garden centres with me, so that I bought the correct plants.

  The original garden, as shown in the sales brochure for the house.   And yes, it did look really good at the time.   The fountain worked, and there were no weeds in the stones or in the cracks between the pavers.   And you might say, why change it all. 

Darren kept the pittosporum hedges beautifully trimmed, and they looked beautiful until they became infested with a bugs/or bugs in the form of a fluffy white bug, plus a scaly brown one that stuck to the branches and sucked all the moisture out of the wood.   Mind you the scaly brown insects may have been part of the life cycle of the fluffy white ones.   The front hedge turned brown during the last heat wave, with sections of another hedge going the same way.   All hedges were infested with the insects.   The reason could be due to me watering the hedges from the top, during the first summer we were here, or it may have happened anyway.   Pittosporum trees (native to NZ) are not the hardiest of trees for our harsh climate in South Australia. 

The fountain stopped working when we moved in, and the wiring for it, was dodgy to say the least, so we never had it fixed.   I filled the basin with soil and grew some plants in it.   Not the same.

And the stones!   The bane of my life.   A safety hazard as we had to walk over them to get to the house.   The weeds grew among the stones and in the cracks of the pavers.  I tried using an organic spray, and weeding them, but the task became harder and harder, and in the end I gave up.   The previous owners used a weed killer, but I did not want to use the same method.   Not good for the environment, the wildlife, the dog or me!

So after much deliberation, planning and discussion we finally got started after Easter.

Darren lifted the pavers a few weeks before Easter so that we could work on the stones.   The idea was that I spend a few hours a day picking up stones.  Great in theory but not in practice.  Picking up stones is a soul destroying job.   It takes so long, and the stones are so heavy!  The stones on the top were okay, clean and easily picked up, but the ones underneath were buried in dirt, layers of them.   Of course Darren helped whenever he could, and  I was lucky that Emma and Steve came and filled a number of containers and took them home to use, and one of our neighbours also filled a couple of wheel barrows and took them home with her.   But the removeful of these stones seemed to go on for weeks and weeks. 

I originally had an idea of buying small wire cages, filling them with stones, and making garden benches.   I gave this idea up very early due to the cost of the cages, but mostly because stones were very heavy, and filling cages was going to be a difficult job.   

In the end I found that raking up the stones that were buried deep in the dirt, made the job easier.

Darren cut the hedges down.

All loaded onto the trailer.

Then Darren started laying the pavers, with the help of Jay.  Very heavy work but they did a brilliant job.

So what to do with the fountain.  It looked odd beside the paved area!   Out of balance.  No one in the family was interested in moving it to the back garden, where I thought the birds would love to use it for swimming.   It was another of my not so brilliant ideas.

So I sold it, via Facebook Marketplace.   Surprisingly there were a  number of offers, but I took the first offer of $200.   A woman turned up with her brother, and trailer, to collect it.   Of course it was heavy, very heavy.   The mermaid had been glued to the bowl, so that was one very heavy and very large piece.   The stand came in two parts.   We rang Darren, Emma and Steve to come around and lend a hand to slide it onto the trailer.   It took five people to move it.   What a weight.   We then found that the transformer was under the pedestal, and it was wrapped in gaffa tape.   So electrically unsafe.   There were a few spiders there as well, redbacks of course.

The stones were given away, via Marketplace.   Two piles of them, one pile cleaner than the other due to cleaning the first pile up because I was going to put them into the wire cages.

We had lots of offers but I must admit I let them go to a man, with a trailer, who I knew could shovel the stones himself.   I wanted no part in getting rid of them.   He was really pleased with them and was going to put them down between concrete strips in his driveway.   Good luck with the weeds.   Perhaps he uses weedkiller.

No more stones!   Just clean concrete and pavers.   I do not ever want to see stones again.  I hate stones.  

The last hedge, which I thought at first I would save, but changed my mind.   It was full of the same bug/s, and yes I know I could have sprayed the hedge, but I had had enough!   Of course I should have realised this when Darren cut the first two hedges down, as he could have put the third hedge onto the same trailer, and saved $56 at the recycling depot.   Oh well, I needed to really think about the last hedge first.  Darren is so patient.

The last hedge nearly gone.   When the previous owners drive past they are going to be distraught when they see their precious hedges are no more. 

I have not mentioned yet, about all the soil that was removed from all three garden beds, and the lawn area.   Some of it went onto the vegetable beds, and a friend took the rest.   Darren put down the dripper hoses, and connected them all up to the irrigation pipe, and covered the garden beds with organic garden mulch.

Finally we ordered buffalo grass, which Darren put on the lawn area.    Instant lawn.   I so love instant lawn.  When I think of all the lawns I have created over the years, all painstakingly watered every few hours in order to get the seeds to germinate.   The seeds that escaped the mouths of the local birds!

The last of the lawn, in the photograph below, was given to the first bidder on Facebook Marketplace.  The person used it to repair a lawn.   So love that site. 

And finally, planting time.    So what have we done.   In front of the windows there are Lilly pilly trees to make into small hedges.   Robust trees.   I like that.   In front are standard roses, white and yellow, with small obelias in between them.   The front garden have the geraniums at the front, which of course were in front of the old hedge, plus white and yellow shrub roses behind them, and against the pavers there are Japanese Box shrubs to train into a small hedge.   I have put in lots of pansies to give a bit of colour over winter.   All very formal. but seems to suit the house, and of course Darren was meticulous about every aspect of the garden makeover.   

Did people outside of South Australia know that Adelaide, and the surrounding area, is a rose growing area.   Apparently the soil and weather conditions are perfect.    They certainly flower for a long time, from spring through to autumn.   And are very easy care.    Good news.

Also Japanese Box shrubs are hardier than English Box shrubs.  Well news to me too.   

The post person loves the letter box standing on its own.   There is now no need to find a way around the hedge in order to find the letter box.   

The caravan will be put on the paved area on the left hand side.    We can use the garage again, once I clean the clutter up.   It is amazing how quickly an empty space fills up.  

Hopefully it will be cooler at the front during summer time, although there is still plenty of concrete, which unfortunately we need for our vehicles.

Only one mishap.    Piper chewed out the elastic side panel of one of my Wellingtons, the ones bought at the expensive garden centre in the UK.   Very handy Wellingtons too.  I left them beside the patio door, and Piper entertained herself one evening by taking out the inner soles, and chewing the elastic side panel.   Could have been worse.   At least they are still wearable.

Piper now has an uninterrupted view of the street, and spends most of her day there, when not playing or walking or following me around.   She also has a good view of who to bark at too! 

A big thank you to Darren, as I could not have achieved this garden makeover on my own.

More about life during a pandemic

After a couple of very intensive weeks completing a makeover of the front garden, with Darren, I am ready to write blogs again.   

As we cannot spend money travelling, or eating out, we have decided to spend it on the garden, getting a roofing company in to replace tiles, so badly needed, and luckily we have had no leaks in the house.   We also got the oil leak fixed in the twenty year old Honda, and got the rust cut out of the back of it, before the rear door collapsed completely.  The Honda is a great car, and will certainly run for a few more years yet, we hope.    Interestingly the mechanic had to chip off sand and oil from the fly wheel, where the sand had collected when I got bogged at the beach, on Australia Day, 2019.    

Although we try not to read or watch the news too much, it becomes a little too compelling at times.

It is with increasing horror that we watch the alarming rate of Covid-19 infection throughout the world.  Our heart goes out to all the people affected by it.

 I miss living in Joydens Wood, with the beautiful woodland so close to our house.   At the moment the trees are starting to show the beginnings of green leaves, and there are swathes of bluebells everywhere.   I have seen photos of them on the Joydens Wood Facebook site.   Such a lovely time of year, full of new growth and with it, new hope.   The Joydens Wood community also look out for each other during this pandemic, which does not surprise me, as there has always been a great community spirit there.

However, I am relieved that we no longer live in the UK.    We saw how overcrowded and underfunded the NHS was, and under considerable pressure, how social care services had been cut back to the barest bones and the rapid rise in poverty in large sections of the community.    Plus a government so caught up in Brexit that they could not focus on providing support for its own country. 

It was not surprising to read about the lack of preparedness in the UK, with a government more intent on celebrating leaving the European Union at the end of January, then preparing for a probable pandemic.   We saw a Prime Minister bragging about shaking hands with people in hospital, keeping his cabinet in close confines rather then insist on social distancing, ignoring offers from the European Union to purchase equipment, making promises to put in a large scale testing regime, when there were no tests,  and stopping tracing very early in the pandemic.    

I think people in Britain have been very patient, and accepting of the situation.   Most people get on with their lives, have accepted the lockdown and appreciate the small things they can achieve in their daily routines.    And the care and concern for the people who have front line jobs, be it in the hospitals or out in the community, is, without doubt, a sign of immense gratitude and appreciation.

Life here in South Australia has eased up considerably, although social distancing and hygiene practices are paramount at all times.   Since Easter it has become quiet in Aldinga Beach, and our small shopping centre less busy.    All shops are extremely organised, and you never feel as if your health is compromised.   Restaurants, pubs and cafes are doing a great job with takeaway food and plant nurseries and hardware shops are very busy.    People are spending time in their gardens and undertaking projects in the home, as they cannot travel away for holidays.    Luckily all our trades people are able to work, and from the looks of it, are being kept very busy.   Likewise, any industry relating to trades.

During the three weeks of school holidays here, it has been lovely to see families out cycling and walking.   In fact the increase of cycling generally has been quite remarkable. 

Tomorrow Walter and I are going to he nearest large shopping centre to buy a new mobile phone for me, our first trip out to a large centre.   We shall see how we go.

During the past two weeks we have met up with family members, in our homes, but we have kept it to minimum numbers and time, and very careful of social distancing rules.   But it has been lovely to have the contact with them.

There are no social gatherings at all, so for me, no U3A meetups or walks or cycle rides together, and for Walter, no bowls.   

The facts about South Australia.    We have had no new cases diagnosed for days, and only 3 cases in about 12 days. and out of 438 cases here, 420 have recovered, with 4 people in the ICU. Four people have died from Covit-19.   The Barossa Valley which had a large cluster, due to tourists, has now had four weeks without a case.   Generally Australia is diagnosing fewer cases overall.   Not that we should be complacent of course.   The rate of testing is extremely high, and tracing is given top priority throughout Australia.

Readers may think Australia has got off lightly, and it may have infection wise, but economically we have been as badly hit as other countries.    The bushfires during summer hit the country, both traumatically and economically.   Our tourist industry was hit badly by the fires, followed immediately by a clampdown on students and tourists from China.  And money has been poured into the businesses and employees due to the shut down of the hospitality industry.    Many small businesses have had to close. There are very few flights across the country, and even fewer internationally.    The resulting collapse of businesses and the rising unemployment in the future is just too scary to even contemplate at this time.

But life goes on.

Thank goodness for having a dog.   Piper is such a joy, when she is not barking at other dogs through the front window, and taking her for walks means we get plenty of exercise.

Piper loves the beach.

Port Willunga is mostly deserted these days, except for fishermen, people with dogs, and the surfers out on their boards, when there are good rolling waves.

The roofing people arrived, with their big vehicle, trailer and ladder against the house.   It took them two and a half days to repair the roof.    The two front hedges have now gone, but more about that later.

Bags of horse manure, $2 a bag, plus free bark and poultry manure, from the chicken house that Patrick demolished when they bought their new house.

The result of a spending spree at the local nurseries.

I think it is time to cover the swimming pool.   Since this photograph was taken the water has gone a distinct green colour.

All ready for planting.

Piper having a great time shredding the strelitzia trunks.   

The self sown tomatoes produced a bumper crop of the most delicious tomatoes.   This area has now been cleared and a green manure crop sown in the beds.

As well as eating tomatoes, giving tomatoes away, we made passata sauce and green tomato pickles.  I found a useful tip, from our supermarket brochure.    When making jams, or sauces, tip the jar upside down, to sterilise the lids and to ensure that they seal.   Every jar of jam, passata and pickles has sealed

And finally another view of Port Willunga.   I never tire of looking at this beach.

The next blog, a garden makeover.

Isolation, or nearly!

After a week of trying to get our heads around isolation, or nearly, we think we are beginning to get a routine going in our house.

It is very difficult to fully understand the requirements in Australia, and what is sensible for people in their 70s, who are relatively fit and healthy, as the information can be confusing.   It also depends on which state you live in, and where you live in that state.

Everyone who comes into South Australia is meant to self isolate for two weeks, and luckily we do not have any cruise ships waiting out at sea.   We are following the social distancing regulation of only two people together and cafes can only serve takeaway coffee and food.    Other food and drink places are closed, and many businesses have closed.   There are high numbers of people without a job.  However schools are still open, but will close early for the school holidays.    Most shops are still open, I think.

So at the moment, out in Aldinga, Walter and I have come up with a solution for us.   We stay home mostly, luckily in a big house, with a big garden, and do not go near any supermarkets or shopping centres.   Thank goodness we have family nearby who can do the grocery shopping for us. At the moment we buy single items from shops (not in shopping centres), such as more printer ink, but it is straight in and out, and lots of hand sanitiser  afterwards.  Plus we walk Piper, lucky dog.

The sun is still shining here, and pleasantly warm, so being outside in the warmth lifts the spirits somewhat.   I realise this will change as the sun moves further north and winter sets in.   

My view of the pool, from the gazebo.   I should be swimming in it still, but I lack the motivation to jump into the cold water.     But it is pleasant to look at.

The hand sanitiser!  Walter bought two large bottles, weeks ago.   Way before it all sold out.   He did not mean to get such large bottles from the pharmacy but that is what they gave him, and we all laughed at him for buying so much sanitiser.   Not so anymore.   We have filled up small bottles, and put them in our bags and cars.   It is also very strong, 60% alcohol, and hopefully will knock any germs off our hands.

Keeping everything clean takes up so much time!   What with washing hands, sanitising them, and wiping surfaces and door hands with disinfectant a couple of times a day, occupies a fair bit of our time.   I have never seen the house look so clean.   The smell of disinfectant and hand sanitiser pervades our house and our cars!

A deserted beach!   Well not quite, but nearly.   We are very lucky.  It is great to see people though as being confined to home is very lonely.   Being able to say good morning to other people, makes such a difference.

Piper loves her early morning walks, chasing the ball, and swimming in the sea.   She gets an extra special long wash with the cold water from the hose when she gets home.   This is not so popular with her.

Walter and Piper out for a walk.

Kuitpo Forest last weekend.  It was a lovely shady walk, on a 30 degree day.

Aldinga Beach Scrub, with very well camouflaged  kangaroos somewhere in the centre of the photograph.

More well camouflaged kangaroos hiding amongst the trees.   It is very dry at the moment, and the brown fur of the kangaroos blend in very well with the trees and grass.

The esplanade at Aldinga Beach, which we also walk along.   It is not as deserted as this photograph shows, and it is great to see people walking and riding their bikes.

My first project, to cut this hedge out.   One of our neighbours has given us their green bin, so I have two to fill.   The next collection is on Monday so I will have to get a move on.   Our beautiful Pittosporum hedges have mostly died, due to being infested with a mealy type insect which sucked the moisture out of the branches.   Then the extreme heat finished them off.   But more about our plans for the front in a later blog.

Our thoughts are also with people all over the world during this time of a devastating pandemic.   The news that comes to us via the news is unbearable to read and to watch.   So many people are suffering hugely.   A terrible tragedy.