carry on

One month on and the lower front walls are complete. There's still another row of windows to go right across the top.

Front doorframe installed and some tricky sloping curved lintels. Enough to make your hair turn grey.

   

  

 

Yeah it's hot.

So over the Christmas break I had some help from a very handy man and we made good progress on the kitchen wall.

and with the arrival (finally) of some more bricks Michelle got started on the back wall.

I carried on around the corner and along the front wall. Yeah, I thought the windows would speed things up. I was wrong.

Here's a long view from the living area toward the kitchen area.

Did I mention the heat? 37 degrees today. Wet towel on the head and carry on.

Mud. And sticks.

some of the visitors in our garden

photos  of mine of some of the little visitors in our garden. planting the flowers first up has meant that the bugs all came in, which brought the birds in. Now that the growth on the wattles is a bit bigger we get loads of the bigger birds too. Love it!       M

eastern spinebill

a native bee

yellow-tailed black cockatoo

crimson rosellas

wdge-tailed eagle

blue wrens- a juvenile and a female

a jeuvenile and adult koookaburras

little cranky wombat

a swamp harrier...awesome!

silvereye

cranky-pants

tree creeper

leopard slug

red browed finch

blue wren

the garden progress

 Alright then...here is the garden update from Michelle. YAY! I am not entirely sure where to start. After the fires cleared away a lot of our bush block it looked as though nothing was ever going to grow ever again...ever. But as amazing as Mother Nature is, she started little by little and before long covered everything in a blanket of green. The first thing I wanted to do was to get some little flowering shrubs in. Luckily for us the house we were renting in Wattle Glen had a pretty full garden due to the landlord being a landscape gardener. So I pinched shoots, took cuttings and saved seeds so that we could start someting at our place.

I set up a bit of a ramshackle vege garden that had to keep the rabbits out at the bottom, the kangaroos, wallabies and deer out at the top. I hadn't reckoned on the mice, bush rats and our cute little ratty type native animal, the antechineus (anti-kine-us). Or the birds...

I will pop a few photos up of the journey of the garden to catch up a little bit...Some of the plants which grew up on their own and a few of the ones I planted to encourage the birds and the insects to come and live at our place.

Oh and these guys...

2010 Checking out the vege garden fortress!

2010- that is the vege garden up to the left

a pig-face flower

Pig-Face flowers

viola hederacea- a little native violet

Ranunculus lappaceus- native buttercup

A 'must-have' , the good old lavender

flowers starting to bloom...

This was one of the first cuttings & one of the first to go in

The steps were a moment of greatness. Pippi approves and is often found sleeping on them in the sun.

The daisy bush has been a trooper since the start and is now massive!

The gum trees are all going about their business

Stellaria pungens - Prickly Starwort

The gorgeous Dianella admixta - Black-anther Flax-lily

All of these plants are growing at our place and we have tried to preserve and encourage as many of the local natives as possible. I collect seed, buy-swap-and beg native plants to keep the birds happy. Althouth I do love the pretties like the daisies, lavender and dahlias! Next post from me I will show you a few pics of our little friends that are all living here with us.