It's been a rather hectic four or so weeks. So much has taken place it takes our breath away sometimes.
Our kids have returned safely from Europe with amazing stories and adventures that have given them such a taste for more travel. It was lovely to see them come through the gates at arrivals, tired but happy.
The weather continues to be unpredictable. Thankfully the fires have abated; that photo is sunrise on a rather smoky morning. We've had some crazy heavy rain storms and the tank is now full again; for now! It's pouring at the moment and thunder is rolling around the mountains. Morning storms somehow always sound threatening.
All the vegies survived a hectic hail storm and we're harvesting some gorgeous tomatoes, lettuce and beans already.
We've been getting a lot of work done about the place. My wonderful bird tree is no more. It was dangerously close to the house; a big no-no in the wild winds we've had and also a fire threat. We had an arborist take a look and he found two Bracket Fungi. Given that the tree was huge and they can drop limbs in dry times; this could be doubly dangerous. The fungi eats the tree and makes the inside sort of like polystyrene. We felt sad to see it go but really had no choice. That afternoon the birds came circling around looking for it and screeched their own dissatisfaction with the situation.
The ground here is very rocky and the former owners seemed to delight in piling up rocks all over the place. Some of them are as large as a mini minor and as gorgeous as they are we don't need all of them here. We had a wonderful man named Clive come the other day. Clive brought his little backhoe thing and moved tonnes of rock to the front of the property to be picked up and trucked away. We picked well as Clive is also an artist and came up with some great landscaping ideas for around the septic system and down the back corner where the secret garden will (one day) be built.
I've been thinking hard about the direction of this blog. I've enjoyed recording the first few years of our tree change. It's a lot of fun to go back over it myself and remember the beginnings of our adventure. However I'm feeling I want it to go in another direction now. The adventure will continue of course; living here has stretched us and taught us heaps - and not just about growing veggies either :) We're not going anywhere; we love where we are and what we do.
I'm sure I'll pop in occasionally though. For me this blog is like a dear friend whose company is best enjoyed with feet up and a cuppa in the sun. :))
