August 2016 – Page 3 – Head in the Clouds

Ruby Tuesday: Early Spring Flowers & The Great Banana Diet!

9-08-2016 11;23;44 PM — Ruby – about 1942

The weather turned dismal again today, so it was a good day to go down and have a cuppa with Ruby.

Margie and Ruby had been going through some photos – one of my Party Jobs is to scan the old images and sort out a digital display of them during the birthday party!

It was fun looking through the old images, hearing a story or two.

The one that really caught my attention was “The Banana Diet”

Ruby 1 — At the start of the Great Banana Diet

As a young nurse, Ruby went to Melbourne to work for a few months. At that particular time banana’s were plentiful and cheap. Ruby really loved bananas and – in her own words – made a glutton of herself!

There was always a big bowl of them on her work desk – and when emptied, there was a rush to restock!

Apparently she put on a substantial amount of weight – the only time ever she was over weight! There was a photo of her post-Banana-Diet standing on the steps of the Flinders Street Station, but sadly that photo was destroyed!! By Ruby – she said she was so disgusted with herself she ripped up the evidence of her gluttony!! 🙂

9-08-2016 11;18;50 PM — On the farm feeding a whole bunch of lambs!

9-08-2016 11;21;58 PM — Ruby and Bill, proud parents of Margaret!

I have a nice box full of memories to scan!

While there was a little break in the weather I slipped outside to photograph some of the flowers in Ruby’s garden that are starting to show up.

I tried not to look too hard at the weeds that I HAVE to get in and sort out soon – next weather break I reckon!

The early blossoms at the foot of Ruby’s driveway

This plot is where I put all the excess bulbs last season.. another week or so and it will be a mass of colour

Ruby is so pleased with her orchids that are just starting to bloom!

Before long it will be all about vegetables, but for now, we are enjoying the new colours of the upcoming spring!

Cheers!

Catching Up on Domestics

Having a week of no rain kept me outside a lot more – consequently happily ignoring housework!

The floor was getting a bit manky – having a wood fire will dust up the place and the floor gets woodchips all over it pretty quickly!

Oh – and I was totally living on the edge today!! THREE loads of laundry and it didn’t start spitting rain until 2.30pm!! Clothes finished off drying easily by the fire – with me happily in front of the fire as well adding a few more rows to Ruby’s shawl.

Lots of other things got ticked off the mundane list too. Yay me.

Hope your Monday was painless!!

Cheers

I really have lost my Nanna-Knee-Rug! (Right now he is totally buried in it)

A Pause in Digging

Sunday!

Lazy day really – Apart from finally making up the second batch of plum jam.

I enjoyed a bit more crocheting in the comfort of the fire… This is Ruby’s shawl that I started the other day – (not quite one ball in)

These are the progressions on the other two I am also doing –

I also finally took some snaps of the rocks that came back out of the tumbler – this time polished up beautifully!

It’s lovely to see a little bit more colour out in the garden – a hint of spring. I get all excited and keen to jump into the garden – then the weather will turn feral on me again – it is after all, the last month of winter, so I have to try to keep that in mind!

Anyway – here are a couple of pretties for you!

Cheers!

I have a nice little patch of these mini-daffodils

Cherry Blossom – the promise of things to come!

Winter rose still producing lots of flowers

Strawberry Relocation Program – Done

It wasn’t the sunniest day, but I was grateful for the continued lack of pouring rain – a chance to go out and finish what we started!

We dug in the bridge so it was stable and relocated a few more rocks to finish the edging before mixing in the super compost we picked up at the nursery yesterday. (Mushroom compost and a fancy super rich compost mix that I can’t remember the name of!)

I am sure there are rules about which strawberry plants to use and not to use. I have never followed them. Something about only using the first runner?? Well… I have Buckley’s or none, chance of sorting out this mess as to which is what – so I just cleaned them up and picked the best

Jeff trotted off next door with his lawn mower to do the neighbours lawn and paddock (way to go Jeff earning some pocket-money) while I cleaned up a lot of strawberry plants!

transformed into two nice little strawberry plants

It was getting quite chilly by this point of the day! I was happy to get inside and jump under a hot shower!

There are over 100 plants in this new plot – so I have high hopes for strawberries this season – that is if I can keep the chooks away!

And I have leftovers! Will have to find homes for all of these!

Hope your weekend is going fantastically!

I say roll on spring! I am seeing the plum blossoms starting to show and I am getting REALLY keen!

Cheers!

Friday’s Footprints: Japan – Ise, Part Two

Hello – back to Japan today to have a little bit more of a look at the Ise area – check out the first installment here if you missed part one!

We stayed three nights in Ise and it was worth it. We could take our time seeing the local sites and even revisited a few areas that we particularly enjoyed.

We stayed at this crazy cool guesthouse/backpackers called “Kazami”

Five minutes (if that) from the train station and extremely hard to miss!!!

Inside was just as mad –

Jeff takes a rest on the tatami floor on our still folded up futons!

The guesthouse was great – friendly people, impromptu music nights and art nights. There was a kitchen we could cook in and a comfy lounge area to relax in. A really good way to meet other travellers too!

On our second day in Ise, we took the little train further down the tracks to find the famous Wedded Rocks or “Meoto Iwa”

It was a nice little walk through a sleepy town to get to the sea

The rocks themselves were quite impressive, despite the gloomy day

Source Images: DSC_0955.JPG (Av: F9.0; Tv: 1/320 sec.; ISO: 2000; FL: 300.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Wedded Rocks

They represent Izanagi and Izanami, the married deities who created Japan and kami, according to Shinto mythology.

The larger rock is about 30 feet tall and is said to be Izanagi, the male, while the smaller rock, standing around 12 feet, is the female Izanami. The rope that bonds them in matrimony is a shimenawa, a sacred Shinto object often placed over shrines and gates to ward off evil spirits. The rope uniting the Meoto Iwa frays fast due to the wind and waves (as you can imagine), and must be replaced three times per year. Of course, special ceremonies are held each time the rope is replaced.

Source Images: DSC_0964.JPG (Av: F9.0; Tv: 1/320 sec.; ISO: 2000; FL: 300.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1)

It was a nice little walk around the area – lots of frogs!! Frog carvings and statues!

Always time for a tourist shot! 🙂

Have a great weekend everyone!

Cheers!

Strawberry Relocation Program

We are on a roll here – three nice days in a row!!

We started out today by picking up a load of woodchip to tidy up the side garden

I want to get those grass clumps from the pot to plant at the back here

Best go and see what the compost has to offer…

We spread a barrow load of compost here and will plant the grasses in just as soon as I extract them from their pot!

We have been wanting to do something with the patch of yard out the back for quite some time – always hard to know where to start! But we drew up a couple of possibilities up and actually ‘broke ground’

We thought it was time to move the strawberries to a fresh patch. I was keen to dig them up and tidy them up, but we decided to actually make the new garden first, so I can just transplant them rather than try to keep dug up strawberries alive while I procrastinate about making a new garden!

We are going to leave a small path between the current and new garden.

We have got some rock around the property that we want to edge all these new gardens with & Cousin Jeff reckons he can source us some more rocks to play with! Cool.

Its amazing what you dig up on an old homestead! Glass and pottery abound!

Random pipe unearthed

Heaps of lovely big worms were also everywhere! (Chickens, being on the other side of the yard, missed out big-time today!)

The plot, toward the end of the day was finally taking shape. We think we can find enough rock around the place to finish edging it tomorrow. We will then trot back off to the nursery and get a mix of topsoil and mushroom compost to top up this new garden before moving the strawberries across. Remaining compost mix to be added to the old strawberry patch which I would like to plant with pretty flowering plants.

We are hobbling like ancient people tonight after all this digging and rock moving!

While looking for more rocks I remembered we had this bridge! So I extracted it from the vines that were tangled around it and brought it around to the new patch

I don’t know if it will look dumb, or work – but I do want a middle gap through these gardens as I like to charge straight off the back veranda to go down the back… so we will experiment and see.

So, not a bad days work! We are totally feeling it tonight every time we stand up! haha – clearly out of intense gardening practice! All this rain has got me used to sitting by the fire!

Hope you have had a fabulous day!

Cheers!

Back Into The Garden – At Last!

Today was the nicest day we have had since forever!!! I promptly abandoned all my indoor plans, pulled on my gardening clothes and headed out into the sunshine (and yes- threw through two loads of laundry that almost finished drying in the sun and light breeze!)

The side garden was in need of help – we have family coming to stay in about a month and plan to get the winter scruffiness under control so it all looks nice again.

I dug up the struggling lemon tree and plonked it in the ground near the original compost. It can do what it likes now – it certainly wasn’t doing much good where it was!

Pip did the Siamese thing and lounged about – he was happier sleeping on top of some clothes of mine – in this case my gardening top, so ew!

Jeff worked on clearing out the twitch from around the iris as best he could… next season it will need a total dig up and clear out.

This pot of grasses I planned to relocate is completely root bound! I extracted a few pieces and replanted, but will finish the job tomorrow (hopefully without the aid of a sledgehammer!!)

Partway through the afternoon, Cousin Jeff dropped off another load of wood! (sob sob) 🙂 Actually this lot I will leave exactly as you see it! Its mostly under cover and it would be just wasting energy to find a place to stack it.

Pip got even more comfortable…

Seriously – going by the photos it doesn’t look like we did much! I am sure it will look a million times better when we get the new load of woodchips to cover the area with (tomorrow’s job if the rain doesn’t make a reappearance)

Tomorrow’s main job is the ailing strawberry patch!

I made a start on the strawberries and then got sidetracked by a giant slug!

Apparently this is a leopard slug and is a ‘good slug’ not an ‘evil slug’ I don’t know much about them yet…

I will get onto Google tomorrow to read more about them

Hope your day was full of cheerful sunshine too!

Cheers!

Being Too Boring to Blog!!

Hello!!

We ended up with a gorgeous sunny day today and it was so nice to soak it up a bit. The day before was filthy – so I spared you a blog of me sitting about in the gloom feeding the fire and crocheting stuff!

I know its supposed to be Ruby Tuesday – and I am falling down on my Ruby-Gathering stories the last couple of weeks!

We did have a meeting yesterday afternoon with a couple of ladies from the church guild, who are organising food for the big party!!

Its hard to believe that in little over a month Ruby turns 100 years old!! So amazing!

So we were working out a few loose ends about food, times and things that needed to be done.

If any of you who follow Ruby’s stories would like to send birthday greetings – please feel free to do so. I may get a chance to read a couple out at her party – I am sure there will be a number of messages from people who can’t make it. If you do write, please let us know where you hale from and even a bit about your garden etc. I promise I will sit Ruby down one afternoon over a cuppa and read them out to her. I know she will get a kick out of that! She likes to know that more people are learning about her beloved Tasmania!

I went on a wool hunting mission today – I picked up some nice blue wool which I think may make a nice shawl for Ruby – she loves blue. We are not allowed to give her birthday presents apparently. I pouted a bit and asked “What about making something??” Well… that’s ok. 🙂 So now I am in the middle of three shawls again, having made a little start today on the new blue one!

Jeff and I went out Star Trekking tonight!! The movie was great fun! Then we got home to clear skies and wow – stars!!! We stood out in the cold for ages watching the skies, spotting shooting stars and marvelling at how clear the milky way is tonight.

I got a couple of photos, but I really have to do some googling about settings to get it right. Still… you can get the basic idea –

Source Images: DSC_9187.JPG (Av: F2.8; Tv: 25 sec.; ISO: 1250; FL: 20.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1)

We ‘painted’ the house and trees briefly with a torch right at the end of the exposure – which was about 20 seconds. Amazing how much the stars move in a short time.

Hope you all have had a lovely day!

Cheers

Source Images: DSC_9179.JPG (Av: F22.0; Tv: 1/250 sec.; ISO: 400; FL: 20.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Another shot of my two cheerful Daffodils! I now have them inside in a vase!