Stumpless on daffodil day

We are stumpless apparently!

If you've been here for the last six months as a stump and haven't shown any signs of re shooting then today your time was up.

Can't even bring myself to enlarge this photo because it's so ugly. And there were many such ugly stumps and dead, black branches dotted around the place. All this ugliness led me to encourage Bill to buy a chainsaw. We have already spent over $4,000 getting tree loppers in to remove the large dead trees and we could see that it was going to be an ongoing task.

 I think I may have created a monster!! I can't get the thing off him now! If he's not out on the ride-on with the cart attached, then he'll be chopping something down....or both!

And then up to the new wood pile for stacking or over to the bonfire for the messy bits ( the bonfire is usually going too!).

After a huge day of stump work, it's garage time.....the only garage we are likely to see for the moment. Nothing happened today. Just a meeting with our project manager and the concreting man. 

These pretty birds were sighted at breakfast time this morning.  They are European goldfinches according to my Bird man.

Late this afternoon when we were sitting outside after Bill had "locked up" the mower, we saw a magpie fly to one of our back paddock trees and settle in a nest high up in the branches. This is him (or her)  taken with Bill's zoom in camera.....

And this is the tree......the nest is in the fork of two branches three quarters of the way up the tree.

This young crimson rosella also arrived for a drink at breakfast. 

Beautiful daffodils inside for daffodil day......

Spring is definitely in the air.......and I am loving it.

Pesky foragers and a poppy

 It was our last chance to remove anything from the rubble paddock today.....something is happening there tomorrow.
 They are going to be scraping the place where the concrete is to be poured.
So this little  poppy decided to have the last hurrah!
How did that get there? ( or is it a weed???)

We have always been happy to share our garden with all sorts of creatures great and small.
BUT what the heck is responsible for this???

...the sedum patch...

...my precious tulip patch...

...my prized white belladonna lilies...

It's all a bit random really, although I guess the plants are all a bit fleshy. Bill thinks it's probably rabbits who incidentally don't have any special accommodation here anymore, but obviously still like to visit, mostly at night it seems.
Mmm...I'm not sure.

I adore this daffodil. I think it's because of the creaminess.They are under the plum tree in the orchard and always flower a bit later than the others.
We don't think the plum tree is going to survive but I love the lichen that has grown on the trunk. The tree has grown  to a substantial size so we desperately want it to recover.

This one is also a later flowering variety. I have forgotten it's name ( it might be a double daffodil) but I have never liked it. It looks messy!

The hyacinths are just starting to burst after being tightly packed for a while now.

And I could smell these gorgeous freesias before I could see them. This little group are the first to flower.
They are heavenly. 

The rhodanthemum is about to be covered in blooms. 

Hope there's a bit of action here tomorrow!
Our building project manager is coming to see us. I'm making scones and jam and cream for morning tea in the hope that he will have some good news for us!

Happy as Larry

 Bill headed off down the paddock on his first mission this afternoon as happy as Larry!

He is planting out some more tree seedlings (dug up from the rubble) in a corner of the biggest horse paddock. It that has been fenced off from the horses purely for that reason. 

The chainsaw is a new purchase. We can already see many branches and small trees that are going to need cutting back or down altogether. This might make that job a bit easier.

We have always been unsure about whether our block of deciduous trees at the front was going to survive the stress of fire.
 There is a mixture of oaks, pin oaks, crabapples, liquidambers, a claret ash and a golden ash.
It is still too early to tell at the moment, but we are expecting to lose some of them. 

The daffodils around them are looking quite happy though.

This is a small clump of special ones given to us by Jamesy.
They are quite dainty and sometimes produce two or three on the same stem ( and very rarely, even four).

The one on the right has two flowers on the same stem. Sadly their petals frequently get chewed by "who knows what".

On our kitchen table at the moment.......

On my sewing table at the moment.......

Photos of this boy on every table at the moment.......

Taken at his second birthday party.
Happy Birthday beautiful little man.

Tete-a-tete and Mallee Ruby

I am loving this mix of daffodils.
Especially the ones with the orangey frill.

And these little mini daffodils are delightful.
They have only just started flowering in our roundabout garden.
They are called Tete-a-Tete  and really are the daintiest little things you've ever seen. They only grow to about 25cms high and each flower is no more than 3 or 4 cms across. 

We have been having so much fun (well I have anyway!) wandering around the nurseries over the last few days. 

Ten of these in tubes.....

......and several of these beautiful lemon scented tea trees.
I adore lemon scented anything really. 

And just in case a koala is roaming around in the area, a few manna gums just to entice him in for a look.....

Some more yellow loveliness........

And ten of these "local" Macedon Ranges wattles for good measure.
We are ordering ten of the Kings Park Special callistemons as tubestock.

I was delighted to see these pin cushion hakeas as tubestock at the nursery too. We ended up with all of them left on the shelf (about 7 I think).
We won't plant them in the front native bed this time.

(This is the hakea at your place Bill Snr. )

There were three Mallee Rubies in the bargain section for $3 each.
 Loved the name and couldn't leave them there. Eremophilas are very hardy apparently and they will be new for us. Can't wait to nurture them back from the brink!

We hadn't considered Forsythias before today, when we talked about relocating the one we have in our roundabout garden.
It spends most of it's time being completely ignored except for the next few weeks when it will burst into glorious canary yellow flowers. For the rest of the year we don't even know it's there!
We might get some more and plant them together in a group of three or five.

And just for you Sue and Rossy......one of Bill's magpie photos.   It almost looks like he's captured them mid-yodel! 
Don't mention the football though!!