Tools down and wormy chestnut

A great hive of activity here yesterday. Bill even swept the concrete after the boys had gone home.

And this morning they arrived at 7 ready for another big day.

However, we had 22mm of glorious rain here last night and after only 20 minutes of work, it looked like this..........

  

....so they abandoned tools and headed off and will return on Monday. Way too muddy, sticky, dirty and dangerous with electrical equipment.

 Note... The little pile of off cuts you can see behind the blue ladder are left overs that Bill has been eyeing off!!! to go in his shed !!!! to do who knows what!!! 

Our little willy wagtail family have also abandoned their building plans! It must have been too noisy/busy  for them and they've set up in front of the granny flat instead. We miss them flitting around out there.

We visited a floor showroom in Glen Iris yesterday. We are planning to have a timber floor in our new room so we have brought home some reading material to mull over.

We think we may choose wormy chestnut!!!

 It's a mix of all sorts of timber from the forests of south eastern Victoria. The timber has often been affected by fire, drought and insect attack and therefore has beetle marks, pin holes, squiggly worm marks and deep red veins caused by fire.

Perfect!!!( got to love that name too!)

 

On the way home we called in at my favourite shop  and I bought this teapot with it's lid missing for $8.

I went outside with my big umbrella when we got home ( so that I wouldn't get swooped) and picked another bunch of freesias to put in it.

 The teapot has a pretty pattern around the rim.

And a bunch of white artificial tulips for $10.

This is the view from our kitchen window this afternoon ..... raindrops and all. 

Tonight we are having salmon parcels with lemon and rosemary......

....so I'd better get cracking seeing I'm supposed to be cooking. 

Hope you all got some rain last night too.

Construction has begun

 The house has been closed up all day today while we were away, but as soon as we came inside we could smell the sweet perfume of freesias.
 I dug a clump of these up from Mum and Dad's and brought them back here to plant. The clump gets bigger each year. I remember as a little girl picking bunches of them in the old tennis court that used to be next to our house.
 I adored the smell then and I adore it just as much now.

The front roundabout garden is a mass of mauve star flowers.

This apricoty-ish daffodil is one of the last flowering ones of ours. Now we have the messy bit waiting for the foliage to die down before we cut them back.

The concrete slab is down for the willy wagtails!

Beats me how they are all going to fit in there but we know there is more wall work to come. He's not looking that happy about it all though!

And we are starting to think that it must be  nearly time for these two to head off.
The swooping  from their parents is driving us crazy.

Construction has begun. Mmmmm.......doesn't look anything like what I've got in my head!

The blue skies have been glorious here .........

We expect our views of the borrowed landscape will change when the sheds go up.
In the meantime, our views to the south look like this.....

The evenings have been so calm and mild.
I think that might all be about to change!

On this day.....

On this day in September last year, it looked like this.......

And today, it looks like this........

Our beautiful flowering cherry is struggling, but I refuse to give up on it.
If you look closely there are some green shoots and white blossom on the branches closest to the house and a few others scattered around that you can't see in the photo. That's a good enough reason to keep hoping it will rally around eventually.
You will also notice that the pots and watering cans are all strewn out across the back of the house. It has been the potting shed/shed along there for the last 7 months......very handy anyway!

More tree planting today. 
To be perfectly honest we have run out of places to put the last few, including the manna gums for the visiting koalas  (in my dreams). We will see what we are left with when the sheds are finally up.

The workers will be back tomorrow to turn this.....

....into who knows what! We are very excited about it though, whatever it is!

Bill has been mowing the rose garden paths today. They all stand out because it's so lovely and green.
The magpie sitting on top of the arbour is the swooper.
 Bill came in with a piece taken out of his head today....the little bit that is exposed at the back under his cap! How the heck could the magpie even find that bit of skin????

I really wanted to pick some freesias but now I'm too scared to go out there!
Hope you all get to enjoy some sun over the next couple of days.