Merry Christmas everyone

For our online shoppers…..

I must say, modern technology has made online shopping VERY easy.

  I DO love a good wander in the shops though. And I get to people watch which is one of my favourite things to do. 

Anyone would think that I’m all sorted for Christmas. 

I’m not.

I just wanted to post a quick blog to wish you all a very merry Christmas and thank you for reading along and following what’s been happening here in our new found home in East Gippsland. 

Amy and Helen are way more organised than us. Part of their Christmas tradition is to visit the tree farm and choose a Christmas tree to bring home and decorate.

Their two nights, first time camper trip at Buchan was a great success.

Tambo Bay has also become a favourite place to be after a hot day.

Bill worked on clearing the last big site ready for some new Autumn plantings.

Most of the liliums that I potted up months ago have flowered. I’m very happy about that. Now I just need to decide whether to put them in the ground or leave them in pots.

We had a Christmas celebration with Helen’s family last night.

Her Mum, Brenda, set herself the challenge of filling her Advent calendar with Christmas miniatures a couple of years ago. It is delightful. You can see how tiny they are compared to the books behind them.

Christmas gifts were exchanged overlooking the paddocks from their living room.

Our little cottage as we speak.

The two wicker chairs were found nearby on marketplace. I love how they look on our front veranda. I discovered that the term wicker refers to the method of weaving rather than the actual material, which could be rattan, bamboo, reeds or even synthetic fibres.



I celebrated my birthday a few days ago.

This is me to a tee….

And apparently so is this…( according to Jack, who pointed it out to Amy and Helen when they were out shopping and exclaimed, Grandma!)

She’s already been dropped and had some bits fallen off.

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and thank you again for reading along. 

Here’s hoping we get to have lots more to share on the extension to the cottage next year. 

By the way, keep that Christmas headgear simple!

Wonders

This is me right now.

To be perfectly honest, I don’t even remember half the time!

I also spend a lot of time in my own head, but that doesn’t make for good viewing so here’s some photos from yesterday.

And my favourite flower right now. It’s a tea tree.

So much to wonder about and I find myself wondering a lot!

For example, these nests….a blackbird and a wattle bird. 

I’m in awe of the crafting that goes into their construction using whatever happens to be at hand.

 The bird world is loud and busy here as we speak. So much going on.

We know that hollows in trees are the preferred nesting site for many of our native birds but we’ve attached some of our own houses ( built by Sam ) in the Fairy Garden as an option. We love how they look no matter whether they get used or not.

Helen turned an unsightly depression in the garden that often filled with water into a Billabong. At least that’s what we’re calling it.  It already had the plastic bottom in place so perhaps the previous owner had a little pond of some sort there originally. It dried up a few days ago so when that happens, it’ll just be the Dry Creek Bed.

Out and about.

A beautiful place of awe and wonder we recently visited.

Some steep steps to negotiate but oh so worth it.

The Stony Creek trestle bridge. This is a stop you in your tracks view when you first lay eyes on it. It is in between Lakes Entrance and Nowa Nowa. Built in 1916 and in service for 60 years. It is listed on the register of Historic Sites.  Once again, the early engineering skills and resourcefulness of this amazing piece of architecture is truly something to behold.

Perhaps not quite on the same scale but magnificent just the same ( in our eyes anyway ), is our new garden table and bench seats all constructed using some recycled bridge timber rescued by Helen.  David ( Helen’s Dad ) calls it our Last Supper table. 

More constructions …..Bill has been lumber jacking on a grand scale. His woodpiles are a source of wonder.  I counted ten of them today. 








We’ve been picnicking and yabbying and collecting wood from the forest and beaching.

We’ve had some fencing done to keep Jack and Pearl contained and out of the driveway area. The cypress will gradually weather and become grey.

Artichokes….such a structural feature in the vegie patch, but how does one cook them? 

We let Amy and Helen do that. Not sure what they did, but they were delicious. I think they’ve decided to leave the rest to look pretty.

Speaking of not sure, this mystery rose, recently planted out in the garden has fuelled great anticipation ( only for me by the way, don’t think anyone else even knows about it!)

Only because it has been floundering in the same pot for months even prior to us moving here. In fact I’m a bit surprised it even got to make the trip and wasn’t just discarded. It will be one that I have propagated from Frogpond that has never flowered. 

On my book pile…

Photos of bits and pieces.

A few days ago, the roses were crisping up in the heat like nobody’s business. 

A couple of days later, we had a thunderstorm that caused a deluge…

Today we’re back to rose petal sizzling day. Talk about extremes. 

From yesterday. 

They’re off to test their little camper out next weekend. 

May be we don’t need to build an extension after all.

Mmmm, on second thoughts, yes we do! 

Stay tuned for updates on both. 

This will be us soon!