From a Jack to a King

Our beautiful Dad was buried last Friday.

He passed away unexpectedly early on Thursday morning April 23 from complications resulting from a broken hip suffered in a fall the previous Monday afternoon.

We buried him in his overalls....his comfy clothes of choice each and every day. 

We gave him a  tuneful  rousing send off around the pianola on Friday night.

  

( The Queen Mary sits on top. Made by Dad with help from Uncle Bob Baker.)

________________________________________ 

******* Letter to Dad *******

To be perfectly honest we are all a bit nervous about today Dad.

You knew everything there was to know about digging trenches and pipes and site orientation and tree roots and all things plumbing really.

So we know you will be watching the proceedings of the last few days with great interest.

We think you will be happy with your final resting place.You can keep an eye on things from here and you are not far from your old mate, Frank Pryor. You two will have a lot of catching up to do and lots of yarns to tell.

We think you will be delighted to have had one final ride in your beloved work ute. Dennis has given the chrome a bit of a polish, but has left the rest just as you would have wanted. After all, we know only too well the consequences of moving things around without your permission.

We are pretty sure you would approve of the cuppa and refreshments at the Minyip Golf Club. Your favourite mug was a Minyip Golf Club mug and truth be known you had some of your best times in the shed when Mum was out there playing golf.  (Bill said that......just to let you know!)

We think you would have had a good laugh with Michael and Mavis. They have been extremely kind and obliging and you would have liked that. You would have referred to them both as being good scouts.

Dennis has checked the pipes in the roof for the leak and crawled under the house to jack up the kitchen door as per your final instructions whilst in hospital.

We will all take care of Mum just as you would have wanted. She probably won't want to participate in cleaning out the sheds though. However, we WILL let her hold the hose in the back paddock when we burn off the branches.....just as you wanted her to do a couple of weeks ago.

No rush though.

All in good time.

You loved telling people that if there were no fish in Heaven, you weren't going! Well, you'll be pleased to know that we have googled it...and apparently it's teeming with fish! You will have such a good time catching up with those beautiful Britten brothers and your much loved sister Gwen and of course your old fishing mates.

You had so many funny little ways that we will always remember...and even more that drove us to distraction!!

But our all time favourite was the nudge, wink and wry smile you gave us when you were about to say something mischievous .....usually to Mum!

We have made sure you are warm and comfortable.

We hope we haven't missed anything.

Cheerio for now our dear Dad.

We will always love and remember you.

PS   Let us know how we went today.

No hurry though.

All in good time.

He was our Dad (Jack) and our King.

We are still in disbelief.

Click on the link below to see Dad with his fishing buddy Bert, filmed recently.

Bert and Dad got together several months ago thanks to the kind and caring people from Volunteering Western Victoria.

Dad was a reluctant film star, but we will treasure this footage forever.

Jack & Bert - Gone Fishin

Life is full of ups and downs

There is something quite beautiful and majestic about trees growing along the banks of a river and the bird life that frequents them.

The perfect spot for an afternoon of fishing. 

 Dad was able to set up his special fishing seat and tackle box and Bill was on life guard duty.
Dennis caught one ( ? ) and ended up winning the prizes for biggest fish and most fish!! 

It was a great day on the farm too.

Thanks Den and Aunty Ray.

We had visited Dad's friend Renus the day before, to collect some old sheets of iron to make into a compost/ worm farm. 
This magnificent old shearing shed took my breath away.

Bill and Dad then turned this.....

...into this.

Some riveting together and it will be done.

Thanks for the pomegranates Jo and all the cuttings.
( today's job)

Flynn tried collecting some rain......such a rare event for him in the Pilbara.

And the downs.....
We arrived home from Mum and Dad's yesterday only to receive a call to say that Dad had taken a tumble and had further damaged his hip.
He is in hospital. We are awaiting the outcome of the surgeon's visit to determine what can be done.
This photo was taken when we left them yesterday.

 That is Dad's fishing chair.
 He rescued a frame and used old fire hose fabric ( who knows where that came from!) sewn together with a needle he made himself and some waxed thread used by the former shoe maker in town (we're talking 50 years ago!) that Dad had saved on a card.
Dad would say....You never know when it might come in handy.
 The perfect recycler.

More harvest than festival

~~~~ Lavender ~~~~

Yesterday was lavender harvest festival day here at Frog Pond Farm. Well, to be honest it was more harvest than festival!

In fact I'm not even sure that it's meant to be harvest time! But anyway that's what happened here.

A good result from those tiny little seedlings planted back in August last year.

Oh my goodness, look how green it was back then!

You have to look very closely to see the seedlings. They are either side of the beds lining the pathway.

~~~~~ THINKING ~~~~~~

I was born in the Year of the Snake.

I have to think about things before acting.

I have to consider all possibilities..

I have to contemplate.

We've had months of thinking.

Months of mulling . Months of eyeballing. Months of trying different options.

A crab apple walk, a lavender walk, a gate at the end, a seat at the end, move the seat and the archway and on and on it went...

For some reason we seemed to think that we needed a focal point looking out from the garden room.

Not so, we decided.

We have finally settled on this.

Drawing to scale was not a priority! 

( Mmm..... on second thoughts I probably should've asked Bill to draw it!)

There is no focal point.

It couldn't be more simple really.

No wonder everything else just didn't seem quite right. I must have kept thinking about the big picture. The need to keep the whole rose garden as one.

They are quite big beds but will easily be filled with cuttings and clumps of what we already have.....repeat plantings to make it cohesive.

As a result, Bill has been out there measuring......no eyeballing this time. 

Not so for this original sight line. Must have been me who did this lot.....eye balling!

So we'll fix those too.

We will fill the beds with as much compost/mulch etc that we can gather and let it sit through Winter.

It seems such a pity after going to the trouble of grassing two biggish spots there.

~~~~~ Tough Trees ~~~~~

Our chinese pistachio trees are looking gorgeous.

They are the toughest of small trees and produce the most exquisite colour in Autumn.

~~~~~ Climbing iceberg ~~~~~

Climbing iceberg looks so fresh and healthy at the moment. Another resilient performer under very dry conditions and without a drop of additional water.

Definitely worth it's place on our pergola.

~~~~~ Pink Belladonna Lilies ~~~~~

Massive clump of pink belladonna lilies.

Originally one bulb given to us many years ago.

Now over a hundred new bulbs. I'm reluctant to replant them though. They are a weed in some areas of Victoria although we haven't seen them anywhere else on our property.

~~~~~ Amy update ~~~~~

Amy's friend Heidi has been in Cambodia this week visiting her on Amy's week off.

She wanted to take Heidi to see Angkor Wat in the evening for the sunset viewing. Looks like they have arrived in plenty of time.

She also wanted to show Heidi her school. 

They visited the local village and went to Savanna's house. Savanna is the Khmer teacher at Amy's school. She was cooking rice cakes and invited them into their home to try some with the family.

And just to make you smile, click on the link below to see a bit of chicken dancing practice for the New year celebrations. 

Amy dancing with the kidlets

Propagation heaven

Especially when it's Autumn.

I've been propagating everything in sight!

The cuttings are all tucked away in their plastic houses lined up along the potting shed veranda.
I have resisted peeking inside, thinking that while there are water droplets they must be okay.

This little batch were successful and grew roots. I have potted them up and they are now holidaying in the...........

......magnificent mini glass house!
 They are sharing accommodation with the potted lemon seedlings, twelve red carpet rose cuttings and 26 Royal Dumble red salvia cuttings.

Bill made it out of bits and pieces from his stash including the piece of glass, so the box was really made to fit the glass.
And then while he was on a roll, he made this.....

.....a potting table made from pallets.
It couldn't be more perfect.


Prior to the building frenzy, Bill had been out gathering horse poo from our paddocks which he then put through the mulcher. We will use it everywhere. It's a great soil conditioner.

I dug a clump of daffodil bulbs from the roundabout bed and planted them en masse around our Frog Pond Farm sign.  There were 84 of them altogether all growing on top of each other. Once again that would have originally been just five bulbs many years ago.

More multiplying..... this time a plant called Phlomis russeliana.

(The photo is from Lambley nursery. )
The stems grow to 100 cms tall and are covered in  gorgeous pale lemon flowers.
I planted one in Spring 2011 and today I dug it up to separate. Now I have 20 plants! I will let them grow on in the pots and plant them out in Spring  en masse.

This is Artemisia absinthium. Also known as True wormwood. 
It has created a perfect grey leafed plant in the rose garden.

I took lots of cuttings from it and planted them straight in the ground here at the back of the bed.

It's always a struggle to get anything to grow here at this end of the house.

This year I will keep it simple........
               * Red flowering carpet rose ( already there and does fairly well but have taken lots of cuttings to plant en masse)

                *Lavender ( will be different)
                *Wormwood ( will be different)
...and this exceptionally tough ground cover called                   *Marrubium ( already there so dug up bits with roots and repeat planted)

Grey, lavender and red...en masse.


I adore liliums.
 They are quite expensive to buy as bulbs and I wanted to try propagating them this year.

I hadn't been game enough to dig them up before, so held my breath as I dug in......

It was very exciting to see what had been going on down there!

 The little bulblets were everywhere. 
I couldn't believe my eyes.
They all got planted back in the ground en masse.
Can you just imagine the display if they all grow!!!!

I had researched growing the scales from around the bulb ( they peel away just like an onion). It said to put them in damp vermiculite in a ziplock bag. They start growing roots apparently.
So I did!

They have gone into the mini hothouse.

Darling little boy. He keeps sending Bill text messages with scary faces!