Excuses, excuses, excuses

I do have some excuses for the dearth

of exciting blog posts.

I have been helping The Editor 

(previously known as The Cook)

with her day job.

So this week I took pictures to go with

her interview of a promising young local amateur local boxer.

He was such a pleasant, fresh faced 15 y.o. with a mouth 

full of orthodontic hardware ...

it is a shame to think of him being punched and damaged.

I researched and wrote a little piece 

about all the shops moving around in Kinglake.

(i.e. changing places, not wavering like in the picture...

I called the article..Shopscotch)

I worked at the op-shop

and took photos and wrote

a tiny bit of copy about the

shop's refurbishment.

(No, that's not me in the photo)

 I jumped out of the car and took some

photos of a row of lovely old cars

from a club that did a 'Rod run' 

up the mountain to the local pub.

Again...more photos and some fun interviewing the

young men (and a couple of women) in the

Flowerdale Ute Club.

We also visited a potter for an article The Editor

is preparing for the April issue about the town of Toolangi.

And we visited the kiwi fruit winery in the same town.

Shame! We had to taste the wine and I bought

some fabulous kiwi fruit cider...

and picked the man's brain about

growing kiwi fruit.

The winery is called Giverny

....for reasons obvious in the photo below.

Claude would have had his paints out and his easel up in a flash!

Then of course there are the tearooms in Toolangi.

The tearooms are situated in The Singing Gardens, ˆ

which are fabulous!

C.J. Dennis - 1876 - 1938, one of Australia's best known poets

lived in Toolangi, establishing the gardens.

He wrote humorous poetry and prose and lovingly

about the moist forests and bush around Toolangi.

He also wrote verse for children.

It is estimated he wrote over 4000 pieces 

in his 40 year writing career.

In 1917 he was Australia's most prosperous poet.

It is no wonder as he has been described as 

the Laureate of the Larrikin, 

and the best-known poet in Australia at that time.

His poems are a record of his life but also 

of the society at that time....

some seem sexist and others racist,

but interesting just the same.

I love this one, that he wrote to stir

the loins of young men

during the First World War.

Check the reference to 'Old Mother Britain'

and the idea that the Germans were 'kicking at the gate' 

(not Australia's gate, that was for sure.)

And what about 'life being short'...

so stop playing sport and enjoying it...

head off and shoot a few people 

and maybe be killed yourself.

Yep! That sounds like a good plan!

I hope you take the time to read and sing...

provided you know the tune of, Onward Christian Soldiers.

Insert your own two syllable expletive where the dashes are....

A Marching Song
Air - Onward Christian Soldiers

Fellers of Australier,
   Blokes an' coves an' coots,
Shift yer --- carcases,
   Move yer --- boots.
Gird yer --- loins up,
   Get yer --- gun,
Set the --- enermy
   An' watch the blighters run.
 
CHORUS:
   Get a --- move on,
      Have some --- sense.
   Learn the --- art of
      Self de- --- -fence.
 
Have some --- brains be-
   Neath yer --- lids.
An' swing a --- sabre
   Fer the missus an' the kids.
Chuck supportin' --- posts,
   An' strikin' --- lights,
Support a ---- fam'ly an'
   Strike fer yer --- rights.
 
CHORUS:
   Get a --- move on, etc.
 
Joy is --- fleetin',
   Life is --- short.
Wot's the use uv wastin' it
   All on --- sport?
Hitch yer --- tip-dray
   To a --- star.
Let yer --- watchword be
   "Australi- --- -ar!"
 
CHORUS:
   Get a --- move on, etc.
 
'0w's the --- nation
   Goin' to ixpand
'Lest us --- blokes an' coves
   Lend a --- 'and?
'Eave yer --- apathy
   Down a --- chasm;
'Ump yer --- burden with
   Enthusi- --- -asm.
 CHORUS:

   Get a --- move on, etc.
 
W'en old mother Britain
   Calls yer native land
Take a --- rifle
   In yer --- 'and
Keep yer --- upper lip
   Stiff as stiff kin be,
An' speed a --- bullet for
   Post- --- -ity.
 
CHORUS:
   Get a --- move on, etc.
 
W'en the --- bugle
   Sounds "Ad- --- -vance"
Don't be like a flock er sheep
   In a --- trance
Biff the --- Kaiser
   Where it don't agree
Spifler- --- -cate him
   To Eternity.
 
CHORUS:
   Get a --- move on, etc.
 
Fellers of Australier,
   Cobbers, chaps an' mates,
Hear the --- German
   Kickin' at the gates!
Blow the --- bugle,
   Beat the --- drum,
Upper-cut an' out the cow
   To kingdom- --- -come!
 
CHORUS:
   Get a --- move on,
      Have some --- sense.
   Learn the --- art of
      Self de- --- -fence.

Oh, and the soldiers did use it for a marching song, apparently.

Sisters and gardens

The two sisters, corn and beans

are thriving together.

The beans are reaching for the sky

supported by their sister the corn.

The corn is loving the boost of nitrogen from the beans

and cobs are forming.

Now you may ask, what have hydrangeas

have to do with this post?

Fair question...read on.

  

I posted these because they always trigger

a memory of my father who

was a fabulous gardener and mentor

to his four daughters...who all love gardening.

A couple of them have 'downsized' as they have

grown older but can all speak authoritatively

about plants and gardening.

Here is my dad's garden.

Perhaps it is more correct to say this WAS my dad's garden.

You will have to imagine it. 

What you can see is about half of the block.

Just in front of the house, there were two large maples

that kept the little house cool in summer

but let the sun in the north facing windows in winter.

Also a pergola on that front terrace roofed with an ornamental grape vine.

At the foot of the maples a garden/rockery

with prostate juniper.  In later years, a row of jonquils 

in an arc, popped up each spring along the front.

In front of this bed was the 'top lawn'.

It was a tough buffalo lawn

which gave you a rash if you sat on it

but was lovely and green most of summer.

Just where that remnant bit of plant is, to the left of the drive,there was a japonica that always shouted 'Spring' when it flowered on its bare branches.

To the left of this was a group of yellow box

supporting a rustic arch made from tree branches

with honeysuckle clambering over.

Walking from the top lawn through the honeysuckle arbor

you would reach the bottom lawn.

On one side there was a huge canna bed

which was a riot of colour when it flowered.

At the front of the block there was a hedge

with massed berries in the autumn.

To the right of the honeysuckle arbor 

 (our left in the photo but outside the frame)

was the 'May Walk' which was a curved path 

bordered with May bushes (of course) 

Elderberry and other shrubs.

I remember there were red hot pokers, 

and arum lillies in there...

 and salvia bushes and bearded iris.

Above the May Walk (ie towards the back of the block)

was a huge organic vegetable garden that kept the family fed.

Dividing the vegetable garden from the top lawn

was a climbing rose on some sort of support

and three crab apple trees,

one pink, one white and one red

which flowered in sequence in spring.

Behind the vegetable garden were some fruit trees.

Apple trees and a plum tree with huge 

purple-skinned fruit and yellow flesh.

Beside the house (to our left looking at the photo) was another hedge with an arched opening.  It had little pink flowers.  Once dad grew enormous cosmos in front of the house just there.  They were taller than him. I don't remember these, but there is a photo.

If you walked through the opening in the hedge, up beside the house, there was an elegantly wide curved lawn path with stepping stones set on the diagonal. Between the path and the house there was a snowball tree (don't know the real name but it provided a satisfying faux snow-fall when shaken)  and large lush hydrangeas....that's the link. This was always my favourite bit of the garden.

Up behind the house there was a clothesline and a lemon tree.

Behind these was a huge raspberry patch.

At the very back was the chook shed and the compost bays.

Along the back of the fence was a collection of trees...

some planted by Dad and others originally on the block.

Now if you look at this photo, imagine to the right of the drive an oak tree about a quarter of the way up. My sister HDW planted that as an acorn. It was about sixty years old, but never grew to its full potential because of the soil and competition from a tree next door.

Further up the drive, also on the right

was a huge Pin Oak, a Claret Ash, and a Golden Ash 

which combined to create a riot of colour in Autumn.

I feel sorry for the people in the unit next door.

That Pin Oak shaded their house in the Summer,

let the light in in Winter and provided 

something to look at as well as privacy...gone!

At the top of the drive, behind the house were

Cootamundra wattles and Prunus trees

providing colour in Winter and spring

as well as shelter for the wood heap.

When Mum and Dad bought the land

back in 1940 for 120 pounds

it was lightly treed with Yellow Box.

Typical of the open eucalypt bush in this area

with native grasses and wildflowers underneath.

Lots of the original trees remained in the garden.

Yellow Box take many years to mature

and some may have been a hundred years old.

That Dad established a lush garden on this land at all is amazing.  The top soil in these parts is poor and layered begrudgingly over stone and rock.  But with good gardening practices, lots of animal poo and compost and hard work he created a haven for himself and his family that was both beautiful and abundant.

Over forty years ago the block was sub-divided and

one of my sisters and her husband bought

the part where the original veggie patch was.

They raised their family there

and their living room windows look out

across the bottom part of Mum and Dad's garden.

The garden I describe here is the garden of my childhood.

Over the years it changed.  When the block was split,

the vegetable garden moved up to where the raspberries had been.

This will be the format remembered

by most of the grand children.

 Generally the garden deteriorated as age wearied the gardener.

  He has been gone for a couple of decades now

 and the garden was maintained by family

and finally by contractors...

 men with mowers and whipper-snippers

while Mum still lived there.

Some of the trees remained until two days before Christmas. 'Progress' came in the form of a team of men with chainsaws, climbing equipment, a wood chipper and stump grinder.

No tree or plant was immune.

The century old Yellow Box

and all the sixty year old trees planted by our Dad.

Including the two eucalypts I gave him

when I first started work.  Both tall and healthy,

one nested in by a Tawny Frogmouth. 

Both of these were in front of the set-back...

i.e. in front of where the developer 

will be permitted to build and would 

have looked great in the front yard.

My sister saved a particularly large Yellow Box

on the fence line. From her discussion with the contractor,

it would have gone too if she hadn't been there.

I am not against progress per se. 

We sold the block...to a developer and obviously

had some idea about what he had planned.

As my wise Brother in law said,

Mum is getting the benefit of her asset.

She is being well taken care of in the aged care 

facility just down the road and the money from the sale

of the property forms the bond for her care while she

lives there.  It had to happen, but it makes me so

sad that it can be wiped out so completely

and with such little disregard in just a single day.

But if I have it bad, what about the sister

who lives next door and has to look at it all?

She has spent all but about four years

of her life on this land.

To add insult to injury, her garden was shredded by 

the freak storms that went through on Christmas Day.

Her garden looks just like Phoebe's at Ballynoe Cottage

which is just a couple of kilometres away.

All the disturbed top soil from Dad's

garden was washed away in the storm too.

It is probably somewhere near Phoebe's by now.

At least, when my sister visited yesterday,

 I was able to give her some seedlings

and plants from the greenhouse

to get her started again.

Isn't gardening a funny thing?

It is more than a hobby, I think.  

It can be such a joy and such a trial.

Vegetable gardening is a beast of its own.

There is something about growing food

and sustaining yourself and your family

that leaves its mark deep inside.

I wonder what will become of my garden

...and the gardens of all my blogger friends in the future?

Up in the clouds!

It's Spring!

I am up in the clouds!

I am fat and fruity!

I am sticking my beak

into someone else's business!

I am hot, green and super excited!

Come back tomorrow 

to find out what the excitement is all about!

Reducing my Blogging footprint

Blogging has proven to be a wonderful activity.

What started off just as an effort to record

my gardening and greening efforts,

has provided a thread that has woven its way

through my days.  

As I go about my day, 

blogging opportunities present themselves

and out comes the camera.

I enjoy the feeling of community

that blogging brings.

Male King Parrot in full breeding plumage

However, I find that it is taking up a lot of time and head-space

 that I could spend on other things.  

So...I am no longer going to try to blog every day 

and I am going to try to limit my posts to the original purposes 

of documenting the garden 

and my efforts to reduce my carbon footprint on our little blue planet.  

Cooking from scratch and 

cooking using produce from the garden will continue to appear.

Goats and chooks will pop in from time to time to say g'day.

The truth is, you may not notice too much of a change....

especially this time of the year when so much is going on in the garden.

But I think I will feel the change once the

pressure to produce something each day has gone.

Maybe less is best anyway!

Signs.and.a.rant

I.love.to.go.into.the.city.and.regular

readers.will.remember.I.have.featured.

urban.architecture.in.past.posts.

This.weekend.The.Cook.and.I.went.to.

a.live.show.and.because.of.the.late.hour.

we.stayed.in.the.city.

It.was.a.lovely.break.

HOWEVER....

isn't.there.always.at.least.one.'however'?!!

I.was.thinking.about.signs.

DO.NOT.........

NO.ENTRY....

KEEP.LEFT

and.other.imperatives..

(especially.ones.about.parking...but.I.am.going.to.fight.

the.$51.parking.ticket..another.story.LOL)

.And.the.advertising!

and.claims.to.ownership

'THIS.IS.MY.SHOP'

ARGH!...visual.noise.

But.Melbourne.is.also.one.of.the

world's.foremost.cities.for.graffiti.

Just.check.out.this.one.example....

Now.before.you.say...but.that.is.lovely...

not.like.that.'tagging'.

Well,..I.disagree...

tagging.is.usually.done.by.

disinfranchised.youth.who.

feel.the.need.to.make.their.mark...some.how.

I.personally.don't.consider.it.any.uglier.or

less.relevant.than.the

blaring.neon.signs.promoting.the.mindless

consumerism.of.a.capitalist.system.

gone.crazy!

Look.no.further.than.Times.Square.,

Piccadilly.Circus.,

or.Young.and.Jacksons.

Then.of.course.there.are.the.gentler

decorators.of.urban.landscapes.

Ah,..but.it.is.nice.to.be.back.in.the.bush.

I.am.off.outside.to.take.my.frustrations.

out.on.the.wood.heap!

As.if!

Someone,...the.great.nephew

is.turning.thirty.this.month.

Apparently,those.near.and.dear.to.him.

-his.mother.(my.niece)

-his.grandmother.(my.sister)

-his.great.grandmother.(my.mother)

-and.a.few.others

think.this.is.good.enough.reason

to.interupt.my.plans

and.postpone.the.beginning.of

the.great.outdoor.kitchen.build.

just.so.they.can.all.take.him

out.for.dinner!

Hmmmph!

So.you.will.have.to.be.happy.

with.a.couple.of.pics.of.the.jonquils.

that.are.growing.right.where.the.kitchen.is.going.....

They.too.are.celebrating.

....a.one.day.reprieve!

a.lesson.learned

do.not.spill.a.cup.of.tea.on.your.computer.keyboard.

at.first.it.may.not.work.at.all.

then.after.a.couple.of.days.it.may.partially.work.but.without.the.caps.key.and.space.bar.

oh.well.enjoy.these.pictures.from.my.weekend.

hope.yours.was/is.as.good.as.mine.

japonica

building.begins.tomorrow

the.good.sort.of.oxalis

evergreen.alder.flowers..

japanese.windflower.seeds

Parentheses

Yesterday, I had to go out.

These two images,

at either end of the day...

on the way out...

and on the way home, 

bracketed an otherwise

ordinary,

unspectacular,

mundane

sort of day.

Isn't the world beautiful?

From the mouths of grandchildren...

On day three of Granny Camp....

some of us collected wood for a bonfire...

...then waited patiently for it to be ready for marshmallows.

When we realised our grannies couldn't start a fire in hell...

we went inside and singed our sugar

at the open door of the wood heater.

Some of us climbed gates.

One of us was camera shy...

...and one of us wasn't.

One of us was cute enough to eat...

... and one of us was wise enough to say,

"Grandmothers are like cats.

They can do whatever they want."