Catching up.

Well, it is a rainy, awful Thursday, and I am just plain exhausted. Yesterday was a big day: Piper and I drove all over Sydney, plus Spiders' Group in the evening, so I felt like I started at 8 and never really stopped. On top of that Piper was still in cloth last night when she went to sleep, so she woke up at 3am sopping wet (luckily she was sleeping on a blanket in our bed!) and once she was changed she had no interest in going back to sleep. I took the bullet on that one and let Mr Poppleton sleep but now she is napping and I am glaring resentfully. Except, aw, she's pretty cute!

I didn't do WiP Wednesday this week, because I had way too much going on to sit at my computer for more than five minutes, but I did get a few things worked on! The week I finished my manuscript I did maybe 25,000-30,000 words, which is a LOT of time on the computer, even for a prolific gal like me. I had noticed my right eye was fuzzy, scratchy, and really tender. I finally went to the optometrist this morning and surprise, surprise, I need new glasses. So that's a relief, that I don't have like some eye-hugging Alien-esque brain parasite or a death tumor or anything. I've been ordered to rest my eyes more, write more sensibly, and always use nice, bright lights. WORD. I love my optometrist, though. She didn't even mind when my mischievous baby tried to turn off the projector. So I've chosen frames and lenses and will go tomorrow to finalize it. I can't wait, because man, I am just ready to be able to SEE again!

Anyway, having taken myself off heavy-duty writing time even before this appointment, I still had post-coffee-run-baby-in-the-car-nap. Now, sitting in the car reading is fine, but I have just ended up putting my book down and staring at the garden. It's in dire need of some love and affection! I know that the previous owner, Jean, really loved the garden but she was way too old to care for it in the last ten or fifteen years of her life in this house. As a result the garden went nuts. Bulbed plants are way too dense. There are jonquils EVERYWHERE. I have a LAWN of jonquils.

(But they smell beautiful. And look so pretty on my windowsill.)

There are two crepe myrtles that looked like crazy trees. (I pruned them. One of them is going to be cut down though.) Please don't even mention the word "privet" to me. I will probably cry. There are a million tiny cactuses. (What is with succulents? I don't get it.) I also have some geraniums which smell FANTASTIC so I'll transplant those to pots. And once the jonquils are done, I'll dig them up and put them somewhere nice. Against the fence maybe? Just not EVERYWHERE.

And the previous owner left lots of pots in the garden. I'm donating or giving away all the plastic pots, but anything terracotta or ceramic I'm keeping. It was like a treasure hunt, digging all those gorgeous pots out of the overgrown beds. Check these out!

And these little guys! I love that little turtle. He's going to have a back full of yummy herbs!

The thing is, I'm not a "pretty" gardener. I am removing a dozen shrubs and (hopefully) a tree. I'm taking out a huge azalea bush, a cotoneaster, about thirty privet trees, and a big mystery bush along the fence. I am leaving the beautiful jacaranda that is being choked out by the thicket of cruddy shrubs and vines, and of course all the camelias. (They'll get a good prune though.) We are planting privacy hedges (probably lillypilly as it is native, quick-growing, and easy to maintain), but as for pretty plants? I'll keep the agapanthas and grow some ranunculas. But the thing I've always wanted a garden for is food.

I've chosen three spots to do my kitchen gardening and I have my eye on a fourth spot, too. I think a few different places is a good idea, especially since I bought something like 30 seed packets from Green Harvest the other week.

Mm, dreamy. Seed catalogues to me are super addictive...and very costly haha!

So now I'm clearing out the spaces for my kitchen garden, so we can get to the azalea and whatever else is back there and cut it back, clear it out, and get it ready. I have cow manure. I have seed-raising mix. I have a sunny propogation nook. I've been busy!

This was my first project, the side yard. I went scorched earth, baby! Technically our property ends where the concrete does, but the little side-yard there was choked with bromeliads, native violets, and scrubby stuff that wasn't really doing well in such a small space. I spoke to our neighbor Kevin about it, as it's actually his land, and he said "go for your life!" He's pretty accomodating about stuff like that, and as it's on the blank wall of his garage, in a 1/2m wide strip he can't get to without coming through our gate, I think he's just glad I'm not making HIM weed it. :)

I am sorry for the blurry phone picture.

This is the kitchen garden nook. ALL OF THAT IS GOING. These are my swishy sewist's hands, crying at the thought of what all that pruning, sawing, and pulling out is going to do to my poor little paws. I need my renovation callouses back!  There I've only done about 8%.

Obviously it will need to be cleared to get enough sunshine to be worth putting plants in. It'll get about 6 hours of direct sunlight a day which will be perfect for a kitchen garden in Sydney summer. I've seen plants grow in a lot worse conditions. So fingers crossed.

Here is my overall garden plan. It's a year-long project, including the raised beds, a retaining wall along the fenceline, building a compost and green-bin enclosure, and putting in hedges. Obviously my first priority is to get my grocery bill down by growing food! :)

Sigh. So much to do. But I am looking forward to it! Now if only the sunny warm weather would come back. Yesterday was PERFECT...and of course we were in the car all day!! Drat. Whereas today I'm home and it's cloudy and threatening rain.

Lest you think I've been all work and no play, I began cutting into my Across the Pond last week. It's a commission for a baby quilt for a friend's new-nephew-to-be. Here is a sneak peek of the laid-out stars. Aren't they cool?

I got this idea from Cille, with a little nudge from my Marti Michell 60º triangle ruler. I LOVE THAT THING.

Well, the baby has woken from her naptime and I can TELL she needs to be changed! After that we'll head up to Kmart so I can buy myself some "rubber boots" (as my mom calls them), aka "wellies"! I am tired of having with scrub my poor pathetic Converse every weekend. Gardening calls for cheap waterproof equipment!

Cheers, everyone, and enjoy your Thursday and Friday!

xx Penny