I must say that this has been one of the best holidays ever! It's the first time in years (possibly a decade) that I have taken a decent break off work.
The first week I spent relaxing and doing some housework. You know, doing those jobs that you never make time for. A few jobs were left on my "to-do" list when Mum arrived.
Mum came down for 2 weeks. We had a great time and did so much. Mum motivated me to get some jobs done around the house and she pitched in to help. The big jobs we completed were:
- re-organising and decluttering the kitchen
- dealing to my dreadful garage
- weeding the vegetable garden
- planting out the fence line
Seeing the list doesn't really describe now large the jobs were. In the kitchen I was afraid of what might fall out when I opened a cupboard door. I also had tinned food it a number of cupboards - it was really disorganised and I didn't know how to pull it together. The garage was just gnarly. There was heaps of recycling to go out. I also had rodent damage over winter - so there was lots of evidence of their existence (need I say more???). Some of the weeds had grown to over 6 foot - thanks to no maintenance while I had a broken foot! And the fence line was just plain boring.
There were lots of little jobs we did too. Not much of a holiday for Mum. We did the work in 30 minutes slots on and off throughout the day, depending on how hot it got. The hottest day we had was 34C inside the house.
There was lots of other things that happened that I am very thankful to Mum for but I don't wish to share those with the world. As always - I love my Mum and miss her dreadfully when she goes back to her home.
Okay - so how about some pictures?
This is the fence line "planted out". Will be great once the plants have matured. We planted white and blue agapanthas, a red canna lily and 2 dahlias.
A nasty discovery in the vegetable garden - bumble bee nest in the ground! If you look closely, you can see 1 bumble bee in the bottom of the photo.
Almost finished "turning over" the soil in the vegetable garden.
The largest rhubarb leaf in the plot :)
Passionfruit crop is going to be large and heavy this year. Pavlova anyone?
There is still a lot of work to do in the garden. Isn't there always :) I am in the process of purchasing some black currant bushes. That will push my fruiting / berry list to 15. So far I have the following:
- strawberries
- boysenberries
- blackberries
- orangeberries
- rhubarb
- grapes (2 vines)
- passionfruit
- plums
- apples (3 varieties on one tree)
- peaches
- lemons
- oranges
- tangelos
- mandarins
There is a lot to do in the vegetable garden in the next week. I must get my crops down for winter. In the past I haven't had much success with winter crops, but I would really like to try and see in planting that little bit earlier gives them the boost they need. Also there are some maintenance/tidying up jobs to do.
As you can see there has been little time for crafting. I'm trying my best to make use of this vacation to get on top of things.
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