Thursday, October 6, 2011

Spring Cleaning

It is Spring here in the Beautiful Adelaide Hills. Time to tidy up the studio.
I didn't have to clean the floor. It's been covered with stuff for so long that it didn't have the chance to get dirty. No 2 son has come home to live with us for a while so I had to move all, OK most, of my stuff out of his room back into the studio.
I have seen a lot of signs saying "I can't be tidy and creative". I can't. I do notice that my creativity reduces when the studio is a mess, so I like to have a tidy studio.

So here is my tidy studio, Greg helped me.



Don't ask me about the dining room though.
Greg helped by pulling out all the stuff that was on the floor and putting it on the trestle in the dining room.



I lost my enthusiasm and creativity earlier in the year, I am sure it is in here somewhere.

Monday, October 3, 2011

Spring is sprung

It's a beautiful Spring day here in the Adelaide Hills. The weather is a balmy whatever it is. Greg and I started the day late. We had breakfast and then slothed around until our local nursery opened. We still had the voucher he got for Christmas so off we went to spend it. Greg recently finished this arbor, which Granddaughter No 2 tells me we have to plant lots of flowers to grow over the top so fairies will come and live in it.
When we bought our house in 2000 the previous owner told me not to walk on the ground inside the sleepers he had in the backyard because there was an old well underneath. He said he had walked through the top of it and gone into the hole up to his knee. He then told me that he looked inside and it was an old well. So he chucked a bit of tin over the hole and put the sleepers down so we'd know where it was. I didn't realise until recently that he must have been on drugs.

For the 11 years we've lived in this house there has been a great deal of vague talk of opening the top of the well and using the water on our garden. While the vague talking has been going on the top has been sinking and then sinking some more until I threatened my darling husband with bodily damage if one of our darling grandchildren fell through the top of said 'Well' because he couldn't be bothered to fix it.
So Greg opened it up, and it was a two foot deep hole in the top of an old septic pit. It was full of dirt, really good dirt. So rather than just fill it in Greg built an arbor over the top.
Today we (and that is the royal we because he did most all of it while I was making a loaf of bread) planted two jasmines and a climbing iceberg rose at three of the corners.
I wanted two yellow climbers similar if not the same as the nursery around the corner had growing over a huge stand, so off we went today only to find that not only don't they sell roses anymore but the heathens had taken out the most beautiful yellow climbing rose that I had ever seen. It used to cover about 6 meters of wall with a mass of huge beautiful golden yellow 'Celebration' by David Austen.
As I have my heart set on that particular rose I am going to have to go hunting for it. An adventure for me. I shall, no doubt, bore people silly with my obsession until I find one.

The berries that we planted last year are doing great

Here's our veggie garden. We also bought some veggie seedlings that Greg planted. Here is where Greg told me to go away and stop taking his photo. I told him to shut up and freaking smile for once when he's getting his photo taken or I'll bury him in that garden bed. Which I have been told is a really bad spot to bury a body cause it's the first place the police will look.

Greg

pinched a nerve in his neck last week and couldn't move his whole left side, talk or hear for about 20 minutes. We thought he had had a stroke. Really scarey, I am so relieved he is alright.
He is supposed to be taking it easy until he goes back to the doctor. He doesn't do well with taking it easy. I am tempted to duct tape him to the wall but this wouldn't do much good and he'd be really cranky when he got loose so I'll save that for another time.
Being a typical male he argued with the doctor over taking medication for a week in case it was a little blood clot. I had to remind him that until he has his own medical degree he will shut up and do as he is told.
Still we had a lovely day today and these are to be treasured. I hope your Spring or Autumn depending on where you are is just a beautiful.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Daylight Saving

Daylight saving is on us. Yes it is Spring here in the Great South Land or Land of the Long Weekend as it is affectionately called. We have one this weekend, I can't remember if it is Labour Day or Queens Birthday or whatever any way it is a 3 day weekend. I thought I would take the oppportunity to show a photo of what I was working on this time last year


Both pieces are finished but the landscape still isn't framed.
Well I am off to bed I am loosing an hour tonight and I hate that. I do like getting up in the dark though and having a bit of extra time in the daylight at night. Even if it is only to sit on the verandah or in the sunroom and have a little glass of wine with the husband.

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