first post for the new year

Have been having trouble finding the time to blog and have not wanted to get too bogged down and introspective.

Just had to mention a few things though ... like how lovely my baby is when he smiles and how tasty my daughters home grown carrots that we harvested today were.

During the spring holidays uni and kt planted flowers and veggies in raised foam boxes in the back yard.

The idea was that they would be safe from our pets ... the corn eating one and the always looking for an easy litter tray one.

During the spring holidays uni and Kt planted cucumber, tomato, carrot and flowers.

The tomatoes surprisingly never really took off. The cucumbers were quickly polished off by our pooch. Some she could reach directly from the ground as they hung down out of the foam boxes ... and the others she reached by SITTING on TOP of the carrots in the carrot box and reaching over to get the cucumbers.

Once all the cucumbers were gone she realized that the carrots might be of interest too and started sitting on top of them and digging them up too.

She unearthed a few and perhaps did not like them very much.

Tonight we saw the discarded carrots on top and kt pulled a few intact ones from the soil.

They were so beautiful ... cute and little with light hairy roots coming off them.

We cleaned them off and ate them this evening and they were so delicious.




With all this rain, the front garden is very lush and lovely ... there is plenty of green although a lot of that is weeds!!!

Some of the weed plants and very pretty ... lovely red flowers etc.

Amongst the growth is a dahlia that kt bought for me either for mothers day or my birthday last year.

She bought me two plants one red/pink and one orange/yellow. I planted both in different spots in the garden and initially watered them regularly but then of course didn't keep it up once Rj came along.

Both disappeared completely and I thought they were dead but did not pull them out of the ground.

Then after a heavy bout of rain I noticed the red/pink one had a small amount of foliage and the more rain that came the stronger and bigger it grew until now it has masses of beautiful flowers.

I lamented the fact that I planted the other one in a part of the garden which seems incapable of sustaining any life except weeds ... I'm blaming the creature who goes in search of an easy litter tray for that.

Anyway today I took the bins out and checked over the garden and looked over to the patch that does not support life to see if another plant I had recently planted there had managed to survive.

To my delight I could see a beautiful yellow/orange flower. Then I thought to myself ... that's odd ... the gerbera I recently planted had yellow flowers I wonder why they changed to yellow orange and then when I looked closer I realized the flower was attached to foliage the same as the pink/red dahlia kt had given me.

From absolutely nothing at all this dahlia regrew into the most stunning plant with the most amazing flower! Here are the photos...



I took kt and uni out to show them.

... also the yellow gerbera is still there ... surrounded by weeds, but alive nevertheless.

Am still beaming at the thought of it ... my lost plant that came back to life!

another breast infection

hmmm this time after a 13hour period with no feeds.

I think I am going to have to start waking the little guy at 10.30 or 11pm so his night time fast is more like 8 hours rather than 12 to 13.

Had fever and a really sore really red breast this time.

Spent most of my day yesterday at the doctor, then at medicare.

Had a fairly full weekend ... uni at work so kt and rj and cooking and all their care and entertainment fell to me.

Was totally exhausted by sun pm ... and really looking forward to a quiet monday at home ... not at the doctors.

Anyway stayed home today and am making the most of my time!

Even did some weeding, photography, washing etc.

Uni bought himself a karcher high pressure cleaning system and has made all the paths and concrete around our yard clean and sparkling. He used the water from our tanks!!!!

Spring is just about here and the garden is blooming ... it hasn't had much attention at all from me but things like the blue salvia which I thought were brown and dead have all started to regrow!!!

Looks like I should not pluck a dead plant out until spring because it might only be hibernating.

Whenever uni pays attention to the yard (mowing) or in this case high pressure cleaning it makes me want to get out there and complement his work with some of my own.

I didn't get all the weeds but I have made a dent in them.

I also took some photos of the garden ... my lemon plant has flowered again and smells divine!

And so does kt's bean plants ... one of which has a bean pod!!!!

The kids each grew a bean plant in class and we also grew some additional ones at home.

Borlotti beans (this is the kind that smells so nice, has such pretty flowers, is climbing rapidly ... and has a pod) and also chickpeas ... these have a small pretty white flower and lovely delicate dark green leaves.

They are all flourishing in a pot full of tomato growing soil in our circular garden.

kt got her award

Managed to get photos of kt getting her "next 100 magic words" award.

We were worried that they may have called her out last Friday on parade while she was at home sick ... but luckily they had too many other things to do since it was also an Anzac day parade.

I got a few photos ... and Kt was very proud of herself!

When I got home I weeded the front corner rock garden and did some watering using our fairly full tank.

I still have the weeding of the circular potted garden and the main garden to tackle ... which I may try and attempt during the long weekend ... if I don't end up sleeping in until all hours of the day.

Feeling a bit better today although not completely recovered.

Will attempt to finish packing my hospital bag since it is something I keep putting off doing.

I also went to the library a few days ago and got lots of interesting books out and am trying to read as much as I possibly can about birth to get prepared.

school holidays have ended

The burst of cool weather this morning and the return to school has motivated me to get things done.

I did a rough tidy up of the house including vacuuming the lounge room floor which has not been done for maybe 3 weeks.

I made all the beds, put a few of kt's artworks downstairs, tweaked the budget, organized the banking and even managed an uninterrupted chat with uni!

When the weather improves I will do more washing and I will continue gardening, weeding and watering.

I can attach a hose to our water tanks and very slowly and gently water the garden.

This saves me from having to pick up buckets full of water and cart them around... which I have not been keen to do in recent months. Luckily there has been enough rain to keep the garden going ... but now the tanks are full and I think the rain is mostly finished so If I want to have a garden to enjoy once the baby is born I need to pay some attention to it now.

The worms are happy and I used the latest batch of worm castings to plant the dahlias kt bought me for my birthday.

There is a whole stack of capsicums or tomatoes sprouting from the worm castings too... must be all the seeds of the veggie scraps I have been feeding the worms!

As of today I am more pregnant than I have ever been before ... 35 weeks and 3 days!

Rain overnight

It stormed last night and Kt and I had a candle lit dinner (candles were out just in case the power went out).

The thunder and lightning were quite loud so I promised to stay with Kt in her room until she fell asleep.

I had just finished commenting on how I love sleeping when there is rain outside (particularly heavy rain).

Then I rolled over onto my other side (I was lying on a bean bag beside Kt's bed) and promptly fell asleep.

I slept for about an hour to an hour and a half and woke up quite surprised. Kt was silent so I imagine she had been asleep for a while too.

I headed out to watch TV and catch up on my tidying up.

By the time I got to bed I was very tired, but could not get to sleep.

Probably should have gone back to Kt's room!

This morning the pond was about an inch and a half full of water and I drained it with buckets and gave the garden a good watering.

It took me about an hour, but it certainly beats carrying bathwater from Kt's bath down the stairs and all around the garden.

Many things are starting to bloom ... I am amazed how quickly plants respond to rainwater!!!

Some of my plants are flowering for the first time ever, even though I have had them for a few years.

I am surprised to see that the agapanthus I transplanted earlier in the year are actually starting to flower before the established plants that have been in the garden for over a decade!!!

And my blue salvia, which lost all their flowers and i thought were finished their run have bloomed again!

The tanks were 1/4 filled by the rain although there was a leak so we probably had more. At the moment Uni estimates we have 500 litres of water in the tank.

I will have to drain it so that uni can do some repairs ... but I think it will only take another day or two for me to do that.

I also need to mulch the garden while there is moisture in the soil.

very tired

I came here to write tonight but I am very tired .....

Uni is on holiday and I have had a big day.  He woke up bright and early this morning and took the dog for a beach walk!

I painted the fence ... I'm flying through it now ... the end is in sight ... aiming to be done before the heat of summer ... I think I might be repeating myself ... but no time to go back and read what I have written before ....

I also watered the garden.  It has not rained in any serious amounts for nearly 2 months.  I stopped using KT's bath water on the garden, opting to wait for rain, but now there is not much bright colourful life in my garden (although everything is bravely hanging on), so I am back to carting buckets of water through the house and down the stairs and into the garden until it does finally rain properly again!

I am building up some muscles!

A few nights ago Uni said that my belly felt tight and that my arms feel muscly.  Am surprised at how much pleasure I got out of those statements!  I have been swimming for 7 weeks now ... I guess that is enough time for some muscles to develop. It is definitely much more of a workout than bellydancing although if I had taken bellydance practice as seriously as swimming practice perhaps it would have been too.

I did some ironing while we watched a movie together at lunchtime, then made KT's sandwiches for school for the rest of the week, and made tonight's dinner.

I went to swimming class tonight and there were a full 8 students ... roughly one lane each.

There was another newby to the swimming class ... Leslie who apparently has been learning with Jennie in the 18 metre pool and made her debut into the big pool tonight.  She was swimming with a kick board and is very much a beginner also, so I will keep an eye on her progress with interest.

I spent a lot of time on butterfly tonight ... concentrating more on the arms and even tried to incorporate a breath.  It is funny how skills or ability come in a flash, then disappear, then come back in a flash again.  The movements for butterfly are becoming familiar, and I have now seen Jennie demonstrate them enough that I have a "movie" of how they should go running in my head.

I can also see the similarities between the strokes and how certain principles apply to all even though they are different.

Today I also stumbled on the fact that at night when the lights are on I can look down and see the shadow of my arm movements on the bottom of the pool.  This means I can "watch" what my arms are doing (in freestyle) as well as "feeling" what they are doing, while my head remains looking right down (correct head position).

My shadow's movement looks smooth and graceful!!!!  I have noticed my bellydancing shadow looks the same way!!!! This creates a positive feedback loop because I watch what I am doing, I do it better because I can see I am doing a good job and concentrate more on doing it right.

I wonder what I will do in the day time ......

I haven't had the swirly eye thing happen for over a week so I think my body has adjusted to whatever it needed to adjust too.

I am very sleepy though and I think I need an early night.

Goodnight to all

... And my final note is that I have enjoyed reading more frequent blog entries this past week!

Spring cleaning

I can feel spring in the air and feel the urge to get things organized.

I have spent most of today on the computer but have been getting the last 6 years worth of photos backed up onto DVD. It is great knowing that I have everything safely stored.

I went swimming last night and attempted butterfly for the first time. It was a fairly hilarious session last thing before the class ended ... but I will have a chance to practice during the next week on my own.

I have been concentrating on looking down and getting the correct body position in the water. I have also tried to focus on what my arms are doing ... and trying to adjust my breathing now that my head is lower down in the water.

In previous weeks I was feeling confident with breathing, but was throwing my head up high out of the water ... now that I am keeping my head lower in the water I often end up with a mouthful of water when I breathe.

Jenni suggested I concentrate more on slowly expelling water out of my mouth as I turn my head to the side, then take a breath when my mouth clears the water.

I wonder if maybe I am keeping my mouth open too long and so when my head re-enters the water I get a mouthful of water. I will have to try and see what my mouth is doing (as well as my arms, head, legs, body .... LOL!!!)

I have been swimming now for about a month and I am very pleased with myself. The people in the night class are familiar to me now (by sight more than anything else) and I have become a recognized member of the group! It still is nowhere near as social as bellydancing is ... and I think I like that. Not much time to chat while you are trying to swim.

I think by the end of next week I will be finished the first coat of paint on the long side fence. Then I imagine if I work steadily on a second coat ... I should be completely finished the fence by the end of the year.

Uni joked that some people paint their fence every year! Hmmmphhh we will not be one of those types of people ... since it takes me more than a year to do it the first time!!!!

Yesterday we emptied the lower tray of the worm farm together, for the second time. We were both pretty impressed by the "soil" we found. This time around we left it for a full three months and it had a lot less worms left in it and was in a much more "finished" condition.

I think from now on we will empty the tray at the beginning of each season. I put the worm castings into the garden and in the next few days will plant some flower seeds for spring and then mulch the entire front garden.

I will also plant some paw paw seeds for someone!

There is a rogue tomato growing out of my compost ... will be interested to find out if it is a cherry tomato or not ... at the moment it is looking very healthy and has heaps of little tomatoes on it!

Term 3 begins - frontyard fix

Well another term has begun.

Not too many issues this time around ... although Uni did wake up and cook KT a special breakfast of pancakes... that is a pretty good start to any day I think.

We spent the day out in the yard working on improvements.

I was able to weed the garden in about an hour (it used to take days when it was more weed than garden!!!).

Then I painted the two pallets that our garden rainwater tanks will sit on ... and did the side fence (which will be inaccessible once the tanks go in). I also continued on the rest of the side fence. I am into the undergrowth now ... the easy bits have all been painted and I now have to crouch amongst ferns and lean around and behind trees to continue my work ... it is progressing and I intend to do a bit every day while KT is back at school ... until it is completed.

While I worked on that, uni shovelled the last of the gravel out of the pond .. I had done 7/8 of it but uni finished the hardest part. He also cleaned the carport roof and emptied its gutter of probably 10 years worth of leaf litter. In the end he removed two full bucket loads of composted leaves (complete with a good sized plant). We put them in the garden in a patch that needed a bit of extra soil!!

He also cleared the area of the garden where the tanks will stand, and in the next few days will paint the roof of the carport and connect a clean new drainpipe from the carport roof and gutters to the water tanks.

We will then have 2000L water holding capacity which should be plenty for gardening!!!