Garden Update No 466

Hours were spent today firstly with the poison sprayer, over every path, gutter and step, Debbie the Destroyer missed nothing. Then it was edge trimming and if it hasn't been done for a while, like over Winter then there is a thick mat to get thru. Next came the mower which did shave early Spring growth and finally the blower which gave any leftover clippings to someone down the road as the breeze was brisk. The water feature is now fully functioning with a good gurgle which meant the nearby very large pots had to be repositioned to the middle courtyard. This is now a threesome which I have been told is the correct configuration. A final update on the barrel we hauled up from the beach. It seems a passerby has taken it for their collection. You'd need a warehouse to collect those.

Griggs Cascade

We were riding along when I remembered the small waterfall built along Griggs Ck. We have been into water features so much lately it would be remiss to ride passed without stopping for a look see and Debbie had not seen it before.  It is quite a natural look but surrounded by the burbs.  It was overcast but calm enough so we sat outside for a coffee stop on the front verandah.  Not the best outlook with the traffic right there but it was too warm in with the fire place.  Overall we did 15km but would like to at least double that before Summer.

conversing with small people

Great Grandfather's day

The sidewalk supermarket has a downside when you stop to load the car with a newly cut down tree, especially one that oozes sticky sap.  This stuff is now on the door handles and the steering wheel and anywhere else you might touch. We unloaded them yesterday, now we have to cleanup. There is an orange based cleaner that I have used for unglueing stamps, that might work. Other wise it was more cake and coffee at the fathers day gathering.  I am limiting cake to birthdays only for this birthday season. Call it a Spring resolution.  We have just enough time to get the yard swept and weathered plant detritus into the green bin.  Abin to that.

rocket cake

toasting the children

Heart rate at 112 at the top of a hill, is that good for a 70 year old?

Birthday Season

There is nothing like a spit roast and if you are going around to James' house for lunch then lamb on a spit is it.  It was also his birthday and I scored a present or two for Father's day so everyone gets a prize.  The backyard projects are progressing here with a huge five hour effort to dig a hole for the new pond, actually an old triangular bath reporpoised (haha) for frogs and fish.  The science is in the seperate tub for cleaning and recycling the water back to the fish tub. Still a work in progress. 

thousands of worms

birthday trimmer

two ponds

Fountain of Knowledge Part II

Riddle me this. How do you change a water feature into a water creature?  You reporpoise it.  HaHa.  The relocated big urn is now successfully gurgling water but mostly is shooting it outside the recollection bowl.  Also the pump is now much shallower therefore more noisy. In fact it competes with the cascade effect that we were after.   So plan C-2 is to plug the urn in order to fill it with deep water and sink the pump to the bottom thus dampening the sound. I think there is another riddle there somewhere.  One problem I can see now is the much smaller watershed for the recollection of the spray.  The silicon plug will take at least 24 hours to harden.  As Baumgartner would say "These procedures are fully reversible".

pump hidden behind in the shallow bowl

pump now directly attached the head

plugging the centre tube

Fountain Head

 We have a number of water features dotted around but the original and best is getting obscured by olives, cherries and other growths.  Now this is an inground heavy duty construction and now it is to be moved. Moving or even duplicating the brick lined pit elsewhere is a problem, so we are going to try and turn it from an underground reservoir to an above ground bubbler.  Debbie has located a pot wide enough but not so deep as to submerge the original.  However the shallowness also needs to conceal the pump and store enough water. 

black abyss

Spring Flowers

 It's not proper wildflower season as yet however there are hints as a few blooms emerge.  Not sure why backyard orchids are Winter and bush orchids are Spring but there is another four to six weeks before those start showing through. Along the rail trail today there are boards showing the various native orchids and what to look for. We did see some ground huggers that had unfurled with the Sun but as usual you need to get right down to Earth for a better look.

Wood Sorrel