Saturday, June 28, 2008

Rain stopped play

Saturday 28th June
Rising at 7-30am for Rington's tea drinking, Herald cryptic crosswording and attending to feline needs and desires. It's a dark and cloudy morning that greets me.....

Hey who's this?..................

.........is it trick or treat already?
This mornings task is to get as much of the grass mown as possible before the rain hits us.
I reckoned on starting around 10-00am.......................

.....but one look at the radar and I decide to start right away.
My timing is perfect. I finish mowing around the house at 10-05am. The rain hits at 10-06am.....
...and looks as if it's here for a while.

Well, the car needed a wash.................

..and our colours too.
So, what else can a happy gardener do in such inclement weather?

Eat breakfast....................

....and read instructions for new office toy......................

.....purchased to replace old office printer, which was picked up at a garage sale for $5.
Meanwhile I collect rainwater.....

....for watering the indoor plants. And the frog/toad pools.......

.......get replenished too.
Wilson overviews the proceedings.....................

......from the shelter of the patio.

3-15pm and the rain has stopped.
Time to go play in the garden.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Toads and taters.

Sunday 22nd June

Rising at 8-00am to a cloudy morning. Tea and a crossword on the patio.


It looks like it's going to rain.................


...we have a brief shower which lasts around 15 minutes..................


............long enough to catch Tommy out and give him a bit of a soaking.

While mowing yesterday I though I saw a lot of Grasshoppers leaping around in front of the tractor. I was wrong. They were baby toads, lots and lots of baby toads.


They seems to be living here.....................


....in the rain pools around the garden.

Quite a few seem to have made a home here........................


.....under the air conditioning unit.

They scatter under there whenever I approach. I hope they stick around.

It appears that I am with Squash.............


Small, but Squash nevertheless. The first I've ever grown, in fact.

All 4 Yolo Bell Pepper plants are heavy with Peppers.....


....good sizes, clean and firm too.

The Pole Bean plants continue to flourish.........


.....and beans will follow soon.

Tonight we are BBQing and I'll be cooking some Marinated Potatoes..............


.....so I snitched a few from the garden and took some peppers too.

The peppers will be taken to work tomorrow and left in the lunch room.......


......and I only ask for a donation to the local Humane Society.

All the tomato plants have plenty of fruit................


.....these Big Red are of average size. I'll feed these plants a little fertilizer this evening.

This, believe it or not, is a Sunflower plant which has grown from a bit of bird seed.........


I have no idea what it will turn out like but I'll give it a chance.

The watermelon is still stretching out around Plot 2 and also reaching into Plot 4.......


......so I must keep a check or it will take over.

Here's my Basil Bush in the front flower bed............


.....it's almost too cute to take cuttings from for the kitchen