Persimmons and Sleep

Our Persimmon tree has some ripening fruit on it. Reminds me of the Keats poem that starts "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness..."

In other exciting news, Michael may have some sort of gluten intolerance. We don't really know, but apparently it can cause unsettled sleep so we're going to take him off gluten for a week or so and see if it has any effect on his sleep.

We're booked in to go to a residential service at Tresillian in a few weeks' time (stay there for 4 nights) to try to get him into some better patterns instead of waking up every 45 mins - 3 hrs overnight. It hasn't been an easy path to get to this point, but I'm looking forward to getting some extra help with it.

Some photos

Mikey enjoying some mush. Yum!

Frogs eggs in our pond. There are heaps of frogs out there - they sound like popcorn going off all night.

Picnic kitty

Hamish and Saffy contemplate the garden

The best and worst sleepers in our family resting together!

I'm a wimp

When it comes to killing snails. We've got hoards of them in the garden, and as I am planting a vegie patch I figured it was time to cull some.

I was going to put pellets down, until I read the packets - they say they have 'child resistant flavouring' - which I take to mean they are not good for littlies to eat! And I know Hamish would definitely eat them. So that option was out.

Then I decided I would have to drown them. But once I started to pick them up and put them in the bucket, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. They are so cute!

So plan C - collect them all up and dump them around the other side of the house, and hope they don't find theu way back in a hurry.

Of course, the little blighters didn't want to stay in the bucket! But I managed to move all the ones I could see. This was within a few square metres mind you - plenty more in the rest of the yard. I imagine I'll have to do regular collections...

recent garden photos

Iris

On The March

The cicadas are out in force at the moment. We've found quite a few shells in the garden.

I used to love collecting the shells from Grandma and Papa's place when I was a kid, I remember doing it around Christmas time and filling icecream containers with them.

Kids used to take live cicadas to school in buckets to show off their collection, until the teachers banned it. There used to be all different sorts of cicadas with funny names, like Floury Baker and Cherry Eyes. I don't know if they are all around anymore, we only see one or two varieties here.

Silly Me

I should have known gardening with a toddler and two big dogs on the loose was a bad idea.

I dug a hole - Saffy joined in. I put the plant in the hole - she kept digging. In the same spot! So the poor plant got a bit squashed. And I had to heave her out of the flowerbed - she was very reluctant to move!

While this was going on, Hamish pulled a whole lot of little baby green tomatoes off the plant. Then he sat there biting into them, in between laughing at my attempts to move Saf.

I did get all the plants into the ground eventually, but not without a lot of huffing and puffing and telling the dog to bugger off...

Windy

I hung some washing on the line this morning, and lazily left some small socks in the bottom of the basket, thinking as it was going to be a hot day, they would dry without having to be hung up.

Later on, I went outside, and was surprised to see the socks scattered over the garden. The basket? It was nowhere to be seen! I think the wind must have picked it up and carried it who knows where - although I suspect it could be at the bottom of the pool. (I can't tell if it is or not because the water is green and murky at the moment.)

I did find something in the pool though - a big fat frog. I scooped him up in the dustpan and transferred him back to the pond.

In Honour of Fathers Day...

Here is a picture of a Cumquat tree that my dad has been looking after for me for many years - it was given to me as a present and as it is at his house, it's become part of the orchard. I'm told it looks very impressive in real life, so I'm looking forward to seeing it soon.

Happy Fathers Day, Dad - and Papa, and of course Adam!

Garden shots

Bees

The bees are busy this morning, the garden is full of them collecting pollen. Spring is in the air!

Sun Shower

Gardening

Today I planted a small herb garden, as a prelude to a bigger vegie patch I hope to do over winter. Saffy was very interested in it...in fact I'm a little worried she will dig it up!

And another one!

More snails

We have so many snails in the garden - it's a bit of a plague! (There's no snail in the second photo, in case you're wondering - I just like the photo.)

Baby snail

Ponderings

Today I have been pondering the issue of free range vs caged livestock, and whether I should start being more ethical in where I get my meat from. Problem is that free range costs more - but is that enough of a reason to buy meat I know has been produced by a system that is cruel to the animals? I suspect not.

Also planning to start a vegie patch at home, and weighing up the merits of home schooling (not that I need to worry about that one for a few years!).

All this can mean only one of two things: a) I am starting to get enough sleep and now have the brainpower to contemplate such things, or b) I am turning into a raging hippy.

Me thinks perhaps it's a little from column A and a little from column B...

It's That Time of Year Again...

The screaming frogs are back. Hello, summer...

Complete Garden Care, Saffy Style

More from the garden

This is a bee collecting pollen from the passionfruit flowers - if you look closely you can see it on his back - little yellow dots.

We've got heaps of aphids on the rose bushes - but the trusty ladybirds are sorting that out for us.