Beating the heat

Spring has skipped on by and it feels like summer is well and truly here, with temps in the low 30s C(80s F), so I've been walking Mirrhi very early, heading out as the sun lifts over the rim, and then working in the courtyard garden until the sun moves up higher and eats away the shade and it's too hot to stay out there.

I've been working on this patch of dirt next to the newly paved area, and under a very old, tatty pine tree.  I've since removed the little fence, it made the garden look like a cemetery plot!

Edged with stones instead....much better.

I found that nice old piece of wood on a vacant lot while walking Mirrhi, so lugged it home,  I like how it looks here, with an agave and a pretty nemesia tucked behind it.

Up close....rocks, wood chips and seedlings.

From the top of the driveway side

I've started to plant it up with heat loving colour.......this area gets sun all day from the north and then the west.......so there's cineraria, pig face and verbena here.  I'll continue this combination around to the other side as well.   Bromeliads will get some shade tucked against the tree trunk.  It's all heavily mulched with bark chips to keep moisture in and the roots cool.  I picked up a pair of big cement pots at the tip shop for $5, one is painted that soft orange, and the other's waiting to be painted. It'll go on the other side of the path, and they'll be planted up with blue/petunias and blue lobelia.

I have a day of sewing planned now, so until next time.............

ScrapHappy September

...........with two lots of scrappiness this month


Firstly, red and blue scraps, lots of handstitching and buttons to finish.........

  You might remember back in June I posted about the quiltlet I made with scraps I found after the flood, here.  I had put the quilt in the Murwillumbah Art Trail "Big Flood" Exhibition and a friend who saw it wanted to buy it, but I wasn't keen to sell.  She was setting up a new studio for her paper and print making as hers had all been washed away, and so she asked me if I'd make her something 'nice and bright' to go in it.  She said she loved reds and blues, but would leave the rest to me.

And this is the result, cheery red and blue bunting.

***

And secondly, woolly scraps

Ooh what a mess

 I turned some of those tangled bits into these tiny Christmas stockings. They'll be going to Knitting for Brisbane's Needy, who are asked for thousands of these every year by charity organisations around Queensland.  They're given out at Christmas lunches, with a few sweets inside, to homeless people and those doing it tough.  For some, it might be the only gift they receive.

Waiting to be sewn up

Check out the links on Kate's blog  to see what others have done with their scraps this month.

......till next time

Update to add these links in case anyone wants to knit little stockings.  It's a free Jean Greenhow pattern here.  Scroll down past about 8 other patterns.
And here's some info about Knitting for Brisbane's Needy.  I'm doing these stockings for a  Knit4Charities charity of the month, but you could make them and send directly to K4BN, the address is on the contacts page of their website.  Or you could find a local group to make them for. 
Happy knitting. 

New beginnings

..............in the garden

I've been absent from here, mainly due to illness,but also spending a lot of time reclaiming my garden.  The flood waters left soil behind that's contaminated very badly with e coli, heavy metals and chemicals, and although I've been scrupulously careful, I've ended up with nasty bugs and infections that linger on for ages.  It's taken me ages to write this post, it was harder than I realised to go back and look at the photos from the flood.

So, there's lots of *then* and *now* pics, and they pretty much speak for themselves.

This is what greeted me the next day when the water had started to go down .....fences gone, debris and mud piled up everywhere...... 

That black and white splodge is a magpie, flying low, not stuck there.  My roses are under there somewhere!

They haven't suffered from being drowned under water, mud and debris though and are looking beautiful.

And now,  with the debris and mud cleared away, new fences up and the beginnings of a garden it's looking much better .... 

Still a way to go replacing all the garden but bit by bit it's happening

***

The side of the house has gone from looking like this

To this 

Looking a lot better

New paving put down, using bricks that surfaced all over the yard when the water was gone.  No idea if they were already  buried in the yard, or were washed in from elsewhere.

I've put woodchips right along here, not wanting to do a lot of in-ground planting, but also to give Mirrhi her own place to sleep in the garden, and so she can see what's going on through the fence and talk to passers-by, without getting into trouble for being on the garden

A work in progress......photo is dark, I took it at 5.30 this morning

This is looking back towards the new courtyard, it ended up looking worse than this, as it's where all the mud that was cleared from the paths and under the house was shovelled to.  That tangled mess of green to the left was my greenhouse, full of seed trays and seedlings ready to be planted. 

 

The mud set like cement and was impossible to dig and 60cm to1 mtr (2-3ft) deep in places

A man driving past one day saw me struggling to move it, went home and got his shovel and pick, and came back and dug it all out for me.  

He came back the next day with these snapdragons his wife had bought for me.  The generosity of strangers after the flood was heartwarming and their acts of kindness just wonderful.

A strangers kindness brought the beginnings of colour and life back to my garden

And here's that 'mud heap" today

So that's it, the beginnings of the tale of reclamation and growth.

I'll be back tomorrow to join  Kate and others for ScrapHappy Day.

See you then.........