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

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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.........

Delights

Fog across the river to the west

Hello Sun!

Rosy skies to the east

Mt Warning wreathed in colour

 I'm up and out early most days, I just can't get enough of this early morning light and colour. There's been fog the last few mornings, making everything look ghostly, then the sun burns through, revealing beautiful rosy skies and amazing clouds.

More delights to enjoy, with the arrival in the mail yesterday of these F2F blocks from Christina. Thanks Christina, perfect soft low-volume colours.  I just have one set still on it's way, and my own 3 to make, then I can start to play with lay-outs.  

On my to-do list today is making a start on Kate's F2F blocks. She's chosen this sparkling palette of black and white and lime green....nice! Kate has already received some gorgeous blocks, you can see them in the gallery, just scroll down almost to the end.   For those new to my blog.....or returning.....there's a blurb at the beginning of that gallery page, telling the F2F story.

This delightful girl has been waiting patiently for a while, with her ball at the ready, so we're off for a walk now. 

till next time.....

A.Whole. Day, an F2F finish and no chocolate

.........A whole day to make two blocks!! yikes!....although in my defence, I did spend a lot of that time looking for just the right blocks to make. But I don't know if I'm particularly slow, or that's about normal....I suppose the main thing is they get done and done well, and I had nothing else I needed to do, so  in the sewing room was a good place to be. The blocks are for Miss October Lynn in the F2F block swap that I've mentioned here  and here, and I was playing with a pretty colour palette similar to this, but with a darker grey for the background.  Lynn wanted just pops of coral, so I wanted to find blocks where just a small amount could be added.

I finally managed to find two more and they're done and will be in the mail today, Lynn.  A relief for once not to be posting on the last day of the month.  I can't show you the blocks yet, but if you go to the F2F gallery, you'll be able to see all the wonderfully creative blocks sent so far.

Sue, who was Miss September, has let me know she's received hers, so I can show you what I sent her.  Sue requested black and white with a hot colour.  Her choices reminded me of Jan Mullen's  Stargazey quilts of the 90s.......crooked wonky blocks in crazy bold mixed up colours, and so I made these blocks in a similar way.  When I told Sue where I got my inspiration from, she said she loved Jan's quilting style and even had one of her books! All of Sue's blocks can be seen here, scroll right to the end of the Gallery.

l to r ....wonky churn dash; quartered log cabin and a scrappy star

And that 'no chocolate in the post title?  Not the eating sort, but the scrappy RSC sort.  I haven't made any blocks this week, but I did find a purple wonky star when I was doing some sorting and packing. I felt sure I'd made one, but as it wasn't where it should've been and I had another ready to sew in different shades, I thought my memory was playing tricks, but no, there it was tossed in with other fabrics. So I only have indigo and green to make now to catch up with my stars, I'll try to do them this week so I'm ready for the colour change this weekend.

***

My daily view has looked like this for the past week or so, dark clouds hanging low on the mountain, and lots of storms rumbling around.  This is the view across the river with the "legal graffiti" on the levee wall, painted by unemployed youth doing Work for the Dole.(unemployment benefit)...... a great idea to let them do what they love, while brightening up the riverbank.....not everyone's cup of tea though, there's lots of grumbles about the horrible eyesore, but I quite like it.

That's all , my house was listed to sell over the weekend, so time to tidy up and have it looking respectable in case a call comes to say someone is interested in looking......I hope so!

so till next time..............