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.........

Marcia is on the way

I started this post yesterday but was sidetracked to prepare for this 

this being a trough that's running ahead of a Category 4/5 cyclone that's heading towards the Queensland coast.  The bright yellow and dark green towards the top right of the map is the cyclone.....named Marcia, expected to make land around 7 am in the morning. I'm in Murwillumbah, about a third of the way down the picture and while the actual cyclone....with reported wind speed of 225kms/hr as it crosses the coast....won't directly hit us, we'll still feel the brunt. These systems don't necessarily follow the path ascribed to them, but it's predicted this one will head south west across Queensland, then swing to the south east towards the coast, about 40kms south of me. It'll meet up with the trough currently dumping a lot of rain on us, and between them, there's around 400mls of rain expected, plus high winds. I don't mind the rain, but the high winds worry me.  The river I live near is tidal, and with a king tide expected, there'll be flooding for sure, and although there'll be a lot of water rushing through my yard, and things will become very sloshy, my house will be safe.

I have a friend in Mackay, where the cyclone is predicted to make landfall, and I've been following along with her all day as she's prepared as best she can for a very dangerous and scary situation. Be safe, Kate and all those up north who are waiting now for the cyclone to hit the coast, it'll be a sleepless night for many.  My thoughts and prayers are with them and I wish everyone safe passage through this.

I've prepared too, for the deluge to come...mowed the lawn, done some weeding, tidied away lawn chairs and anything else that can blow around, put the chook's weatherproof shelter up, brought in lots of kitty litter and cleaned the water tank filter. There's plenty of candles, new torch batteries and tins of baked beans in case the power goes and I can't cook.  So we're all set.

Nicely mown yard, dog is pleased, she can find her ball now

A bit stiff and sore after all that hard work, I usually do the garden work in small bites, but I really wanted to stay ahead of the rain and be prepared for whatever the heavens throw at me.

***

I want to show you all the lovely things the postie has delivered lately, but first, look at this fun promotion the local library did for Valentine's Day... they had a stand of books in plain brown wrappers, with saucy labels.  I chose this one, bit of a lucky dip as to what the book might be, I was hoping not a Mills and Boon romance ....

This is the book I received, I haven't started it yet, but it sounds as if it could be quite good. "Set in WW2, Miss Carter leaves her French lover to return to England and be one of the first women to receive a degree from the University of Cambridge. She becomes a teacher, and has a mission to fight social injustice, prevent war and educate girls"  I will let you know how it turns out.

Wonderful pretty and practical gifts.

So, firstly last week was my Initial Heart Swap gift, which came from Anthea at Hibiscus Stitches in Western Australia.  Thankyou Anthea, I was absolutely delighted with my swap gifts, ( I pinched this photo from Anthea's blog, as I've left the tote bag in the car...hope you don't mind Anthea?)

On the card, Anthea wrote about my goodies....
An "N" mug rug for my drink
A pouch and bag for market day visits
Something to care for my hands after gardening
and a sweet treat.  

and here's that lovely bag after a trip to the farmer's market...the pouch worked well too

Then from Kerrie who blogs at http://www.channelbankcreations.blogspot.com.au/ this beautifully stitched and very thoughtful gift .... a diary with a handmade cover.  Here it is opened out to show the whole cover with it's fancy buttons on the front.  Thank you Kerrie for your kindness in sending this, I've already put it to good use.

Love the choice of colours and fabrics

Lastly, a gift myself, a couple of metres of lovely bright oildcloth to make a table cloth for the little table on my front verandah.  A friend who lives at the end of the lane has a pretty yellow Kath Kidston cloth and I just love it, it catches my eye every time I walk past, so I decided I would have one too.

The rain will keep me indoors tomorrow, and as there'll be no distractions, I'll be spending the day sewing.

'til next time