For Christmas, Steve gave me this Rocking Chair which has been on my wishlist for years. I was so exited and put it in my cosy corner where - together with my daybed - it faces the Pool and backyard and I can enjoy the view - rocking, reading, relaxing. The pillow on the rocking chair was a Christmas present of my sister and so sitting there reminds me of her. She lives with the rest of my family in Germany and I do miss them a lot. Now this is one of my favourite spots, also sometimes I wish, it could be all outside but practicality determines it's better to have it in there - out of the sun and away from the mosquitoes which like to turn up once I sit down in the late afternoon. The 'Granddad's Bar' sign will soon move to the other side of the Patio where Steve is planning to install a bar for himself. I will have to have a look for a nice relaxing and inspirational sign which matches the area far better. There's only 2 walls in our Patio and we now have a Steve wall and a wall for myself - I just need to move Steve's things onto this wall.
I have 2 beautiful dogs who I love to bits. This is Quentin, he's a 6-year old Weimaraner enjoying his breakfast.
And this is my old girl Hera, a German Shepherd x Kelpie who will turn 15 years old this June! She's my first dog and we have travelled the world together. I always made sure she eats well and exercises, that's how she got so old without any major health issues.
Today, the dogs are having fish for breakfast. I don't often feed fish but since it's rich in omega 3 fatty acid which is good for the joints and the coat, it's an occasional treat. On this occasion, I bought whole sardines on special. After cooking and mixing them up with some vegetables (carrots and celery in this case), the dogs enjoyed a beautiful healthy breakfast. I used the Thermomix to chop the sardines and vegetables as well as cooking them. Next time, I will add some rice with the meal and it will last a few days.
Steve loves palms, especially Foxtails. So he was all exited when he saw them at the Calliope markets for a really good price and we came home with 2 new Foxtails (we already have about 5 or 6). One he planted near our favourite early afternoon spot just in front of the Pool. It will look nice and tropical once it's grown a bit.
We also share the houshold with some parrots. We have a couple of Sun Conures and Indian Ringnecks. Both of them just recently had a partner of the opposite sex added to them, so now our Ringnecks have laid their very first egg!
The female Ringneck guards her egg and is very protective of it. I'm not sure if the egg is fertile and it it will work out but I read the incubation period is about 26 days, so if there's no baby Ringneck when I come back from work, we will have to remove the egg. It's very interesting to observe the Ringnecks behaviour. We had the female for a long time and she's very nippy. We had 2 Ringnecks originally but unfortunately they were both females and when we first moved here, a cat jumped on the cage which came apart and either the cat took the other Ringneck or it just flew off. This one flew off as well but she came back once she was thirsty.
It's still too hot to plant the veggie garden, so I planted a little succulent garden in my cosy corner. All these plants are cuttings of existing plants, so Just had to buy the bowl which was on special and I reckon this looks very decorative. Steve is going to put some coloured little gravel around it as well which will look nice.
The Patio is nicely decorated and I love sitting in there - protected from the weather and mosquitoes but still overviewing the garden - I love it!
When we first had the Patio build and we experienced heavy rain, the gutters overfilled and spilled inside the Patio. This has now been fixed and our Plumber installed this drain with a valve so we can direct the waterflow to the drain below. We live in Central QLD - west of Rockhampton and it only rains Dec - March. We've been in a severe drought and we only had very few showers, often related to cyclones on the coastline. So if it does rain, it rains heavily.
This is our citrus orchard and the raised beds is the veggie garden. We will be planting a tropical Nectarine and Apple Tree along the fence line and I'm also planting some melon, pumpkin and climbing plants such as cucumbers and beans there next time I come home. Steve is preparing the area for me. It's hard to mow there, so he prefers to make a gardenbed out of it which suits me as I'd like to grow as much food for us as possible. Eventually the whole area is going to be a veggie garden but as long as I work away and can't look after it constantly, this way is just easier. Plus I have to wait until the Citrus Trees have grown a bit so I can plant in their shade.
Together with the plumber, Steve installed this drainage system and will now have to backfill it and make it look pretty. I'm looking forward to have this annoying gap removed as the bins and wheelbarrow always get stuck there.
This is the gardenbed in front of our bedroom. Normally you shouldn't have gardenbeds right on the house as termites could infest the house. This is our only gardenbed on the house, so we're keeping an eye on it but so far so good. I've planted those Lavender bushes a few months ago and they're growing well. I love Lavender, it such an easy to grow plant, it looks and smells devine and has many uses. I will talk more about it once I cut it back after flowering. If you do grow lavender, remember to cut it back by two thirds but DO NOT cut back to the dry wood.
This is the front entry of our house which we actually never use. The Agaves mark the walkway to the entry door beautifully and it's a nice porch. I sit here at night to watch to stars and early in the morning with my coffee and enjoy the view.
Hera is taking it easy at her favourite spot. We had some rain in January and the grass is now nice green and soft for her to sit on.
We've planted Cuphea all around the gardenbed. They're a beautiful groundcover and easy to maintain. They either have mauve or white flowers and flower all year round.
This Grass Tree has developed a beautiful nice big spear and looks fantastic.
The Cardboard Palm (Zamia furfuracea), a Cycad, is also growing well and started to develop seeds. I will have to read up on propagation for this plant.
Steve has created beautiful gardenbeds around the house. They need a bit of TLC after the dry and hot summer we just had but most plants are looking great without too much looking after them.
This is my Orchid Tree (Bauhinia) I planted in September. I had a beautiful Cottage Garden around it but Steve found it too difficult to mow and removed it. The Bauhinia however is growing beautifully and has flowered several times. It's such a pretty tree!
The Frangiapanis around the place are still flowering and I love the smell of those flowers.
There's not much growing in the veggie garden at the moment due to the heat and I have not started to re-plant yet for that reason. However, the eggplant doesn't seem to mind and produces beautiful fruit. A little later I show you how we prepared our first eggplant for dinner.
Some of the larger Citrus Trees have fruit, like these are lemons. I hope they will ripen and keep producing. We had a bit of trouble with our Citrus Trees and after a lot of research I know now how to care for them and hopefully they produce better next year. We planted a variety of citrus in a row but the tags got lost and I'm not too sure which one is which, so I have to wait until they have some fruit. I know we have about 3 lemon trees. I love lemons, they're such a diverse fruit and can be used in drinks, food to preserve and even to clean! There can never be enough lemon trees in my yard!
The only things continuing growing in the veggie garden are the lemon grass and chillies. I can't find any information on drying and preserving lemongrass, so I use it for cooking and the dogs love it as well - the dogs actually love it more than the chooks!
Before I left to go back to work, I harvested all the red, yellow and orange chillies to dry them while I'm away. When I come back, I will put them in the oven to extract all leftover moisture and then grind them to cook with. I love chillie flakes on the base of my home made Pizza, on tomato-based Pasta dishes and in curries, stir-fries and of course casseroles.
Steve found his creative site and decorated the retaining wall with wall art and foliage. It's a big space and probably the hottest around the place. I'd love to do a bit more with it but I just haven't had the right idea. If you can think of something, please leave a comment. I'd love to hear your ideas.
After we finished building the garage and the driveway, Steve created little gardens on either site of it - of course with his favourites: Foxtail and Swanes Golden Cupressus.
Similar on the other site. We're still looking for a nice large pot to place in the middle there.
We planted a Dwarf Date Palm once you enter, I just love the look of them.
This is our Pool. It's one of the biggest Pool's I've ever seen in a backyard and was already there when we bought the place. I never thought I'd be a big Pool person but I am! There's nothing better than jumping in a nice refreshing and deep Pool like this after a day's work in the yard or even in the morning after walking the dogs and feeding all the animals. I swim, relax and do aqua aerobics in there. I'm determined to continue to use it in autumn as well - as long as I can ran inside afterwards and put something warm on.
On our recent trip to Brisbane we went to the Eumundi Markets and bought this birdhouse. Steve hang it together with an old wooden swing from our Parrots into this tree. Every day we now have Galahs and Sulphur Crested Cockatoos visiting their fly-in to eat. Just beautiful! We will get a couple more of these houses I reckon.
This is our little paradise. So nice and green at the moment, it just looks magnificent.
At the end of January, cyclone Dylan hit the North QLD coast and brought with him some well needed rain - not enough to cope for another year without rain but at least something. We took the opportunity to plant some trees on our northern fence line.
We have a few Poincianas in our yard and they're doing well, so we planted another one, this one being a Yellow Flame Tree.
This one is an Ivory Curl Flower (Celsissima), a hardy tree bearing spikes of white flowers during Spring and Summer.
Tulipwood (Pendula) is an excellent shade tree with yellow fragrant flowers.
On either site of the cubby house, Steve planted some Duranta Blue Cascade. Eventually we plant more of them between the trees so we have a nice tree - hedge line.
Also it doesn't get used very often as Steve and I don't have kids, it was used during the Christmas Holidays when Steve's Grandkids visited. He painted it beforehand and it now looks really nice. The colours blend in with the rest of our property.
I can't remember the name of this tree but it's a fast growing shade tree which hopefully will provide some much needed shade to the dog kennel.
To break up the harsh look of the fence around the dog kennel, we grow Passionfruit vine around it and there's lots of beautiful Passionfruit growing - great for desserts and drinks.
The Passionfruit flower looks amazing! And where there is a flower, there will be a passionfruit...
One of my favourite ornamental plants is the Alamanda with their large flowers.
I have various Alamanda bushes in various colours in the yard. Just looking at them makes me happy.
This is where Steve and I sit over an early afternoon - just before dusk (before all the mosquitoes find me). We have a row of Lilly Pillys planted there which eventually will be a great wind (and sun) break for the Entertainment Area. There's also a Golden Penda growing. The tree provides a stunning floral display each year.
Along the Pool we've planted Bird of Paradise. After a lot of trouble in the beginning we worked some more organic material into the soil and now they flower beautifully. It's one of my Mum's favourite plants.
In January a friend from Brisbane visited us for a week to build us a laundry in the shed. The old laundry was too small and also served as the main entranced to the house since the garage was build on that side. So we moved it into the garage (and closer to the clothe line). He did a fantastic job creating a room in the garage out of nowhere. I now love doing laundry and I also use the space to mix my own cleaners. During my last R'n'R, I spent a LOT of time here.
Since I work in WA, there's a 2 hour time difference. To make it easier, I try to keep the same times of getting up and going to bed at home which means I shouldn't get up before 6.15 am when I'm home. That's rather difficult for me because that means I would miss fantastic sunrises like this. I enjoyed a cup of coffee on the porch watching this. What a fantastic start to a day!
I will talk about routines and spring cleaning at a later stage but I do spring clean a different room each month, rather than doing one big spring clean. During February, I gave the Guestroom a good spring clean and decided to replace the old vertical blinds with these timber blinds as we have them throughout the house.
Looks good, doesn't it?!
During my Mum's last visit in November, she bought me this beautiful Hibiscus which is growing well and flowers constantly. Every time I look at the Hibiscus, I'll be reminded of my Mum and her holiday in our little paradise.
This is a Peace Rose - my first and only Rose. I have it in a pot on the porch and enjoy the look (and smell) of it.
As blue is my favourite colour, we've chosen Evolvulus as a groundcover for some gardenbeds.
This is another tree we planted over the past 4 weeks: a Neem Tree. Neem Trees are fast growing shade trees and while the seeds produce an oil which is used as an organic pesticide, the leaves are used for Ayurvedic remedies.
About a year ago we bought 5 chooks. They not only provide us with beautiful eggs, they're also a joy to watch. I will write a post about them soon.
The Magnolia Tree started to flower and also I missed taking a picture of the flower itself, the fragrance was beautiful!
This is our gardenbed with the Bird of Paradise.
Remember the eggplant from the beginning of the post? Well, here it is:
I used a beautiful recipe I've found and we had Eggplant Parmigiana with Lamb - just yummy!
Our chooks lay beautiful hard shelled eggs. To make sure this continues, I collect the shells of any raw eggs I'm using, wash them and then dry them in the oven. I then turn them into grit with the Thermomix and add this to their feed. I also add it to the Parrot food as it's healthy for their beaks and feet.
Originally these 2 pots were outside in front of the retaining wall but since it's a shade plant we moved it into our Patio and I reckon it looks even better in there. Can you spot Quentin in this picture?
I hope you enjoyed this post and the pictures. Apologies again for not blogging for so long. I promise, it will not happen again. As you can see we were pretty busy with Gardening but I also made a lot of cleaners, stockpiled and 'renovated' the chook pen. I will write about this in the next few weeks while I'm at work. Hope to hear from you!
