Marguerite's Blog

Here comes the sun!

Posted on 24 Jul, 2008 12 comments

After weeks and weeks of cloud and even rain in the last two days ( 1.5 inch ) the sun decided it was enough. When I opened my eyes this morning I just couldn’t believe it, it was actually light. It gets light here every day at 6.30 am, but today it was even bright. An hour later the whole front of the house is in the full sun. I promised myself this would be a garden day, at last again. After breakfast hubby and dogs set off for their daily walk and I put on my garden crocs and grabbed the secateurs and grass rake and went to the front garden below. I pruned all the branches and leaves, stalks and stems of anything which was hanging too far from the gardenbeds over the lawn, then I went past these beds pulling up the weeds in between. A lovely easy job so straight after the rain. There were not too many, as I keep on top of these weeds, so they won’t get the better of me! I raked all this debris in two heaps and left them there, as I needed to get the wheelbarrow first. I got side tracked because the birds zooved over my head making a lot of noise. I still don’t know what those bigger ones with their long funny bend neck are called, but they think they own my garden and chase every other bird away. But as there are so many native bushes, Grevillea’s and Callistemons in flower now, they have a hard job chasing the “intruders”, because the Rainbow lorikeets just flutter to the next and the next bush again.
There are little black birds also chirping away in there, little honey eaters. So after walking around, looking what the birds were up to and searching for more berries on the Syzygiums etc., which are not quite out yet, I went around the house to the back of the garden, where we have a large shed. I had taken on my way, the key to it. But nomatter how I tried, I could not open the door. This is a roller door with just an ordinary lock in it. I put the key in one way, I put it in the other way, but it didn’t open the lock. Well, wait for hubby to come home, after all, it is his shed. Most garden tools I have under the barbeque ( a good place, always handy ) on the veranda, but the wheelbarrow of course is in the shed.
Meanwhile I went to the drive and pruned back the Bouganvillea’s, as they go beserk if you don’t cut off all the runners. These are lethal and grow from the edge on top of the retaining wall straight into the Callistemons in the gardenbeds, where the dogs and I walk and pick flowers ( roses and hibiscusses ). I have seen heard a vet on tv explaining how dangerous bouganvillea’s are for dogs when growing low, because their thorns can actually rip open their skin. I put these cuttings straight in the rubbish bin. All plants which have sharp thorns or spikes do not go into my compost heap, as I will later on step on them or the dogs, if they are used as mulch. By now hubby came home, he made a cuppa for us ( as he always does ) and we sat down on the front veranda. For the first time in weeks, what ?, in months, we had a crispy clear outlook right down the valley, which we just stared at. Then I asked him about the shed and wheelbarrow. He went and I forgot about that one, took my top off ( no one can see me there ) and went into the fishpond. Haha, not to swim, but to turn some stones over, twirl around the algae and scoop them up with the sieve. I twirl around the algae inside the sieve and it forms a ball, which I then chuck into the hedge ( good fertiliser, lol ). The fish don’t mind me, they just love me turning over stones, as you never know what’s underneath. They’ve lost interest in my feet there in the water and are only right at my hands. I am careful not to hurt them. Here I was having a ball in my shorts, in the sun. It felt soooo good! I had lost most of my tan, but now I put on another layer. I had a wonderful morning doing all that. I got “properly” dressed again and went to the heap of raked debris, only to find hubby had already taken them away, good old man! I had heard the pressure hose, as he was cleaning the path. You know that so much mold had grown on the drive and on to the shed in the time we lived here, that it was all black. Now he’s cleaning it with some stuff. You spray it on with the watering can, brush it briefly with a hard broom, wait 10 mins and pressure hose it off. Beautiful cream coloured concrete again!
At lunch, which we always have on the back veranda, but today with a lovely sunny view, we watched all the little honey eaters in those blue and yellow-red vines above the pergola, eating the honey, it was just so lovely. They chirp and chuckle and call each other it’s fun to hear. I had my camera ready, but I just couldn’t get it in focus, too difficult, too far away. I tried to hide behind one of the pillars, but they have good eyes and were too shy to come closer. Tough luck with that one. That bit of rain has done the garden so much good, the grass is green again at the back, where we don’t sprinkle normally. And for desert: our own paw paw, mandarine and passionfruit. Well the last one I don’t eat, but hubby loves them. The banana was bought, lol. I made it into a fruit salad. Such are the things that happen around our place, when the sun shines!

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