A Day of Little Joys

I seem to have been at home forever so this morning I visited my friend Susana and got to give love - and receive lots of love from Luke her 12 week old Lab.  It brought back memories of my Jess as a puppy. All that wriggly, overexcited, completely in the moment puppiness that evokes joy and frustration in equal measure.  Susana and Rodrigo want to give me a puppy from the first litter he sires as thanks for helping them settle in here in Australia.  Such an unexpected and kind gesture. I'm so humbled by this kindness.  It reminds me anew of just how generous, kind and beautiful my friends are and I am grateful for them daily.  

Luke making short work of the kong Sophie and I bought him for Christmas.

Such a big boy for 12 weeks and solid muscle.

 

 

As I made my way home from this visit I called in to a nursery that I pass on the way and yet have never entered. Oh my stars!! Such a glorious place. I wandered amongst the plants for 20 minutes or more completely content.  Gardens bring my spirit such peace, joy and contentment and yet it still surprises me just how much I physically ache with missing my old garden.  I don't dwell on it but when thoughts of it do pop up it is such a physical heartache, I feel as though I lost part of myself when I was forced to leave.

I kept forgetting to take photos I was so enthralled by the plants and the feel of the place so I did a quick whip around and took some snaps before I left. The centre was planned out with different garden rooms such as the desert themed space below full of succulents and some rather alarming and vicious looking cacti.

My succulents are ready for replanting and I was rather inspired by the wheelbarrow display below. I'll have a look through my odds and ends and see what I can come up with to create a new home for my plants.

I think my favourite space was the shade house. My friend Steven, who is also an avid gardener, suggested that I put one along the hot side of my house as it is currently a hot wasteland of gravel and tomato plants at the end of their life.  A shade house would cool the house as well as expand my gardening space - both of which are tempting outcomes.  It will be on my list of things to save for once I start work. 

These beehive gingers (Zingiber spectabilis) were just spectacular! So healthy and the flower heads were enormous.  I had red ones in my old garden and the flowers were pitiful in comparison to these.

This glorious display demonstrates that you really need very little space to grow a beautiful water garden.  This waterlily was so beautiful.  It reminded me of when I lived in Kakadu and would drive across floodplains full of waterlily flowers on my way into Darwin.  It seems a lifetime ago.  Beautiful memories though.

My time at the nursery made me appreciate my little garden a little more and I came home and enjoyed it with Miss Sophie and a cup of tea.  I've been here three years and it is yet to really feel like home.  I'm not sure if it ever will but I do my best and hope that one day I'll feel my spirit rest here.

My hibiscus has finally taken off like crazy after 4 years of not doing much at all.  I'll give it a good hard prune towards the end of March and see if I can strike some cuttings from it as it's a beautiful plant.

Slowly introducing splashes of colour and blossoms for the insects. I have native bees and regular bees and am slowly inviting more butterflies into my yard.

For such a tiny yard (about 12m x3m) growing space, I have managed to fit a good amount of food in.  This is my mandarin tree (dwarf). I also have a lime and two lemons also dwarf varieties.  Two blueberries which I'm not sure have survived Sophie's recent enthusiastic investigation. I also have strawberries, a variety of herbs and am prepping the garden for the next lot of veggies.  I grow mainly salad and chinese vegetables plus cherry tomatoes.  This cool season I am planting potatoes in potato growing bags so I'll see how successful that venture is.

My helper.

Happy 15th Birthday Sophie.

 Sophie was such a challenge as a puppy.  She came to us at 16 months old, with a history of poor treatment and we were her seventh home.  To say she was crazy is probably an understatement and now that I've spent so much time studying trauma I can see that her poor little brain and psyche was quite traumatised.  I came to love her and who would have imagined that it would come down to just Sophie and I, a little family of two.  She has been such a blessing and I'm so grateful for her company. She is doing very well for 15 and is such a happy girl. 

I hope you've all had a healthy and happy time during this strange festive season is such an unusual year. xxx

Backyard Harvest

 My tomatoes continue to produce prolifically.  I've picked over four kilos of cherry tomatoes in the past week.  They have a delicious flavour and it is such a joy to simply wander out the laundry door and pick what I need for dinner. With the excess, because really just how many tomatoes can Sophie and I eat, I am doing a tomato run today and dropping off bags full to neighbours and family. 

 Yesterday's harvest. I stopped picking when my large salad bowl was full.

 A large green tree frog lives in a bucket tucked within the tomatoes and in an effort to provide him/her with a better living environment and as I move to expand the biodiversity of my little yard, I am building a frog hotel to place near the clothes line.  I'll do another post of the process and finished product once I have gathered the materials and am ready to start.

My Chinese greens continue to flourish as do my herbs, lettuce and citrus.  I'm endlessly amazed at how much food I can grow for myself in such a small space and I really could grow more as I'm not utilising the space as effectively as I could. I've been restricted by finances and time really. Now that uni has finished I plan to make gradual progress to expand my garden to include more food and to purposely integrate flowering plants to bring in butterflies and insects both for the pleasure of having them in my garden and for their role in pollination and pest control. 

Sandy xx

Two posts in one day....uni must be finished.

 Oh my, I have certainly proved that I have this superpower. Disrespected, depersonalised, degraded, abused, mentally tortured. It takes a long time to heal from it no matter how calm you are in the face of it.

Rachel's Birthday

 We celebrated my niece Rachel's 15th birthday a few days ago.  She's a darling girl and so very loved.  I wish that the world is kind to her and that she is always surrounded by love.

Rachel hates chocolate so was very excited by this rainbow cake that my sister got for her.  It was terribly sweet so I shared mine with the dog! :)

Here she is oh so long ago, painting in my old studio.

Not so long ago on a special day out with me at the hairdressers where she enjoyed being pampered (having autism means Rachel struggles with the sensation of washing her hair so this was a BIG day).

💗

Love Has Many Faces

What a beautiful day today has been. Sophie and I sat on the back deck and watched the dawn as it gently rose between the trees. We played in the garden and then I headed into the kitchen to prepare lunch for some family and friends.   My sister came with her two children. My friends Heilala and Mario came with their daughter Serena, Heilala's mum Joyce and cousin Ma'ata (both from Tonga).  Also in attendance were my friends Susana and Rodrigo.  Around my table sat people from Spain, Uruguay, Argentina, Tonga, Tonga, Tonga/New Zealand/Australia.  So many different faces, languages and customs yet such similar hearts and souls.  Kindness, love and friendship are the same in any language.  This is how it should be.

Our two beautiful tomato pickers in my wild, rambling cherry tomatoes.  Miss Serena and Miss Rachel, who is now taller than her mother and I.  Gorgeous girls.

Another lovely event this week has been the birthday of my eldest nephew.  You may remember our little red head from long ago blog posts.

Well, he turned old enough to get his learners this week so he's driving and has grown in to such a level headed, good natured young man.  We are still so close and that is so very special to me.  As I tell him, I'll always love him past the last star....

 

Sorry, I completely forgot to take photos of our gathering today. 

Watched Over and Busy

Life is pretty busy at the moment.  I've recently had to replace my car due to a catastrophic failure of two major components of my X-trail. Other than sounding a little different (which is why I took it to the mechanic), nothing seemed wrong.  I was quite shocked when the manager came out and told me that it was unsafe to drive and it's a miracle that I hadn't been killed or badly injured.  Thanking my lucky stars there. The lady in the waiting room with me remarked that 'someone was watching over you', and she may well be right. Within 3 days I had a new-to-me little car that I'm actually really loving.  It is so easy to get Sophie into as well so getting her to the vet is easier and taking her out to the dog park or beach is possible again. Further to my good fortune, my little car was 7 years old with 41000kms on the odometer.  How awesome is that!

Sophie has been spending her days lying in the sun sleeping...

You can see her industriously dug holes behind her. Grrrr.

She has also been licking her paw constantly so I've resorted to making her wear a sock, which seems to be working so far.  The cone of shame stops her licking but she can only walk backwards in it which is hilarious but not great for her.  She's getting older but still as cute as a button.

 

Uni is entering the stage of semester where assessments all seem to come due at once and class content seems to increase simultaneously.  At present I'm researching the efficacy of using art therapy to promote positive mental health outcomes for children hospitalised in paediatric wards.  It's a very interesting area and is something that I may be able to do my Masters and PhD research on.  In addition to my Masters I am also studying to be a Clinical Play Therapist.  This is done through a private training organisation and will be completed by November.  Having a background in education I am loving this are of therapeutic intervention.  I have three full days of training this week as well as a written assessment for uni.  I seem to read, write and nap at present with very little in between! :) 

I made a huge pot of vegetable and herb soup on the weekend to help get me through the busy week.  Most of the veggies came from either my garden or my Mum's which I love.  I don't know why I was surprised but the soup was delicious.  

My brother and I faced the cold winds and went to the local markets on Sunday morning.  We were both after seedlings for our vegetable gardens.  It was a beautiful day even though it was chilly and I particularly loved how quiet the markets were. I managed to get a good assortment of seedlings for $9 and came home and filled the empty spots in my veggie garden as well as underplanting my potted dwarf citrus trees with the remaining herbs and chinese vegetables.  At least Sophie and I won't starve.

There are so many very healthy plants at the market and for such good prices.  My garden is already well landscaped and easy to care for. It needs no more ornamental or landscaping plants so for now I am focusing on growing food in pots and in a raised garden.  Growing your own food is such a pleasurable thing to do. It is such a joy to be able to provide food for yourself and to be able to generously share with neighbours and loved ones, even if you have little money.  People always leave here with a posy of herbs and a few cherry tomatoes or whatever else is ready from the garden.  Such a good feeling.  My garden gives me such feelings of peace, happiness, security and abundance.

Stay well and happy everyone and if you don't hear from me over the next week or so it's because I am sitting here with my head in the books.  :)

Sandy xx