Grass is SCARY !

"Come little human!  Take me closer to my prey!"  - says Ru, still terrified of grass, being carted about the garden by Miss Bok.

Anyone else have animals that are scared of grass??

The Bok Flock are quite disdainful of little grass-phobic Ru

  

 

If not cart then legs...anything really as long as he doesn't touch the scary grass!

In other news, the tawny frogmouths have returned to our front garden this Spring!  Hooray!

Who's smarter? The bunny or the chook?

Hallo!

Who do you see using the grandpa feeder?

Look  closer!

I know!!  Who knew bunnies were smart enough to work a treadle...
and who knew they liked chicken feed??  (In our case - red hen free range layer grain)


And where are the hens?

Ummm...so yeah...that pretty much tells you how well it's going!  The hens eat a little out of it - although it's really only Conchita and Consuela who are brave enough to tackle the clanging thing!  As an aside they are moulting EVERYWHERE to the point I thought a fox had come...I hope it's over soon because I really miss their blue and green eggs.  OH and Tessa the welsummer has finally started laying!  Only Matilda (aka snowflake) the light sussex is free loading.

A few images below to fill you in on the last month, the last warm days of Autumn I'm thinking.

Picnics at the botanical gardens

Lots of lounging on the deck

 

Easter!

 

The last summer vegies

I've been very slack in the garden.  I'm a bit disheartened - the possums keep eating everything I plant!  My beautiful big bushes of rainbow chard - gone! Capsicums - gone!  Chillies - gone!  Any ideas aside from netting?

 

The amazing vegie gardens and vines at Montalto winery

 

  

Yeah Tim Tam!  You own that hen house!!  Cos the chickens are just chicken!!

p.s. thank you for all your well wishes, Mr Bok is on the mend and will be back on his bike in no time!!

the late summer garden

It's late Summer in Melbourne.

Those hot arid days where the unrelenting sunlight dessicates any living thing in the garden still appear but we are getting a few cooler days of low 20's (thank goodness).  The garden has gone brown and the grass is still crispy underfoot.  We've pulled out most things now but a few remain valiantly and determinedly pushing out new growth.

 

Pulled out the kiwi fruit that was never really happy in this spot and I've planted a native gem lime instead.

The grass in the pot is lemongrass that has gone brown and resurrected many times...

 

The peppers, chilies, zucchini and herbs are still prolific but the rest have gone to vegie heaven

The chillies are thriving 

Have you seen white flowering thyme?  I love thyme in all its varieties but the white flowering is constantly covered in petals and is so pretty

 

 

Pulled out the cardamom - after nearly 2 years they never did flower let alone set pods so I decided it was time for them to go...

Valentines was lovely - I got the perfect gift, a speedball - not very romantic granted but I'm loving boxing at the moment

 

The yacon has been pulled up too to make way for a compost bin

The girls are getting bigger every day but no eggs yet. They are a funny old little flock of 3, they have a habit of sitting quietly together at dusk peering out across the lawn together.

 

I've been enjoying artisan bread, canoli and bombalone from Baker D Chirico in Carlton.

I'm looking forward to cooler days, chunky jumpers, cosy boots and lots of baked goodies!

What are things like in your part of the world?

All was quiet on Christmas Eve...meet our new hens

Hello!

It's been chaos over here.  It's that time of year I guess...why do the general public appear utterly crazy at Christmas?    :)

Usually I am running around like mad too - but Christmas has sort of flown under my radar this year, I've been swamped at work both day and night job - and life's been pretty busy.  My sister is hosting Christmas so I'm not even stressed out about cooking a huge meal!  I'm bringing salads hopefully mostly from the garden.  The garden is being very prolific thanks to all the sunshine we are getting.

Miss Bok was very funny at her Christmas carols concert this year...the principal asked a rhetorical joke/question ('I wonder what this class are meant to be?  They are wearing something on their heads but I cannot work out what they are meant to be or what they are meant to be singing') and Miss Bok got down from her position on stage (all her class were facing with backs towards the audience getting ready to start their song) to whisper the answer VERY LOUDLY in her principal's ear ('Reindeer and Rudolph' - of course).  She later told me she didn't want her principal to be embarrassed as it was a pretty easy question.  I don't think she quite gets rhetorical questions yet.  She got a lot of laughs which she didn't understand either.

Her principal looks quite surprised don't you think?

So on the day before Christmas, we are chillaxing at home, oh and I have pics to show you of our 3 new hens!  They are not bantams but are full size but only around 11 weeks old.  They don't have names yet.  I haven't even tried bonding with them.  I'm still sore hearted from the loss of our last flock.  We now have  barnevelder, welsummer and light sussex pullets.  I don't think our garden could handle more than 3 full sized hens so it'll be a tiny flock of 3.  A far cry from our usual flock of 6 bantams.  I'm still so sad about losing them.

  

 

Anyone know when to pick babaco?  We have little fruit!  Hooray!

 

I thought the little ones had been opening gifts early...until I found a certain bunny in the act of eating up the wrapping paper from the gifts!

This is what I want to do.  This is part of the kitchen garden at Miss Bok's school - the chook shed is connected to the garden that the chooks are allowed to access through that little walkway bridge that Master Bok is standing on, the space beneath allows the chooks to move from run to shed!  Love it!

 

 

Phoebe - thank you so much for the seeds we've been eating loads of gem squash!

Greyzini zucchini and lots of it

 

 

Is there anything cheerier than a garden dotted with sunflowers?

 

Peach wine tomatoes!  Yum!  Orangey goodness.

Tomatoes putting on a great show

 

Too much trombocino... 

 

Lots of pumpkin appearing at last 

Mr Bok had his xmas present early - a ride day at Phillip Island 

 

This little spider freaks me out everytime I pass the airing cupboard.  Except it's a sticker. Such are the practical jokes of 3 year olds.

Have a WONDERFUL Christmas everyone - and if you don't celebrate Christmas, enjoy the festive season anyway - or stay away from the crazy folk in the crowds!