BACK AGAIN!

I see quite a few bloggers apologising (or not!) for long absences between posts, but I still feel a bit guilty…

Enough of that! I’m here now to bring you up-to-date with some of my doings. No, not all the details. You don’t need to know about th Muriel!!!Stop that! Oh dear…

We continue to find-and-fix little things about the apartment. A loose screw here, and small crack there…The biggest of these was a non-draining drain pipe. When neigh bours’ storm water was rooster-tailing into the street drain, ours was overflowing the roof gutters. Hmm…not good. So we got a plumber to investigate. He had one of those nifty camera thingies that you can poke up drains and around corners. A splendid bit of kit, except that it stopped poking about six feet from the starting point!

Well, that would account for the great Niagara from the roof…So The Man dug the offending pipe out…it had been squashed flat! New pipe is now in place and the grass has grown back.

And, since he was wearing his “plumber’s hat” The Man also said he’d change the washer on the the bathroom basin tap; well, that turned into a bit more than a new washer! Once he’d cleared out all the shampoo bottles and Kleenex boxes and tooth paste stored beneath the sink…he discovered that the mixer tap’s out-of -sight parts were completely eroded and breaking away in veridian bits ! So, off to the Big Box store for a nice, shiny new mixer tap.

And in between all the small repairs, he made two lattice panels for the back patio. Not sure yet what to plant there as it’s North-facing so needs something tough enough to withstand our summers!

Also of interest (to me) was the harvesting of various Indigo crops my friend has planted around town. A couple of weeks ago I drove up to one of his crops, about an hour north, on a lovely rural property. Much hilarity as leafy stems were cut and prepped. You can see the blue-green tint after an hour or so of soaking in hot water. The process is great fun!

Here is a quick pic of my Indigo, planted in early January and harvested yesterday. It will slow down somewhat now and take off again in Spring.

In other news…the cat had her annual shots and was pronounced a very fit and healthy girl for her age. She spent the next 48 hours snoozing! It’s alright for some, innit!

SEEING RED (again!)

GO TO THE VERY BOTTOM, BELOW COMMENTS, AND CLICK THE BIT ABOUT HOWW TWITTER BANNED A COMENT. sorry it’s such a palaver!

Melanie, over here /https://nature-led.org/2022/11/01/october-submissions-leaves/ has some leafy lovelies.

I was too busy to snap the annual leaf-drop of my Terminalia, but I found a picture from a couple of years ago…

They always make me think Enzo Ferrari was choosing his racing colours!

Scoot over and see what else Melanie has…I’ll be otherwise occupied for a while, but I’ll pop in and out, like a fiddler’s elbow…

YES, I AM BACK IN THE SADDLE.

We have been busy. Still clearing some areas of what I laughingly call “the jungle.”

This morning I braved the back steps up to the boundary line and discovered…flowers on one of the (many!) crotons!

Croton

This is not far from the Grevillea, revealed when The Man chopped some overgrown ,weedy stuff a couple of weeks ago.

Grevillea insignis

I did start counting crotons…that sounds like a remedy for insomnia. Perhaps it is! But I gave up – they seem to be everywhere! Not that I’m complaining as they are so colourful and such hardy plants, especially in a “wild” sort of area. The experts will tell you they need regular, deep watering, blah-blah. Well, not here! Most of these plants have been here for 20+ years and survive on rain which, in the monsoon season, can be much more than mere “watering.” Tough as old boots! But I will lay a soaker hose along the top boundary and hope we don’t need to have a hose ban!

Croton
Another Croton (with bonus moccasins!)

And a Croton, with “modified” leaves

There is a row, almost a hedge, of Raphiolepis indica in front of the deck. A few months ago I started pruning it, then we had a decent couple of rainy days and it flowered! So I left it for the bees. But I will try to reduce it somewhat before the wet season.

Raphiolepis

And two or three Draecenas are flowering! Useful fillers and, if you’re lucky enough to have flowers, deliciously scented. A bit ( to my nose, anyway) like clover. The thing is, they are not what I’d call reliably performing bloomers! All sorts of insects work them for nectar. And their strappy leaves are often chomped!

Dracaena flowers

And, since I’ve used the chomp word…I used a few other colourful words yesterday when I discovered that almost ALL the flower buds on a new Callistemon had been chomped, presumably by a caterpillar, though I couldn’t see one. Bastard! I only bought the plant last week and was very much looking forward to…this. Oh well, fingers crossed.

Callistemon “Dawson River”

The big pot of Eucharis lily is flowering. I will probably keep it in a pot (maybe split it when this flowering is over), but yesterday I noticed a hitherto unseen white flower just off the deck. A careful tug of some other things revealed another Eucharis!

Eucharis lily
The second one, not planted by me!

Two of the papaw trees are fruiting, but whether we’ll get any ripe fruit is a 50-50 gamble. Possums, birds and bats also love pawpaw!

Pawpaw

One more picture before you nod off, bored to death? Oh, alright! Here’s Grevillea “Moonlight.” Long overdue for a serious pruning, but, being about the only thing keeping the birds and bees going we hadn’t the heart!

Grevillea “Moonlight” probably around 20’/6m