SPRING IS HERE....

Hello and welcome to those still here....

 Winter has been very dry with not much rain at all, but Spring has lived up to it"s name.

We have now had 50mls in the last 2 weeks.

There is new growth every where and the grass is turning green once again...

This year we entered our garden in the Lockyer Valley Garden Comp. 

We were so excited when we came 2nd in two categories..

Large rural garden

and

First time entrant.

It sure made all the hard work worth it....I am already planning next year......

With Spring comes Spring cleaning. I remember when all the kids were little and at home it was a real ritual here. September holidays we would clean the house from top to bottom. 

Now I have to do it myself hahaha.

This was the first room to get done. The spare room.

We also now rent this room out on 

Airbnb

Through the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers both our Airbnbs were booked out 10 days straight.

A nice way to make some money that I must admit I spend most of it on plants.

How is all your spring cleaning going?

Below are the Elder flowers. They have been in since Jan this year and boy o boy are they growing.

I will be giving Elder flower cordial a go soon with all those blooms on them.

The veranda has had a good clean as well.

I love my dog but Molly sure does leave a lot of hair around...

Today she gets a hair cut so that should help with the shaggy rug.

I hope you all enjoy your day..

Blessings

Mandy

Around the house....

We have been busy catching up on odd jobs around the house.

This area between the tank and house is where we decided to keep the wood.

Cleaver husband made a gate under the house so the wood can be stored out of the weather and out of site, yet close for us to bring in.

Bruce hung some old stove doors on the house as this is the stove recess after all...and when

the gate is closed you wouldn't even know the wood is under there.

Bruce has also put irrigation to all the fruit trees, as this year with not much rain we

didn't get a very good crop of anything...

I just have to get in and mulch them all. It is so dry that we are spending a bit of money this year on mulch so we don't have to water as much.

Lots of work but worth  it in the end.

The geese do a good job of keeping it clean but they don't seem to like the marshmallow weed and it is a bitch to pull out...

A old bed we got from Chloe is starting to look nice now that the flowers are all coming out.

A play on Garden bed..

Mulch mulch and more mulch.

I have planted some grasses along the front of the clothes line deck to soften the edges

and pretty it up a bit. They will grow quite large and make a nice little spot for the birds to hide in.

Also been making some garden art....A large Angel.

Not a good pic sorry

Well it has certainly warmed up here now, Spring is here...

The vege garden has been planted up and seedlings on the go in the green house.

I will share that another time.....

Enjoy your week.

Mandy

A Sunny Day....

The coolness of winter is slowly passing, and Spring is in the air.

See the sun coming in and it is only 7:15, through Winter it is well past 8 before the sun comes inside.
This morning is glorious after the rain last night..
Lets put our boots on and go for a walk...

Every thing looks so fresh, we are in real need of rain as the dams are empty and the tanks are low.
Having the rain and warmth has put me in good mood...lol

The girls are waiting at the gate to be feed and they too are scratching around after the rain.

We rescued some chooks from being killed on the week end...These chickens only crime- There eggs are too big and Woolies doesn't want them....
Sad but true, so they are enjoying scratching about and learning to be birds...

They are slightly looked down upon by the Heritage chooks but I am sure they will all start to get on soon....

The pond is nice and full and doing its job of catching the water.

The Jasmine is all out in full bloom so it is even staring to smell like Spring...

Enjoy your week and I hope for those of you that have had a colder winter are starting to get a little Spring in the air..

Thank you for your lovely comments ladies last blog and not forgetting me.....

Blessings

Mandy

A Garden Walk.

Come for walk through the back garden with me.

As you can it has greened up with the little bit of rain we had,but if these westerlies keep up it will soon be all dried up again.

Down through the rain forest we go past the wagon 

and pond

down towards the chook pen

This is where I have pruned back a lot of shrubs here, they

will all fill out in the next few months. I have saliva's, grasses and coffee 

planted down here at the very back garden.

I have cleaned up the dry creek bed from all the weeds, you

couldn't even see the rocks it was so over grown.

 The mulberry tree is full of fruit and starting to get leaves, soon 

this will be a lovely shady tunnel. I'm thinking I might put a hammock down here to

hide in Summer.

There is plenty of monstera deliciosa  for the picking and eating.

If you have never tried this fruit I suggest you do, I have never been a lover of it but this year I tried it

again and find that I really like the fruit salad taste it has.

And here we are back to the house.

Below is a close up of our wisteria covered arch, this plant is only 2 years old 

and looks like we will be getting flowers this year.....

I hope you enjoyed the walk with me, soon there will be flowers and

the colours of Spring.

Enjoy your week

Mandy

A walk to the Red Gate.....

Hi all

I wanted to share the beautiful Moonlight Grevillea that is all a  bloom at the moment, doesn't it look amazing against the blue Spring sky.

 

 

 

Then I thought we would go for a walk down to the red Gate at the bottom of the garden...see it in the distance.

 

 

 This is the rain forest part of the Garden that Greg started 17 yrs. ago. Above is the Mulberry tree that is full of fruit just starting to ripen. This tree has a weeping effect and when it is all covered in leaves this is the coolest part of the garden.
 

 

The Clivias are in full bloom as well as the Bird of Paradise.

Below you can see some of the colours that the Clivias come in, my favourite is the cream on the left.

 

 

The palms are getting tall down here and the under growth needs a bit more filling in. More bromalads and Clivias I think.

 

 

Here we are at the Red gate, over the back you can see is the chook house and the chickens, they are out side the house yard so they can roam free all day and lay us lovely eggs.
 It is very dry at this end of the garden and is in need of a make over.

 

 

To the left of the gate is this hill that I have just finished mulching as it was so dry, at the top of the hill you can just see The Old Dairy. The Saliva's do well on the hill so I think I will plant a few more, I have plenty of cuttings I can put here.

 

 

Yesterday I got these Grevillea's from Toowoomba and I will plant them up on the hill as well, one is a ground cover called Molonglo which looks a lot like the Moonlight in the first picture hopefully the ground cover will help to keep the soil in place.

 

 

To the right of the gate is this area, very full of Salvia's that I have just chopped back to nothing. In a month or 2 they will be nice and big again though. I have started at this end of the garden pruning and mulching so as I go along I will share with you and at the end you will have been all around the garden.

 

This week I am linking up to

  http://fishtailcottage.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/cottage-garden-party-20-2013.html

Go over and have a look at all the gardens....

 

Blessings

Mandy

Hot Pink Bling......

On Tuesday I had to get some paint from Toowoomba to paint the cubby( more about that later)

So while I am up there I also had to go to the local cheap shop and look what I found.....

Hot Pink Mirrors

 

 

Just what I needed to go in my bed room with the new lamps I made...

There's only one problem......there plastic...

 

But don't you think they give the room just the bling it needed....

and they were only $10 each..Loving hot pink this spring, it is finding it's way more and more in to the house.

 

 



What do you think???????

A Spring Bedroom.............

 

I have given my bedroom a Spring make over.....

 

 

I am loving the turquoise color at the moment so I have gone with that and Hot pink this time...Looking at this though I think I need differant curtains?

 



 

I loved the Black and White but it had been like that for 12mths and I have been itching to change it again...

 

 

 I brought the freshness into the bathroom as well.

 

 

My perfume adds colour as well...I get lots of perfumes from my daughters as presents. I don't think a girl can have to many perfumes.

 

I made new matching light shades for the bedside tables.

 

 

I got this material from www.beachvintage.blogspot.com  They have some great fabric and are very reasonable with there prices.

 

 

The cane chest at the end of the bed keeps all the linen it it and now the extra from the black phase....hahaha

About the walk in robe....

Hmmmm

I wish I had more shoe storage, if there was something I would do different it would be to take these shelves out and have it all shoe storage. Then I would need some where to put all my hand bags sighhhh what is a girl to do.

I did have a clean out after I took this photo and it looks a little better now...

 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed my Spring bedroom make over I will share more later in the week....

 

Untill then

Blessings to all

 

Mandy