Lovely Simple Song

Free Design - Love You

How to live a money-less life by Mark Boyle

Monarch Cycle Starts Again

We didn't have any here last year. But hopefully it is not too late for them to turn into butterflies before the frosts come. We have the swan plant so we can have baby butterflies at our home. It was a 60s plant my mother grew, and I'm glad I found one in this town at a plant stall after we moved here

Harvest

Allposters

The writing prompt this week at A thousand words... and then some is Harvest.

At the moment where I live, people are starting to harvest their grass. I am not sure which are hay, and then covered, which are covered silage, and some are uncovered round bales. Last year I heard they made a lot of money. Also last year watering was involved. Yes, perhaps a shock to some, I think it is to me too. Anyway, maybe that comes later in the year.

However thinking about it more, harvest to me, the child in me, is harvesting grapes, tobacco, I have had lots of experiences with harvesting.

Around this place (which I have limited experience) the semi trailers drive into the large paddocks to collect the bales.

At home on the farm of my childhood it was the oldfashioned bales with two strings on them. The ones we loaded on the trailer on my weekends, and set off in the frost in the back of the "ute" actually it wasn't, not sure what it was actually called. Morning tea was always offered at the end of these big feed outs. My hosts driving the "ute" my Dad and my uncle, and my cousin came along too when we were sitting in the back. The trick was to stay out of the wind.

My grape picking was with my Nana. My reward for that her wholemeal sandwiches, nice bread, and nice butter. I think maybe on that occasion I had one of my favourite sandwiches at her house, invented by my uncles, raisins (large sticky ones) with honey and chopped walnuts.

Tobacco was my joy. The children, and there were a few from the share farmers and our family, were used in a chain gang to reach the outer tobacco kiln. Our reward black hands and a feed of watermelon. I particularly liked the ride home from the paddock (same trailer?) with the hessian wrapped tobacco and the watermelons in their own section!

Another joy was seeing my other uncle's maize bin. What did he use the maize for? I think for "free" chook food.

It's Been Snowing

These hills outside our house this morning had snow on them. It is very fresh outside still. Other news today is that the new Vegemite is called Cheesybite.

Winter slipping away?

The writing assignment at A thousand words...and then some is:

What does Fall hold for you? Or is it called Autumn in your part of the world?
Are you sorry to see summer go, or are you, like me, excited to welcome Fall?

Winter doesn't slip away like summer, I wonder what word you would use instead? Fall is called autumn in Australia, but that is not until March. We are 26 days into spring and winter has a firm grip even though we are into bluebell season. All the trees have leaves, but they are very small at this stage.

Our spring flowers include these wattles, which are very nice at the moment. Because I live in the bush, we have eucalypts and these wattles and a purple ground cover. In autumn nothing really changes in the bush as you can imagine.

The temperatures are still on the verge of freezing point at night.

We had our little American styled fall in the form of a thing my daughter did a couple of weeks ago during her gymnastics concert. She was dressed with yucky teeth, and a brown black costume with bat wings I suppose they were. Another girl was dressed as a pumpkin to go with the theme. I adore the look of the American pumpkin candy, but I don't care for the taste so much. That is a shame as the bags of Halloween candy my husband brought back from the States and Canada? years ago was lovely.

Am I sorry to see winter go? And what does spring hold for me.

All the plum blossoms are gone, those white trees by the roadside where I live. I have been looking at the thickets of them, actually proper plums gone wild, and think of the now leaved trees and the plums that will be there by the roadside to harvest next summer. I have a particular tree in mind.

We have October and November to go. In October my daughter is going to Malaysia where there are no seasons, she hopes to share pictures of our snow covered mountains with them. It will be her birthday the day before she leaves. November is when our son finishes his exams. He then hopes to go and live in the city with his brother. So this is a big event for my spring, and the exam period as well.

We hope to go to the zoo when we pick our daughter up from the airport. So as far as spring goes, I don't feel like it is coming. We have let the wood heater go out twice, but lit it again. When the air inside does warm up we are going to continue painting the ceiling of our bedroom at our new house.

We are taking advantage of the lingering cool to shift some plants that need shifting. I think the answer to my spring is that we hope to paint and spring clean. I don't mind that it isn't going faster towards the warmer weather because of the memory of the horrible bushfires in Kinglake and Flowerdale last year. I hope to see the area when I visit the zoo. It is very cold there in winter, and I'm sure those people will be glad for the warmer weather, yet not so glad as well.

The girls have started talking about togs and swimmers. At the moment we have no water restrictions as the dam here is full. Maybe they will get a go in a pool in the backyard before the water restrictions come back again.

Excited to welcome spring? No too much happening, but in some ways it will be good to finally do the things we plan for and start getting used to the changes. I need the time to prepare as well.