Saturday, December 26, 2009

...and Ness ends up in the gutter

As the rain continues to fall Ness decided to get onto the roof and clear the gutters to ensure maximum water collection. She was ably assisted by Coco the amazing spaniel who decided that catching mud and wet leaves from the sky was the best game ever invented.

From Protea Farm 1


From Protea Farm 1


From Protea Farm 1

the best Christmas present ever.........

A slightly belated Merry Christmas to everyone. Hope those in the UK are enjoying all the snow.

We had the best present we could possibly have hoped for....60mm of steady rain. The grass is sprouting, trees are clean and happy, and the vegetables are growing visibly. It is raining again now, so we have had twice the rainfall of last December in 48 hours.

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We had great company, good food and wine, and spent the day happily watching the rain.

From Protea Farm 1


From Protea Farm 1



From Protea Farm 1

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

almost Christmas

The last 2 weeks have flown by. Still very dry so most of our time taken up with garden revival. We are now drawing water from one of our bores, which smells like sulphur and is possibly not the best stuff to hose onto the plants, but they will just have to put up with it as the alternative is death by dehydration.

We are harvesting cucumbers, courgettes and spring onions at the moment, and the tomatoes are hanging on by their little green skins.

We have 1 house booked out over Christmas, but have held the other one back so that friends visiting from Sydney have somewhere to stay. Also we will be minding the pig farm for some of the time, as the Caspars are jetting off to the UK for the festive season.

Tennis has been suspended until February, but hopefully I can persuade one of the visitors to venture onto our court at some stage over the holiday. Most frustrating owning a tennis court and never getting the opportunity to use it.

No more news and no exciting tales to tell, but all is well at the crispy homestead.

From Protea Farm 1

Above scary massive bee swarm in a shrub outside the house last week- fortunately they moved on the next day.

From Protea Farm 1


From Protea Farm 1

Completed the trellis beds for the tomatoes and peas this week.

From Protea Farm 1


From Protea Farm 1

Cucumbers and butternut squash.

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Above water melons, rock melons and pumpkins grow in a mulch of Alan and Marley wool and poo.

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...and the trellising goes up for our little secret drinking grotto. The planting consists of 2 bay trees and a Californian lilac, so should be a delightful shady area by next year.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

going green

First solar hot water unit was installed today, the next one will be fitted next week. Lovely free hot water- we may be frying, the garden may be crispy, but at least the sun will be working for us in electricity bill reductions.

From Protea Farm 1

tennis chic



The picture above shows the victors and runners up in the tennis competition- note the coordinated sporty pink team on the left, and the somewhat more freestyle garb sported by my team on the right. Also note a rather marked height disparity!


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