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Karma’s Photo Hunt ~ The Hill Project

Joanne35 Comments

When Karma suggested a photo hunt for her blogging friends to join in on, I immediately knew which photos I needed to search for!

Last year, as I have mentioned before, I spent a lot of time revamping several of my garden beds. The hill directly opposite the front of my house was the largest project, a garden running almost the full length of the house. Plus, it’s on a sharp slope. We had tried to make the hill manageable previously, without a great deal of success – what I didn’t realise was that our first attempt at constructing a manageable and attractive garden was in 2010!

Here’s the first photo I found during the hunt –

15th April 2010, before the first Hill Project began.

As the photo shows, the hill was steep! So anything we constructed there would be a challenge to maintain. You will notice growing on the far right of the photo is a small pine cone tree. I decided this tree would be beautiful when fully grown, and would shade the front of the house.

19th October 2020 – the tree had grown!

The next photo I found during the hunt was taken in 2020. I had even convinced husband to extend the retaining wall out in front of the pine cone tree at some stage, to accomodate the tree’s roots. The original plan had been to cover the whole hill with drought tolerent ground cover plants, which may have worked well if most of the plants hadn’t struggled to get a root-hold on the slope!

By this time, husband had lost interest in helping me with the garden. Weed mat and mesh wire to hold mulch in place simply wasn’t successful on the sharp slope. I slipped down the slope when trying to pull out weeds. Also, by this time we had brought home potted plants galore from my inlaws house when we had cleaned out their property, ready for sale. It was a trying time, putting my inlaws into aged care facilities and dealing with my father-in-law’s declining health. I think it fair to say we had both lost our gardening mojo completely.

The day my seventeen year old daughter brought home a boy “she thought she might like” – nearly nineteen years ago – little did I know what an inspiration he would be to me in the years to come! I wrote a post about him several years ago, I think I called it A Man of Ideas or some such thing, as I had discovered he has a unique knack of getting into my brain, seeing the vision I have, then improving upon my ideas. He’s wonderful! So when we spoke about a possible solution to the most challenging part of my garden and threw around a few ideas, we came up with a solution that he was prepared to help me bring to fruition …

Winter 2023 ~ the Hill Project 2.0 begins!

First, the pine cone tree had to go. Next, the retaining wall needed to travel along a straight line once the roots of the tree were removed. What was I thinking when I insisted the tree stayed? Those tree roots were gynormous!!!

Three little people, along with the dogs, enjoyed watching Daddy – to the two little ones on the right – and Uncle – to the little one on the far left – hack away at the hill, essentially restructuring the land to accomodate our vision for a new, attractive, easy care, easy to access, garden.

The dry creek bed under construction.

During times of heavy rain, the far corner of the garden washes away in a stream of water which cascades down the hill. My man of Ideas suggested we construct a dry creek bed in that corner. This area of the garden is still under construction, but I think this photo, taken around October last year, shows the basic formation of what we have in mind.

And here’s the constructed garden –

The construction and planting is complete!

The height of the lower section of the retaining wall has been raised, another small block wall has been contructed and a wooden sleeper wall at the top runs along a hedge of Sacred Bamboo, Nandina Nana. It had to be a rockery garden to compliment the natural surroundings, so my son-in-law lifted the larger bush rocks into place with the mini-excavator and left several smaller rocks for me to play around with, to create the garden I had in mind.

It was a long process, but we did it! I hope my son-in-law realises how much I appreciate his contribution to everything he helps me with around the garden. Maybe the thousand times I have said thank you may have been a clue. 😉

So there are my before shots, before-before shots, during and after shots, Karma – you did say the rules of the photo hunt are loosey-goosey – right? 😉

There’s still time to join in, so why not follow the link to Karma’s Photo Hunt!

The second part of the challenge is to take a photo, one for each season of the same place, which I will join in also! I am eager to watch my new garden plants grow and change as the seasons progress. 🙂

Australia · Christmas · cooking · family · grandchildren · memories

Christmas 2023 ~ and that’s a wrap!

Joanne21 Comments
Limited floor space once all the guests arrived with gifts.

Christmas at my house is choc-full of fun, food and festivities. The main instigator of preparations, which begin in early December, is my daughter, child number three, a December girl who waits a whole year to celebrate both her birthday and Christmas. My Sagittarius is a whirlwind, the one in the family with the loudest voice, sparkling eyes and the biggest heart; you know when she enters a room without looking, her presence is so strong. For the past month, I have been “organised” by my daughter to go shopping for the ingredients we need to prepare a Christmas feast … and more!

The baby of the five, Young Master Two, beside his sister, Miss Five. Next is Master Seven beside his brother, Master Two. On the end is Master Three, son of Aunt Em, aka supervisor of the Christmas preparations.

A few days before Christmas, my five grand-babies came to my house for the annual Kid’s Cooking Day. Not a lot of actual cooking is done, it is pre-prepared for the little ones to have some fun. Chocolate Crackles require no baking, they are set in the fridge after the children help Aunt Em count out the cups and spoons full of ingredients, mix, and place them into patty pans. Emma and I baked cookies for them to decorate a few days before, and I also had a Christmas craft kit for the children to make decorations with.

This year, I made matching aprons for the children to wear while cooking, which Master Seven and his little brother, Master Two, modelled for me to take a photo.

I have lost count of the number of years Emma has baked and decorated a gingerbread house for Christmas. She gave up on perfection after her nephew, Master Seven, first decided he wanted to help with the decorating. As more children have come along, Emma has been happy to sacrifice her ideals of perfection for the little ones.

With my two daughters, Hayley and Emma. ❤

By the time the big day arrived, I was exhausted. This year, we had twenty guests here on Christmas Day consisting of my four grown-up “children”, their spouses, my five grandchildren, my ninety-year-old mother-in-law, my son-in-law’s sister and her daughter, and my daughter-in-law’s parents. It was a relief to finally relax, sit around the pool, and enjoy the garden where I spend so much of my time working!

A quiet moment …

As soon as the deck chairs were empty though, this cheeky pair grabbed them!

Best friends, and cousins. 🙂

Being a hot day, this year we spent most of the day outdoors. The children loved playing in the pool and had fun setting up a picnic area on the grass, in the shade, where they ate their Christmas dinner.

The three older generations enjoyed our Christmas meal at the table!

December has been quite a busy month. It’s fun, but I have to admit that I am pleased there is only one Christmas in a year. The preparations are worth the effort though when I see my family together, relaxing, enjoying the day … and acting like total clowns!

And everyone celebrating, having fun, making memories, and feeling comfortable in the home my four children grew up in. 🙂

Blogaversary · garden flowers · gardening · in my garden · In My World · native Australian birds · pets · photography · roses

Fourteen Years Ago Today …

Joanne19 Comments

So, what happened fourteen years ago today? I posted my first entry on this blog. So today is my blogaversary.

David Austin ‘Emily Brontë’ rose.

Over the years I have added posts on several topics, but the posts I enjoy adding these days mostly involve my garden, be it what I am doing – or have been doing – in my garden, or the results of my time spent there. Over the years I had forgotten what subject I wrote about for my first post, but hey, it was about the mango tree in my garden – gardening again. 🙂 So it could be assumed that nothing in my world has changed much in fourteen years.

David Austin ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ rose.

Actually, there have been many changes. My four children – none of whom are into gardening, I might add … (where did I go wrong?) – are now grown, married and have homes of their own, And my family has grown, I am now Nana to five gorgeous little people who have stolen my heart. The eldest has even shown interest in helping me in the garden, so perhaps the next generation is more suspectable to my (constant) training! 😉

We lost my father-in-law early last year, who I mentioned in my first post. 😦

Since I began blogging I have completed a degree, a Bachelor of Arts majoring in English. Along the way, I also completed a Diploma of Family History and a Diploma of Sustainable Living. University study is now officially out of my system – unless it involves learning about gardening, of course.

When I look back on the posts I added during the last fourteen years, there are gaps, some for long periods, when I have been otherwise occupied with “life” and haven’t added any posts. I always return though.

David Austin ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’ rose.

During my most recent absence from blogging, I have been devoting nearly every day to my garden and my family (along with a few hours each day working in our family business, but that’s too boring to blog about!).

And my love of photography has been constant. Yesterday afternoon I took closeup shots of three gorgeous roses in full bloom in my garden. I am rather excited about sharing these photos! They are three of my special favourites … hmm, maybe every rose I grow is my favourite! The Souvenir de la Malmaison and Gertrude Jekyll are more established than the Emily Brontë though, which is a new addition just a few months ago. It was a rose I just had to have, as Brontë is the name of one of my gardening companions. ❤

Brontë, helping me in the garden just before nightfall this week. ❤

Thank you to all of my blogging friends for constantly returning to visit me here after my many absences. And thank you for inviting me into your worlds too! I find it quite incredible how invested I have become in the lives of other bloggers, people whom I have never met, yet it means so much to me to know you can be there with just a click of my computer mouse for a brief chat. ❤

From the archives. Butcher bird in the Tibouchina tree. February 2021.
Australia · autumn · basics · cooking · rain · subtropical weather

A Wet Easter Monday

Joanne3 Comments

On a day when I hardly saw my back garden let alone Mount Warning, due to this mist and low cloud, I spent most of the day working on a university assignment, which is due this Wednesday.

During constant reading of any description, I find I need to take regular breaks, usually in the garden. What to do when it’s raining heavily outside? I baked a loaf of bread instead.

It’s been many years since I baked a loaf of bread, although I always bake a batch of hot cross buns every Easter. This year, I baked two batches, and they turned out so well I was inspired to try bread baking again.

I started simple, just a plain white loaf, and the result was a beautifully crispy golden crust and soft white bread inside.

It was a pretty good way to spend the final day of the Easter long weekend, here in the damp subtropics.

Australia · blessings · clouds · Mount Warning · renovations · seasons · subtropical weather · summer · Tweed Valley

Sultry Saturday

Joanne6 Comments

Husband is home today, doing a few touch ups before my office is put back how it should be. The kitchen renovation continues next week as well, and there’s a couple of places that need a touch of paint, so he’s getting into that as well.

Semester 1 of university started back this week so today I listened to a lecture and got into some required reading. It’s a blessing that the first week is never overly hectic! It also helps that I can access most of what I need for uni on my iPad.

Today the weather is humid. There’s no rain about but the valley looks rather dull. I took this photo earlier today, when the mountain was mostly visible. Now, it is hidden behind low cloud.

With just one more day of offical summer left though, the humidity should decrease from now on. We’ll see. Regardless of how many humid days we have had this summer, I can’t complain. It’s been a relatively cool summer for a change. 😊