Winter has arrived

It has been quite cold and wet for the last couple of weeks, which has limited the activity in the garden.  We have had 28mm of rain so far in June and the whole place is feeling very soggy.  In fact we have had sufficient rain that the lagoon was rapidly filling and threatening to flood houses down near the beach.  So on 3^rd June the council opened up the beach to drain the lagoon to the sea.  The lagoon was suddenly transformed into mud flats. It’s always interesting when this happens as the birdlife changes almost immediately.  Most notable are the large numbers of pelicans, which appear, to scoop up the stranded fish.

A local artist constructed this woolly mammoth from driftwood and seaweed. The lagoon is now open to the sea

With winter here there's been a bit of an emphasis on keeping warm. The house is not well insulated and we are having to run the wood burning stove quite a lot to keep the temperature up. We have had the chimney swept and have even had to resort to buying firewood as the wood that we have, isn't dry enough to burn.

The new stock of wood

 

It has been birthday season and so last weekend we had everyone over for our first pizza party. We lit the oven about three hours before cooking time, which proved to be more than sufficient. It all went smoothly and pizza was consumed in copious quantities. Next time we will have a slightly better feel for how the oven cooks.

The chef and assistant chef

The first pizza

Ash had an accidental calzone!

You can't beat hot pizza

 

With all previous purchases now planted I have invested in seven more native shrubs for the garden. These include two banksias, ericfolia and spinulosa, a Eupomatia laurina (native guava) and a coprosma quadrifida (native currant). The bush tucker area is beginning to develop nicely!

Although it's soggy the paperbark walk is looking nice

Debi's herbs are coming along well

 

I’ve been tinkering away in the shed during the wet weather and I am gradually getting the rotten garden bench back together. I have now made four new legs but there is still work to do.

Four new legs for the garden bench