Trimmed

My GKB was getting worried about how he was going to get the hedges trimmed as they were getting rather overgrown and shaggy. Just recently we changed from our old rubbish bin collector, which we paid a fee for, to the city council one which was covered in our rates. This meant swapping some of our old bins for the council ones. 

The council green waste bin was quite a bit smaller than the old one and meant we were only able to mow half the lawn at a time and get the clippings in the bin. The other half was done the following week. No way were we getting garden weeds in let alone hedge clippings. 

But the kids must have been discussing it as this weekend eldest daughter, Jacqui, and her partner arrived with all the right gear on the back of the ute and got stuck in.  Well the men got stuck in, Jacqui and I drank tea, gossiped and kept out of their way.

The growth was quite prolific as it has been a warmish (🙄) 

summer (??) as well as a wet one. So everything is very lush.

Even after being trimmed back it's still looking nice, thick and green, and all the cuttings have been taken away on the back of the ute.

We ordered a new bin, but they won't swap them over, just deliver the larger one so that we now have two green bins and an extra fee to pay once a year. Never mind though, we now have more than enough green bins for our needs, 😄

And that's it from me today.

Have a nice weekend, keep well, keep safe, especially those of you in the fire or snow affected states in the US.

Prayers are being said for all.

Diana

Kittens, sunflowers and other stuff...

This week I've got some bits and pieces

 to share with you and not a lot of any substance. 

First of all let me show you four of the five kittens 

the next door wee stray cat has produced, only about 

a fortnight after the first litter of the season 

went to the SPCA - the little bisom.

But they are cute!

And on the other side of the house - 

 remember the hedge that was coming down a few weeks ago?

Well here it is now, or I should say, here it isn't now.

Ready to have a fence put up along the drive.

We're looking forward to that.

 Now all this chopping down of the green stuff

 must be catching because this is what has

 happened at our place in the last week.

Before

This part of the yard was getting all overgrown 

and the bushes were taking up more room than we were.

After

Now it looks like this, we took out a

bush that had died in the middle, 

and had all the others cut right back.

A lot more room.

 There's still some work to do, 

like getting the rubbish to the dump, 

and fixing up the furniture again before next summer, but all's good.

Actually my youngest and her  husband 

paid for it to be done for my birthday.

Nice one.

Sunny the sunflower

I sprouted Sunny before Christmas and gave it

 to my girlfriend as a 'pay it forward' gift.

She is producing beautiful blooms 

and when I took this I think she had 11 blooms

 and about 20 more to come out.

She is just glorious and a real talking point 

in the community my friend lives in.

'She' being Sunny, not my friend!

And guess what, I never got my own seeds in! 

Ah well, there's always next year.

And just because I can I will show you another one of my teacups.

I tried to find a green one for St Patrick's Day

 but this was the nearest I had.

It looks Celtic but isn't.

It has Phoenix China, ?F&S Ltd on the bottom and is made in England.

It's not quite a full size cup but it's not a demitasse either...

May the saint protect ye-
An' sorrow neglect ye,
An' bad luck to the one
That doesn't respect ye
t' all that belong to ye,
An long life t' yer honor-
That's the end of my song t' ye!

(an Irish blessing)

joining in with:

Martha's favourites

I'd like to wish you all

a Happy St Patrick's Day,

Diana

A weekend to remember

This weekend I took part in the "Relay for Life".
For those who don't know it is a fundraiser for the Cancer Society. 

I've been wanting to take part in it for several years

 and when a visiting minister announced that his wife 

was putting together a team I decided now was my opportunity.
The idea is that the team walks for 24 hours in relays.
We did it in half hour slots, quite manageable.

Some slept, some walked overnight.

This was a school group next to us

who reckoned that they would be up well after

 all of us old ones were counting the zzzz's. Ha!

Anyway our team decided we would have a theme

 and it would be Noah's ark.

We would all come in animal onesies.

ONESIES? PARDON?

I don't do onesies!

Famous last words. 

I did onesies!

My granddaughter loaned me one of hers, bright red,

and I sewed black dots on the back and turned into a lady bird.

We had a good turnout of critters. 

A dog, a couple of dragons, a tiger and a giraffe and some more lady birds.

An owl. A rabbit. And one or two others I can't think of at the moment.

The event was quite emotional at times,

 particularly I thought at the beginning 

when the 'cancer survivors' did the first lap, led out by the bagpipes. 

We're in Dunedin after all, the Edinburgh of the south, 

we always have bagpipes.

There was entertainment as well, 

a Chinese Lion Dance done by 6 and 7 year olds,
it was quite something to watch.

Zumba to take part in,

at 7:30 in the morning - I watched.

Non stop music throughout.

And friends to catch up with...

...in the early hours of the morning.

We had a corner spot and the wind was blowing through
but we hadn't seen each other since I finished work
so we had a good old catchup.
Then we went to find hot tea and coffee to warm up again.

My youngest daughter and my grand daughter came to pick me up at 10:30am.
I was ready for the off by then and left the morning shift to carry on.
But did I get to go home ? Oh no.
Grand daughter had to be dropped at her boyfriends house,
then it was back across the city to pick up eldest daughter
so she could come out to our place to pick up the truffles
 she had bought as part of our fund raiser.
I didn't mind really, but I was ready for a proper cup of tea and my bed.
We had the cuppa and just as I was about to head to bed
youngest daughter says
" Mum, I don't know how much sleep you're going to get,
Dom's just arrived to do the hedge".

I went to bed anyway.
Dom did the hedge.
Then the neighbours did their hedge.
Eventually I got out of bed again and was surprised
 to see I'd actually managed 4 hours.
At least I'd rested and probably dozed though it didn't feel like it.

As a team we managed to raise $3400,
not too bad an effort really.

joining in with:

roses of inspiration

If you are still reading after that marathon, 

good on you.

Take care 'til next time,

Diana

They're at it again...

The neighbours are chopping stuff down.

There is a beautiful macracarpa hedge growing 

between our property and the one next door.

Well there was up until about a week ago.

Over the years the neighbourhood kids have had a lot of fun in there.

Both boys and girls.

They had huts and hideouts and tracks through the branches,

and not necessarily at ground level either.

But as you can see there is a truck up the drive.

Behind the truck is a very nice young man with a chain saw and a mulcher.

He took down about 30 foot of the hedge in the middle.

Right opposite our bedroom window and in front of one of the neighbours'.

I just hope they're going to put up a very high fence to replace it!

Although it does reflect a lot of light back to our place - oh well you can't have it all ways/

When he feeds the mulcher a lot of very fine sawdust

 comes over our fence and leaves a fine film over everything.

Easy to clean off, just a nuisance really.

At one point I looked out the window and 

one of these wee fellows was wandering around

 in the middle of the road looking quite bewildered,

 in fact he was walking in circles.

I rescued him and put him under some bushes well away from the hedge,

and the road, and thought that all was well.

But no, a couple of minutes later he was heading out again

 but this time stopped for a drink out of a puddle

 and then headed back to the bushes. Phew.

Both our daughters  went over looking

to see if there were any of their old toys there.

there weren't, but youngest found an old Sprite can

 she took home to her collector husband.

Work seems to have come to a standstill now though 

and this is what things looks like at the moment.

Not pretty.

Well that's it for today,

keep well, keep warm if you're in the snow

 and enjoy your day.

Diana

Sharing with:

Orange you glad it's Friday

behind the hedge and over the fence...

A few weeks ago my GKB and I went up to the caravan for a few days of R&R. My GKB likes to get out and do a bit of fishing on the lakeside and I like to just sloth around, although I do sometimes join him, as long as I can continue to sloth around once we get there. (I do go for walks around the town and on the lakeside as well, so it's not as bad as it sounds). I like to take magazines or books with me and enjoy the peace and quiet of Central Otago. Mountain air, hawks circling, and blue skies.

While we're there we usually buy fruit from the orchards, either pick our own or from the roadside stalls. Cherry picking is interesting.

Every couple of days we like to go to a big orchard up the road a bit that has a great barn sized stall that the tourist buses all stop at where they sell fruit, fresh and dried, and also 'Manuka Honey' to  tourists at inflated prices.  **TIP: If you are ever over here touring, buy your 'Manuka Honey' from the supermarket, it's the same stuff and a lot cheaper.**

But they do have delicious real fruit ice creams, oh yummy. And we have to have at least a couple a week, we don't get them at home, and anyway you have to save something for a treat!

There are one or two tables to sit at under the trees and there is a lovely garden hidden by a large hedge. We were sitting at a table enjoying our ice creams one day when a man came rushing out from behind the hedge, 'I've got to get my camera," he said "what a hidden gem."

Now my GKB and I had been behind the hedge several times. What's changed we wondered so went for a walk ourselves. What's changed? The plants had matured, some statues had been erected and it was nearing the end of the summer, so roses were still in bloom as were some of the other summer border flowers.

Very pretty. So the photo's above are from 'behind the hedge'.

Back home again I have been out, ahem, walking occassionally, and had forgotten about this lavender garden in the photo's above. I haven't been over that way for a while. It is still being developed, has only been going for about six or seven years, but you can see how it will look when  it has matured. They hire the gardens out as a weddng venue and it is one of the places we looked at for eldest daughters wedding.  

I enjoyed looking 'over the fence' and seeing what has been done to the public area since we went and looked.

Then when I went around the corner what should I come across but some alpacas lazing about in a paddock enjoying the warm autumn sun.

These were also over the fence, the reason for so much grass in the foreground, which is a good place for them I reckon, they tend to look down their haughty noses at you and are very good spitters!!

Wishing you all a great weekend.