Meanwhile, back at the farm

While I have been swanning about enjoying other people's company in Canberra, David has been at home slaving away. Actually, he really has. He loves a job list to work through and I had left him a long one. Prodigious amounts of progress have been made in the house and garden. Shelves, hooks, handles. Its wonderful to have a resident handyman.

Before I left for my last trip to Canberra, "our tradies" Nigel and Shane did a post-build conversion at our expense of the bi-fold wardrobe and linen cupboard doors to regular doors because the finish on the bi-folds was very disappointing. I couldn't recommend them if you're planning to build or renovate. This conversion was an unexpectedly lengthy exercise. There was a classic "Basil Fawlty and the Irish builder" moment during the process, when I figured out early on the third morning of work, that the to-be-installed central support for the doors was going to block the opening of the existing drawer units inside the wardrobes. Pointed this out to David. Yeah. Right. Blast. Phoned the builder, Wayne. I'll be round, he says. Tradies arrive, then the builder. Embarrassed muttering and feet shuffling all round. Four skilled blokes had worked on this project and it was your unskilled resident female who spotted the problem. A solution was found and implemented at great cost of time and effort. The end result is worth it. I think. We haven't got the bill yet.

Mulch and soil have been delivered and we have done some more planting.



The first batch of turf has been laid, thanks to extra help from Peter and also neighbour Tim. David's back having crashed in protest at all the hard work he had been doing. Its on the mend now but he had to wear thongs for five days while I was away because he couldn't put his socks on.

While all this was going on, I was enjoying my train trip from Canberra to Strathfield, very scenic. This is the pretty little station at Bungendore.

(Below) is the nice country around Bundanoon.

I got back to the pleasure of rain. A lot of rain. Over 50 ml in two days. 

Good news for the garden, not such good news for Julian and Cat who came on Thursday to see the new place and have a bit of a holiday. On Saturday I tour-guided them around the soggy highlights of Forster while David was at orchestra practice. This is Tartt our best local coffee shop.

These are Julian's thongs, sporting some attractive Vincent Close mud. You walk tall around here when it's wet.

It was lovely to have them to stay. Julian is sporting a moustache for Movember.

 The waterlilies on our dam are flowering. Just lovely.

 The wildlife is getting bolder as it gets used to our presence. This cute bunny was just in front of the deck, and disappeared under it a moment later. Mae wants us to start feeding them, but I'm not so sure. Cute, yes. Good for the garden? That would be a resounding no.