Late morning - why not? Temperatures have dropped again and it's quite cold in the mornings, again.
I still meant to mention a puzzle I'd solved last night: Thursday night, my water gauge showed 2mm rainfall ... but, I didn't think it had rained? I checked the ground - and by the wall it's clearly wet, but the further you go from the wall, the drier it gets - by the house, it's bone dry. So, where did those 2mm come from?
Turns out the landlord has taken to watering outside the wall! His sprinkler system is so effective, it reaches my water gauge!
And Mini made me really angry last night. That habit of hers of pushing the kibble dispenser around on the counter? Well, last night she walked it right off the counter! Fortunately it didn't break - but kibbles were spread across the whole floor! Ziva came to help me pick them up - well, she ate them. But I was seriously put out with Mini!
This morning, during my morning smoke, thinking about work, a lot of things suddenly fell into place and made one simple, fundamental sense. I need to spend some time thinking it through ...
My Landlord has been busy this week, re-arranging the landscape.
Suddenly, I can see my neighbour again! The hole where the water came from, that flooded my house? Filled. The dam? I'm not sure - all I saw were these heaps of soil everywhere, which, in the photo below, were growing a strong crop of weeds.
Above is the last photo I took of how it looked before. It's quite an old photo - as you can see, everything is still green and my tomatoes are still going strong.
That's what was there last week! Landlord is still busy, as you can see. Yes, on a Saturday!
And this is what I'm working on now! I'd like to open up the carport again. So that IF I ever get visitors, they can park in the shade. Yeah, not really a good reason, seeing as in the two years I've been here, I've only had one visit! Ha Ha!
Thing is, it was open when I first moved in - and nothing grew there! When my neighbour brought me all those cherry tomato plants, I just plonked them into pots and placed them there ... and now I'd like it open again. Or at least, I'd like to be able to easily open it IF I ever do get anyone visiting with a car.
At the same time, it's such a convenient place to grow plants - I just place the sprinkler in the center, and it waters everything around! From the poppy bed to the tomato bed. Well, you can't drive on the side where the poppies are growing, anyway, because there's a step to the carport. So, I'm clearing that area of grass and weeds, and place two rows of the bottomless pots there.
I don't mind the clover growing there, they can stay. But the tall stuff growing in between, that's coming out.
Nice thing today: It's not even noon and all my chores are done! I've even already spent an hour or two in the garden! Washing is on the line, kitchen is clean ... I'll have a lot of work tomorrow, though. I'll need to bake bread rolls, make hamburger patty's, fry them - that'll be my lunch this week. And then there's the stew to make. I can't do any of that today, I'm afraid ... sigh ... but that's tomorrow.
And this is today! Finished! I cleared a row for the bottomless pots and placed them there. Then I cleared a strip right at the driveway - trying to keep the weeds from overgrowing the cement. Lastly I cleared the tomato bed. And guess what? I think there are tomatoes already growing there again! I suppose they'll turn out to be cherry tomatoes again ...
At the back, I took that last strip of weed guard and placed it halfway where the cement starts. Half covering ground, half covering the cement.
And you can also clearly see that it's winter. The whole 'lawn' is yellow and dead - except, of course, the circle where I regularly water! Those patches are clover. As I said, I'm happy to leave it.
And THIS is what I just found in my bed! Thank you, Mewthos! Thank you very much! Grrr ...
Life with four cats ... never dull!
This is the view from my veranda today - you can see I've made a lot of progress yesterday.
Here, too, you can see that it's winter. Everything is yellow, except for the circle, where I regularly water!
See that black bag next to the ponytail? That's my plum tree! When all the leaves came off, I was hoping it was just hibernating, and that it's still alive. I'm happy to say that it's growing new leaves again! The peach tree out back is also starting to bloom! I was a little worried that I went a bit too far with the pruning. I'm glad it's fine!
Well, I spent the last hour of daylight continuing the work along the wall. It looks even better now.
I love the view from my veranda! I really do! Every evening I sit with my mippies, enjoying the view. And every week it changes. Two weeks ago, that tree on the left was bare - just sticks. Then, last weekend, it started bursting into leaf! You can't see it in this photo, but that tree on the far right is a work of art! You see that downward branch on it? It's really picturesque! When I have some time, I'd like to draw that tree!
Well, mippies are inside, I've done my usual mustard bath - it's really good for sore muscles! I shared my dinner, and now I'm settling down to watch some Golden Girls.
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