General Chat

Oh you show-offs with your French translations:-)) Why can't you all just say potatoes, tomatoes and toffee apples.

It's been quite warm today and is still warmish. Supposed to change and turn cold tomorrow - we'll see.

I've had such a pleasant lazy day today. I really haven't done much of anything except a little shopping and about an hour's work on the computer. The phone hasn't rung once.

CC I can't cope with chat forums either - I get left behind:-))

Pam - as Linda and CC have said just post whenever and someone will answer sooner or later.

Sue xx

Too late CC - I'm settled in for the evening:-)) "The pen of my aunt"......I remember my father singing that song.

Sue xx

Sounds good to me:-)) Laters - as my son says.

Smoke haze over Sydney - some photos
http://au.news.yahoo.com/news-gallery/a/-/article/7209434/image/1/haze-blankets-sydney/

Sue xx

OH was doing his topiary,so that was fine. He is cutting a Box plant into a spiral shape, no daft Peacocks or anything like that. I must say that it is coming on well. Pity it is in a corner where it can't really be seen. He then started on the rest of the bushes,so it was a good job that I was there to say "That's enough" in a threatening manner.

I have been collecting up the Beech leaves. There is about a sixty foot run of Copper Beech hedging around part of the front garden. Lot's of leaves come off in the autumn, but it keeps many of them over the winter. They get pushed off at this time of the year when the new green leaves start to grow. The flipping things get caught under the plants on the opposite side of the garden and it is a real pain to remove them. They have to come off because they are on top of gravel which has weed suppressing membrane under it, so they don't rot away.
We have a line of the Beech trees across the bottom of the back garden as well, but they are about twenty feet high rather than being a hedge. We rake some of those leaves up in the autumn, but most of them just disappear into the soil eventually,so they aren't as much of a problem.

It was a glorious morning, really sunny but all of a sudden large plops of rain started,so we have had to come in. Hopefully it will just be a shower and will pass over. anyway it is lunch time, or breakfast time for CC.....

Hi SueMaid, Are you in Sydney? If so, where? I go down to Sydney as frequently as the bank account allows (Thank God for Virgin!!!) because my kids are down there.

Pam

Pam, Your garden sounds wonderful, surrounded by all those different palms, and exoctic shrubs. Can your grow bananas up there? and what kind of wildlife do you have? birds, mammals, reptiles ect.

Linda, I hope you have managed to wrestle the secateurs from your OH while you have something left. My OH doesn't do any pruning now, but when she did I used to cringe as my shrubs were mercilessly cut down to size. I've had a Box bush in a large tub for about 20 years, they've become quite expensive to buy if they are of any size. I've also got a Red Acer tree in a large tub, that is beautiful at the moment.

Someone sent me an old Tourist Guide for this area today. Among the adverts is one for this house, advertising Apartments to Let for the summer. It states that the house has the benefit of electricity, and indoor sanitation.......which is of course why I bought it lol.

Tec.

Good morning/evening everyone. Where is everyone? You've allowed the thread to languish on page 2. Tut tut:-))

Pam - I live about one and a half hours south of Sydney. Airfares are so cheap at the moment. We are flying down to visit our son and grandson in Hobart as we were able to get very cheap flights.

Our son has told us to bring our winter woollies down to Hobart as it's getting quite chilly especially in the evenings. Here the weather continues to be glorious but no rain. The garden and lawn are looking very dry at the moment. I water the garden but there is nothing better than a good steady downpour of rain to give everything a good soaking.

Sue xx

Hello Tec. Nice to get a bit of history about your house. I take it that your house was converted into apartments and then converted back into a house. Did you have to do the work?

Sue xx

Good Morning Sue,
I think the description "Apartments" was very misleading, and would probably be illegal now. What they obviously meant was "Rooms" there was only ever one bathroom, and that was converted from a bedroom in 1926 apparently. It would have had six bedrooms originally, one is no more than a box room.

Tec.

The beauty of an older house - they have history. We bought ours brand new but I guess we are now adding to it's history.

Sue xx

Good evening/morning all

CC, congratulations on a job well done. :0))

Linda, Tec, the funny thing about pruning, at least in this part of WA is that no matter how hard you prune something it soon flourishes again.

I know I mentioned about the Jacaranda in the back garden, but we also had two smaller ones in the front.

OH took to both those with the chainsaw and lopped them down to almost ground level. A few weeks later both had thrown out new branches. Now despite several applications of glyphosate, both have new luxuriant growth

Good morning, Sue. Your day sounded perfect :0))

Allan

Good evening all

I have been watching TV amongst other activities,

Hello Allan - hope you and your OH are well. Yes my day was perfect. Doesn't often happen but when it does I enjoy it.

I have a lovely grevillea in my front garden and no matter how many times I cut it down it springs back very quickly. It's a little unruly and slightly overshadows the other shrubs but I love it and it brings some lovely birds into the garden.

Sue xx

Good evening Allan. Your OH has a chain saw?

Hi Everyone,
I watched Poirot earlier on in the evening. I'm glad you had a nice day Sue!

Hi, Linda and Pat.

Thanks Pat - it was very relaxing:-))

Sue xx

Sue, Grevilleas are like that.

in the back garden we have a purple flowering bush (sorry, I'm not sure of the variety) but every day it is covered with very small honey-eaters (no! these are birds not bees) which just flit from flower to flower. It is fascinating to watch them and they are so small that they can go on to the smallest of branches ad do no more that slightly bend them.

The bush is opposite the kitchen window so the shoe relieves the tedium of doing the washing up

Allan

Good evening Pat.

Yes Linda, she uses it to keep me in line :0))

Allan

Allan - I can sit and watch the nectar eaters and parrots all day. Is the purple bush a tibouchinia?

Sue xx

I thought that might be the case Allan.

We have boring brown birds Sue

Hello pat, i missed you there