No more blue lego

I’m not a big fan of organised religion but one thing they get right is rest days. It’s easy for me to fall into the trap of never-ending work, keeping on until I’m completely exhausted, so remembering to have a break every now and then is essential. I don’t see my rest days coming but I get the first hint when the couch develops its own gravitational pull. Once there I do make some genuine attempts to get up but it’s not to be.


It all started yesterday and I was well ensconced on the couch until Em rescued me and took me for a walk down to Blackbutt Creek, showing me where she thinks we should create a little kiddie swimming spot. All well and good except we signed (yes signed) a piece of paper the other week pledging to not spend any money or have any big ideas until we were back on our feet financially. We are not there yet and the path to the creek is almost impenetrable - thick with privet, lantana and blackberry. I could put the woody buggers through the shredder and use them to bulk out my compost heap but…..we promised. I would like to add some woodiness to my compost. I’ve been making a new heap today from bracken and horse poo but as it's for the new fruit trees any added woodiness will help encourage fungi in the compost which trees prefer.


The spot by the creek is quite pretty with shady spots and shallow, fast-flowing water but there is quite a bit of work to do. Instead we planted a few more trees around the house – a black mulberry in the chicken pen to the north of their house so it will be shaded in summer and also let the low winter sun through when it loses its leaves. The chooks also got passionfruit planted along their fences, as well as watermelon and chokos. Em has been thinking about our lack of chook forage and shade and has decided to do something about it. Very admirable. Each hole got some horse poo, blood and bone, a little lime, worm castings and compost, before being watered in with a little liquid seaweed. The compost is thick with worms and looks great.


Now that it is warming up the lace monitor lizards are on the prowl again, raiding eggs and probably even sizing up the chooks. Twice our early warning system went off – the kookaburras go crazy with a distinctive call before the magpies swoop in and give them hell. We caught one just outside Gladys’s chook tractor where she’s sitting on her eggs (it didn’t get in though!) and shooed it off and then later harassed another that was in the big chook pen, closing in on the eggs. It took off and climbed the pecan tree, staying there despite the magpie continuing to harass it. I am so pleased that we have our bird-powered early warning system I am prepared to forgive the bower bird for its incessant thieving. At least we know where to look when there’s no more blue lego left.


“I’m grateful that Morrow came over to play.”
(Confused? Look)