IN...& Loving it #9

So that is us. The move is complete, we are all settled in & loving it.

Some things have come at a cost as there are a few things that aren't quite as convenient as they were before. It's further to the Post Office, takes a lot longer to get to work...& there isn't a decent cafe anywhere near!!

I'll never like blue carpet, off white walls, down lights (who invented those things anyway....obviously someone that had no interest in art or crafts of any sort!!) or vertical blinds, but for now I can live with them. I don't expect that I will ever enjoy the rules that come with renting either, that inability to put your own stamp on a house or garden & make it feel truly a 'home'. But once again I can live with it.

It's warm, it's tidy & it's PEACEFUL!

It's conducive to living... & creating :)

This batch of Haiti Hearts was taken around to Ris'tretto recently... they'd sold all the rest just after I moved.

IN...& Loving it #8

The neighbourhood.
Call me a snob, but it is so nice to live in a neighbourhood where people actually care about their homes enough to keep them looking tidy again.

It is an absolute delight to walk around here. We are only 5 minutes walk from being out of a built up area & into a green space. Even though this area was developed at the same time the houses aren't all the same, so one isn't faced with a street full of replicas, almost clones of each other, each only having a couple of features that might make it different to the next. I often wonder about that & why people would be happy to appear not to have any individuality, or anything that distinguishes them from their neighbours.


There is a small park with a pond just up the road & over the back is a Home Centre with a huge builders & home handyman store. It also has rather a substantial garden department. Oh dear.


The funniest thing is that I have almost come a full circle. My very first home when my eldest son was a baby was not so very far from here. It bordered on open grazing land & the only building you could see from it was a small plant nursery. That small plant nursery has since become a rather large plant nursery, possibly the largest in this city.

IN...& Loving it #7

Rules aside, sometimes one just cant help themselves. There is such a thing as too much grassy leafy flaxy stuff.....especially when it is so congested & overgrown that it is sending runners under the driveway.

We are required to maintain the garden & lawns, but it's not specific as to whether that is just keeping it weed free or not. Darn that 'grey area' ;)

I felt a bit of judicious thinning was in order...

Before

After

Then there was the small matter of the garden edging that ran directly into the end of the patio. It somehow just looked 'wrong'.

Before - with evidence of more 'judicious thinning'...

After - with some of the evidence (very little) replanted....

IN...& Loving it #6

The wonderful weather has also allowed for some late in the season garden purchases.

Initially I was somewhat disappointed as it was quickly discovered that due to the way the garden is laid out & the rather stringent rules surrounding what tenants can & can't do, seemed somewhat prohibitive.
The 'garden' is primarily grasses, which I could normally work around. However these uninspiring specimens have been firmly embedded in weed mat & then covered by a rather thick layer of bark.

I love colour. I love variety & texture in both leaves & flowers.
Something had to be done....

Pots it was. Just as well I had loads of terracotta pots! Even better that it was sale time at a lot of the local plant nurseries.

Just a little bit scary that over the last 8 weeks I have filled in excess of 20 terracotta pots with plants, & have even snuck in a couple of purchases of more pots....

Woke up to a slight 'oopsy' one morning. I hadn't properly checked the rope holding my hanging pots & didn't realise that one in particular had perished almost all the way through whilst unused over the last few years.

It had speared itself nicely into the lawn...no harm done to either pot or plant.

This strip of fence would be the perfect place for a garden....it doesn't get much sun apart from in the mornings, & I can imagine a few tree ferns underplanted with hostas, solomons seal & astrantias & bleeding hearts. Yep, I see a blank space & my wee mind goes right into planning mode. But for now the pots will have to do.

IN...& Loving it #4

I haven't met the neighbours yet, but I've made heaps of new friends...

Praying mantis are busy laying their eggs everywhere, the females at least!

There are loads of spiders around, I have never seen such a variety of decent sized spiders. When one is spotted the reaction varies... the girls run squealing & calling for me to remove them from wherever they have been spotted. I run for the camera.

The markings on this beauty are wonderful!

This is Siris, my eldest son Jeremy's new baby. He's such a honey, & has visited a couple of times since we have been here. Funny, we don't see the cats around when he visits ;)

Not quite as pretty as the spider above, but still interesting.

I haven't seen any lizards or geckos, but my lovely copper gecko has finally found a place that he can hang outside.

IN...& Loving it #3

New house, new garden, new obsessions.....

I spent some time watching the artichoke progress from immature flower 'bud' into full bloom. Fascination & my love of watching plants I have never grown before develop through to maturity easily outruled any desire to cut the flower heads that were still immature enough to harvest & eat when we moved in.

Then there is 'that' Palm tree. What an absolute joy to look out at it every time I pass through the lounge or go out the front door.

In...& Loving it #2

A few of the house & outdoor living.

Pretty ordinary from the street, but that's ok because I dont have to look at it ;)

This was what appealed to me - a decent size patio & NO fence right in my face!!

I'm sure that some people gasp when I say that the house is right on a small 'round-about', but I have to say that this is a view that I never get tired of!

An unexpected bonus was discovered in the vege garden.

IN...& Loving it

I've been remiss! We moved in & so much has happened since that it would be impossible to even try & catch up here.

Life can sure get eventful, especially when you have things you need to get done it seems. How about I catch up in pictures....

Everyone is happier!

Happy kids, who it seems can never be too old for a cardboard carton & a small slope....

The Loner cat

The Stoner cat...