Monday 25 April 2016

Autumn has arrived at last!

We seem to have had an extended summer as a few days ago it was 28C and that's quite hot as far as I am concerned. I could never live in areas where it is normally 35C+ in summer. However, the last couple of days have been decidedly cooler and I think autumn has now arrived. Our area of Queensland is one of the coolest and that suits me fine. My friend Margaret has knitted me some socks so they are ready for the cold days. If I had knitted them they wouldn't be ready till next winter as I was finding it really hard to knit with the 4 ply sock yarn but she can knit with her eyes closed I think and takes no time at all. Aren't they perfectly matching? She is so clever.



Now that it has cooled down I have been able to get out into the garden and plant out the brassica seedlings at long last as I put in the seeds ages ago. I had planted out a few cabbages and cauliflowers where we had room but I was waiting for the zucchini to finish producing in one of the gardens before planting out the rest of the seedlings. They seemed to be growing well until one day I noticed that the pests had already arrived and eaten half of one of the plants. So I did a bit of squashing and will now be on high alert and check them each day for any eggs that have been laid on them. The majority of the brassicas will be covered to stop the white butterfly caterpillars from decimating the whole crop.



Goodness me, they can eat!




There aren't a lot of flowers in the garden at the moment. I came across this night flowering cactus flower though and it looks like this in the morning....



.
..and like this in the afternoon. That looks a bit like how I feel some days. :-)




The dahlias are all but finished. We don't water them and there hasn't been any decent rain for a couple of weeks so they are on their way out for this year.





I nearly stepped on this plant which I thought had a yellow flower so I asked the CEO what it was as he would have planted it at some stage and he said that it wasn't a flower and that they were leaves....




...which I guess change colour and end up looking like this. I did a Google Images search and I think perhaps that it is a  Crassula sarmentosa. Does anyone know if that is right?




It is quite strange but after months of hardly any tomatoes growing they have now decided to pop up everywhere. Hopefully we will end up with a few that are out of the reach of Sally girl.










I didn't plant any coriander this year as it always bolts and the menfolk don't really like it anyway so I was quite surprised when in the middle of summer it just came up from seed dropped on the ground from last year and it didn't bolt for absolutely ages. If I had purposely planted it I am sure it would have bolted much sooner. Gardening has me puzzled sometimes :-) 

Only 11 sleeps till I fly to Mt.Isa to visit my grandchildren. Before then I have to finish off my grandson's rag quilt so I think I will be doing quite a bit of sewing and snipping this week. 

Have a great week everyone!





9 comments:

  1. I feel like Autumn has arrived here too, though the weather man on T.V.last night said we are still experiencing above normal temperatures for this time of year. However it is much cooler than it was earlier in April and I am happy with that. I was able to spend many hours in the garden over the long week-end.

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    1. Sherri you probably have Livio on your news too. He has been saying for weeks we are still having above average temps. I think that is just about to change as it is so outside in the wind and drizzle.

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    2. Yep, you are right we do have Livio.

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  2. You are winding down and we are gearing up, always makes me smile, the opposites. Have fun with the 'grands' we are doing the 'trip' as well. Hope to do Lily's 2nd birthday and mothers day together this year!

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    1. Kathy I will be with my grandchildren on Mother's Day too. I will think of you :-)

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  3. I simply love those socks Chel. It's too warm here in SA too; it was the warmest Anzac Day for over 20 years and today is 29C with wind. :( Fingers crossed it will blow in some rain as we haven't had any for soo long now. I too am madly trying to finish a quilt before I fly off to visit my granddaughters next month. X

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    1. Sally it was 28C last week so now that it has turned cold we are all feeling it as we are now used to the heat.LOL!

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  4. You always take such great pics. The ground is frosty this morning however I can finally feel a slight change where we just might see a summer here yet.
    Love your new socks by the way. Very cosy looking. Can't believe the stripes worked out so well. :)

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    Replies
    1. It looks like summer is on its way for you at long last and autumn is finally kicking in here.

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