Time flies

 I can't believe it is over two months since I have written a blog post. I am not always sure I have anything interesting to say and have noticed that a lot of bloggers have stopped blogging perhaps opting for the quicker way of communicating on Instagram. I have noticed many changes in the blogging world since COVID began in 2020. Still, life goes on and here are a few bits and pieces of what life is like here in this neck of the woods where the days are sunny and the nights are getting cool as winter is just around the corner. 

Spring has sprung

Well, Spring brought with it a heatwave of sorts this year. We went from having cold weather to 30C or so which was a bit of a shock to be honest. The plants are all confused I am sure and I imagine the gardeners in the parks and gardens in town are doing their best to stop all the plants from flowering too early for the Carnival of Flowers which is on from the 13th September to the 7th October. 

A bit behind

 Well, the start of 2023 has been a tad disappointing as I finally succumbed to COVID at the end of December and spent the first week of the new year in bed. At first I thought I had a bad flu and it didn't enter my mind that I had the virus until I lost my sense of taste and smell a few days later and thought I had better do  a test and sure enough I was positive. 

Technology changes

I rarely use the PC I am typing this on. I can't do a blog post on my iPad nor on my phone which has a small screen so have to resort to the PC. However I have just realised that when I take photos on my phone and send them to Gmail so that I can then resize them to be suitable for a blog post the options for resizing have changed. Years ago I was told to keep them under a certain limit for a blog post as Blogger was complaining about the size of photos at the time. 

It's been a while

 I have been very slack where my blog is concerned. I have no excuse really apart from the fact that I have become addicted to reading and have read a few hundred books in the past couple of years. Oops! I think I know more now about the Civil War in the US, life in the Regency Period etc. than I do about Australian history. I find it all quite fascinating. I have been especially interested in the late 1800s when my grandparents were born in Scotland.

This and That

 I just haven't been taking part in the blogging world for a few weeks so sorry to my blogging friends that I haven't left a comment on your recent posts. Sometimes I just can't be bothered resizing photos and making the effort to be lucid enough to write a blog post when I can just bury my head in a book :-)

Learn to Love Zippers Workshop ~ Simple Living Toowoomba

Next Saturday on the 13th March our Simple Living Toowoomba group will be holding our second workshop of the year and this one will be so informative as it will be presented by Valda and Neralie who are excellent teachers of all things to do with sewing. You may have seen their handiwork in a blog post I wrote last year after they showed us how to make bunting and bucket hats Bunting and Bucket Hats Workshop. 

Time is moving along

 Well, here we are in the middle of January already. I find it is hard to keep track of the days since I retired as my life used to revolve around the school year. Some days I wake up and have to spend time trying to work out what the date is. LOL! However, regardless of whether we remember the day or date, time moves on and today I thought I would take stock of what I have been up to lately as I am dreadful at keeping a diary but can always look back at my blog and see what has been going on in a certain month. 

The Can't Be Bothereds

Sometimes I can't be bothered blogging, cleaning windows, sorting through the 'junk' room and so on and so forth. Am I alone in feeling this way although I doubt it? Anyone who blogs knows that first you have to take photos, then you have to resize them for a blog post and then you need to be lucid enough to think of something sensible to write while other bloggers seemingly have a mine of information in their heads to share with the world in each and every post. Not so in this little neck of the woods unfortunately. Most of the time it takes too much effort to turn on the PC to write a post as normally I am on the iPad which is much more convenient but sadly can't be used to write a Blogger post unless someone can inform me of a new App that has been designed for that purpose.

A little rain

It has been getting really dry here once again so it was lovely when the skies opened yesterday and we had about an inch of rain. Today it is clear once again after a foggy morning so we are back to coolish nights and warm days this week.

An Easter like no other

Easter 2020 is almost over here in Australia and, like the media warned us over and over again,  it was to be an Easter like no other. I do believe that a number of fines were given out in Queensland  to some people violating the current social distancing measures....$660,000 worth in actual fact.... but I am sure that most Queenslanders did stay home as was recommended by the authorities to prevent the spread of the Corona virus.

It's lawn mowing time again!

As most Queenslanders would know it has been a muggy and rainy week in parts and it has been wonderful to see that there were some decent falls out west which would have perked up our farmers but it was patchy and unfortunately some missed out. We had just over 50mm but other areas of town got a lot more but it was enough to start greening up the lawns and I have heard lawnmovers going the last few days which have been silent for quite a while as our lawns had turned brown and crunchy.

September musings

Well, it is the almost the end of  September and already we are having summer temperatures. Apparently our city was 'drenched' during a storm at the weekend according to the news. However  we didn't see much rain here on the northern side but I do hope some of our farmers got some good falls and had no hail damage. The Carnival of Flowers has finished for another year and I have just found out how to get some photos of the gardens off my camera onto the PC. It never used to be such a problem with Windows 7. LOL!

Beautiful camellias

This morning I went to the Camellia and Garden Expo at the Toowoomba TAFE which is right next to the Cobb and Co Museum where our local farmer's market is held each Saturday. The last time I attended it was a cold rainy day which made it very miserable for everyone as most of the stall holders were outside in the weather. However this year it turned out to be a beautiful winter's day which was warm and sunny after a cold morning.

 

Making a Kokedama

Once again our Simple Living Toowoomba group was treated to a very interesting morning as we learned from Peta how to make a Kokedama then Rick from Birdsong Market Gardens spoke about plant propagation.

Dear Summer ~ goodbye and good riddance!

It is the last day of summer and like most Aussies, I am well and truly over it! Here in South East Queensland we have seen practically no rain for over two months and the ground is as hard as a rock. I have let the veggies go apart from one lone cucumber plant with has a total of two cucumbers growing on it and once they are ready to pick the plant will come out.

My poor neglected garden

As the past few weeks have been quite hectic with the renovations being carried out and a family member moving out, my garden has had to take a back seat apart from being watered. Before the renos began the CEO removed the kikuyu from the front garden which was quite high and, as he didn't want to use Roundup it proved to be quite a big job. Of course it is an ongoing procedure as it is such an invasive pest in the garden. At the same time he dug up some of the hundreds of dahlia bulbs he has planted over the years and replanted some of them and now they are starting to flower so hopefully we will have a few showers in the coming week to help them along. Firstly though starting tomorrow we have two hot days in the mid thirties before it cools down mid week. Our northern friends have been doing it tough with 40C days on the coast as well as inland plus there are currently 120 fires burning and to top it off it looks like a cyclone might be forming off the Queensland coast.

Full steam ahead!

Finally we have a date for when the kitchen and bathroom renos will start so I need to have packed up the kitchen and bathroom items by the 1st November. No more procrastinating! Well, just a little as I had to take some photos of some of the roses that are flowering at the moment as I am quite chuffed seeing as this is the first time I have grown roses.

Beautiful flowers despite the drought

Yesterday I visited the beautiful Laurel Bank Park with one of my local friends and a blogging friend and her friends who travelled from interstate for our Carnival of Flowers which has just begun. Despite the drought the council gardeners have once again been successful in presenting the most beautiful flowers to the appreciative visitors who have been enjoying lovely spring weather in which to walk through the many gardens in the park.

Is it safe to use PVC plastic in an organic garden?

Back in 2014 I wrote a post titled Is it Safe to Grow Veggies in Styrofoam Boxes. This has been one of the most popular posts on my blog and has been read 12,720 times. I was reading Anne Gibson's blog The Micro Gardener the other day as I was looking for something specific and came across a post she had written called Is PVC Plastic Safe to Use in an Organic Garden? I thought to myself 'Oh no, don't tell me there is something wrong with PVC plastic as well' and continued reading and sure enough, it is not a good idea to use it in your garden.