When life gives you limes, make cocktails

I am not overly fussy about what is in my garden, but I must have fresh herbs and lemons.  The lemon tree was a key factor in buying our property and I went to considerable lengths to protect the tree when we rebuilt in 2010, including designing a deck that wouldn't encroach on its space and threatening the tradies with death or worse if it came to any harm.  The other tree I have always wanted is a lime tree and shortly after we moved here, Stos planted one for me however results, until recently, have been disappointing.  The return on investment has been poor - the tree cost around $30 and I am sure that it's only yielded 6 - 8 limes in 10 odd years.  Every year it has lots of flowers and fruit buds but fails to deliver on its promise and has not grown much since we have had it.   However, after complete change in the garden, two years of decent rain and some other unknown miracle, I've had half a dozen lovely limes in the last few weeks and there are another 30 on the tree in various stages of development.  Plus, we think the tree has doubled in size over the last year.  I am so excited - looking forward to daiquiris, lime delicious pudding and maybe lime chutney over the coming months.

Day 377: The End

Today marks the end of the project.  The painters have been to finish off the outstanding bits and pieces, so are the last of the scheduled tradies. and I think this seems like an appropriate point at which to draw a line under the construction phase. The job today was touching up the interior paintwork, completion of the garage and painting the rendered contrast wall on the side of the house.  It was a cold day and not aided by the front door being open so the guys could go in and out.  The dogs were confined to the deck as there was work going on out the back as well, and they were not happy.  On top of that, I was trying to work while freezing, putting up with noise, questions and having to move every so often. But  the reward for a day of inconvenience is the prospect of using the garage to house the car (novel, I know) as we can now put up shelves and move all the "garage stuff" off the floor.  The external render has come up well and Stos has decided that he's going to plant red salvia down the side of the path as a contrast.

As it is the last day of the project, I should say something profound.  But not tonight.  I've just got home from squash and it is late.  Not the right time for meaningful musings other than to say that there's a garden to create and an interior to finalise, so the journey will continue.  But hopefully at a more leisurely pace.

Day 369: Up the garden path

Commentary on house progress has been fairly light on over the last couple of weeks but lots of work has been done and we are sooooo close to stopping the formal countdown.  Electrical work is finished and we have been able to remove the nasty black cable connecting the television in the lounge room to the aerial in the kitchen that I was convinced I would fall over.  Wessie has finished the external tiling and we now have a path down the side of the house instead of slush.  All we need now is for the painters to come in and finish off the final coat in the garage, the external render and some bumps and dents.  Stos spent a couple of days clearing the garage and digging the mulch out from the external render.  So while there is a tiny bit to go, the improvements to date have been huge.  The garden is still a project in itself but we feel that we can take our time with that and now that our non-existent summer is officially over, that will be our next job.

Today was spend with a lovely bunch of girls that I know from the day job.  We drank bubbles and nice wine, indulged in some gossip and had a lot of fun.  A fabway to spend a sunny Autumn afternoon.

Day 339: Day by Day

What a difference a day or three makes.  Bob and the boys finished just before lunchtime today and we now have this to look at.  Much better than the jungle of weeds we had earlier in the week. 

The change in the front isn't quite as drastic as we had the Stonehenge look prior to the garden make over, but the river pebbles and mulch is a big improvement on the scorched earth look.

And I think we are getting to the point of being able to publish a daytime photo of the front now that the weeds are gone and the "blue steel" era is over:

The end is nigh.

Day 337: Planet Earth

The sleep-ins are officially over; Bob is back on the job. At 7.30am on the dot, a large truck arrived with a bobcat and before we knew it, the boys were at work. First the remainder of the garden and the rampant weeds were cleared, then the new soil was brought in and the new garden beds were shaped. Stos and I pulled out the stubborn grass that invades from next door and to keep the boys happy, I made a batch of Auntie Jean's scones for smoko. This would have to be the easiest recipe in my repertoire and even I don 't need to look up the ingredients which are:

4 cups self raising flour, sifted
300ml (a small bottle) of thickened (double) cream
300ml water.

Mix, turn out on to a lightly floured surface, flatten into a rough square approx one inch thick, cut into pieces, glaze with a little milk and cook at 220C for 10 to 15 mins until a light, golden colour. Too easy!  The secrets are to keep mixing/handling to a minimum, don't bother with a rolling pin and don't faff around with scone cutters.  I think even Auntie Jean would give these a tick and Bob certainly approves.  I know our scone queen friend thinks that lemonade scones are the way to go, but for simplicity, these can't be beaten.

Day 335: Who let the dogs out?

Stos and I have both taken a week off from the Day Jobs.  Breaks have been a bit thin on the ground over the last 18 months, so we thought it was a good idea just to take some time to sit back and enjoy the house.  That was until Bob decided that this week would be a good time to do the landscaping.  So now we have jobs to do in readiness for the bobcat coming in later in the week.  This afternoon was spent pulling out weeds in the front yard and picking up building rubble, although, to be honest, I think we will be picking bits of roof tile out of the ground until we are carried out of the place.  The yard is bare but it looks a lot better than the jungle of weeds it was last week.  The back is another story but the bobcat will sort that out.  K & P were out the front with us but having had a taste of freedom a few weeks ago, K headed for the only gap in the fence and started trotting down the road to seek out treats at M's place.  She really is a female (and canine) version of Houdini.  But you wouldn't guess her evil nature from the photo here.

Day 238: Solid Rock

 

Some time ago, Bob had mentioned his vision for the front yard.  I have heard a few times how he thought some landscaping, a  few rocks and some grasses would look good.  Once he was giving me his vision while putting on the roof which was like getting the Sermon on the Mount - I had to tell him that I'd prefer it if he focussed on staying on the roof and remaing in one piece.  Anyway, last week we had to get a machine in to dig up the footpath and old cross over to put in a new one and lay the new driveway and front path.  As the guy with the machine is also a landscape gardener, Bob put him to work carving out the front yard and putting in some rocks.  This was discussed with Stos, who gave some general guidelines that included some license for artistic interpretation.  I was chatting to Bob on the Thursday when it was finished and he was very keen for me to go around with my camera (mentioned both on Thursday and Friday) with the promise that our front yard would be different to any other in the street.  I wasn't sure whether to be alarmed or not by that statement.  I couldn't get there until Saturday morning, after the deluge of Friday night and was confronted by what looked like a lake in front of the garage and stones arranged in such a way that wasn't in line with what I'd imagined.  Not that it's bad, but different.  Anyway, Bob is very pleased with himself.  And we are getting used to it.

Today's good news is that the concrete is still going to be laid this week as planned.  After all the rain on Friday and Saturday, we were very concerned but all is well and it's full steam ahead.