Saturday, December 24, 2016

It's been a big year...

Merry Christmas Dhaaarlings...


The Empress and I would like to wish you all the very best for the 
Christmas Season...

It seems to have been a very difficult year for both of us with one thing and another.
The Empresses health remains fine apart from the odd bloodpressure anomally which is rectified with a review of he medications.
As for me i'm still struggling with Chronic Fatigue following a bout of Glandular Fever and recurrent chest infections. But I'm slowly comming good.
Me being unwell as you might imagine gets the Empress worried too...




On good days we are able to lose ourselves in the garden and for either of us on not so good days... getting out of bed is not the priority...

Finally last month I managed to meet with the theatre group director and after a four hour discussion have come to the decision that i will be taking an indefinite break from costuming... I figure that the stress and lack of support and the inability of the director to address any of my concerns over several years now is not worth persisting with. It is not good for my health and wellbeing.
So i'll be taking at least a 12 month break... Sadly she still doesn't get it and recently asked if I'd like to make just one or two specific costumes for the show next year!!!



Sweetcorn and Cucumbers


Tomato and Beans

In other news the Vegie patch is coming along nicely, harvesting beans, sno peas, Silverbeet, Lettuce, Zucchini and a variety of herbs. 


Fresh Peppermint Tea Anyone?

We have had some lovely pots of Peppemint tea made fresh from the herb patch.

The tomato plants are thriving along with the sweetcorn and cucumbers but are nowhere near harvesting as the days remain comparitivly cool... we need some extended sunshine to get them to colour up.

Yesterday i planted up a "New Bath"... (one of two recently procured from the tip recycleing shop for the bargain price of $20 a piece)... of Asian Greens, including Bok choy, Chinese cabbage so It might be a week or two before I can whip up a little stir-fry.
I've also put in two different types of Aubergine/Egg plant. I've never grown them before so am interested to see how they go...

In another Plant Nursery hunt.... the most recent of many over past months...  i finally had a win!

As you probably know... My most favourite rose of all time finally succumbed to the dreaded "Black Spot" virus. I've been searching every nursery that i manage to find in the hope that they might have a replacement and until yesterday i'd not had much luck at all...

But there hidden back behind a clumped arrangement of Standard and bush roses was the solitary beauty i'd been seatching for...

A  climbing "Black Boy" rose 

My heart skipped a beat... Then i noticed that the poor little darling had several spotty black and yellow leaves...
My heart sank... Bloody black Spot!

On making enquiries with the sales staff as to wether they would discount for a diseased plant... I got the reply from the spotty teenager behind the counter of...

 "No... cos...  all our roses have got a disease Mister"

 I asked to speak to someone more senoir so the manager was called over.
 I said... 
"Your young salesman here just told me that i couldn't get a discount on this rose that has "black spot" as he tells me that all your roses have diseases... I just wanted to check that this information was correct"...

 The manager looked quite horrified and whilst looking daggers at the young sales assistant... appologised profusely and immediately knocked $10 off the price... I thanked him for his business accumen.

This reduced it to almost half price and i figured that if i got the little darling home and gave it a  good treatment it might just survive it's ordeal....
And so might I!

So there you have it... I've a new rose for Christmas and it has been sprayed and fed and watered....
One of those bed bases looks like it may just come in very handy afterall..

Merry Christmas eveyone and Happy New Year! 


Friday, December 9, 2016

What! Take a Photo of Me?

Hello Dhaaarlings...


My recent adventure to the Melbourne Zoological Gardens was just delightful.

Everything was over priced particularly food and drinks as can be expected these days... I hadn't been to the zoo in over 25 years and was astounded by how much has changed... for the better i might add... from an animal welfare perspective. The enclosures are larger for the animals and a lot more natural with large areas of grass, soil and plantings of vegetation and waterways... but mor of that later...

For this post... I've decided to share with you some of the "more obscure" and "less famous" critters in captivity...

So here we go darlings...


As you can see... I tended to focus on little critters... 



More frogs...






A groovy green lizard...



A stealthy Chameleon... I assumed he was was alive... he didn't move his body at all... but I did see his eye madly wiggling about...






An upside down Sea Horse...



A schoal of Whiting and other salt water dwellers...



Two sad looking "Fairy" Penguins... Oops... I'm not mean't to call them "Fairy" Penguins any more... Apparently the homosexuals amongst them took offence and now wish to be known as "Little" Penguins.... 
Had I been a homosexual penguin looking for a "Less offensive" name... I think I would have gone with  "Cheerful" "Flamboyant" or even "Well Hung"  Penguin... Certainly not "Little"



An endangered "Corroboree" frog



Some Iguana



Some sort of Python... Lets call him "Monty"...



And an adveturous dare devil tortoise...


And an even bigger daredevil... what a show off!...


A snake... But I didn't hang about to catch it's name...


Another lizard of some sort...


Looking quite regal perched upon his royal log... 



The tortoise race seemed to take forever...


A cute little bulldozer... or rather a Wombat


Another lizard...






And finally... a festering Baboon's arse...

So there you have it... Many of the little known attractions at the Melbourne Zoological Gardens...

Next time I might show you some of the bigger creatures that I also managed to snap on my adventure... Just for your entertainment darlings...