Wardrobes

 One thing we are going to miss when we move are our walk-in wardrobes.

My wardrobe

NB It's usually overflowing with clothes - I cleaned it out for the pending Open for Inspections for our house sale. 

Visitors

Two new visitors to our place, one bold, one shy. Thanks for the spotting and snaps Robert. BTW we think they are Tawny Frogmouths. 

Last Swim of the Season

 I'll miss our pool when we move to Carey Bay. It has given me so much pleasure (and exercise).

Cliveas

While we have quite a number of orange cliveas in garden beds I was unaware that we had a few yellow cliveas in pots hidden away in a corner of the garden until Mr GeniAus dragged me along to view them.

They are beautiful.

When these have finished flowering we'll split them and use them in a border in some shady spot.

Flowers, fruit and Foliage

 A wander around our Galston garden.

Neglected Blooms

Although they get very little care the azaleas are blooming in our garden.

Lake Dryzabone

Although the sky was filled with menacing clouds this morning the weather report tells us that there's not much chance of rain this afternoon.

Today's forecast from http://www.bom.gov.au/nsw/forecasts/sydney.shtml

We haven't had rain here at Welwel for many a day. The grass is brown, the eucalypts are shedding leaves and the drought- hardy plants are struggling. The water tanks under our house are empty too.

As I came down our drive this morning I thought of the iconic Australian clothing range Driza-bone (Dry as a bone) because that would be a good name for our dam. As I don't want to breach copyright I am naming our dam Lake Dryzabone. The following snaps will show you why.

I wonder where the frogs and fish have gone

Dry dam bed

Some plants are still green

A Little Tart

We have a mini orchard containing a couple of dozen fruit trees at our house. We have citrus, stone fruit, apples and pears. It's always a battle to get to the fruit before the bats, birds and possums rip them off the trees.
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Orchard at Welwel

Mr GeniAus is getting smart in his old age so he now nets a few of the trees before the fruit ripens up. This week he netted a mandarin tree that is an early ripener. He just delivered one of the mandos to my desk, it was juicy with a bright orange skin but it was still a bit tart. It will benefit from more time on the tree.

Not quite sweet yet

I just wandered down to the orchard with my phone and took some snaps of what's in store for us in the next couple of months. Hopefully the local wildlife will leave some for us.

Eggstravaganza

Most years we gather at family member's home some time over the Easter weekend. This year it was our turn to host on Easter Sunday, 27th March.

One of the highlights for the grandchildren is  our Easter Egg Hunt in which each participant is guaranteed to unearth a decent haul of chocolate eggs. The parents who have to deal with hyperactive children as they fast on their booty may not be similarly impressed.

While some of the grandchildren escaped my lens I managed to capture an image of most of them.

The parents "hide" the eggs

Comparing the hauls

Stocktake

11 Happy Hunters and Paddy

Paddy was not impressed - no chocolates for dogs

A Tiny White Centre

I've long been a fan of Bougainvillea but only realised today when I was examining our plant that the blooms have a tiny white centre.

Our Bougainvillea

A Sweet Christmas

It was a sweet Christmas at our house

Hoping that your Festive Season was similarly sweet

PiZap

Sometimes I want to create a photo collage on my computer rather than on my Android device so I have been looking around for a simple, free, easy to use application for this purpose. The third product I tried PiZap seems to fit the bill.

This simple collage took less than 2 minutes; more complex ones with more images would take longer.
My test run was of a few snaps I took in our backyard yesterday.

Winter at Welwel

I'm still on the lookout for similar products and am open to suggestions.

Bird Feed

Living in a semi-rural area on a small acreage allows us to have the benefits of homegrown fruit and vegetables and fresh eggs from our chooks.

In our mini orchard we have over 20 fruit trees and vines of various varieties, it's fun to observe their annual cycle and we get especially excited when buds turn to small fruits and we watch their progress as they mature and become ready for picking. We have recently been watching our stone fruit and apples.

Our Mini Orchard

 One of our plum trees was laden with fruit so the last week Mr Geniaus decided that he would collect the fruit for Christmas. The local bird life also watch the progress of our fruit. So when Mr Geniaus went out with his bucket to collect the plums what did he find but a tree that was bearing absolutely no fruit.  The birds had beaten us to it and had just left us the plum seeds scattered on the ground under the tree.

Plum Seeds on the Ground

We know how to outsmart those birds so we had netted the apple tree that had the most fruit. Mr Geniaus went out on Sunday to find that a bird had gotten under the net and was having a great old feast. He adjusted the net and came inside quite satisfied. Those birds just can't be beaten, yesterday Mr Geniaus went out to find more birds having a picnic through and under his net.

Netted Apples

He was able to salvage four small apples.

Similar to the saved apples

Signs of Spring

As I peer out my window I can see signs that spring is on its way.