Judi B wrote:
I wasn't having a go at you Judi. I just hadn't heard it called swan plant before. Do you know if the monarch butterfly is a control for the plant?

BlueWren, I believe the woman that died from eating the death cap mushrooms last week was Chinese. At least that is what I read in the news. The article also said 50% of those who eat this mushroom pass away. Not good odds.

Been a while since I posted...........
We've been down to Brisbane and we are so exhausted I haven't been able to get much done in the garden, I haven't even taken many photos I have another 3 raised beds to get filled and planted up if the rain will ever stop.
In the future food forset I planted a few strawberries and mulched a few trees, weeded a bit more of the garden you can actually see the vegie garden now
Last week was a write off in Brisbane for 3 days come home totally stuffed, didn't get much sleep and my back was sore there really is no place like your own bed. Friday last week I started doing a bit of garden work and my back let me know it wasn't ready, then got message from calliecat did I want to go to Bell on Saturday??? well of course I did I've wanted to meet Rhonda (forest)for a long time Saturday was a bleak looking day but I was so glad I did go, the weather has not improved any, the temperature has been way too cold not even getting to 15°C my breath is fogging up and we are just about out of firewood the fire has been going for the past 5 days, and raining I'd love it to STOP NOW!! we are all ready to get the driveway done the gully had stopped running but now it is about 20cm deep so will have to wait again we've had a bit over 70mm the dam came up and it's now overflowing and the yard is just a sheet of water.
The vegie garden paths are just water, last night we got to thinking that maybe the rainfall cycle is about 3oyrs here and that is why the trees the previous owners planted were on mounds. I nearly went A over T this morning and I now think some of the trees here will die they really haven't had a chance to dry out any in the past 20 months.

Hi Judi.I have been wondering about how things are at your place with all this rain.It's ridiculous -it's still raining , should think it will be up to 80mm by tomorrow.It sounds like the constant rain we had before the floods in January last year, although there had been heaps more before that of course to saturate the ground in December.

Well we ran out of dry split firewood late yesterday usually have a weeks worth, so DH got some of the smaller rounds that were wet we put them on the stove to dry.
I just want the rain to STOP!! gully is running and DH has to check before we can go out, 44mm in the gauge yesterday and another 28mm this morning.... what is going on with the weather??? normal winter is dry and freezing but this year the temps have been very nice but it is too wet.
I'm working on a list of trees I want to get but I'm not sure now with the ground being so wet I can't dig it I need to make mounds but I'm not prepared to bring in any soil too much hard work barrowing it from the front of the property, I thought about digging small ponds the clay here is too sticky and has been for nearly 2 yrs I might have to think a bit more on it.....Oh darn it been thinking now I got a headache

The weather has been fairly good not too cold but too much rain, I haven’t been able to do much weeding just a bit here and a bit there.
I took some photos and thought I’d show just a little bit of what has bee going on…..
The Lemon tree is doing very well and so are the weeds around it, the borage is flowering nicely now and becoming a bit of a weed itself





We’ve been patiently watching a wallaby here as she had a joey and her pouch was getting bigger and bigger so we knew that the joey would be coming out soon the joey had enough sense to stay where it was nice and warm and dry, yesterday it was sunny and things were starting to dry out and yesterday was the day to explore the outside world, they are so funny when they come out all gangly and uncoordinated.




The caterpillar I‘ve been watching decided to find somewhere to turn into a chrysalis here it is just finished attaching to a piece of the garden fence.





Here it is a few days later changed into a chrysalis.





This morning the car must have looked like a beautiful blue pond… well at least to this frog.





The garden has liked the rain and the broccoli looks good I finally got round to mulching it.





The Lacy Lady peas are again putting out tendrils looking to grab anything it can.




The Snow peas are flowering and setting pods only one problem they never make it into the house.

The Ruby Chard is even more ruby than I expected.




The native bees are happy with all the Asian Greens in flower.




The butterflies are happy too

Judi, your place looks great I really enjoyed the pictures.

Me too , thanks Judi.That is such a lovely chrysallis! So incredible the way the caterpillars do that, and I guess even more so that they then become butterflies!

Well after what seems like ages the insurance has coughed up now just need the weather to be on side.
Nature never ceases to amaze me.....

It doesn't "seem" like ages Judi, it has been ages. Happy happy! Fingers crossed, may the weather be on your side for a while.

Judi B wrote:
fantastic - I'm so pleased for you Judi

I just need the rain to stop long enough so that the gully gets a chance to stop running.
Last night was freezing -4.4°C ... tonight looks like it is going to be even colder 6.55pm and it is zero and falling
There has been a lot of condensation around and this morning when DH went to open the window it wouldn't work he thought he'd forgotten to unlock it but no it was frozen shut

it was floggin cold up my way
huge frost this morning - did not go outside lol

Wow looks great! My snow peas rarely make it inside too! Are there any plants in particular that attract butterflies?

So very glad re the insurance, Judi! Here's keeping everything crossed that it will all go well from now on.