Garden Delights

Back garden the day we got home after 4 months away

As you know we just let our garden go while we are travelling in the USA, so it is always a pleasure for us to come home and get the garden shipshape, and then plant our summer herb and vegetable crops. The photo above was taken the day we got home. The photo below was taken 2 weeks later, and the one below that was taken 6 weeks after we got home. You can see the gradual transformation!

Back garden after we had been home 2 weeks

Back garden after being home 8 weeks

We also like to have a selection of fresh herbs and vegetables, so Murray created a new garden out the front for vegetables, with the back garden we previously used for vegetables now being home to some prolific tomato plants (seeded by birds), and lots of herbs that I use in my cooking. The following 2 photos are of the new front vegetable garden, and the date stamp shows you the progress. The last photo is this group was taken on my iPhone yesterday, so no date stamp - it was the 3rd of Oct.

Front vegetable garden yesterday - 3 October

Murray was very industrious in the first weeks home - as well as establishing the new garden, he also laid paving stones down one side of the house. It gets no sun, so we couldn't get any grass to grow there. It is where he pushes his lawnmower from the front to the back, and it was often damp and dirty. So now it looks great. Not content with the side paving, he decided to create a cobblestone look at the back of the house. In the right hand photo below, you can see the tomato and herb garden to the right of the cobblestone paving. 

Side pavers (flowering Jasmine in foreground)

Cobblestone pavers at rear of house

As well as enjoying our home and garden, one of life's pleasures for us is spending time with our family and friends. The following photos capture us having an afternoon tea and impromptu baby shower for Yudian at our place, followed by my aunt and 2 sisters with me at my sister Gemma's for dinner, and finally Ret and Murray choosing from the menu at our RSL on the river here in Ballina - a most beautiful place to watch the sun set, and sometimes see a few dolphins glide and jump past us.