Not Drowning, Mothering.
I went to Veronica’s yesterday and watched Amy bounce on the trampoline as Vonnie pressed refresh on the bloggie’s twitter page.
I am thrilled to bits to be writing out a congratulatory blog post to the NDM, as her blog is well written and very funny. She writes about her life with humour and honesty and I find myself nodding along in recognition. You really should do yourselves a favour and go on over and check out her blog, I have no doubt you will add it to your favourites.
I had a small visitor for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon and together we went outside and played in the mud.
Then we went down and fed the pigs and had a bit of a chat about how delicious they are going to be.
We went and raided the fruit trees and Amy found that she didn’t like the furry skin on the peaches but was more than happy to munch away on the plums.
This year has been a really good year for most of my fruit trees, due to a wetter than average winter and spring. We normally struggle for water up here and I am really pleased with how much fruit my trees have produced. Amazing what a bit of water does for a plant.
The whole time that Amy and I were pottering around outside, Harry the dog was at our side. Harry loves the apple trees as he is sure that those green balls are just for him.
And finally here is a photo of my latest garden project. The spouse cut an old water tank in half for me. This autumn and winter I will be busily filling it up with sheep poo, mushroom compost and whatever else I can get my hands on. I am going to turn all the vegie garden into a series of raised beds over the next two years, as sitting on a milk crate and weeding is just so much more civilized that kneeling down on my dodgy knees.
Once Amy had gone home I went to turn my laptop on and found that my grand daughter had decorated it for me. That was my day yesterday, how was yours?
In my ‘about me’ page, I write that I live on a small island underneath Australia. I don’t know what sort of image that conjures up for those of you arriving here from the bloggies.
So here is a map of Australia. Tasmania my island home, is the green bit at the bottom.
I live on a 5 acre bush block high in the hills, about an hours drive north from the capital city Hobart. My husband built our home, room by room from bush poles, recycled timber and bricks. After twenty years of constant building and renovations we are nearly finished.
As I am sitting here writing this and trying to think what to say next, I can hear yellow tailed black cockatoos squawking in the trees. A pair of green rosellas have landed on the balcony rails, looking to see if there is any wheat left over from the chook’s breakfast and a pair of fairy wrens are pecking at the insects trapped in the spiderwebs on the windows..
Of a nightime I can hear Tasmanian devils squabbling in the gully down the hill and brush tailed possums raid my fruit trees. I sometimes am lucky enough to catch glimpses of wallabies, in dawns early light. The tadpoles are just changing into froglets and as they emerge from the water my camera is always close to hand.
I am thrilled to bits to be a finalist for the best Australian and New Zealand weblog awards and I am very pleased that you are all here reading my words and looking at my photos.
Cheers Kim.
I clicked over to the bloggies and nearly fell off my chair when I saw ‘Frog Ponds Rock’ listed as a finalist for best Australian or New Zealand weblog. My teenage son David was looking at me strangely as I was squealing like a girl and pointing at the computer screen.
The news hadn’t even started to sink in when the phone rang, it was my daughter Veronica, she of the sleepless nights and the words so beautiful that they take your breath away.
Together we voiced our excitement and checked out the other finalists in all the categories.Congratulations to you all.
After Veronica had hung up I was sitting here quietly just saying, “Wow!” to myself over and over and I started to cry. My mother would have been so excited and the pain of missing mum came back doubly sharp on top of the excited butterflies.
It was a bittersweet joy yesterday made all the more precious because it is tinged with my loss and I know that all good things can be fleeting.
So hello to you all, you zillions of visitors from the bloggies. I am very pleased that you are here. This morning I am smiling away happily as I look at my stats and see visitors here from all over the world. Welcome.
I had a visitor of another sort in my front yard yesterday and watching her snuffling around busily eating ants, made me happy as well.
Yesterday my friend Robin drove up from the city. After a quick cup of tea we jumped in his car and I took him on a tour of the backroads around here. It was lovely to be the passenger for once. We just cruised around the dirt roads stopping whenever something interested us. We had a fine old time snapping away merrily.
The highlight of the trip for me was spotting a wedgetailed eagle perched on a ledge in a local quarry.
As the title says these photos were all taken here.
