A wonderful autumn April...
It's been a wonderful Autumn April in the garden - with calm warm weather, and lots of productive gardener energy. When is it going to get colder and nastier?
Sunday 25th April
We are back! I could have started this diary entry quite early this morning - rooster started crowing about 3am and kept crowing until daybreak. I reckon he crows at the stars - he is roosting close enough to them (high above the garage, about three meters up in a gum tree). So today there is no food until teatime, when he will be firmly encouraged to go into the Hen House for the night.
What to do today? In less relaxed times this would have been the very last day of my April holidays - Hee hee! I am a bit sick of burning rubbish - that is by myself, and it is a weekend, and Stephen may be persuaded to help...
Yellow Flowering Chrysanthemums
Anyway, it's good to be back home in the garden, while the weather remains balmy and calm. No more Autumn leaf photos, I promise! This is the week for the bright yellow chrysanthemums by the glass-house, and those brilliant red Autumn flowering bulbs which grow all along the water races on the roadside (obviously I'm not sure of their name, hence the long-winded sentence).
Red Flowers by Rooster Bridge
Lunchtime...
I've weeded the vegetable garden. How boring. There are a lot of lettuces almost ready (all self sown) and an abandoned row of carrots. I don't grow many vegetables over winter because of the frosts.
I am about to ambush Stephen and get him to help me with the big-rubbish clearing. I can't let an April day go by without the compulsory rubbish fire.
Ha! I got Stephen helping, the rubbish has been collected and burnt, and the fence line mess by the Hen House is nearly cleared. Speaking of the Hen House, though, I did get rooster to go happily in there - I shut the door - he immediately pushed his way through a one-way door the wrong way and flew back to the house. Better luck tomorrow!
Monday 26th April
No gardening today, but my Members Handbook of the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) arrived in the post. I have a membership card! Yippee! Now I need to make a trip (flying business class, of course) this coming northern hemisphere summer.
And I have finally captured the duck (actually there are two, and probably always have been two) on camera. Success!
Spot the Duck
Tuesday 27th April
No gardening today again (hmm... am off again earning a wee bit of money instead). I still haven't dealt to rooster, either - his midnight crowing sessions which seem to stop at dawn - hasn't he got it the wrong way around?
Wednesday 28th April
So far I've had a quiet day (it's been raining lightly outside) listening to that odd rooster crowing - what strange vocal habits he has! I've done no gardening yet, but I've taken some photos (no more autumn leaves, please!) and collected a wheelbarrowful of pine cones from the back paddock.
I'm going to have a lunch break and then maybe go outside in the drizzle - Moosey the Intrepid Four Seasons Gardener.
Friday 30th April
The month may have started with a gardening hiss and roar, but it has finished in a much more leisurely fashion. Mind you, drizzling conditions tend to do that - it's almost been too wet to garden all week (almost). Today I have again enjoyed being a gatherer - more pine cones for the fire - and I've spread a lot of manure and mulch on the Willow Tree garden, particularly around the rhododendrons near the water's edge. I've really loved my first April as a semi-retired gardener. Yes, yes, yes! Yippee!