We made it! Seamlessly we packed up our life and transported it ‘down country’.
Greeted by inquisitive neighbours of the four legged variety and busy birds on a mission, there’s a lot happening in our new backyard. Amongst the empty packing boxes and endless abandoned cups of half drunk tea, is one very, very contented cat.
Green grows the pastures, O. Scrubbing potatoes just got more pleasant. From my kitchen bench I see greenery for miles.
Just metres away behind enclosed hedging is an area nominated for my ‘salad garden’. The monty ginormous veggie patch is yet to be created. In the meantime, I can’t wait to plant out this smaller version to enjoy this summer. In fact, I’ve already dug up an area and planted tomatoes and row of lettuces. Try holding me back.
It has only literally been 48 hours since moving in, but a few things have left a glorious impression for us, the new kids on the rural block.
Things that made us smile:
Cows. They are inquisitive little things. Safety in numbers they swarmed the fence line to peer at the cat, most intrigued.
Birds and Bird Boxes. Despite all best intentions in the suburbs no bird had ever nested in a bird-box I may have (a) created or (b) purchased. They have been glorious garden ornaments but of little use. Now birds are seriously making home in every nook and cranny available to man (or should I say, to fine feathered friends).
Bird hotel #1 outside the kitchen window being most frequented, every few minutes delivering worms to a very hungry occupant who is too young to emerge as of yet. Bird hotel #2 aka the letterbox, has nesting under daily construction. No room for the rates. Ahhh, never mind. IT’S A BIRD’S LIFE
Icing Sugar Skies. It is so dark and quiet, the sky looks like it has been sprinkled with icing sugar. A mass of stars. Glorious. I have never slept better.
Raindrops. After two days of intense heat, it has just started raining. Our water tanks and freshly planted tomato plants are ever thankful, as we will be once summer gets stubbornly dry.
In the meantime, it’s unpacking boxes and trying to identify fruit trees. So far I think we have kiwifruit, passionfruit, grape, lemon, lime, mandarin, feijoa, pear, nashi pear, apple, plum, blackberry, loquat, olive, walnut (yet to fruit) and this one, that had me stumped for hours!
Does this look familiar to anyone? It’s persimmon. Very excited as I’ve not grown that before. I looks like I will have my summer cut out for me preserving. Yippee!
Now, back to the unpacking. Those boxes ain’t gonna empty themselves!
