Spring is (almost) here!

 Yet another month goes by.  We've been experiencing some very spring-like weather, which has been great to get the garden moving along.  We've added 4 new garden beds in the backyard, for a little extra growing space for both edibles and some herbaceous perennials to attract bees and beneficial bugs.  We'll get rid of some more grass, by adding some gravel paths.  It will also remove the dust bowl effect when the grass dies off in summer, leaving sandy soil

 We have also just had solar heating installed to the front of our house (the highest panels you see in the above photo).  The front of our house (the bedrooms) was a bit cold, but also had a mould problem in winter due to the walls being made of concrete bricks with render over them- they simply didn't breathe.  This should provide enough warmth and ventilation to dry out excess moisture.

 Grape bud burst, a little later this year than last.

 A cute little pottery birdbath I found in an op shop in Anglesea.  The sunlight washes out the colours a bit, but it's like a watercolour.  It's probably not meant to be a birdbath, but that's ok.

 First blue egg of the season today!

Daffodils never fail to brighten your day.

And that is August in a nutshell.

Spring Garden

 Orange tree covered in blossom

 Grapevines going great guns and providing shade for the house

 A dwarf pear tree blossoming for the first time

 One broody chicken

 An avocado tree full of new growth

 Front garden veggie beds with tomatoes and capsicum under temporary glass hothouses.  Sorry Jonty, I don't think you'll grow any bigger!

All of our new fruit and nut trees have leaves on them now (and some have blossoms), which is a relief , because they did look like sticks for a while there.  I've started planting by the moon cycles, so it will be a bit of a test this summer to see if there are any improvements.

I have some photos of our family trip to the Melbourne Zoo last week, and some of the almost completed wood oven, which we made pizza in for the first time on Sunday night.  Our good camera is refusing to load its photos onto the computer at the moment, so it will have to wait for now.

Solar Powered nappies

After I'd hung a load of nappies on the clothesline this afternoon, it occurred to me that I'd just washed the nappies in solar hot water (most of my washing is done in cold water, nappies in warm), in a washing machine powered by the sun, and they were now drying in the sun. Very satisfying, it's the small things that make me happy! Even better if we had harvested our own water, but that's our next eco house project- one or two slimline tanks to be plumbed to the toilet and washing machine.