first sail of the season

Well its been a bonny week and more fair weather to come :) John was up for five days and he gave me a wee hand with a couple of bonfires, planting seeds and landscaping so it was great to see him. Things are starting to sprout here now and I took a wee walk round with the camera again.

My meadow area is now ready for seeds after the excavator managed to get rid of the stumps for me, I am just waiting another couple of weeks so the ground will warm up a bit. The photo below is the area I have cleared which was no mean task as it was all brambles and pheasant berry bush thicket to start off with huge tree divots thrown in.

I made an access hole in the wall and a ramp so I can barrow the stack of wood under the blue tarp up to the road and load it on the trailer, it then goes to my wood storage shed which I have made sides for with old pallet wood. Its about half full again after I emptied it for the fire this winter.

I had the boat out yesterday to tune the rigging and check the sails etc and had a nice wee sail down the bay close hauled on the way out and a following 15 knt breeze on the way back, boat was going well as I have not loaded all my gear yet and there is hardly any weight on her.

Another area I am clearing at the moment is down towards the river, the old wall is going to be used for yet another rockery I think and this area is a birch wood and it has another pond that feeds out of the garden pond plus two other burns. I am going to dam this pond dredge it, and raise the level a foot and it will be a lovely wee spot.

This culvert under the main road has now got two wee ponds that the water will cascade over when it rains and probably midgies will breed in the rest of the time.

More land

Well I found out yesterday that I actually own more land than I thought, I was chatting to my neighbour yesterday and it turns out I own a walled off field between our houses that I thought was his. The field is covered in brambles but has about five nice hardwoods and a wee burn running through it. I suppose it's about the size of both the front and back gardens in Kurnell. It will take a while clearing it but hey that's all I do nowadays 😄

There is a six ton excavator going to rip out some stumps I couldn't get with the wee machine tomorrow, he is a neighbour and doing the job really cheap, the stumps are close to the area I,m going to make into a wild flower meadow and I will get him to move the wall stones that make up the field boundary to make up another big rockery in the middle. He mentioned that a job next week has a couple of loads of topsoil so if it's the right price I will get him to dump it in the meadow area.

I dislocated my bliddy anckle yesterday so took it eassier today just did some raking and bits and bobs it takes a while to build up strength in it again and I have to be careful. I gave away some logs today in exchange for the guy clearing the area they are in, it's viewable from the road and I,d like to landscape it plus the logs are pretty wet. I haven't had any new emails from potential helpers so I should update the advert which puts it back on top again.

Helpless and 10.4 kg lighter

Well my helper left yesterday so I shall be working away by myself this next week. The weather is pretty ordinary, wet and windy but things are greening up so Spring must be here somewhere.

Have been on a diet since January and have lost 10.4 kg so far which I am pleased with, I aim to lose another 7.5kg and put another new hole in my belt. It makes a big difference to the pains in my legs losing the weight and I am looking forward to better weather and getting on my push bike. I am best man at Paddy's wedding in May so that was an incentive to look a bit slimmer, he is coming over for a week before the wedding so I aim to get fishing with him on Loch Corrib (Mayfly dabbing) on the Fermoyle river salmon fly fishing and at sea catching what ever is on the bite.

I took a few photos between showers to show what we have been up to recently.

Above are a few rockeries we have been making, obviously they will look better with time when the planting covers the rocks etc. The submerged bath will get pond baskets and I'll transplant a couple of water lilies, it already has a resident frog and three newts, the bank behind gets long thick bladed leaves and an orange flower I cant think of the name of, come summer.

The donkey,s head got put on a bench seat and my garden beds are planted.

 

Spent a while dredging the pond with the excavator the dark patch on the left is material dug out which is drying out before I rake it and sow grass seed there and you can see much more breeze on the water due to thinning out trees behind. Should help keep the midgies away.

Above photo is my composting area with the rebuilt wall that was demolished by falling trees last winter.

Almost 2 weeks between posts

Wow time flies its been 11 days since I blogged last. Whats been happening here? well Mark came and went and no one suffered alcohol poisoning thankfully, lots has been going on in the garden of course, there are two new rockeries a dredged pond, cuttings taken from bushes propagating away in a wigwam type greenhouse made from ex glass doors, early spuds are down, as is rhubarb, onions, garlic, parsley, strawberries and carrots, courgettes, parsnips and a few other seeds I harvested last Autumn from the likes of Hostas and angrypanthers and a vast tract of land near the road has been cleared and is awaiting meadow flower seed to be sown. Bulbs are popping up all over there should be a good showing of Dafs and bluebells this year and the snowdrops miniature crocus  and camellias are out. I will have to get the camera out tomorrow and take some photos. The garden is really starting to look good now, having the excavator in did a bit of damage tracking around but it was really worth it and lots more air will get through the place now and hopefully keep those dang midgies away later in the summer.

Alan (the Yank) is here for another two weeks and we will have a visit from Sheana , Sacha and one of his pals at Easter and John may come up if he is feeling well. I will have to get the boat antifouled and back in the water prior to them visiting. The three guys I have had through the HelpX website have all been nice lads and it has been a worthwhile exercise, after Easter I will have more but this year I wont bother after October as the weather is too cold and miserable to ask then to work outdoors. 

Rossaveal is full of fishing boats just now as the mackerel shoals are just off the coast here and this is the closest port for them to land at.  I was down at the marina earlier and ran my pals boat for a while and made sure she was bailed etc. also had a good chat with the harbour master about various things including the loss of a local boat a few weeks ago that capsized off the Scottish coast.Thankfully the crew were airlifted off and taken to Stornoway.

I have a couple of chainsaw projects underway, making a donkey bench, and some seats hewn from a big log. We had bonfires for 3 days this last week and got rid of lots of branches and roots that were dug up, there was about two weeks of dry weather which helped things along great.

Taipan and my Ausie mate Mark

I have my Aussie mate Mark visiting this week, his Mum died last week so he is across for the funeral in England and came to visit us here for a week before she is released after a post mortem.

Mark was telling me he was bitten by a Taipan snake earlier in the year, he was really lucky as the snake did not inject him with venom and also the one that bit him was the slightly less venomous cousin of the Inland Taipan which is the worlds most venomous snake, the coastal Taipan ranks third in the world. Its venom contains primarily taicatoxin, a highly potent neurotoxin affecting the nervous system and the blood’s ability to clot. Bite victims may experience headache, nausea/vomiting, collapse, convulsions, paralysis, internal bleeding, myolysis (destruction of muscle tissue) and kidney damage. In case of severe envenomation, death can occur as early as 30 minutes after being bitten, but average death time after a bite is around 2.5 hours and it is variable, depending on various factors such as the nature of the bite and the health state of the victim. Untreated bites have a mortality rate of 100% as it always delivers a fatal dose of venom, so seek immediate medical attention even for apparently minor bites. Before the introduction of specific antivenom by the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories in 1956, nearly all bites were fatal.

We have had a couple of nights out since he has been here, I won at poker on the first night (thats four second places and one first in the five times I have played in this particular venue :) ) then we went on to a sesun at another pub and enjoyed the live music. Last night his girlfriend stayed over and we had dinner a few drinks and popped down the road for one before coming back and watching movies. 

My Yankee helper is staying the weekend in Galway with his girl and will be back on Tuesday so I am hoping the cold dry spell that we have today lasts for a good few days, the forecast is good. My diet has kind of stalled due to beer but I am still off the bread and dairy products. I have lost about six kg and hope to lose 10 more before Paddy and Emma's wedding, so I can get the kilt on easier.  I will have to start thinking about a speech as I am the best man at the wedding. 

World darts championship

Just been watching the darts over the holidays and they were brilliant, Gary Anderson from Scotland ended up beating the 16 time world champ Phil Taylor in a nail biting final. At one point Gary had three darts fall out of the treble 20 all at once https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DRuMitbYWDg In the match there were 31, 180,s which is a record too and that's not counting the one that fell out. Even Angie has been glued to the TV over the last 5 days or so and she hates darts.

My helper didn't arrive today it looks like Thursday before he will be here. I have an appointment to see a Ortho something about my left anckle which has tendinitis now on Thursday as well in galway and aim to get some tiles for the laundry floor when I,m in the town. The ford needs its NCT on Wednesday, hopefully it will go through ok as it only has 84,000 on the clock and no dramas.

2 inches on my belt size

Well the last couple of weeks with little exercise and lots of grub has seen the belt go out two notches and I'm about the same size as I was when working at Baystar and eating Effie burgers and chups on nightshift all the time. Its a shame as the Dr had commented on the weight I had lost since he saw me last when he saw me prior to Christmas anyway its a good excuse to go on a diet as I have a wedding coming up in May and have been asked to be best man and I need the kilt to fit better, at the moment its at maximum extension and not comfortable.

The weather has been alternating between lovely and dreich, today was lovely. My next helper arrives on Monday and I shall be back into the manual work again which should knock kilos off. I,m going to borrow the excavator again and level off an area for the poly tunnel, other jobs it will be handy for are dredging the pond and making a rockery out of a fallen wall down past the pond.

There is a full moon tonight rising at the same time as the sun is setting wish we got more of this weather here but I suppose I shouldn't whinge as we dont have bush fires threatening the house, thoughts go out to all the folks in the Adelaide hills and Victoria who have lost their homes in the last couple of days in the worst bush fires in 30 years.