From this

To this      

In just over four weeks.

I am amazed at how quickly things have grown and flowered! Here in Tassie, where we haven’t had much of a summer – so far. It’s been wet and humid, most un-Tassie like and some evenings have been almost too warm. But I’m not going to complain, it’s to be expected, all the changes, and they’re certainly not life-threatening.

It’s hard to believe that it’s 2011. Why do the years go quicker as you get older? It doesn’t seem fair. To my horror I find myself remembering occasions that happened in my childhood much better than what happened yesterday. That is only supposed to happen to “old” people. Have I reached that stage? I look in the mirror and yes, there seems to be a lot more of me than there used to be; the blonde hair is almost all grown out and white/grey is taking its place; even my teeth look different! There’s always dirt under my fingernails now as I spend so much time in the garden (compared to when I went out to work – for cash) and my feet aren’t much better. I’m not sure that all of this is a good thing but I’m happy to say that if I take my glasses off when I look in the mirror I still look pretty good. That’s the secret, keep the glasses off.

I know that I’m not the only one who has said that everything fruit/veggie like is late growing this year. We had some amazing sunshine last weekend, along with scary winds, and all of a sudden the plums are turning purple. They’ve just been hanging, green-like, for eons!

Naturally, the zucchini has taken off and tonight we’re even having it on our pizza. I put a second zucchini plant in just for the girls (chooks) and to reward me two of them have gone to moult so I only have one egg a day at the moment! There seems to be more feathers than straw in the hen house at the moment. Lulu also decided that she might have a second go at broodiness but I was ready for her this time and moved her and her one egg straight away and she was over it in a couple of days.

The dome we put over the olive tree seems to be working so far. I can see little specks of brown appearing where the flowers used to be but ssshhh don’t tell the birds. Mind you, they seem to be busy enough pecking away at the pear tree, and the plums which split with the rain.

I was very excited yesterday as I could see chestnuts on my very neglected chestnut tree, for the first time. So do I continue with the neglect or do I start to pamper and croon to it? Somehow I think neglect might be the answer to that one. I feel that I need to explain the neglect. When M and I moved in together, two years ago, I decided to rent my little house out to a single mum with two kids. I call it my superannuation. Now this young woman is an obsessive compulsive, with regards to cleaning the house, but not gardening. Hence the neglect. Yesterday M and I took ourselves around there to clear fallen trees and brush cut all the tall weeds and I’m sorry to say, the front garden. That’s when I saw the chestnuts. When I moved into this little house I planted over forty trees, there’s a lot more land than there is house, and in the last two years, despite the neglect, they have grown into a forest and it’s just beautiful. Most of the trees were given to me as tiny saplings and wow, I’ve certainly offset my carbon footprint for the next five years or so! 

But back to me. This year I have to lose weight. I took myself off to the doctor at the beginning of the year as my foot was hurting – big time. So I have Plantar Fasciitis, otherwise known as “Policeman’s Heel”. M says that it must be genetic as my Dad was a copper in England! All I know is that if I take off 10 kilos ( I’d like to say 20 but let’s get real) it ain’t going to hurt as much! The doctor says it can last for up to two years and I refuse to take painkillers for that long. So the belly has to go! (She said as she finished her glass of red wine and nothing said about the pizza later!).

So now I’ve made that public I really have to do something about it. It’s tricky as I can’t walk for exercise and the Doc says even the exercise bike is out. So for the time being it’s going to have to be what I put into my mouth, or not put into my mouth that will make the difference. I’m so  glad that I ate all the Scottish tablet (fudge) that my friend gave me before I went to the Doctors. But if you excuse me – I have to go plant some more lettuces………..

Jan