Autumn 2021

During our very hot days on the approach of Easter, I did a letterbox drop of flyers the church had made to invite people to our Easter services. I started in the streets around home then rallied our outreach team to help distribute them in a large area of Trigg and west of Charles Riley Park. There were four of us, so I mapped out the area with coloured pencils so we would all have different streets and would not overlap each other.  I couldn’t believe at the end of our time I had covered over 5 km!  As I had walked from home, I asked if I could please be dropped off at the Hillarys Marina, where I could buy my favourite hazelnut ice cream.  I then waited for the bus home.  I thought all buses coming south would take me south but oh no I got on the wrong bus.  It went south alright but then turned east and eventually north to Warwick train station.  By now I was exhausted and a long way from home.  The next bus was over 20mins wait.  As I waited I sent an SMS to Glenda who lives close by.  She received my SOS and very kindly picked me up and drove me home arriving just after 7:30pm. You would think after all that walking I’d sleep well, but oh no! Not me!  I had been sleeping really well for about a week and thought it was possibly the prebiotics that were helping but then my hopes were once again dashed!  After finally getting back to sleep after 4:30am (I knew as I heard the reticulation coming on), I woke again at 7am feeling drained and exhausted.  Still it was Sunday, so no rush, as I wasn’t needed at church till 9:30am to help out with barista duty.

Sunday afternoon I vegged out watching recorded programs on TV till the bread run at 4:15pm then I totally forgot I had arranged to get my Guardianship and Health Directives signed at 5pm so another rush. I wasn’t the only one who forgot as my friend Sarah who also needed to sign the papers had been busy marking school papers and had also forgotten.  I felt good to finally have the Advance Health Directives completed.  Now signed by a JP, I could hand over a copy to my GP so that they will be ready if or when they are needed.

On chatting to a neighbour across the road about my rat problem, he offered to lend me his rat traps.  After putting the poison traps out I had caught one large rat but it seemed the capsicums were still being eaten, so I set these new traps up that night.  I put them up high during the day as I didn’t want my skink family accidently getting trapped.  The first night I put a leftover half eaten fig on one trap and a piece of apple on the other.  In the morning they were both still intact and covered with ants.  The following night I put peanut butter on the apple and tried again, this time with the traps in a dustbin lid of water to keep the ants at bay.  Still no results.  I checked the fig tree, the wax bait was as it had been a few days back.  Maybe the rats hadn’t survived the baits.  The third night I didn’t bother putting out the trap and picked the ripening figs.  Praise God for what was left on the tree. They are delicious!

Another challenge I faced is with patches of my garden which look fallow but in fact have latent life beneath the surface.  Around the edge of the path leading to my patio area I have planted a border of jonquil bulbs, but because you can’t see them, friends have been stepping on this part of the garden to admire my fish.  I have pavers to define the perimeter but people seem to ignore these stepping stones and prefer to stand on the woodchip which is over the bulbs.  My concern is with too much foot traffic the earth will become compacted causing difficulty for the bulbs to emerge in the spring or worse still be trampled as they start to emerge.  Then as per usually inspiration came during the wakeful night hours.  I would put in some light ground cover.  This will highlight the need to tread elsewhere, protect the bulbs plus have the benefit of looking beautiful. I found three suitable plants, creeping thyme, white thyme and oregano seeds, which are being sent to me from a lady on facebook who has an abundance of seeds  I dug the potted thyme into areas, carefully avoiding where the bulbs were so they wouldn’t be disturbed. Now I wait in anticipation to see if it will work. I also bought a pot of mint corsican, which I thought could also go here, but after reading the label, I realised it wouldn’t survive in full summer sun, so planted it below the pomegranate tree, hoping the minty smell will deter the slugs and mealy bugs.

The new fountain pond is holding water well.  The fountain only comes on when the sun is catching the solar panel, which means the mosquitos are loving a new nursery for their wrigglers.  Since the English water cress had died off there has been an infestation of mosquito larvae.  My first thought was ‘Oh boy the fish are going to love these’.  It gives me great pleasure watching them jostle around snapping them up as I drop them into their ponds.  In the duckweed pond the little minnows come up to the window where I can watch them.  On close observation it looks like one might be pregnant.  I do hope so.  One definitely looks like a male showing off his bright red fin and dorsal spot.  There are two smaller ones and one very large bellied one which I’m hoping is due to carrying eggs.  If so, I do hope she will find enough weed cover for the eggs and little hatchlings to hide in, as I’m told these fish will eat their offspring.  I think one of the Rosie Barbs in the urn is a male too as he is definitely getting very showy with longer tail and fins.

Another gardening job that needed to be done this month was planting the bluebell bulbs which I had dug out of a pot last season.  I put some into the ground and others into two larger pots as there are so many of them. I think they would look beautiful in the top garden along the pathway and beside the fig tree, as well as a few around the fish pond behind the jonquils and where the new thyme ground cover can protect them.

I removed the Milfoil pond weed from the lily pond as it overgrew everything, I have replaced it with Nardoo, an Australian native surface pond weed which Glenda gave me in exchange for the Milfoil which is happily growing in her pond.  Another challenge that seems to keep coming back is an infestation of the fluffy white aphids.  They have attacked the succulents and now the Bacopa Caroliniana, which is a beautiful water plant that was growing prolifically beside the lily pond.  First I removed it with its pot and soaked it under water, which doesn’t hurt the plant but hopefully will drown the aphids.  I then sprayed them with a diluted solution of dishwashing liquid and water which seems to have done the trick.  In the meantime I will keep them away from other plants, treat them regularly and try to keep the ants away, as they nurture the aphids which secrete a honey sweet sap which the ants harvest.

This month there was a rather sensitive issue I needed to address where I had been emotionally hurt by someone and needed to address the matter.  After much prayer, I bit the bullet so to say and faced my fears.  I believe if you have been offended or hurt, in many cases it’s best to speak to the one who caused the offence so that you can try to work things out.   It’s no good stewing over what has happened or holding a grudge, as often the person doesn’t even know you are hurting.  It’s much better to forgive, allow the Lord to heal your heart and move on, learning from the situation.  It took a lot of courage for me to approach the person but I’m glad I did.  We talked through a few things before I addressed my hurts.  There was an apology and a time of prayer, leaving me at peace and able to move on.

My friend Emma gave me a call towards the end of the month to ask if I wanted to join her on a drive south to pick up some furniture for her new home.  I was delighted to have been asked.  She picked me up at 9:30am Thursday morning so as to avoid the morning traffic.  Before we left, I showed her the drawing I was working on and asked her if she recognised the portrait.   She said the person looked very familiar.  I said I hope so cos it was her!  We laughed.  It was a lovely time of chatting as we drove south to pick up the furniture she had ordered.  Then a quick stop off at Bunnings just because it was there and I wanted another creeping thyme for my pond border.  We were in the right place at the right time as one of the workers was coming out of the staffroom with a tray of cupcakes and other delights.  I jokingly said ‘Oh how nice of you, you really shouldn’t have’.   We were very surprised when he stopped and offered us one. Of course we couldn’t refuse a chocolate cupcake! We later stopped for a coffee before heading home via Fremantle where Emma wanted to show me the Gesha Coffee Co shop.  En route we passed a familiar street reminding me of the Copper Chimney Indian Restaurant which I had invited her to once before but she was busy.  We laughed as she pointed out I had missed her hinting earlier about lunch here when she mentioned we were coming to Fremantle.  As it was nearly 1pm we decided it was the perfect time to stop for lunch. The lovely proprietor recognised me and came over for a chat, saying it was difficult to get workers as the overseas students who used to help out with different shifts were no longer around due to Covid restrictions.  Emma noticed their Christian music and posters, which is very unusual for an Indian owned and operated restaurant.

As the weather cooled, I started taking off the shade cloth from the pergolas.  This will make it easier for me to rearrange the wisteria branches once the leaves have dropped.  It will also enable me to see where to cut back the grape vine which has done a great job of growing across the whole pergola, shading the patio area.  I do hope next year I will no longer need the shade cloth as it will be rather difficult putting it on with both the wisteria and grape growing above and below the pergola.

The last Saturday in March I thought I’d had my last swim for the season, but then the weather changed again with another warm spell.  Without the winds, even the cooler weather isn’t too cold for a swim.  Back from the beach, I was working in the garden when my neighbour Jess wandered over.  She asked if I wanted to join her to take a look around the Trigg markets.  I had no idea there were markets at Trigg, so was interested to find out more.  She was going to take a taxi down as parking was difficult but I said I’d drive, even though we might have a bit of a walk, then I remembered a friend, Dorothea, who lives just near there.  We called in to ask if we could park on her driveway.  She had already been down To the markets so didn’t join us.  The weather was a glorious autumn day. There were lots of little stalls selling all the usual market place items; clothes, jewellery, candles etc, as well as food and coffee, although the eateries had very long lines queuing up for their wares.  We wandered around, calling in to stalls when something caught our eye.  I chatted to a woman who does line drawing as well as painting.  It inspired me to continue with mine. As we were about to leave, Jess decided she wanted some freshly cooked donuts.  I left her in the queue, saying I’d meet her back at Dorothea’s.  I waited over an hour, tried to call her, left her a message and then drove home.  I’d just got in when she called to say she had been held up.  I drove back to pick her up and together we went on to get a few things for my garden from Bunnings. It was a fun day together.

For months now I have been waiting for my tropical pears to ripen on the tree.  I read that they should be picked when they start to turn golden.  As this was my first year of fruit, I had no idea what size, colour or shape tropical pears looked like.  I looked up on google how to test when they were ripe and read that if they fall off in your hand when you lift or slightly twist them then they are ripe, but not to leave them to ripen on the tree as they tend to become floury, something I don’t want.  So I tried a gentle twist on one and it fell off in my hand but even after leaving it several days it wasn’t ripe.  The second pear I left for a few more weeks, then tried an even gentler lift.  It too fell off but again wasn’t ripe.  I left the last one for much longer, in fact over a month.  It had grown huge, had definitely change colour and looked ripe.  This Gigantic pear, nearly twice the size of a normal pear was crunchy with flesh and taste not dissimilar to the nashi pear.

Photos:   1. Hoya flowers    2. Bowl of figs    3. Pond and fountain area    4. Hoya growing on carport wall    5. Prayer for my meeting    6. Lunch with Emma    7. Trigg markets    8. Jumbo Pear

Prayer & Praise Points:
Praise the Lord for the roll out of the Covid vaccines throughout the world.  Please pray that it will help to lessen the spread.

Please continue to pray that Covid within Australia will be controlled.

Pray with me that my trip to QLD will not be hindered by a lockdown or restricted travel as I join Jen on a road trip to catch up with Kat in Cairns.

I pray this Easter more people will come to know the reasons for the Lord’s sacrifice and for His love and grace during this special time of celebrations.