New Year 2025

I had enjoyed my time away but it was good to be home. After collecting my luggage I headed to the exit and ordered an Uber.  The driver had very little English which was frustrating when he couldn’t find me so I called him to explain where I was.  He had only been in Australia for 3 years and I’m sure he hadn’t mixed with many Australians.  Arriving home I was very disappointed to see that one of the lounge side tables and some of my mats had been left at the front door by Steve the painter.  And although most of the ceilings looked great there was a patch throughout the house that had already started to bubble again.  Praise the Lord, Steve told Kath he would be back to fix these.  He later told me it had been very challenging as every time he painted there would be large areas that would start to blister.  He would scrape these back, patch them then return the next day to repaint them.  He also told me he had needed to vacuum the house three times.  The first time it had looked like a snow storm had hit the place!  Before he returned I marked with a pencil where it had started to bubble again, this made it easy to find and patch them.  Even so it took a while to scrap, fill and sand them back before repainting. Before leaving Steve suggested I contact him in six months just to check that it doesn’t need more patching up.  Wow!  What service.

I dumped my bags indoors, opened up all the windows as it was a bit stuffy, checked the refrigerator and headed to the shops to get a few things for the morning. I wanted to push myself to stay up so that I could readjust my body clock to AWST, three hours behind AEST. There was quite a bit to do which stretched my time out to 9pm. I still took something to help me stay asleep. I fell asleep exhausted but still woke at 3am unable to sleep again. I eventually got out of bed at 4:45am when it was light enough to go jogging.  What a lovely time of the day to get out even before the sun comes up over the horizon. There was no one else about except the birds. I was back down at Hamersley Pool for an early morning dip, catching up with some of the regulars before returning home to water the native plants I had planted in Matt’s garden, which I was delighted to see had survived the heat.

Then there was a list of things to do around house and garden including wiping every surface in the house to remove the paint dust. There were little paint flakes everywhere, on window sills and counter tops, in corners and on the floors.  It was hard to believe it had been vacuumed three times! Things needed to be done in the garden too. Most of my plants survived the 40 degree heat while I was away although many had burnt leaves.  My beautiful avocado sapling was one that was quite scorched and needed moving to a shadier spot.  Due to having my reticulation running through an app, I was able to turn them on while I was away for a short burst during the very early mornings of those scorching days just to prepare the plants for the heat.  This of course kept the saucers under pots full of water.  The saucers were there to help stop the plants from drying out but were now full of mosquito wrigglers.  These I fed to the fish who enjoyed their succulent treat. Some plants needed repotting or just drying out and moving to a sunnier spot. Many of my fig cuttings hadn’t survived.

One morning as I returned from my jog I could hear water gushing. It was coming from my reticulation which had, praise God, only just come on as I arrived home.  One of the plastic irrigation clasps from around a join had snapped. It was easily fixed but I needed to go to Bunnings to get a metal pipe clasp to avoid it happening again.  I also tidied up the grape vine, tying the very long tendrils back over the pergola.  The current grapes which I had bagged up before leaving had been raided. I wasn’t sure if it was the rats or the birds.  If birds, then my bird deterrent dingle dangles weren’t working.  If rats then maybe the ultrasonic rat repeller didn’t reach that area.  Some of my neighbours also complained of rats and had put rat baits out. I could see they had eaten one of the fallen pawpaw too.

Since having lost two bunches of bananas in previous years due to the palm leaves being shredded by the winds, I had been looking to get a dwarf banana palm.  They usually only grow two meters which is below my fence line and, God willing, would more sheltered from the prevailing winds.  I couldn’t believe it when I saw my favourite bananas, the sugar banana, on a gardening group here in Perth.  Oh, yes, please I’ll have one of those!  I called Bunnings to see if they had any in stock and was delighted to know they did.  I asked if one could be put aside for me and picked it up that very day.  As I already have two maturing pups and a palm that is about two years old which should produce bananas this year or next, so I decided to grow my new Dwarf Musa Ducasse in a pot. I’ve started with a medium size self-watering pot full of rich compost and potting mix, putting it in semi shade to get it hardened/adapted to sunshine as Bunnings usually keeps them well sheltered.  I also called into the community garden where I knew they had a few bigger pots and absconded with the largest I could find.  I will probably need to repot the palm in a year’s time but this larger pot should last me three years at least which is hopefully enough time for the other palms to mature and produce fruit before I cut them down.  Any pups that grew during this time I hope to dig out and plant at the bottom of our communal driveway where they would also be well sheltered from the winds. 

Oh I have some exciting news!  Do you remember me mentioning the wrist support I had ordered online?  Well, neither Jen nor I were able to sell it through marketplace.  So as I was visiting my lovely doctor on my return I decided to take the wrist brace with me and see if she was able to use it for a patient.  What an answer to prayer.  She did want it and what’s more paid me for it! She gave me more that it was worth as she didn’t have any change and nor did I.  I felt so blessed.  In exchange I gave her a packet of freeze dried durian which I had taken in for her to try.  I had been given this by Kath my neighbour on her return from Malaysia.  She gratefully accepted it saying her mother would love it too.  God is truly awesome!

Not long after I got back I remembered to check my letterbox and found two Christmas cards.  One was from my sister, Tricia, the other was addressed to me but had was not written in.  Hmmm I wonder who had sent it?   The other was a $50 gift card I had ordered from one of the surveys I do online.  The following day I noticed mine and number 4 letterbox had been broken into.  How gracious of the Lord to remind me to check the day before!  Had I not checked I would not have known the gift card had arrived and would have still been waiting for it!  Thank you Jesus!

The weather is so much warmer over here than Victoria.  I’m enjoying getting up at the crack of dawn for my jog, to beat the sun’s scorching rays, then down the beach by 6am for a quick cool dip.  On my return home I usually manage to get some gardening done before hibernating in doors from around 10am.  As long as I open up all the doors and windows overnight and close everything as the cool morning air warms up, the house stays reasonably cool for the rest of the day.  If it’s been a scorcher I’ll turn on the air conditioning for an hour or so in the evening then open everything up again before I go to bed.  Thank God for ceiling fans, they are such a blessing especially on the still nights when there’s no breeze.  Before the blistering hot days I put disposable cups over my citrus fruit, which is still so small, to stop them getting sunburnt.

As my currant grapes had begun to ripen I noticed they were beginning to disappear!  I quickly brought out the netting, covering both top and bottom of the vine which was quite difficult.  The underneath I pulled some of the netting together attaching it with pegs after noticing a bird was still getting in!  Since then I’ve been able to pick some lovely bunches to share around although about a week later it was happening again!  I had bought some SCAT spray which is supposed to deter all sorts of pesky critters from eating our fruits but it didn’t work as well as I’d hoped.  It was around this time I was woken during the night (yes! Who would dare wake me?) by the rustling of leaves and squeaks. I peered out the window to see two very large rats running along the top of my fence and down into the garden.  OH! NO! NOT RATS again! I’m not really sure if the devices I’ve set up in the other parts of the garden have kept them away from the pears and figs (not yet ripe) but now I was sure the grapes too were being eaten by the rats as the net had large holes eaten in them!   Ok this was serious business! I set up a few rat baits around my garden and in Ann’s as I’m thinking this is where they went.  I also sprayed under the lime tree where I had heard them with SCAT hoping this would stop them rustling the leaves and waking me up.  I’m not sure if it helped as two nights later I heard them again plus the rat baits which had been out about 5 days had not been touched!  Oh dear what now?  I took the net off the current grapes and noticed so many of the bunches had been stripped bare! I cut off what was salvageable for consumption and left the rest for the birds which I know also enjoy them.  It was then I noticed one of the rat baits had disappeared.  Good!  I then relocated the others hoping this would eliminate them all before my figs and pears ripened and to save the rest of my white grapes.

Two huge bunches of white grapes had been attacked with huge holes in their individual bags.  This was definitely the work of rats!  I removed the affected bunches and sprayed the rest with SCAT hoping that would deter whatever was eating them and that the repositioned baits would be eaten by the rats instead of the grapes.  Neither worked.  They were still eating the grapes and the baits were not touched.  I made up a special batch of poison mixed with peanut butter, oats and sugar.  This didn’t work either!  A few days later Lian, from our community garden, suggested I try Ratex which is a First Generation poison which means if something eats the rat they will not be harmed.  She gave me some to try while I waited for my online order as the mixture I made still wasn’t touched.  I made sure the poisoned seed was not in reach of the birds or bobtails but accessible to the rats, and waited.  It wasn’t touched either!  But one of my old baits was and a few days later I found a half eaten rat near our letterboxes.  Praise the Lord it was bin day so wouldn’t stink out our bins. A few days later I found another one, wrapped it in plastic and froze it before discarding it in a public bin which was emptied regularly.

My neighbour Matt has been complaining that the rats have been eating his vegetables so he has put baits out too but I don’t think they have helped.  This also concerned me as I know the bobtails will often eat the rat carcases ingesting the poison.  Which reminds me I haven’t seen any of the bobtail family since my return. I do hope they are ok.

Matt also asked me to water his garden while his was away for two weeks. I was quite surprised but also pleased as this meant that he has begun to trust me.  Then before he left he brought me over a huge battery pack!  I jokingly asked him if he was trying to bribe me.  He said no it was to give me incentive to do a good job.  We both laughed. I told him I didn’t need anything but he insisted I keep it.  Thank you Lord.  I charged it up to keep on standby for those days when the power might go off.

Watering Matt’s garden I noticed that although he had pilled it full of coffee grinds to improve the soil, it hadn’t been dug in and instead had formed a thick solid, impenetrable layer above the soil.  Coffee grinds really need to be dug in well if they are to help with soil health.  Coffee is also very oily which if left on the surface of the soil, makes it hydrophobic.  It puzzled me that Matt hadn’t noticed why the water was just running off the surface of the soil and plant were struggling to survive which meant he needed to water every day!  While I had the chance I decide to dig and turn in the coffee grinds as much as possible then added a soil wetting agent.  Besides this I also made little trenches around the plants so that the water would pool and soak into the root area. I mentioned this to Matt on his return and was told he had dug it in but it needed to be done regularly.  I wondered why he hadn’t done it before he left so I didn’t need to do it!   Not to worry, this time had been a great opportunity for me to make some improvements in Matt’s garden.

As some of you might remember I mentioned in a previous blog that I have applied to do an IT course in web design this coming term.  There was a bit of preparation for it before going, including applying for a new parking permit plus finding out what my timetable was.  I was very disappointed to know my study days were all Monday and Tuesday.  This meant missing out on my Church activities on those mornings.  I also had an online class Monday evening from 6:30 – 8:30pm which is not what I wanted!  I don’t mind doing work from home but I don’t appreciate it being in the evenings when I’m unwinding so I can sleep well.  I sent off an email to TAFE and to my lecturer to see if I can do this class at a different time.  I’m also hoping I can do one term and then come back to complete the course in term 4 when I return from my winter escape.  I’ll know more when the lecturer comes off leave on the 28^th January.

It has been lovely getting back into some of my old routines, early morning jogging, exercises and a swim before the day begins, helping out with the coffees Sunday mornings and visiting the community garden which has provided me with some of its produce. Other members have not been picking all the zucchini and a couple grew very large.  I thought I’d try to cook them and made stuffed zucchini which was delicious, only the skin couldn’t be eaten as it was very tough.

The Community Garden has been quiet over the Christmas break except for the faithful waters.  Although we did have a local Member of Parliament come to visit saying he would like to give a grant towards the garden which we of course wouldn’t refuse.  On another day I went to Bunnings, with Alan from the community garden, to buy some plants for our busy bee.  It was very strange coming home empty handed, nothing for my garden.  The Busy Bee was a success as we cleaned out some of the old produce which was no longer producing and replaced it with a variety of other plants. I had suggested we plant some Rhubarb, asparagus and Artichoke which will hopefully produce every year.  Our biggest challenge was the 40 degree heat that was predicted that coming week!  I had brought down some of my spare shade cloth which we tied up over some of the wicking beds suspended on stakes and across a ground bed with the stakes horizontal raise on brick blocks to hold it above the plants. Perth hot, dry summers with strong salty winds are quite a challenge when planting along the coast.  A week later most had survived, praise the Lord!

On visiting Lian, to pick up the rat poison, I was shown around her garden.  Wow! She had over six varieties of bananas, three chooks and a heap of other fruit trees as well as a vegetable patch!  I was impressed.  She also offered me one of her banana pups, which I’m hoping to plant at the bottom of our complex in the garden surrounding our communal carpark.  This is a better place for them to grow as its well sheltered from the winds and gets plenty of winter sun too. Anyway there is no room in my garden.  I re-potted it, to be planted once it is bigger, stronger and the weather is cooler.

I have also been working on the community garden website designing more pages; Gallery, with pictures of the history from its birth and on-going growth; Grow: which has the Noongar Seasons and what flowers and vegetables to grow in the different seasons.  This is also where I have put the native plants I have covered in each newsletter and will also put information about other things needed to help grow a productive garden. It’s been quite fun but also challenging as I’ve had to try to remember how to do things.  I’m hoping TAFE will expand this knowledge.

Photos:  1. Bush Lily (Clivia Amaryllideaceae)    2. Ghost Gum along my jogging track    3. Two new banana pups    4. Citrus with sun hats and leaf miner traps    5. Currant grapes    6. Not quite ripe white table grapes rescued from rats    7. First figs from John’s graft in 2023    8. MP visits our community garden    9. Community Garden Busy Bee

Prayer & Praise Points:

I praise God for my safe trip home from Victoria and to my quick adjustment back home.

Praise Him for helpful neighbours who look after my garden while I’m away, especially in the 40 degrees heat.

Praise the Lord for the lovely weather on my return home.  I’m so blessed living were I am with the ability to access beach and bush.

Pray for my sister, Kat, in Japan where she is learning Kintsugi. Broken pottery repaired by filling the cracks with gold lacquer.

Please continue to pray for Gayle’s health, she is her in WA staying with me and also visiting friends in Geraldton. Please pray that she has a lovely time while she is here.

Please continue to pray for Anthony Higgs; and Elsie as they continue their journey of faith and healing. Believe with me for the Lord’s intervention and total healing for all of them.  Please hold up Ross Winchesters family who are grieving over the loss of Ross who departed to meet his Saviour on the 26th January.

Continue to pray with me for lasting peace in the Middle East, Ukraine and Russia, and all countries dealing with major disasters, fires, wars and the unbelievable hardships they cause.  Pray for all those caught up in the suffering these events have caused.  Pray that God’s peace may be known by all people especially for those who live in despair, that they will find hope in Christ Jesus.

Please keep my sisters, Tricia, Jen and Kat, in your prayers.  Pray that they will come to know the love of Jesus.