Spring 2022

Spring has arrived with some lovely warm weather, although we have still had some rainy days which I appreciate for my garden.  As early as the 4^th September I had my first swim for the season.  The morning started calm, no wind and surprisingly not too cold. I’d been out jogging so I had warmed up and decided as it wasn’t windy to go for my first dip.  There was someone else getting out just as I arrived at the steps down to the beach.  She reassured me it was lovely in, so I proceeded with caution; their ‘lovely in’ is not always mine!  The water was very cold but I pushed through and plunged under.  It was icy! I mean really, really cold!  I could feel the freeze starting in my feet and working its way up my legs. I kicked madly trying to encourage circulation, determined I was going to stay in.  Another guy joined me, which was a bit of encouragement as I thought if I cramped up, he might be able to drag me to the shore.  Ok, enough is enough!  After 10mins of splashing around, I was out.  Yes, very invigorating but was it worth it?  Two days later I was wanting to go again, but then the wind came up so I chickened out. But a week later I was back in and have since continued to take the plunge when there has been no wind or rain.  One of the early morning swimmers said the water was getting warmer; I described it as warm as an ice bath!

In my last update I mentioned a broken mains water pipe.  We have had two more incidents in our street since then.  The first was connected to the original burst main’s water, when a bobcat cleaning up drove over a reticulation pipe, which originated from a slow seep to become a gushing fountain, due to not been attended to for over a week!  The other was on a construction site where the main’s pipe was cracked and eventually became a small lake due to lack of essential emergency workers to fix it.  Praise God both are now fixed.

This also led to my first conversation with the neighbour who hasn’t been talking to me.  I greeted him as he was leaving and I was returning from my jog.  I was surprised when he turned around and asked if I had had water problems that night. I asked what time, which led to a conversation on what he had experienced and with me mentioning that there had been some maintenance on the main water pipes which may have caused the problem.  What a break through!  God is certainly making a way where there had previously been no way of breaking down the barriers.  Thank you Jesus!  Mind you, he hasn’t spoken to me since!  But it was a start.

My long list of things to do has slowly been ticked off, which of course includes a heap of things around the garden.  I finally got to the seeds my friend Natalie had given me last year.  I’m not very good with propagating seeds, so I decided to buy and construct a mini greenhouse. I’m hoping this will help prevent them from drying out and also keep the slugs and bugs off them.  I was going to adapt the micro sprays, as it only sprays the top shelf and there are 5 shelves!  I’m not sure how they expect the seedlings on the lower shelves to be watered?  In the end I couldn’t be bothered fiddling around and decided I’d use a spray bottle instead.  I now have three trays of nine different seeds, last year’s TAFE air layering propagation and a tray of grape and fig cuttings. I’m also trying to grow a persimmon and dates from seed, and lemongrass from the roots of the plants I thinned out.  I’m hoping the community garden I’m involved with will take some of those which survive once they have matured.

The large acacia which just grew in my garden from seed has a very insignificant flower and is kind of taking over one patch of my garden.  I have left it till now as it was acting as a windbreak for my avocado trees (only one of which has survived). I’ve been trimming back the upper-most branches to keep it low but now it has started to grow over the grevilleas in my front garden.  Time for another severe prune.  I trimmed it back, then using my neighbour’s chainsaw, lopped off two large branches. This really let the light in and made a large hole in my privacy hedge!  Till the grevillea has time to grow into this space I decided to plant a native wedding bush or bridal star, Ricinocarpus. Then the last cockies tongue (Templetonia retusa) I’d grown from seed was put in the same area to bush things out and give a bit of consistency in the verge garden which now has four plants and one in my neighbours garden, which I planted two years ago and is still surviving, even though I’m not permitted to care for it.  Along the driveway I planted two more Boronia crenulated “Pink Passion”, filling in a spot where I dug up one of the Kangaroo Paws and continue to dig out the onion grass.  I’m praying I’m on top of them now.

This year I have piled on the compost, worm droppings and straw with pine chips (acid to balance out the alkaline soils) around my citrus which did so poorly last year, with the hope they do better this year. The lime is once again covered in flowers, now I just have to get them to set!  I’ve even started pollinating the lime and pear with a paintbrush as last year many new fruits fell off.  I was told it may be because they are not getting pollinated.  There are plenty of bees buzzing around so I’m not sure if that is really the reason or just poor soil!

The lemon tree, which was given to me by neighbours and grows in a large pot, has had five lovely lemons, which I have used in making Chinese pickled lemons, which I love with a curry.  I’ve also pruned my neighbour’s lemon tree as it was getting a bit out of control, lemons beyond reach. It’s nice to have a bit of knowledge to be able to help others.

Once the potato plants had died back, I emptied the good soil into the area where the new pond is, collecting 2 large, 5 medium and 5 small potatoes to be eaten fresh. They did better than I expected as I’ve never really had much success with growing potatoes.

Friends have also been asking me to help them with their gardens.  My neighbour has pulled out her little pond and asked what she should put there instead.  We talked about a rockery and what plants would do well there.  The following day she bought a fountain instead, but still with ideas of putting plants around the base. The old fish pond she was throwing out is now in my raised garden bed ready to be transformed into a new frog pond.  What am I doing?! Do I really want the racket of frogs keeping me awake at night!  Hmmm maybe I should rethink this plan!

A few days later this same neighbour offered to take me to her son’s home in the Perth foothills where I could collect some coffee rocks to use around my new pond. Looks like the decision has been made for me!  We went together, loading the back of her SUV with different sized rocks and stones.  Her daughter-in-law also showed me around the property with all the wildflowers in bloom.  It took me back to the days when I wanted to have a small self-sufficient block with a few animals, vegies and orchard.  I praise the Lord He lead me down a different path as it would be far too much for me to manage now.

That afternoon I fiddled around arranging and rearranging rocks around the pond till I was satisfied with the arrangement. Between some of the rocks, pond and wall I placed plastic containers into which I planted water plants taken from dividing up those around the other ponds in my garden.  Just a few more plants to buy and it should be complete.  My friend Joe, from TAFE, asked if I wanted a gold fish, which I think would be a lovely addition to this new pond. It will definitely need mesh over it now to keep predators out!

Another friend showed me what she had done at her place and asked what other plants she could use.  I noticed one of the limes she had put in had two very heathy suckers coming from under the graft. I advised her to remove them if she wanted the grafted lime to survive and explained why.  Then with permission, removed the two very large suckers.  Both had lush green foliage which smelt very different to the spindly growth of the grafted lime.  A few weeks later I returned to see the grafted shoot had lots of new growth, some further down the stem which I also removed to encourage the energy into the main leading shoot.

The Council’s new Woman’s Shed was holding three days of free seminars on legal matters.  I went along to two of the seminars, which included Advanced Heath Directives, Wills and Enduring Power of Attorney.  I have all of these in place, but when I spoke to my sister Jen, she mentioned there were a few changes which needed to be looked into.  I’m glad I attended as I’m now going to redo them all afresh.

I finally got to the mushroom workshop which I had missed the first time due to being unwell.  It was a very interesting session on how to grow mushrooms, followed by a workshop where we added a cup of grain spawn to our sugar-mulch, which we could take home, and ending with a tasting of some of the Oyster mushrooms and the Lions Mane mushroom which I hadn’t tasted before.  One of the TAFE students was there too.  After the session I decided it really wasn’t for me.  I contacted Natalie, who said she would buy my bag of spawn from me.  At least I had the mushroom grow bag that we prepared at the workshop, this I hope should give me a small crop and if it grows well maybe even two crops.

One Sunday afternoon I caught up with some of last semester’s TAFE students for a picnic. It was a lovely afternoon down at Joondalup Lake where we had had lessons on ecology and weeding.  There were lots of stories to share and experiences to learn from.  Before going home I stopped off to see Natalie to give her the mushroom spawn from the day before.  I had put my bag of prepared mushroom spawn by the back door just out of the sun but where it would be warm. It didn’t take long for the Mycelium, the weblike part of the fungi, to start to form. It took about two weeks before it eventually spread, joining together within the bag. Once it had matted together, I cut a slit in the side of bag to allow the fungi to develop.  I’ll let you know how mine goes.

I took off the last weeks of TAFE as I had completed all my assignments and received some comments back from being marked.  I was very disappointed that the lecturer didn’t get us to present our garden designs in class.  I would have liked to have heard and seen some of the other students’ designs. I’m sure we would all have learnt from each other.  I said good bye to my lecturers as I will have a new lecturer next term.  The soils lecturer said he had enjoyed my participation in class, saying that I had brought lots of insight and life to the classes. I’m going to miss attending next year; it’s been such a great opportunity to learn and socialise with others who have a similar interest.

Another thing on my list of things to do was to look into fixing the remote control for the spare bedroom light/fan. I thought it might be the battery so tried taking the back off to change it, but it just wouldn’t budge.  I left the control with an electrician friend from church who returned it open a few days later.  Replacing the A23 battery from my collection of spare batteries got it operational.  What a relief!  It was the fan I had most recently installed so I was surprised it was the first battery to go!  Praise the Lord it was as simple as changing a battery.  I’ll know what to do if, or should I say when the others start to play up.

On a slightly wet Tuesday, Ann, Kath and I took a trip down to Araluen.  This is the second time I have been there to see the tulips; they certainly are stunning. Even though there were a few showers while we were there, one being when we stopped for a coffee, I still got the legs of my jeans soaked. Mostly there was just a sprinkling of rain as we wandered around. The magnolias and camellias there are magnificent too. I will never get over the diversity and the wonder of God’s creation around us.

What an amazing ceremony the Queen had for her funeral and what a testimony and witness of her faith in Christ Jesus!  I was thrilled with the evangelistic message she had organised before her death for both the chapel services.  What a remarkable women she was.

Two topics that have been of concern to me lately have been extremely well explained by Martyn Iles.  If you are interested, please click on the following links….

Climate Totalitarianism, a very interesting Biblical view of what we are facing these days.  I do hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.

Unity within Australia, the rising racial tensions that are dividing people against each other.  Welcome to Country: Yes or No    (If there is a problem getting these links you can do a search under Martyn Isles and the title)

Photos:  1. Tulips at Araluen    2. Butterfly seen on a bush walk    3. Home grown potatoes and herbs    4. New pond with rockery not quite finished    5. Mushroom workshop    6. Bunny Orchid a friend found    7. Me at Araluen.

Prayer & Praise Points:

Praise God for an eventful third term, not only in the classroom but in the garden and with catching up with friends.

Praise the Lord for the first signs of spring and for all the wonderful rain interspersed with sunny days.

Please continue to pray with me for peace in Taiwan and Europe and for the refugees and all those caught up in the suffering this war has caused, both in Ukraine and Russia.

Please continue to pray for my sisters, Tricia, Jen and Kat to come to know Christ’s love for them.