Years End 2022

This year has certainly been a time of learning in many areas, including going back to the classroom at TAFE. The hands-on approach, practical in-field experiences plus the interaction with like-minded people has been inspiring.  Next year I will be swapping roles from student to teacher as I take on the role of imparting knowledge.  I will be teaching those who have enrolled to do my Gardening Basics sessions at Share-In.  Our church has been running Share-In during the school term for many years now, it is an outreach program providing arts and crafts classes for mostly seniors.

Since completing my last term at TAFE I have been busy around the house. One of my favourite pairs of old jeans which fitted nicely and had been patched several times to make them last longer finally disintegrated.  I didn’t want to throw them out and thought I could save the top and maybe attach them to another pair of jeans which didn’t fit so well.  I don’t like hipster jeans of which I have a few pairs.  I don’t wear them as they constantly slip down without a belt which I also don’t like using with jeans.  One pair of jeans I had been given had embroidered flowers down the legs.  I cut my old pair where they had gaping holes just below the back pockets and across the front so they looked like short shorts – but too short to wear modestly.  I then pinned them onto the hipster pair, cut the extra top off before machine sewing them together. I was very pleased with the results, especially when friends and even strangers came and asked where I had bought them.  I think I’ve set a new trend in jeans design!  I’m looking forward to doing the same with another pair which is also on its last legs, having been patched several times and now very threadbare in all the wrong places.

This month I also attended the Sustainability Fair where I was able to leave our Coastal Community Garden (CCG) brochures at the Stirling Council pavilion.  I also promoted the Christmas Carols which our church and Stirling Council put on.  It was here I caught up with Fiona from the council who is our CCG council coordinator.  We discussed the up-and-coming CCG ‘Breaking Ground’ event which we were both attending.  It was then we realised there was a mistake in the time.  I noticed that the WhatsApp message she had sent out this week had midday AEST instead of 10am AWST.  Originally we had been told the event was at 10am but when the official memo came out, none of us had thought to check the time.  We had all presumed it was Australian Western Standard time not Eastern Standard Time!  Praise God I saw it before the actual event occurred.  I had originally told people it was 10am but then had to try to remember all those I had told to change it to midday and now I have to contact them again to change it back!  What a debacle! There was always going to be someone I missed and if it was you, please forgive me.

The day finally arrived. The Coastal Community Garden (which I have become involved with since midyear) had its big day early December, with the Mayor Mark Irwin and some of the City of Stirling Counsellors.  It was the official ‘Breaking Ground’ ceremony with the handing over of licensing agreement.  Photos were taken of the officials with our CCG committee, which I’m sure will be in the next Council newsletter.  I was delighted to see people I had invited, including a few of my neighbours, plus others from our community also there to support us.  It’s all go from now on with funding money being used to get things set up including irrigation, water tanks, solar pumps, sheds, paving and lots more before the gardens even get started.  2023 will be an exciting year.  We also have plans for a website and monthly newsletters which sounds like something I could help with.  I used to run my own business website as well as this blog site and you all know I don’t do too badly at writing a monthly update, so thought I’d be up for the challenge!  My rough suggestion received some positive comments which was encouraging.

The Woman’s Shed had another interesting workshop, this time on Permaculture.  Our speaker was Fiona, our CCG council coordinator who also has her own permaculture business.  I went along with friends from church to help promote our community garden. 

If you have been wondering what Ann thought of her new garden (see last month’s blog), I think she is beginning to be swayed by the idea of having a garden, especially as she doesn’t have to care for it.  She even sounded excited about having some of my daffodil bulbs which I had dug up from my front garden.  Then the day before her birthday, Liam was finally free to lay the pavers Naomi had chosen from leftovers in his yard.  They were very stained, having been under the trees which dropped sap, but this only made them look rustic.  He even had a spare paver which Ann’s birdbath could sit on. While he was here, he also fixed some paving on her back patio which hadn’t been finished properly. The following day, being Ann’s birthday, I set the birdbath on its new stand on the spare paver while Ann was inside.  Naomi had asked me to keep an eye open for a stand at Bunnings as Ann’s birdbath was missing a leg and was propped up on some broken bricks.  I had attached a card from Naomi and Greg as it was their birthday gift to her.  Ann was surprised and impressed.  Later that day Ann and I went to Hillary’s for a birthday ice cream and a drive along the coast, giving her car a bit of a run as Ann no longer has her licence.

My new bestie, Matt, across the driveway has been quite communicative; I’ve had to bite my tongue as he has been digging in coffee grounds into the newly planted ground cover, up-rooting it. Praise God he mentioned it to me as I thought it had been dug up by dogs!  Who, with an understanding of gardening, would dig up new plants?  I was then able to explain it was better just to leave what had been planted as they would soon spread, even though it was very poor soil.  This succulent survives in the very harshest of conditions.  Another neighbour gave me two other succulent varieties, large plants, which I broke into several pieces and planted, along with a native shrub, beside the driveway on Matt’s side.  The native shrub was given to me by Marian from church when I was helping her in the garden.  Matt’s garden is starting to look much better now that the weeds that had overtaken that area have been replaced with more attractive plants.

It’s the time of year for the end-of-year parties; first was our Bible study group party, to which I’d invited Bec Falkner. She and the family are home on furlough from Malawi. There’s always heaps of finger food, to which we all contribute.  Following this was the Sorrento Street party, organised by Liam and some of his neighbours.  It is held in an old tennis court in the spare block behind Liam’s home.  One of the guys provides a whole lamb, another (from Argentina) prepares the lamb for a Spanish style BBQ and the rest of the street brings a plate of food and donates money towards the lamb. It is a fantastic opportunity to meet new neighbours and catch up with those you haven’t seen for a while. I’m so blessed to live in an area with such lovely neighbours.  Many I meet on my jog or as they walk their dogs, or walk down the street to the shops or the beach.  I’ve helped some out with gardening produce, others with bread when I was collecting it and others just a friendly chat beside the road.

Our unit Christmas party was next on the list.  Unfortunately it was on the same day as the church’s carols event, so I could only go to one.  I chose the party, but didn’t stay long.  Bob had roasted a large piece of meat which we ate with buns and salad which neighbours brought.  It was a lovely evening as the weather wasn’t too hot.  Sofia sent a message the following day to say “You are still our Number one of the neighbours”.  How sweet!

Then there’s another neighbour from down the road who has just bought a home and needed a hand moving some things.  We packed her car with the heavy stuff that she had been unable to do on her own.  She talked about her “buyers‘ regret” after a friend said it was a real dump. I kept reassuring her that even if it was a dump it was her very own dump, she now owned her own home!  It had been a renovator’s sale, which was evident when I saw the place.  It was a very small unit, two tiny upstairs bedrooms and an old bathroom.  Downstairs a lounge area running the length of the unit and on the other side, a narrow kitchen with a laundry at the far end divided by an open doorway.  The kitchen and laundry cupboards were worse for wear with doors hanging off or totally off the hinges. This is where the renovations were desperately needed.  Having renovated my place, I could see great potential once she had saved some money to rip all the old cupboards out and replace them with a brand new kitchen, pantry and laundry area.  For the moment, I suggested fixing a few things and saving her money for the essentials, the usual household electricals including fridge and washing machine.  There certainly was plenty of potential. Instead of being disheartened, I encouraged her to be excited about what changes could be made.

Christmas day started with my usual jog and beach swim, before our combined church service which was packed out with people for all three services, plus newcomers.  Then home to finish off the dessert I was taking to Sofia and Guillermo’s (Gee) for Christmas lunch.  I had made a trifle as neither of them even knew what one was.  I had found it challenging to buy the sponge cake and when I finally did, every packet of two seemed to have one good cake and one lopsided cake.  After looking through the pile I finally found a packet where both cakes looked even.  I had a lovely large glass bowl (inherited from Mum) in which I put it all together. I was quite impressed with the results, especially as there was some left over to make another small one.  This one actually lasted till December 31^st.  Yum!  I popped across the driveway several times, taking things and checking where they were up to with their preparations.  I didn’t want to be too early, although they did ask me to stay and chat but if I wasn’t able to help I just felt in the way.  When I first went over they both looked very upset.  They told me that when moving the lounge chair Sofia had bumped her hand on the wall and the stone in her diamond ring had come out and was lost.  They had tried vacuuming and searching through the bag but couldn’t find it.  Guillermo than asked me to pray that it would be found.  After praying, I reassured them it would be found and not to stress about it, it would eventually turn up.  When I returned 10mins later, they had found it.  It must have flung off her finger into a shopping bag of rubbish which they emptied into the bin.  It was then they heard a tinkling.  And there it was!  Found!  Praise the Lord!  I gave thanks to the Lord for a speedy answer to prayer and was told it would have turned up eventually anyway.  Why are people so sceptical of prayer even when it is so dramatically answered?  Still, I know it was definitely the Lord’s intervention.  Had they not heard it, the diamond would have been thrown in to the bin and then into landfill!

It was a lovely lunch, with two of their friends joining us.  We started with a cheese and cold meat platter, then duck cantalanin and finished off with my trifle, cream and ice cream which everyone enjoyed. Not a traditional Christmas lunch but still a festive one.  After three of us cleaned the kitchen of all the dishes, we opened gifts.  I was quite surprised to see our Hindu guest, a student from India, had given Sofia and Guillermo a figurine of the nativity scene.  It still amazes me that many non-European countries have a misconception that all Europeans are Christians.

A few days after Christmas, Sofia asked me to help her with her new sewing machine.  I haven’t used a Singer but assumed it couldn’t be very different to my Bernina.  She had threaded it up but the tension was out with big loopy under stitches.  Everything looked correct, but still I couldn’t find the problem, after trying several times and even suggesting it might need a service as it was second hand.  The bobbin needed more thread; I had shown her a few new things as we loaded up the bobbin, putting it back in the machine.  She had read the manual but having someone who had used a machine before helped her learn a few tricks.  Then before I started again, I paused and said “I know what’s wrong.  I forgot to pray and ask Jesus to help us.”  She laughed but prayed with me.  I slipped the practice fabric under the foot and tried again.  Yep. You guessed it.  The tension was perfect! At first Sofia didn’t believe me, but when she saw the stitching she was amazed!  Proclaiming that she would have to start believing too.  What a loving interactive God we have.  Yes, Emmanuel, God with us.

Some garden chores I’ve been doing this month began when I noticed my lovely currant grapes, which were producing an abundance of fruit this year, were becoming infested with grey sooty mould.  I suspect that the warm humid weather late November combined with the pre-dawn reticulation in the raised beds below the vine and produced the perfect conditions for mould.  I applied a mixture of skinny milk and bicarb powder twice during December.  It seemed to have helped the fruit, although it seemed to cause the leaves to go yellow and fall; also affecting the strawberry leaves below the vine.  I also removed some of the badly affected bunches of grapes which helped thin them out, providing more air circulation which helps too.   By the end of December, some of the bunches had begun to ripen which also attracted the birds so netting was needed.  Unfortunately these grapes seem to ripen one grape at a time so it’s difficult to pick a totally ripened bunch.  The dried milk needed to be washed off before eating but they are still very yummy!

I made my own Christmas tree with Christmas bells, well not really. I made some plant pots into protection against the rats (which I’ve already seen in my garden) and covered them with nets to keep the pears safe from the rodents and birds.  This year I’m praying I get to share some with my two legged friends and not the usual thieves who raid my garden of its produce!

I also sold all my cotton palms which I had grown from the seeds of the old palm I needed to cut down. I had sold two previously in November for a good price but then the others didn’t budge for over a month, so I brought the price down.  When this guy, who said he loved cotton palms, was willing to buy the lot, I was delighted and gave him another small one free, nine for $100.00.   Then wanting to thin out the Giant Duckweed from three of my ponds and previously throwing it into the garden as compost I decided to see if I could sell it online too.  Within minutes of posting it on two sites, I started getting a response.  That day I sold 3 lots at a total of $35.00.  The last guy said the shops didn’t have anything like it in stock.  Had I known, I could have put the price up.  I’ll know for next time as it grows so prolifically at this time of the year.  The other thing I’ve sold was one of my grape vine cuttings.  I haven’t done too badly with sales this month. Thank you Jesus.

I’ve also given away some of my propagated cuttings, helping Gee and Sofia to plant one of the fig cuttings from my favourite fig tree on my jog run near the bush.  We are hoping to graft onto that one too, giving us a lot more variety and all-summer-long fruits.  Fran also called me to help her plant the lemon tree I gave her in a pot.  That too is sprouting and looking healthy.

What new adventure and achievements will we all attain to this coming new year of 2023? 

Photos:  1. Kangaroo Paw from my garden 2. New trend in Jeans 3. Breaking Ground 4. Woman’s Shed 5. Ann’s new pavers 6. Lamb on the spit 7. Unit party 8. Christmas dinner 9. Trifle 10. Christmas pear tree

Prayer & Praise Points:

There is much to praise God for, including the miracle of the missing diamond, the change of seasons, our beautiful summer weather here in Perth, wonderful neighbours, friends and family. 

Praise the Lord for creation which He has given us to enjoy, including those who enjoy their own little piece of creation to care for in their gardens.

Continue to pray with me for world peace both here in the Australasia region and Europe.  Pray 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. Pray especially for Jen’s safety as she visit her daughter Kate and partner Richard in the UK and holidays in Europe.