Arty Choke

Pick a flowering Artichoke, place it in a vase, surround it with flowering Hebe stems and you have an artistic arrangement.

Strawberry Fields Forever

It turns out that it you give strawberries love and attention they grow bigger and better.

In winter this year I replanted my strawberry runners into a new position. Mixing chook poo and home grown compost into the soil I made mounds to plant into. Despite the felling of the pine tree dropping bits onto the strawberry plants in September they revived quite well when the patch was cleaned up. After picking some medium fruit in November and December, often sharing the biggest ones with millipedes- grrrrrrr - I then cut off the runners, spread some Rapid Raiser fertiliser and laid down some pea straw. My efforts have indeed been rewarded with larger strawberries and more of them. The straw making it harder for the millipedes and generally keeping the fruit out of the dirt.

Lastly a fence of bamboo on all sides is needed to keep the kangaroos from having their share.

Hard Yacka

The talented Rod has created another sculpture. Crafted from copper and ingenuity this installation has been created to replicate the real thing.

About a year ago we noticed that our Xanthorrohea preissii which had been doing famously for the five or so years since it was planted in the Gekko Garden, was showing worrying signs of illness. We checked the watering system, cut back the dying leaves and hoped for the best. It did not improve, in fact even after seeking advice and armed with fungicide and Gogo juice our Yakka slipped further and further into decline. Finally we had to admit it was DEAD.

The substantial outlay for the magnificent plant removed from native vegetation in Western Australia initially made us a little nervous but determined to follow all the recommendations for initial transplanting and settling. After so many years of going from strength to strength we thought that we would have it for decades. It was upsetting enough to loose the leaves we really didn’t want to part with the trunk too.

Transforming copper pipe .......

.........fitting copper rivets........

........cutting and bending 160 metres of 2.6 mm gauge copper wire for the new leaves.........

........welded into place in neat rings around the copper pipe stem.......

.......hours and hours of cutting and welding........

.......out of the Worksop and into the garden the copper Yakka is a good substitute for the real thing.

“No legacy is so rich as honesty.” William Shakespeare

Visiting my mother’s childhood home in December 2016 we found some honesty seeds on the ground. The owner who is still there, having purchased the estate over 30 years ago said she has never planted them, they just keep self seeding. My Pop would have been the gardener responsible for introducing them into that garden. I am chuffed now to share the legacy of honesty into our garden and enjoy yet another memory of my grandfather.

A slice of spring

        Orchid.              Waratah.         Native Mint.         Arctotis.           Geranium.         Snowball.         Marguerite

Lounging Lottie

Possibly the last open fire for the season, Lottie takes pride of place.

Happy 60th Birthday Meg

Tim......berrrrrrrrrr!

Discovering that one of our large pine trees was dying it was recommended to have it felled sooner than later as Radiata Pines are known to become very unstable as they die.

First the sheds under the tree needed to be dismantled, which was on the agenda before the news of the fate of the tree anyway. Rod worked over many sessions to clear the way.

In the history of our time at Ashwell we have never seen this area totally clear as when we first arrived there was a bird Avery and then we added a mower shed (an existing shed dragged down the hill behind the car) and then a potting shed and screened area for plant raising.



The branches are somewhat sparse compared to the other pine, one of the tell tale signs of its health.

Tim and Matt were  great, hard working tree fellas. Despite that we had some junky piles of stuff and make-shift compost heap they successfully avoided them all. Now to get rid of all this timber!

Spring you make my heart sing

A good vine takes time

Not exactly fun in the sun, but the monotonous job of twining the jasmine tendrils was rewarded with immense satisfaction.

I think we have it pretty much covered now. Flowers will be a bonus but not “the be all and end all”.

Connor’s Cotton Comforter

After my sister-in-law’s untimely death in July 1994 Peter gave me all of Fona’s yarn. It was a collection of colours and natural fibres, there were a couple of batches that were of one colour enough for an entire garment but predominantly it was a ball or two or three of various colours within brand ranges, with cotton a clear favourite.

The first project I created using the yarn was ‘Fona’ a colourful floral design representing the remarkable  woman herself. I entered the finished garment in a local exhibition after which Peter was keen to have the jumper. He fabricated a steel arch and arbor for my garden in return.

I also created a small child’s vest which was a donation to the same exhibition for fund raising purposes.

A few years later, using some of the mohair I designed and knitted a colourful geometric number, I gave this to one of Fiona’s dearest friends Bobbie, who I am pleased to call one of my dearest friends also. 

So now 24 years later, I have just completed a blanket using colourful cotton’s for Fiona’s first born grand child, Connor David Kemp. The quantities of the colours were my guide to creating the finished design.

I started knitting in Summer before Connor was born in March, which is unheard of for me, knitting seems to go with winter! Due to the yarn being cotton and the squares small it was not at all an imposition to sit and knit in the evenings- I had a time line to work to - before Connor reached 6 months old. Once the squares were knitted there was a little scope for rearranging for best effect.

I joined the  squares and edged the entire blanket using crochet which was new to me but satisfying to do. The light grey I used for the crocheting I purchase from Bendigo Woollen Mills along with one other colour, the honey-dew green colour, as I needed colour with a quantity enough to complete the design. 



Sewing in the ends was monotonous and took several sessions to complete but worth the effort.

The size should be suitable for a cot blanket or a floor rug for play time but it looks at home here too.


The finished article is ever so light and soft. Created with love, fond memories, sadness, hope, joy and more love.

Now on its way to Auckland NZ a complete surprise to Matt and Lindsay, I hope they all enjoy and treasure this Fiona and Jenny creation.

Not so hard to Swallow

Realising that Aly likes swallows, it seemed appropriate to hand over this item of jewellery that belonged to Rod’s Grandmother and then his Mother. At least 108 years old this is really a piece for Rod’s daughter to treasure.

Green Cherry-Tomato Pickles, move over Spring Gully

Tomato season was slow to get started, which meant the last lot of fruit didn’t have time to ripen before the end of summer.

Fortunately making pickles is not quite so intensive as making jam, so we were able to squeeze it into our hectic schedule before our up coming o/s holiday.
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Very happy with the result and have had very happy recipients.

A change for Betty

Betty has held together extremely well despite being exposed to the elements 24/7 for more than a year.

My original plan was to remove her completely but she was still healthy on the inside so she got new clothing instead.

She has also changed her skin colouring, the reverse of Michael Jackson’s transformation.

Bug-ger Off

Whilst cleaning out the shed down the hill Rod discovered these small bettles gathered in large infestations behind sheets of board. We tried to identify them using google but the closest we could find from an American site was cucumber beetle.

Just this week I chanced on an article in our local newspaper The Courier - “the adult beetle is about 6mm long (check) yellowish to olive green (check) with a black stripe along each side of the back (check mate!) So there you go it is Elm Beetle. Our elm tree is being attacked but we have never seen the culprits.