| Growit Posted on Tuesday, August 05, 2008 - 07:27 am: |   
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Haha!! NO don't send me sweeties. I am being such a good girl at the moment but I couldn't resist if they were in front of me...beckoning me...begging to be eaten lol!
I would love a woodyundersaurus(sp?)(I would love to be able to spell it too!) if you are sure it is not a problem. I have turned my gazebo (DJ called it a garden shed! ) into a lizard house. Ornamental obviously. It would be wonderful to have a lizard from Australia (from YOU!) in it  .I will keep an eye out for woad, possibly Cornwall when I go in a couple of weeks. Shame I didn't join this forum earlier. I had Woad and Weld (Reseda luteola L.) growing but got bored with them and just let them die! |
Okay, so you get a permit, ship the Shmoos to me, I'll start a Cockatoo farm (that must count as animal husbandry, right? LOL), and I'll split the profits with you. 
I can see that I'm never going to live that down. LOL!   |
| Valia Posted on Tuesday, August 05, 2008 - 09:38 am: |
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Thanks, Greth.
I want me one o' them cow pats. Jessie better hang on tight to hers!
Anne |
| Greth Posted on Tuesday, August 05, 2008 - 09:12 pm: |
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Choccy cow pats wouldn't be hard to make, after all the uglier they look the better! Great market item for anyone who needs ideas, not just novelty value but one big lump of chocolate. Some have nuts and fruits in I think, never really looked up close... |
| Greth Posted on Sunday, August 10, 2008 - 05:52 pm: |
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There are coconut rough cow pats, fruit and nut cow pats, apricot cow pats, and the Hereford ones have white chocolate patches!
Picked up my roses, and managed to plant them between showers yesterday. The chocolate factory was absolutely full of happy tourists as we came thru.
DH's friend came down to work on the shed base and parking area with his bulldozer and truck. About four truckloads of roadbase went down, but with heavy rain it is very sludgy and hard to work. That area is nearly impassable by foot. Won't bother washing the house floors for awhile I think, might just plant something in the mud.
My ceanothus and golden wattle and anemones are just about to flower. Unfortunately we have to send the camera away for repairs, so may not be able to post any pics for a few weeks.
Growit, the lizards are on their way. Start checking your postbox soon! |
| Valia Posted on Tuesday, August 12, 2008 - 09:18 am: |
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LOL, Greth, a little watercress, perhaps?
:}
Anne |
| Growit Posted on Tuesday, August 12, 2008 - 10:04 am: |
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I got em!!!
Thankyou Greth. Both are lovely, I like the fact that the toy one is bendy lol! The Icantspellthewordosaurus is yummy too.
It is so exciting getting parcels from abroad especially from a fellow herb lover. It makes me think Christmas has come.
They are now hanging in my gazebo aka Lizard House which will be finished once I buy my pics off Zak. As and when my hubby hands over his paypal details!
Thanks again Greth and have fun playing in the mud LOL! |
| Greth Posted on Tuesday, August 12, 2008 - 05:31 pm: |
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Underwood-i-saurus! Easy, they live under dead branches. The kids had an exciting moment the other day collecting firewood. They picked up a branch and found two lizards hibernating together under it. A bearded dragon and a sleepy lizard, both quite large, over a foot long. And so quiet in the cold they were easily handled.
Glad to help decorate your gazebo, will also give me a thrill to show off my Sweet cicely, should it germinate (Oh, English seed, dontcherknow!) I will look quite the herb snob if the last of the Canadian seed germinates too! I've planted yours in the hot box, some just out in the weather, and some are lurking in the fridge for awhile. Hopefully will get some success somewhere! |
Don't you mean Lizard Shed? LOL! |
| Greth Posted on Wednesday, August 13, 2008 - 09:07 am: |
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Now now, Dj, I haven't seen her gazebo yet, but if she calls it a gazebo then it is one.
Wouldn't it be wonderful to breed Australian parrots in countries where they sell for a fortune! However, if it was legal to export them, they wouldn't be rare and the price would plummet, sigh. As with budgies. I've never seen a wild budgie by the way. (Only a few mildly annoyed ones)
I've never heard the term Shmoo used for the sulphur crests before either. I'm sure it's not an Aussie term, don't think they have any nicknames here.
I think the young galahs have emerged now, saw one sitting in the tree the other day, must watch out.
We have had 18 days of rain outta the last 19, tanks are about full, and I'm sure the dams would be looking pretty good if I could get around to see. It has been so cold and damp that the city is having problems getting enough firewood. It even snowed in the hills last Saturday, not enough to really cover the ground, and nothing out this way except a very cold football match for DS. Only a few spells sunny and warm enough to do some weeding, but I'm sure it will dry out enough soon. Garden is pretty full of flowers right now. Poor Jessie was quite upset to see that the jonquils were starting to die off, had to show her all the new spring flowers coming along to cheer her up. She keeps a vase full of all her daily pickings, quite cheerful in the house.
Ellie is 5 months old now, and totally determined to sit up, tho not very good at it. She is growing herself some teeth, getting stuck into chewing on rusks (and fingers, and anything within reach). Not such a little baby anymore. |
| Growit Posted on Wednesday, August 13, 2008 - 11:21 am: |
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Dj has seen it Greth and said she thought it was a pretty shed! Had to put her straight on that point LOL!
It fits at the top of my garden on a circle of brick pavers just right, with a view for miles. It may be small but it is perfectly formed lol! |
It was so long ago that I'm not sure how I ever came up with the word Shmoo, but at some point thereafter, my husband informed me that they were a cartoon long ago. I Googled them one day and, oddly enough, they were little white creatures. LOL! I guess based on that, the term would be best for white 'Toos, but I use it generically for all 'Toos regardless of color because they can all be such schmoozie little rag dolls. Hmm... Maybe that's where I came up with Shmoo. HAHA! |
| Greth Posted on Wednesday, August 13, 2008 - 05:58 pm: |
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These 'schmoozie little rag dolls' have a beak most birds of prey would be proud of, and from personal experience they aren't shy of using it on any fingers within reach. Their favourite game is shredding pine cones! I do like the parrots, have kept a galah and lots of budgies and cockatiels. But even the friendly ones are only getting into a better position to find out if your ear is a variety of pinecone...
I have an area set aside near the chickenhouse where I hope to build a parrot aviary one day.
I particularly like the Princess parrots. Small beak, you may notice!
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Mmmm, yes, I have a lovely scar from where my Umbrella Cockatoo, Tekla, tried to saw my finger off with his beak. He's not so schmoozie as my other one was (Tiki). I can't go anywhere near Tekla without fear of losing a body part or my life, a lovely little relic of the mood he copped toward me when I got pregnant with my son. *sigh* But the Princess Parrot looks lovely. I hadn't heard of those before. It looks a bit like my Mom's Indian Ringneck Parrot. If you build a parrot house, I will be so envious! You might wake up some day and find me in it. |
| Greth Posted on Monday, September 01, 2008 - 06:31 am: |
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Yay, the camera is back.
With my faith in the postal system and the likelihood of getting a quick and cheap and fussfree repair under warranty, I was fully expecting not to see my camera again, at least not without dozens of phonecalls, antagonistic mail and probably large sums of money changing hands in the wrong direction.
But no it returned promptly, safely, repaired, and with the firmware updated, and with a note apologising for the inconvenience of having to live without it. And the new repair guaranteed for 90 days as well. WELL DONE FUJI, you restored my faith in something.
So tomorrow hopefully some garden pics |
| Valia Posted on Monday, September 01, 2008 - 02:42 pm: |
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:) Isn't it great when things go right like this? You can coast on that little high for quite a while. It should happen more often :)
Now you've given others an excuse for a lingering smile.
Anne |
| Greth Posted on Monday, September 01, 2008 - 04:17 pm: |
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So glad to have it back before some of my favourite things flower, and just in time for the Royal Adelaide Show, yay!
I'm doing a bit of seed exchanging with the herby people in the eastern states. One has just bought a large property and is looking to establish a herb garden with loads of medieval things, rather as I have been trying to do. I could just offer my sympathy...
Another lady has a special rosemary - this one has been brought back from Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, where it grows wild, and is special to the memory of Aussie war veterans. She is going to try posting cuttings, might well work, postage is only a couple of days and rosemary is tough. |
| Greth Posted on Monday, September 08, 2008 - 07:15 am: |
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Havent had time to do a long post, and too much to say for a short one!
Im preparing my garden and sale plants for an open day on the 13th September. No hope of weeding all the beds by then, but most is looking acceptable. Trying to judge whether it is worth selling stuff from home, who is interested and in what, etc. If it goes well I will invite the Herb Society up next month, and hope to have more weeding, planting, etc done by then.
Had a gorgeous week or two. Baby is sleeping better, garden is looking promising, my birthday was lovely, the Show was perfectly showlike, though no photos really. (There is a koala one on the Nature forum, and one of Jessie in the Social Gallery). Kids managed to survive the show with one ride, one game and one showbag between them all! Saw the horses (they were missing last year with the equine virus scare) the piggies, cows, sheep, ducks, chickens, pigeons, one turkey, cats, rabbits, birds, fish, horticulture display, crafts, woodchopping and all the commercial rubbish. And managed no photos from all of that except one koala in the Animal Nursery! Weather sunny and pleasant, DS somewhat queasy after the Gravitron, Jessie won some blowing bubbles in a duck game. She sat in the sandpit when we came home and blew bubbles for baby Ellie to watch.
Trying to dig a hole to plant a crabapple (Eleyi or similar). DS removed the cherry from behind the dragon statue - it hadn't really grown in years, was not really in line with the dragon or symmetrical, and being an unknown variety, I didn't know what else to plant for pollination. All in all, not a great citizen in the garden community.
Here is my Golden Wattle, the emblem of Australia - Wattle Day is the 1st of September
The retaining wall bed, with the fishpond, Jessie's primulas, Allards lavender, some random lettuces, sparaxis just starting to flower, and a rogue nasturtium in the background.
Look up between the two trees, that broken branch hanging down is a foot in diameter, hope nothing is underneath when it falls..
The carnation Bicocca did survive the drought, two others that I liked less didn't. I normally buy a couple of named varieties at each Show, but the price this year was getting ridiculous for a small rooted cutting, so no new ones.
This is the front dam, as full as we have ever seen it - we had 27 rainy days in August, and a record rainfall for our 5 years here.
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| Stormdancer Posted on Monday, September 08, 2008 - 12:44 pm: |
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Looking good Greth!! Wow, your rainfall for August sounds like ours here in Florida!! Back to back storms have my yard still holding water...and the possibility of more as Hurricane Ike passes Cuba...we are predicted to get some of the rain bands in our area as the storm is huge.
Hope your summer continues with good rainfall and your plants do great. All our rain drowned not only the Four o'clocks, but my Lavender and Rhubarb as well. I'm hoping the Lavender will come back, even though it was smallish. The Four o'clocks are almost impossible to kill, so I know they will come back. |
| Greth Posted on Monday, September 08, 2008 - 05:14 pm: |
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Nothing can get waterlogged in the ornamental garden - its a sandy slope, extremely well drained. The veggie patch does get rather muddy, there's a lot of clay there, but haven't lost anything to damp that I know of. |
| Greth Posted on Saturday, September 27, 2008 - 01:58 pm: |
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September has been a bit drier, some good soaking rains early, nothing much for the last coupla weeks. Showers forecast for the next week, but no major rain. Nearly finished weeding the lavender/rosemary bed, and the vegetable garden. All ready to start with summer veggies soon, tomatoes are inside in pots getting huge while I wait for the frosts to stop.
The white irises and orris are flowering, other irises coming on. They have had a good year so far, didn't grow much during the drought.
I'm starting on the lawn weeds, pulling up the Cape Daisy. I worked on this much harder last year, but then I couldn't afford peastraw to mulch, so I had less other stuff to do. The weeds are a bit thinner this year, but still plenty to do.
I have had a few customers thru the herb nursery, the next sale day is the 11th October, and I am advertising a lot, hope to get a few people through. DH has promised me some signs to help people find our place, however DH's promises are not worth the paper they aren't written on, so I will have to wait and see. I'm hoping to get the garden looking really nice before then. The crabapple is just starting to put out leaves, and the apricot has flowered and starting leaves now. The Dutch irises are flowering, anemones and sparaxis and freesias all doing well. |
| Stormdancer Posted on Wednesday, October 01, 2008 - 03:20 pm: |
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Sounds like Spring has sprung in your neck of the world! I'm waiting for Fall here, but seems we are destined to have Summer hang on a bit longer...temp was 91 degrees this afternoon. Our night lows are still in the mid to upper 70's...with high 60's now and then. Dreaming of cooler weather!
The Lavender didn't make it after all the rains...and we have very sandy soil here. Just wasn't meant to be I guess. My Coleus have come back nicely though...thought I had lost them...and the 4 o'clocks have also came back, can't hardly kill them shy of paving over them...hahaha
Hope your sale goes well and you have as many people as possible show up...signs or not! Here's to a great start for your growing season this year!! |
