Our House

Tomorrow marks 2 weeks since we moved into the new place and it’s been all go, go, go ever since, not only are we unpacking, but there was so much cleaning and fixing and tidying up that has to be done to get the place more livable.

Living in brand new units has cocooned us in certain ways, but it’s also raised our expectations when it comes to the state of where we live….and let’s just say this new place wasn’t entirely up to scratch when we moved in! It’s getting there though, and it’s been great actually getting up and doing things.

Today we got out and cleaned the front out of potential roach motels and mowed our “lawn” (well, hubby mowed), as well as tidyed up a bit in the back yard and getting about 4 loads of washing out on the line….that fresh smell of sun dried clothes is something I’ve missed dwelling in stacked concrete boxes.

I was thinking about what we would have been doing if we were still over in Wobbly Creek and the short answer would have been sitting on our arses, on the computers or knitting in front of Foxtel….well, I would have been knitting, hubby would have still been computering. So even though the place is a lil tired and needs lots of TLC, it’s so good shaking off our sedentary states and getting out in the sun for some photosynthesizing and vitamin D.

I’m really excited about having a garden again. I’m still in the planning stages of what I’m going to do, mostly because our bins keep getting filled up with “unpacking” things and there’s no room to piff the manky plants that are taking up precious space. I’m going to go mad with the herbs and some smaller growing vegetables, like tomatoes and capsicum, oh and strawberries!!! Joined Diggers Seeds finally (been meaning to for about the last 15 years now!) so I’ll be giving some of the heirloom varieties a go. My sisters (and their niblets) are keen veggie growers and Dad’s never without a tomato plant surrounded with basil, so it means I’ll be able to share all the seeds with them too!!

Above is a shot of what the garden looks like now, I’m going to use that big empty terrible-cotta (sorry, that’s a dad joke) pot for the strawbs, just dig the pot down into the soil a little and I’ll get a similar pot for a couple of varieties of mint, so it doesn’t take over. The plot’s about 1.5m deep by about 2.5m wide (once I dig out the mystery plants) so of course my heads going a million mile an hour thinking of all the herbs I can plant. I mean, do I really need things like lemon verbena or bergamot, possibly not….actually they’re only on my maybe list at the moment. I’m going to be sensible to begin with and get things that I’ll use plenty of established first, like thyme, marjoram, oregano, rosemary, parsley, chives, basil, chillies, etc, etc, etc….all the obvious culinary things. There are also plans afoot to get a multi-graft citrus going in a big pot, oh and I just thought, a bay tree might be nice.

So once I get things going out there, I’ll post some more pics….and I’ll have something other to talk about other than the knitting. (I’m not even going to bang on about the ball winder I finally went and purchased today, or the fact that I’ve picked up the pointy sticks again, getting 2 whole straight repeats on the Clappy done last night. Yay, I’ve got my knitting groove back, oh and I bought some teeny knitpiks needles for the Baby Casmerino project, but enough of that!!)

One gorgeous thing though, is that our neighbours have been very thoughtful at some point and have planted a Frangipani, Jasmine and Murraya alongside the shared fence, so I can’t wait till they’re all in bloom and their heavenly scents are wafting through our back door.

Anyways, I’m off to carve up the rack of lamb, that I just happened to stud with fresh garlic and lemon thyme….playing house is starting to agree with me.