Technically, it’s spring.  Not month-wise, but nature-wise.  It’s still wet and windy and freezingly cold, but increasingly there’s that little puff of promise.  Some days I can even smell the spring inside.

I got out in the garden a bit this weekend.  It was great.  My bulbs are growing, although it looks like only the tulips and grape hyacinths at this stage. I hope the others kick in soon.  And I hope they flower soon, my garden could use a bit of colour.

My bare root fruit trees from Yalca are putting out teeny little leaf buds.  I discovered this early one morning last week, and I let out an involuntary ‘squee!’ in the almost-darkness of the morning.  Whoops, sorry, new neighbours.  There is somethign magical about this.  You plant a stick, and a month later, it is GROWING.  I mean, obviously it is growing.  But it was brown and stick like!  And now there are Things Happening!  And I haven’t done anything to it, it’s doing it itself.

I thought at first it was just the cherry tree, but I had a closer look last weekend it’s everything except the apples and the kiwis.  Even the stone fruit which was only heeled in and got properly planted this week (very tardy) have teeny buds.  And the mulberry has actual little leaves.  I realise this is thrilling to no one but me, but that’s what my blog is for, so shoosh.  Every time I walked past a tree (which was lots of times because I am not an organised gardener, and had to keep running back and forth for tools) I would bend down to look.  And every time that little bit of green unfurling itself would take my breath right away.  Incredible.

I am particularly excited about the raspberries, for some reason.  Maybe because I wasn’t sure they’d grow where I planted them under a banksia type tree that sheds lots of leaves.  There was nothing growing there when I planted them, although now there are PLENTY of weeds to keep them company.  Maybe because the trees looked like trees, but the raspberries look like twigs that some idiot has stuck in the ground. Or maybe because OMG YOU GUYS RASPBERRIES!  I LOVE raspberries – well, all berries, really.  But I don’t bother buying them ever because they are so expensive and so hard to find good ones, it’s always just disappointing.  So I really really hope they grow well, although of course I won’t get any to eat for a year or two.  I have two avocado trees waiting until the soil is warm enough to plant them, and I picked the buds off of them.  It broke my heart (avocadoes!) but it had to be done.

I’m making myself a little diagram of what has gone in where.  When I check up my failing memory and make sure I haven’t left things out I will post it here for your unutterable delight!  You cannot help but be thrilled!

That was a joke.  It’s mostly because I can’t remember my own name half the time, and need to store this information somewhere.

I got a compost bin built last weekend.  I had the base and side of a crib that I got at hard rubbish at the old house, and recently scored a packing crate.  I asked S if he could dig holes for the star pickets, as he brought his nifty hole digger to finally plant the stone fruit.  Never give a job to a perfectionist.  I gave up helping and did some weeding, and a half an hour later I had a compost bin to put said weeds in.  The old, temporary compost bin which turned out to be in an inconvenient position has been covered over and left to moulder.  It’s mostly kitchen scraps and it’s been taking a month or so to compost.  I think it will probably go a bit faster, covered.  Which is good because I have some garden beds to dig, and they are mostly filled with rubble at the moment, so I shall be needing some compost.

I have found some chickens that I wish to buy.  They are Bantam Langshans, and I will probably be picking them up this Saturday.  So the other important job last weekend was to build a roost in The Dodgiest Chicken Dome Ever™, and stabalise it a bit.  It was nice to have that done.  I could really do with the chooks to help with the weeding – the bloody three cornered jacks are spreading and flowering.  There are just too many to dig up manually, although they appear to only be growing in one area.  So I’ll get the chooks in to eat them and then cover that over, I think, so they can’t ruin my summer.

I also did general pottering, pruning, watering, fertilising.  I got another binload of ivy down off of the fence.  One more lot to go, but it’ll be the hardest.  Some genius put a bit of concrete reinforcing mesh in there and the ivy has grown all through it.  Most annoying.  But then I can start growing some veggies in the bed under it, I reckon.  Tomatoes!  It’s almost time for tomatoes!  Planting, anyway.  MAN, I am tired of shitty winter tomatoes.

 Well, there is a lot of text here and not many photos, and that makes me nervous, so here are some photos of the $3 granny square blanket that I mentioned some time ago.

Because I am so super observant, I didn’t even notice that the squares have a pattern until I took a photo of it.

Isn’t it pretty?  It’s the perfect couch blanket.  Oh, and look, there are those poor neglected hexagon middles in a neat line along the top of the couch.  Haven’t been doing much crafting lately, to be honest.  No time, no time!  I seriously don’t understand how people with children manage to get anything done, ever.  Seriously.  When?  When do you have time?