Broken Ribs and no butterflies?

Week 28 – Saturday, 5th July 2008

Got down to the lottie for two hours and managed to get a couple of odd jobs done. Also ended up picking a huge bunch of sweet peas for Mom. The perfume of them is really quite breathtaking. I am a bit disappointed with the Cupani that I have in a container on the back veranda though as I have had very little flowers off them and the scent is minimal. I was led to believe that they were the best smelling of them all and the original brought over from Italy by the monks! Oh well, will just keep feeding them and hoping for the best.

The dahlia’s and cosmos bed is looking really beautiful and we should have loads of vases of flowers right until the Autumn. The gladiolas have come up next to the shed – but no flowers yet! First time I am growing these so not sure when and how they flower. They are all flopping around a bit so will have to make a plan when I am next on the lottie and have time.

The pumpkins and gem squash plants are also looking very healthy but only have lots of leaves and no fruit that seems to be maturing. Not sure if it is just because there is not much bee action! The flower opens starts forming, then turns yellow and rots off!! I tried fertilizing two Hubbard Squash fruits and have marked the potential fruit so that I can start saving my own seed as this variety was from seed that I brought back from South Africa and will also need to save some of my corn this year. Hopefully it will take – fingers crossed! I harvested one zucchini about 15cms long and 10cm wide – the first of my ingredients for chutney. I think I feel a chutney making session coming on.

In the afternoon we went and helped Steve and Helen get their garden whipped into shape – it was in an appauling state and since Mom and Jacquie are taking over the house – we did have a vested interest. The garden was full of dead and overgrown trees and shrubs but after a couple of hours – several bags of rubbish later and a HUGE pile in the centre of the garden that needed to be carted off to the tip it was looking much better. That was the agreement – we came and helped but Steve had to dispose of all the rubbish. This backfired slightly as later in the evening he phoned asking Ron to come and assist and pull the trailer he had managed to loan to the tip – so Ron ended up dumping the stuff after all. Jacquie was a real trooper and was in there next to me despite her having broken ribs.

Well, it’s a long story – the broken ribs! At Rosemary’s beach party the kids were all piling on to one another so what does Jacquie do – jumps on the top of them (4 high now) – then Ron gets it into his bonnet to jump on top of the whole pile. Needless to say the pile came crashing down and he and Jacquie fell to ground quite hard. Jacquie could not move for about ten minutes and seemed to have lost her breath but she says that she definitely heard something pop! I have been watching her closely in case she has done some serious damage to anything so that I can shoot her off to A&E.