Enough!

Looking at my previous post about my wonderful garden is making me depressed! Just after I took all those photos some horrible bugs came into the garden and basically ate EVERYTHING they could in one night. Peas, beans, lettuce, radishes, sunflowers, peppers - everything! Mind you, if the bugs hadn't come first I would have been depressed because we have just had about 4 days of VERY solid rain which has now left my garden like a pond. I am not sure if anything will actually survive, but chances are I may be starting all over again after the rain finally stops.

I am going to write about my father's visit here very soon, but in the meantime a quick update on the last couple of days. We had a group of junior high school girls come to stay for 2 nights - the first group for almost a year due to me being too busy to have them come and stay. The kids really enjoyed having some big sisters around for a few days and despite the CONTINUOUS rain we managed to do quite a lot and they were such a positive group that the rain didn't seem to worry them at all. Of course cooking became the main task - muffins, cookies, cakes, pizza, tako-yaki, roast turkey etc. etc. Despite them being so positive it was nice to be able to take them back this afternoon..... almost too much enthusiasm!
I'm not sure if this slideshow will actually work, but here are a few random photos of their visit.

Garden update

Here are a few photos of the vege garden (click on the photo to see it a bit larger...). At the moment it all feels very under control - zillions of peas coming on, the wheat growing tall, sweetpeas and lupins in bloom, first broad beans on the table tonight along with asparagus and snap peas, celery almost getting to the end of its life, tomato, cucumber, green pepper, chili, eggplant, beans and soyabeans getting bigger, boysenberry and raspberry bushes starting to flower, and potatoes and onions heading into their final growth stages. Very few weeds..... all a bit scary really! I'm sure that in a few weeks when the rainy season arrives the weeds will overtake the veges, but for now I am enjoying wandering around picking our tea!
Dad arrives on Tuesday so hopefully the great weather will hold out a little longer and the weeds will stay down so at least we can see the snakes coming....

Children's Day

Yesterday was the last of a string of holidays, but the only day that both my husband and I weren't working and that we could spend the whole day with the kids. It also just happened to be "children's day" so we decided to throw our bikes on the back of the car and head to a cycling road in Yabakei - about an hour drive from here. It is a beautiful area and they have converted an old railway track into a cycling track - a total of about 35kms. We only did a 10km stretch (20kms return), but it was really nice to be able to bike without worrying about cars. The hills are also very tame and it is neat to be able to ride through the old tunnels etc. I recommend it for anyone in the area. They have a great rental cycle service if you need it and the whole track is really well maintained. We will definitely be going back to do the other half in the very near future.
Here are a couple of videos from the ride....