I knew that would get you in. I'm actually no oil painting, but I am a bachelor for five days minding two houses with, betweeen them, eight bedrooms, five bathrooms, one swimming pool, one lift, one sauna, two spas and five televisions. Talk about consumption.

However, having revealed this home truth, it's my backyard that matters most. So this weekend I can't wait to dig in. I'm heading to a gardening joint with an open cheque book. I'm buying oodles of compost, poo and more.

I'm renovating every spare bed, digging and laying down dripper hoses for summer. Will have radio on and beers every now and then. Will miss the call for lunch, but maybe I will makee that in advance and pull it out of the fridge.

There's so much silverbeet, kohlrabi and carrots. Might cut a pile of beet, cook it, and freeze it. That's right. Need some Coriander. And don't forget the pet supplies for Scratch for my chookies.

Then there is the timberyard for boards and pegs to make a new bed. Okay okay, I'll plant some petunias. Need to mow the lawn. Weed and feed. Mint! Heavens yes. In the old washbasin by the kitchen window.

So much parsley I think I will make tabouli. I know I'll spend a lot of time looking at the sky. But I can't wait to get down and dirty. Very good possibility I will be sporting a serious hangover.

So what are you doing this weekend? :grub~

Sunday? If it fines up I might plant out all my tommies.
I planted out all my zucchinis, melons, squash, cucumbers yesterday.
Or I'll just munch on my freshly-baked chocolate chip biscuits. On the sofa. With a good book. In front of fire. And a good cup of coffee.
Mmmmhh...life is good.

I bought five new books today. Have a look at Tracks by Robyn Davidson, published by Picador. One woman, four camels, a dog and 17,000 miles of Aussie desert and twice as many of self examination. Very good. None too heavy. Wowed the critics. I like it a lot.

Great to hear of some Spring rain down your way. Pretty hollow promises on that front here. Forecast light rain = three drops.

I liked Tracks. It's a great book. What are the other books?

It rained heaps the whole day today. Plenty of rain. Both water tanks are overflowing. The ducks are happy. The dam is full. Everything is growing like mad. Especially the weeds and grass.

The Florence Fennel sprang up (sowed it a few days ago, just to give it another go), so did the Kohlrabi (not sure why I sowed that one), and the Scorzonera (hoping for big things there), the Muenchner Bier Radish is growing nicely, too.

Hope your weekend is a very productive and satisfying one! :)

I detest Robert Hughes for various reasons, but I did buy a soft cover version of The Fatal Shore. I know I know, passe. But could be good for a better sense of my grounding. When you're doing it tough, or so it seems, it's good to put it in perspective and lear what tough really is or was.

John Banville's The Sea. Oh my. This one is bought for style. He has a way with words. Beautiful prose. And I'm interested, in my line of work, in improving my ability to explain the sensations of coastal things. This looks really good and could be my best purchase. But you never know, right?

If the sea is getting to me, well, I can escape with Tracks. Desert. 1/2 way in. What a foil!

Last but certainly not least is Robert Drewe's latest "Grace" I love his other WA-based bestseller, shark or summer something. It's in the library over there. I bought this one for Ms Grub, who is in transit, about to endure 12 days of life aboard a boat in the Great Barrier Reef.

Better head to the other house now to make my dinner of spag, olive oil, homegrown rocket, chilli, garlic, melted anchovies, homegrown parsle, basil and oregano, grated homegrown lemon rind, and Pinto Gris. Bought that, of course.

Ranting. Ciao. Speak soon. Chooks asleep. Bon nuit, as Ray would say ;)

Today I'll be praying as they are forecasting hail down here. (this gardening stuff is starting to do strange things to me).
Not to witness my babies being bombarded we decided to disappear for the week-end. Going test-driving a few 4WD's this morning and then off to friends at Phillip Island for the night. Good food, good wine and good company....my kinda thing :)

Hope you all have a nice week-end
LynLyn

Take care with 37-38C!

Best, Grub

Has rained most of the day in eastern suburbs and have the heater on as its b........cold outside. Was thinking about mulching lots of areas but it was too miserable (14c) so hope to do it in the morn.

Light reader here....Jonathan Kellerman - Therapy......will while away the rest of the day finding out 'who did it'

Cathy

ps Would love some of your warmth.:)

love the dune (trilogy??) was it a trilogy that turned into 27 books? got to admit my ultimate sci fi love for the jitch hikers guide to the galaxy - and most recently for the Battlestar Galactica series - even resorted to watching channel bittorrent to keep up to date with the latest american releases.

maybe we need a scifi freak garden web??

Planting comfrey.. we got a pack of 25 cuttings and they're now very nicely gown in pots. Think I'll ring the fruit trees with the comfrey to bring up the nutrients and break up the clay soil.

Checking the potatoes - Dutch Cream and Royal Blue. They're just poking their headds above the straw and manure. A few are a little waterlogged... hope they recover!

About to have a very late breakfast of bacon & eggs with some Yellow Romas I bought from the supermarket... not bad but mine will be SO much better in Jan/Feb :-)

Here's the new bed I built today. 8ft x 3.3ft. Will rest it for 2-3 weeks then put eight more tomatoes in it. That gives me six beds each with eight = 48 plus 10 in pots = 58, plus three in the front garden - 61!

I'm freaking mad. With the bed I used double stakes to make grooves where I drop in the hardwood boards. Too easy.

In the background is the salad bar lined with carrots. It will all have to go in a few weeks to make way for you know what :)

We went to our annual Spring garden show today and of course I came home with more plants that I had to find room for. A Jalapeno pepper, zuccini, squash and more flat leaf parsley. Also planted out two Hercules pumkins. I just need to decide which tomatoes to put in my last three cages hmmmmm.
They are talking frosts again tonight so I will have to cover everything again. I dont recall having this much crappy weather in spring before.
Mantis

The girls do look good in this shot. One is 100 per cent. The other will come back to her peak fitness (and hopefully egg-laying prowess) for sure.

Hey Mantis if you let one or several of your parsely go to seed and let them fall where they are you will have ten times as much Continental Parsely for nix. I have it growing out of every crack, pot and even in the lawn.

Good stuff. Love munching on the bolting tops which are tender :)

Grub, great pics. Almost no lawn. I love it.

Fever overtook me and I planted 3 very tiny seedlings. I couldn't help it. Honest!

Grub, v. nice pics. Surely you could put another bed where that hoist is :-)

Monday morning. Sigh. At least I achieved my weekend goal.

Got my fence up and spread several barrow loads of compost, tidied up the kids vegie gardens, fed and topped up mulch on various vegies, strawberries, pumpkins, etc and set up a watering system for some of the vegies.

As for reading material, I like "who done its" and similar mystery types. Just finished Jonathon Kellerman's Therapy Saturday night. Not bad but a little slow. Have some more Kellerman to read yet, hopefully they're at least as good. I don't mind Kathy Reichs but Jeffery Deaver would have to be my favourite at the moment.