a relaxing half hour cutting back the overgrown grass along the front edging, until driven inside by the mosquitoes

there's a scarily large European wasp[1] buzzing around the outside of the house, I'd better check it can't get in and hasn't started a nest

[1] European wasp

two blissful nights of no feral ginger cat, then it was back at 5am and again just now, prowling around and yowling, trying to get back under the house

Under the house may finally be cat-proof again… or at least cat-resistant

After spending a couple of hours on Saturday & Sunday I’ve reattached all the weatherboards and base-boards that the restumpers removed to get access — I may not have done it well, but there don’t seem to be any holes left for the feral ginger cat to get in through. It appeared twice yesterday evening on the back porch and back garden, but bolted off when we approached. First night in four or five days it hasn’t woken me between 2-5am yowling under or around the house.

the Just Joey and Charles de Gaulle roses are flowering and look near perfect in the light misty rain

gathered up all the concrete rubble left around the place by the restumpers, now to get rid of it…

the large pile of old red-gum house stumps is now neatly stacked to dry out and become firewood

A very large pile of muddy part-rotten red-gum timber house stumps are lying on the front lawn… must get around to moving them soon

fruit on the plum tree is starting to pull the branches down so we have to duck under them already

the snowball bush is covered in flowers, all still green

the jasmine along the fence to the south is in full flower, smells strongly in the still spring air

snails have eaten most of the basil and lettuce seedlings

woken again by yowling cat outside; either the neighbours still let theirs out or we've another local feral one

the new Freesias are flowering – paid a bit more for red & blue bulbs, seems I got ordinary pink & yellows, oh well

Callistemon out the front has started flowering, so every second woman who walks past snaps off a flower, or a few flowers, or a small branch

old mate has a different iced coffee bottle today, still lobbed over the fence from the park into the back garden

Finally got around to cutting down the trunk of the dead birch tree on the south of the house, two left still growing, until the next heatwave

While having lunch a Grey butcherbird[1] landed on the porch railing and watched us through the window, while singing and shouting at the cat

[1] Grey butcherbird

The front lawn and path are absolutely covered in dozens of snails, I have no idea where they all came from

blossom mostly gone; plum tree and magnolia now covered in leaves, the first freesias are out

Early morning three days in a row, a bottle chucked on the front lawn; Coke, Sarsaparilla, Coconut water

our mate who chucks Dare choc. milk bottles over the fence into our garden is still at it, another one today… still don't know who it is though

the blossom is out on the peach tree in a pot, I wonder if we'll get any peaches?

the large fragile succulent has finally been repotted from the tall skinny pot to a wider one… and drastically pruned, maybe it won't fall over in the wind now

blossom; the pink street plum, magnolia, the one hyacinth, camellias, white plum, they're all doing it

the magnolia is in full flower, the pink street-plum coming out, the white shed-plum just starting… it's nearly spring

Unit one at the end of the street has had their entire garden stripped, no more overgrown hedge, no trees, no bushes, nothing

cleaned the evil muck out of the gutter on the south side of the house, then wedged it up a bit with old Ikea brackets

the raggedy looking daffodils are flowering, the magnolia now covered in blossoms – despite the wind this week

serious rose pruning is underway, the tour de france is over, so in this garden the rose pruning commences

the grape hyacinths have started flowering, the white bulbs flowering too

First magnolia blooms are out, the street-tree plum is showing pink buds, the daffodil buds a touch of yellow

another empty cartoon tossed in over the fence this morning, back garden & coconut water this time

old mate back to old tricks; Cam came home to find another "Dare" iced coffee bottle thrown over the fence into the front garden

frost all over the lawn and garden this morning

outside it's cold and damp, the daphne is flowering and smells wonderful

the daphne is flowering, in an evening break from the day-long rain I could smell it wafting across the garden

harvested the first Pak Choi for chicken stir-fry tonight

brr, frost on the ground this morning

the pak choi are growing well, might be able to harvest some of the bigger ones soon

oranges have started ripening, we find about one a day on the ground under the tree, two today

the Cordyline against the bedroom wall has resprouted and scratches noisily up and down on the wall when the wind blows, I've broken off all the resprouted bits … again