Early Summer and Christmas Break Ups

 Our Book Group meets on the first Friday of each month after lunch. The first Friday in December though, we meet in the morning to wind up the year and have a discussion on the last book we have read. Then we go off to lunch at a previously booked restaurant or pub.
This year however, we had a treat in that Catherine and Sue gave us a mini concert first off. Both women are accomplished musicians so we were privileged to hear some very fine music indeed. It helped to put us in a good mood before we tackled the book discussion.

The book we discussed was Nora Webster
by Colm Toibin, a fine and well known Irish writer. Most of us however were not enthralled with his social realism in this rather boring and lengthy tale of a young Irish widow finding her way after her husbands death. She was left with two young boys still at home and grown up daughters living away from home in the big city.
We were glad to escape to our chosen pub, high on the hill overlooking the beautiful Aldinga Bay. On the right you can see we enjoyed ourselves immensely despite the fact we had to wait over an hour for our food to arrive.......

We've decided to do something different next year...all going well of course.....
Remember to click on the photos to get a better look.
Our summer has started to affect our gardens rather early as we have had so little rain over the past three months. We did have 4ml of rain two days ago and it never ceases to amaze me how the Jacobean Lilies respond to quickly and show their elegant forms above the dry and brittle mulch.

 We were also delighted to see we still have a yellow water lily and since putting some bacterial stuff in the water the pond is starting to look so much better.
The white faced herons are hanging around again and looking to see if any fish are easy targets.
The birds some times land on the roof of the house and you'd think an army of clodhoppers had arrived. We had some rock pigeons land on the roof yesterday and they will get short shrift from me if they persist....

 The summer garden is just that, beige and dry.
I am trying to get a few Holm oaks going along the drive way, they have been in for three years now and are hardly making any headway.
The other plants are hardy geraniums and even they are finding it hard going.
I hope if and when when I get to the Pearly Gates
and asked what I might like to do in eternity, I can say I would like a garden with easy to work soil and unlimited water......

Brian's vegies have been an absolute disaster this year for unknown reasons... the seedling are eaten the moment they pop their heads up, the strawberry plants died in that terrible heat,
(the ones on the right are some I planted in the ground where as Brian's were in raised baskets )
and his tomatoes sit and sulk....
Never mind, the black birds are having a ball scattering the mulch and finding the bugs and the gum leaves rain down in great profusion......