Spring has sprung!

Spring is in the air and so are the bloody allergens! Gah, I don't think my allergies have been this bad since before my desensitisation injections. My poor little Molly is suffering too - she keeps biting her feet, rubbing her nose on everything she can and dragging her arse along the ground. Hopefully our meds will kick in and ease the suffering somewhat.

Before I really get into the swing of things I promised Boo that I would shout out a big hello to her friend David, whom I've never met but apparently keeps asking after me. So hello David! Not sure why you find me so interesting but hello nonetheless :)

This weekend was chocked full of busyness, I don't think I've stopped! On Friday night I took Molly to the vet, had dinner at my sister's place and then found myself home alone as Christian was out at a mate's place. I ended up going to the gym and then when I got back decided my fringe was a bit too long and my hair was a bit too brown. So out came the scissors and hair dye, I hacked off the fringe and have retured to my normal blue/black :D
And since everyone has been nagging for photos, here's a couple.


Both my sisters have recently started a weight loss campaign and as usual I jumped on the bandwagon. But then found that I was stressing and feeling shit about myself simply because I get obsessed with my weight when I'm dieting. Boo gave me this link which is a blog by a lady whom embraces herself for herself and believes in being healthy at any size. It really got me thinking and I decided that instead of hating myself, why don't I give up trying to lose weight, accept myself for who I am and make choices that are healthier than the ones I have previously made. That way, if I have a piece of cake one night I won't beat myself up because I've made five other choices that day that were healthier than I normally would have made.
Does that make sense?
Anyway, I guess what I find most difficult is accepting that there are people out there who find me attractive, since I just don't see it. But obviously there are people out there - otherwise I wouldn't have gotten married, seen that hot semi-lesbian action in Edinburgh (lol), had an affair or had a close friend tell me she's fallen in love with me. And so I decided that if other people find me pretty then I should start telling myself that I am and hopefully I'll start feeling like it!
The hair job had me feeling pretty good and so to further this cause yesterday I made sure I dressed in affirmative and pretty clothes. I may have been doing nothing other than going furniture shopping with my bestie but that didn't matter in the slightest.

I wore the top I got in Walmart in Canada with pride, which I have always felt self conscious wearing in the past...


And to top it off my favourite black skirt with pretty stockings and my bear shoes.


And you know what? I felt absolutely fucking fantastic the whole day!

On another note, my Dad arrives in a week and a half (YAY!) and so I've been busy getting the house all nice for the visit. This weekend I've really concentrated on the garden and I'm quite happy with the results. I got all my pots out the back tidied and weeded, the paths and driveway sprayed, my front garden beds weeded, manured and mulched and the lawn mowed. With that all done I can spend the next week making sure the inside gets up to scratch :)

I won't bore you with the rest of the details from my weekend since it mainly involed catching up with friends and watching the F1 race (*sob* poor Webber!) but at least I'vr gotten around to posting!

The garden and Darcie's birthday outing.

A garden post for Shawna and Boo! Enjoy ladies :D

Last Friday I wasn't being paid to do anyone else's garden so I thought I'd take the time to actually do something in mine. It had begun to look rather sad and neglected and lots needed to be done. On the Thursday night I had headed to Bunnings (the major hardware and gardening store here) and had what I like to call 'A Bunnings Orgasm'.
You see, I have a Bunnings fetish, I simply cannot walk out of the store without something for my garden, usually over a hundred bucks worth of something for my garden...
And this time was no different. $115 later I had compost/soil conditioner, petunias, garden ornaments, a dwarf apricot Oleander (one of the Mighty Tough, Super Hardy range lol), a new miniature rose and some sheep poo (yay for manure!).

I was kept rather busy on Friday. Apart from taking a slight break to drive the twenty five minutes to Christian's work to pick up some house keys after accidentally locking myself out (loooong story) and another trip to Bunnings when I realised I didn't have near enough plants to fill my empty pots, I accomplished quite a lot.

These are my pots out the front (please note the soil here is shocking and so I have a mainly potted garden). I replaced the miniature rose on the right after the last one succumbed to the intense heat we've been having lately and replaced the annuals I had in the small pots with some white Petunias. I also swept around and picked up all the dead leaves and it looks much better.


Out the front we have two garden beds my Dad built, the only ones we have. The beds have been built right up but the soil is still pretty bad. I weeded and then dug in compost and sheep shit and I'm hoping it will improve the soil a lot.
Apart from some bulbs that aren't out at the moment, I've ripped out everything from the beds apart from the Frangipanis.
We have two Frangipanis, one scarlet which is a very traditional shaped Frangipani...



and our white one which is not so traditional...
It seems to have the traditional shape with a smaller flower in the middle. My gardening bosses are coming round in a couple of weeks for a party and I'm hoping to get their opinion on it as I've not seen one like it before (not that I in any way, shape or form claim to be a Frangipani expert)


I forget what this small tree is called (something like Snow Bush I think...) but it sits to the right of my front door and in summer has thew most glorious pink leaves. This photo just doesn't do it any justice at all. The dog stake is new :)


This little guy is another of my new ornaments and he's sitting the rose closest to the door. When the wind moves him, he waves!


Just a general view of my front garden (please ignore the dead and uncut lawn!)


A while back I was doing a job of laying roll on lawn and there were six rolls left over. Our back lawn has been in a very sad state, full of weeds and so we let it die off this summer and our plan was to rip it up and start new with seed. Six free rolls of lawn though was too good an opportunity to pass up and so we laid it a couple of weeks ago. It seems to be taking nicely. Our plan when it is fully established it to rip up the rest of the grass, fence it off to keep Molly out and plant seed. Hopefully we'll swing it so the seed and roll on merge nicely together.


And moving out the back. I just hope you're not too thoroughly bored as yet ;-)
On my second trip to Bunnings I picked up several Gerbras because they were just so pretty and as they like full sun should do well in this spot.


Just a quick shot of some of my pots. Nothing much has changed here except a tidy up and a Petunia added. Boo wanted to see it though :)


Oh and this little man...


The opposite fence. This is a trouble spot for my poor plants and some things just don't do well at all. I had several pots, the gloomy graves of long lost plants, that needed to be filled and so I used up the last of my Petunias and my remaining Gerbra. The plant in the white pot on the far left is the Oleander and I hope it will go well there. It's a funny spot. Just out of sight on the left are my ferns and palms that do really well in the shade of the house but that one spot gets morning sun but afternoon shade. My Geraldton Wax carked it, I think due to not enough sun and the rose I used to have there just never flourished, possibly for the same reason. I'm hoping that being Mighty Tough and Super Hardy will help increase it's chances...


I can never remember what these two trees are called. Some kind of Elm maybe? My Dad potted them when he lived here and shortly after I moved in I repotted them in these massive pots (that Bunnings encounter was much more expensive...) and they have just gone berserk. I have strung up some solar powered fairy lights in them but unfortunately I have been unable to get a good night shot of them so you'll just have to use your imagination.


So there you have my garden. Still a lot to do but looking much better than she has lately.

Now my niece Darcie has grown up all of a sudden and next week will be ten. Ten! Can you believe it! It's scary to think that a whole decade will have passed since she was born. I feel old!
I told her I would take her shopping for her birthday and so she came over today (Saturday) and we went out with her mum, Jo.

Before we went out though I told her I needed pics of my garden and we inevitably got more than just the garden.

This is Miss Molly Moo wanting us to play ball with her.


Darcie pulling a face...


I don't think she realises that is the wind changes, she'll be stuck like this forever...


We were heading out to Carousel, a huge centre in Cannington but on the way I told her we had a stop off to make at our small local centre. She didn't know what was install but when she saw him, her face just lit up.

Isn't he beautiful???


However, after months of wanting a ride in the Snoopy kennel, Darcie came over shy and refused at first to get in. Eventually she did though and found that one of the down sides to being almost ten is that you're not the target group of shopping centre ride inventors.
It was a little small...


Oh the disappointment!


After that we headed out to Carousel and while there I tried to find this shirt. I bought it the other day from a surf shop ( I never go into them! Ever! I lost my surf shop virginity!) and was wearing it this morning when I rang Boo. I described the shirt to her and she said that she'd rather like one and so I figured while I was out I'd pick one up. Unfortunately, they seem rather popular and they only had XXL ones left :( So I will probably have to get one online but for some reason they don't ship direct to the UK so it'll have to take a roundabout way to get to her!

We were all pretty tired and the three of us traipsed around numerous toy departments, getting more and more exhausted each minute. I explained to Darcie that she didn't have to chose something right now and she didn't even have to get a toy/game/dvd but could save the money and use it to go to the movies or play mini golf in the future. This appealed to her but since she also had some money that Nanna had given her, she eventually got a skateboard from Christian and I (all broken bones will be entirely out fault!) and kept the money from Nanna for future use.

We then headed down to Scarborough to the beach to have fish and chips for dinner and to have a play on the playground and to chase the waves. Darcie was very eager to get down to the water...


I love this photo even though she is a little poser!



It was rather overcast and we'd had a few spots of rain and so the ocean was rather wild.


Look! Some freak with only four toes has been down this way! lol



Wondering if it's too rough for a dip...


Darcie and I just before we left to go home. As you can tell, it was rather windy.


And so I got home, exhausted and sleepy and had my first bath of the year! I love soaking till I get more wrinkly than a Nanna and it gives me time to read so now I'm feeling quite relaxed.
After I finish this post I'll probably have an early night and sleep cannot come soon enough!

Randomness

I went to the Perth Royal show today with my family and plan to do a big photo post for you about the day. However our net connection has been shaped (we've used up our ADSL quota of our plan and have been shaped to dial up speeds - blurgh) so that's going to have to wait for another day.

Instead I'll share some random stories with you.

I like stories :)

First of all, I was out shopping the other day at the large shopping centre where I work, looking about for a birthday present for a friend. I had in mind what I wanted to get him but I just couldn't find it anywhere (it was one of those novelty wine glasses that holds a full bottle of wine for those of you who care). So I was a bit distracted as I walked along, pondering what to get as a replacement present.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a Green Peace stand with active looking members trying to gather support. Now, I don't have anything against Green Peace in general, I actually used to pay my twenty bucks a month for membership, but these days I have more important things to spend my money on. So I walked on by as quickly as I could, trying to avoid eye contact and attempting to look very interested and distracted by the fruit and veg shop on my other side.
Now that tactic usually works. It's a rather polite way of pretending they're not there and showing disinterest.
Alas, not that day.
I was suddenly and abruptly brought to a complete halt by a girl who jumped right in front of me and demanded of me 'So, how do you feel about the whales?'

Whales?

Unfortunately I'm not one of those people who can come up with a witty comeback on the spot so I kind of 'errred' and 'ummmed' and using a dazed and confused expression I made a hasty getaway.
Looking back on it now I'd have loved to have replied 'Oh, very tasty' or 'They're a menace and have to be stopped!' or even 'Sorry, they're not my type, just don't do it for me'.
If only we could turn back the clock, eh?

Moving right along...
As most of you probably know by now, I'm not much of a gardener but I really give it my best shot. Once summer comes my little potted garden should be thriving and most of the plants will be flowering, filling me with a sense of fulfilment. I love it when plants that I've cared for and nurtured really take off and thrive.
And so I was extremely happy with the way one of my plants was coming along once spring had arrived. I had planted two seedlings last summer in an old shallow pot that I put onto of a birdbath stand, the plan to be that once it started flowering (a cute little flower in shades of purple and yellow) it would grow over the pot and hang down, with a curtain of flowers (don't ask me the name of the plant because I'm useless with stuff like that). At the start of winter they had died right back until all that remained was a few twigs sticking out of the pot. A couple of weeks ago though when the weather had gotten a bit nicer, I ventured outside and was amazed to find a thriving plant, already starting to overflow from the pot and small flower buds already developing.
I was so pleased, I made sure it had plenty of water and kept an eye on it, looking forward to the explosion of flowers I'd soon be seeing.
So, Mum comes to visit me and we went out the back and were chatting while I watered my garden. I told her all about how happy I was with this plant and she goes over to look at it. Mum turns around with a look of disbelief on her face and just stares at me.
'What's wrong?' I ask.
'Annette, are you serious?'
Huh? 'Uh, yeah. Why?'
'Because this is a fucking Bindi. Don't you recognise Bindi's when you see them?'

And yes, my mother does swear like that.

I couldn't believe it! The plant I had so lovingly nurtured turns out to be the same nasty weed infesting my lawn and planning on giving me nightmares all summer! And I had no idea!
In my defence I must say that this is the first time I've ever really had a lawn. At our old house we had a kind of clover ground cover around the washing line and that was it and at my Mum's the grass there is pretty much weed free. I had no idea what the heck a Bindi looked like!
Mum pulled the cursed weed out and underneath was the sorry remains of what was my little flowering plants.
The good news is that they seem to be recovering nicely and will hopefully make a spectacular comeback this summer.
The bad news is that I still have a nasty Bindi infestation on my front lawn that no amount of Weed and Feed seems to be able to eradicate.

*sigh*

Lastly, Bimpkin has returned from his trip across the US and is now with Alex again. Hopefully Ale...I mean Bimpkin, will update his blog very soon with photos of his adventures. He has spent the past month or so on a cross country road trip with one of Alex's friends, visiting graveyards and cemeteries. I'm looking forward to it!