Loving this time of year...

image: fanpop.com

I love Christmas.


I love the kitch-y-ness of it all; the tinsel, the lights, the corny Christmas carols wherever you go. I love bursting out into song at the drop of a hat even if I don't know all of the lyrics and sing the same verse or chorus over again. I love embarassing the Princess and Little Man by breaking out into an impromptu rendition of Frosty the Snowman in the middle of the supermarket. I really do love tinsel!

I do not like the cockatoos that keep chewing my Christmas lights to the point where I've had to admit defeat and take them off the front fence. Bah humbug to you, cockatoos!

I also do not like the fact that I've taken back two sets of solar LED lights to Big W that are faulty. The Groom does not share my passion for Christmas lights so it is up to me to put them up - and then take them down prematurely when after a couple of days in the sun they have still not charged or the lights go out after only a couple of hours of use into the night.

I've got another two sets that could be faulty. One set was working when I first set them up last week. I moved them to the other side of the front of the house (because the light emitted was way too bright to be shining into the bedroom window), but now they're not. The other set was flashing away nicely until about 9pm last night when they faded to a dull nothing-ness, before finally quitting altogether by the time I woke at midnight. It must be the Big W brand I think. I've used Mirabella ones for years without a hitch, but they've all managed to get broken or lost in the move to the new house or in storage.

This will be our first Christmas in the new house. We haven't made a lot of changes so far, other than the ensuite because the sellers 'neglected' to tell us the wetseal in the shower recess wasn't sealing and our wet carpet was the first tell-tale sign of a problem. No, we didn't get a pre-purchase inspection because we knew the sellers. It also wouldn't have shown up as the house had been vacant for 6 months anyway and any dampness would have long dried up.

I've planted some Bush Cherry's, Native Peanuts, rosellas and Tahitian Limes that were gifted to me by my lovely friends, Helen, Harry and Lou. I have also planted Black Bean, Illawarra Flame Tree, New Guinea Bottlebrush and bottlebrush and grevilleas that I've bought from fetes and markets.

We've got a lot of trees that will have to come out, too. The previous owners planted 3 poincianas metres from the front of the house about 4 metres apart from each other. Beautiful for their shade when they grow to full height, but way too close to the house for anyone's liking!

My chicken yard is still in a state of half-readiness for new occupants. If the Groom has managed to have a couple of days at home to work on re-fencing the yard, it has rained non-stop so that no work can be done on it. I've planted a bush lemon in their yard to go along with the Native Mulberry and 3 pigeon peas; there are also a number of young-ish mahogany trees in the yard, too, for shade that we built the yard around.

My vegetable garden is nothing to speak of right now. We plan to redesign and enlarge it after the wet season, so at the moment it is being left to its own devices. I donated a 20kg bucket full of Lebanese eggplant to a local Foodbank because we have more than we can eat. That bucketful was mostly from one picking! Eggplant seems to be my forte when it comes to growing vegetables, I think.

My tomatoes pretty much died off, and just as I was getting ready to dig them up, along came the start of the wet and they've all struggled back to some sort of life. Of course, I can't rip them out while there are flowers and some fruit on them now, can I. If we had the chickens I probably could. But the dogs love tomatoes, too, so every time I head over there I find myself being followed by the excited yips of 3 dogs! They've even taken to helping themselves to the cherry and tiny toms! The little sneaks.

Yep, I love this time of year. Everything is green and lush and you can almost see the grass growing. Mowing is almost a weekly occurence and heaven help you if you get behind schedule. The weather is humid and tiring, but school has finished for the year so we can just hang around under the ceiling fan and watch dvds or sit out on the back patio and watch the honeyeaters and other birds go about their day.

It is heaven. I'm so glad we left the crowded suburbs.