Belinda Moore

What a wet month April was. Many are saying it’s just like “the old wet season”. It was also full of public holidays and school holidays, which meant more time for home, friends and family for us all.

AT HOME: We’ve had a few clean-ups during April and it’s great to have room in the shed and some of the clutter gone. It’s amazing what accumulates in a year!

I’ve been trying to keep up with what’s going on in the area affected by Cyclone Larry. The media have moved onto other causes, of course. Many are still suffering and the magnitude of the damage and loss is starting to sink in to those affected.

Click HERE to read our experience of Larry and see some photos.

AT WORK: The proof of my section of the next issue of Education Choices looks fantastic.

Our eBay Store has quietened down after the luffa rush, but we’re still making a steady stream of small sales, which makes it worthwhile. We’ve a few ideas and new varieties I hope to release during May.

I’ve decided to undertake another small project with Aussies Living Simply which I’ll write more about next month.

IN THE GARDEN: We lost more paw paw trees with all the rain. The passionfruit vines are dying too. One is still going strong, and the others may still come back with some sunshine. There are more baskets of lemons to harvest. We haven’t been making anything with them, though have lots of frozen juice and jam stockpiled. What else to do with hundreds of juicy lemons? The rest of the young fruit trees are growing rapidly, and haven’t suffered in the wet weather. Being tropical varieties means they can cope with the contrast in seasons.

The hens were entertaining some roosters from up the road for awhile, but the early morning crowing was a bit much. They’re laying well, so the visitors must have perked them up a bit!

I weeded, pruned and mulched the whole kitchen garden and it’s planted out with seedlings. They’re doing well so far. I completed around half the main vegie patch and with Immi have a few punnets of seedlings started. I planted some things, but need to clear spaces and get trellises up to continue. We also planted a patch for chook food (grain and greens) and a lot more pumpkins, yellow passionfruit, cucumbers and more around the various fences and trellises. The pumpkin vines near the chook yard are doing really well, and we’ve a nice pile harvested and about a dozen on the vine to come. They are huge and sweet, Jap variety.

HOME ED.: Bowling was great fun! We have a busy month socially in May with parties and festivals, visitors and Beach Camp. We’ve started a new, simplified weekly routine which is working really well so far. It seems to have helped with balancing our days.

For family and friends to access our online photo album please email me for a password.