On returning from our tropical island holiday to Perth winter, we piled on the layers of clothes and prayed for a sunny day to dry our washing. The first Saturday was very wet, however, m the washing needed to be done before Jen left for her drive back to Victoria, so after washing clothes at home she took them to the laundromat to use the tumble dryer. We unpacked and packed away all the summer gear, then caught up with a bit of shopping for lots of fruit and greens which we were all craving for after our low vegetable diet while away (except for the meals we had made from food we took). Jen cooked up a heap of lovely mixed vegetable stir fry to go with her defrosted Wahoo fish fried in panko crumbs. Yum!
Sunday I was back to my routine of waking early waiting for it to be light enough to go jogging. There were still a few showers but the day turned out to be lovely and sunny just as we had prayed. It was cold but it felt good jogging my well-worn path through the bush. The others were having a sleep in when I returned. Later Vi-Lay and I walked to church, where we met up with Vi-Lays friends from Sydney who were over on holidays. They were joining us not only for church but also Yum Cha. I had arranged for a few friends to go with us and Jen would pick us up after church. Vi-Lay went with her friends in their hire car so she could have a catch-up chat en route. Jan W and Glenda came in my car, which Jen asked me to drive as she’s still not used to busy traffic after being in the outback for a year.
The Canton Lane Restaurant, although 20 mins across town, is the only place in Perth I know that sells Durian Mochi, so I don’t mind making the effort. We put our name down for a table then had to wait for nearly an hour; this was fine as it gave us time for a coffee in a nearby café. The wait was worth it as we had a very enjoyable time together trying out many different treats before leaving very satisfied. I brought takeaway Durian Mochi back for Kath my neighbour, who also loves them. They were a thank you for her help while we were away. Bidding good travels to Vi-Lay’s friends we now had five in the car heading back to North Beach will full tummies. We didn’t do much else for the afternoon other than a sunset walk along the coast. We certainly weren’t hungry for the rest of the day.
Monday was another sunny day. Up early and jogging at dawn before the three of us set off to meet up with our cousin’s son Nat from the UK. We met at King’s Park and wandered around the gardens before stopping for a coffee and a snack. From here we drove west through the park, coming out near my old school in Claremont, then north through the back streets to Floreat and down Oceanic Drive to Reabold Hill. Here there is a 360⁰ view over Perth, south to Freo, west to the ocean and north to Hillarys. A short diversion to see Jen’s old high school which is now an international school and into the cul-de-sac where we lived growing up as teenagers, then down to City Beach, which is Nat’s favourite place in the whole world, before stopping at Trigg Beach for fish and chips for lunch. We then went to Hillary’s Boat Harbour for a walk around and an ice cream before calling into my place for a quick stop before dropping Nat off at Stirling Station. By 6pm the three of us girls were exhausted, tucked up in bed to keep warm and reading trying to keep awake till at least 8pm!
There was something not quite right that night. My gut kept rumbling, I felt a little nauseous and there were slight cramps. I tossed and turned, uncomfortable all night. By the morning I had full on gastro! Tuesday I spent the day in bed fasting on gastrolyte and sleeping. Praise God this wasn’t a busy day although I had wanted to prepare for TAFE which was the following day. The girls packed as they were both leaving on Wednesday. Jen in her ute, driving across to Adelaide then on to Ocean Grove, Victoria and Vi-Lay flying back to Sydney and work.
That night I took half a Phenergan to make sure I slept, having slept the whole day, as I really didn’t want to miss another day of studies, I’d already missed the first week. I woke early and fiddled around packing things I needed for the day, including a thermos of warm gastrolyte. We were all out the door by 8am, Vi-Lay into an Uber, Jen into her ute and myself into the car. I was still feeling weak but with nothing in my system, I felt I should be safe. It was really sad seeing everyone go after we had spent such wonderful times making memories together. I really miss the banter, company and movement around the house.
Third term schedule is one full day on Wednesdays and from midday to 3pm on Thursdays. I enjoy going in the afternoon as I’m able to get stuff done in the morning before I go. This term I’m studying the Native ecosystem, Soil improvement and Plants and Culture, which is all about planning and preparing a client’s garden. For this assignment I’ve chosen to use all native plants. We also had to do a presentation giving information on the garden design we had chosen. What a challenge! Firstly, and I don’t know how, I had all the measurements wrong. I should have taken them myself, instead I was given them from another student. Because of this I had to redo my design which was about double the size so double the plants too! Praise the Lord I found out before actually doing the final drawing! I had also done the layout on my computer, which I was later informed wouldn’t be acceptable, as that was level 4 Horticulture and I was only doing level 3! Once again back to the drawing board; our designs needed to be hand drawn on graph paper. Final copy done, I scanned it so that I could submit it and include it in the PowerPoint which needed to be presented in class. In the end I had quite a bit of fun with this assignment and thought I might try my hand with some designs for friends.
Apart from this, we actually paid the TAFE for the opportunity to weed around Joondalup Lake! Yes, part of our course was to pull out weeds! If you ever go down to the lake, please check out the huge, over-a-meter high mound of couch grass which has been pulled up over the years by TAFE students.
The new class rooms, or should I correctly say sheds, are not the best for mid-winter as they are high ceilinged and fully tin-clad, including the roof which is quite noisy when it rains. All of first term the duel-cycle ducted air conditioning wasn’t working either, but I must admit when you got out of the wind, it was a little warmer inside then out! At least we all thought it was duel system!
I do enjoy the sharing we students do with cuttings and plants. I was able to give away all my Geraldton wax seedlings which I had propagated last term as well as some of my fig and grape cuttings from my recent pruning. I have received a mulberry cutting which I’m hoping to add to my ‘Omono bonsai’ collection (‘Omono’ meaning four hands, depicting how many hands are needed to carry the pot, classifies Bonsais which are 76cm -1mt tall).
One of the main reasons for me doing Horticulture was to learn how to bud and graft so that I could graft different types of fruits onto my trees. This year I tried my hand at grafting buds from one variety of fig onto my Black Genoa fig, which my sister Tricia gave me not long after I moved into the unit in 2017. God willing they will take and I will have two varieties of fig on one tree. If so, I’ll try another variety next year.
One Friday evening just before I turned in, I heard what sounded like water splashing and continuing to splash coming from my back garden. I brushed it off until I realised there was no water for my shower. I heard the sound again so went to investigate. Turning on my outside lights I saw a pile of sand as if it had been moved with a large gush of water. I couldn’t see anything amiss but decided to turn off my hot water system and the water to the house. I then rang my neighbour Kath to ask it I could have a shower at her place with the hope of fixing whatever was wrong in the morning as it was now after 8pm. I heard more water gushing and decided to check out what was happening as I then realised it was coming from the house behind me. At the top of her driveway there were men at work! The mains water had burst from the mains pipe and flooded my neighbour’s lower floor which she and her family were bailing out down the side of the house which was the gushing sound I had heard. I then visited all the owners in my block, letting them know the water was turned off and would be for some time before the pipe was fixed. Praise God I had buckets of rain water collected in my back yard. I brought in a bucket, boiled the kettle and took a shower from that. Unfortunately it wasn’t as warm as I had hoped, only taking off the chill but it was better than nothing. Instead of warming me up before bed it woke me up! Praise the Lord the pipes were all fixed and water back on by the morning. Except of course for all the sand that had been washed into my neighbour’s home.
The next day I realised when doing some of the clean-up that someone had thrown piles of sand all over my garden. I wasn’t impressed! So when I saw the Water Board come to fix the pipes and the team to fix the pavement, I asked if they would mind not doing the same. I was pleased to hear they always removed all rubbish from the site. That wasn’t the case with the company that replaced the fake grass. Unfortunately I missed their visit and once again there was sand in my garden piled on top of my plants. Fortunately I was able to remove most of it. I asked my neighbour which company did she use and was informed it was all done through insurance. I then called the insurer but was not giving out any details so then I called around to some of the companies and asked if they had done the job, but none had. I asked them to pass on the request to their teams to please take away any rubbish when doing a job so that what was done to me would not be repeated. They were very understanding and agreed it should never have happened.
Ben, one of last semester’s horticulture students, very kindly offered to help me cut back my roses. He arrived with his large cutters and a pair of secateurs. I had sharpened mine in preparation and made up a spray bottle of 3 parts Metho to 1 part water to sterilise the blades between bushes; this helps prevent the spread of any disease. It took us about two hours to cut all the roses in the front and the climbing rose at the back. The last rose to cut was the Lagerfeld which was the one Ben had his eyes on for some cuttings. My roses now bare were ready for all the fresh spring growth. Now I just needed to keep on top of the thrips! That morning I had also collected some white-seedless-table grape cuttings from a barista buddy at church. Not that I needed more grapevines but I thought if I could get the cuttings going I could give them away. I also thought I’d like to try to get one to grow in a pot over a small trellis. Another experiment.
This month we have had what seemed like one week wet, one week dry weather. One lovely sunny day before the next storm rolled in, I was busy in the garden cleaning up, digging up my agave so that I could transplant a beautiful red frangipani which had slowly been overgrown by the Olive Leaf Grevillia. I’m praying, because it’s still in dormancy, it will survive the move. Sophia, my neighbour was delighted to be gifted all the agave which she lined up along the edge of a retaining wall. I also dug up another kangaroo paw which hadn’t flowered for years as it was now well under the shade of a taller bush. I planted these around the base of the frangipani. Where I had dug out the kangaroo paw, for years I’d been digging out the onion grass so now with a cleared space I was able to dig out more. It’s a continual struggle to keep on top of the onion grass as the baby bulbs fall off the parent bulb when pulling them out so that the following year there is more! Still I do believe with persistence I’m slowly getting on top of them.
One Sunday after church I picked up Natalie, a friend from my 2021 TAFE propagation class, to attend the Perth Orchid Show. I’d let Monica know about it too so we met her there. I’ve inherited Mum’s orchids but have only had one flower. I don’t think they are getting enough sun during the winter which is not unusual for my garden. There were so many beautiful orchids in flower some so small you had to look very closely to see them. As usual I couldn’t resist buying something, this time a Birds Nest Fern and a Wood or English Violet, Viola Odorata. As a child they were my favourite flower and for years I’ve been trying to find a plant to grow.
Another after church activity this term was a second Yum Cha lunch, this time in Morley which is much closer. I was surprised and delighted this place too had Durian Mochi. I’ll be going here again no doubt!
With all bar one assignment to finish and pass in, I’m feeling the pressure is now off and I can start to look forward to the end of term three and a break before term four starts the first week of October.
Photos: 1. Boronia crenulata 2. Eucalyptus in King’s Park 3. Nat, me and Jen Hillarys. (Note Nat in summer shirt, Jen and I in winter jackets!) 4. North Beach groin 5. Weeding at Lake Joondalup 6. Digging holes in the lawn to measure water velocity of the soil. 7. Last of my roses 7. Orchid Festival
Prayer & Praise Points:
Praise God for an eventful third term not only in the classroom but in the garden and with catching up with friends.
Praise the Lord for the first signs of spring and for all the wonderful rain interspersed with sunny days.
Please continue to pray with me for peace in Taiwan and Europe. For the refugees and all those caught up in the suffering this war has caused, both in Ukraine and Russia.
Please continue to pray for my sisters, Tricia, Jen and Kat to come to know Christ’s love for them.