The Collie who stares at roos

I took Janus for our usual morning walk the other day and he stopped to observed those strange looking creatures. I let him tell you what happened.

Janus here... Yesterday morning I interfered 2 Bigfeet (the Australian Bigfoot version from what I heard). 

 Just checking that there's no more hiding.

 Nope, just those two...

 I just stare at them.

 2 Bigfeet!

There was 2 of them and just one of me, so I did give them the Collie stare to make sure they don't come anywhere near my Mum.They start to feel the fear from my Collie stare! You Bigfeet! Go away and leave my Mum alone! I succeeded and they jumped away. Very proud of myself and no barking required! I just stared at them and that made them fear me. After all, I'm Janus, the Collie King!!! 

I succeeded and they jumped away. Very proud of myself and no barking required! I just stared at them and that made them fear me. After all, I'm Janus, the Collie King!!! 

Janus is such a good boy and he makes me so happy! I took him to dog class last night and we spent  the first 15 minutes warming up by using balance balls, planks, doing superman stretches and 'little Janus' crouches as well as crawling, walking backwards, twirling ect. Anyway, whenever he does an exercise, he gets a treat and as he gets lots of treats on Tuesday night during class, he doesn't get fed that day. After we finished the warm up and discussed the agility course, he always pulled me back to the exercise items and looks at me like he would say "Look at me Mum, I'm doing the exercise - now feed me!!!!" I gave him a couple of treats and he was always going back in between our agility training. Then I stopped feeding him and barked madly at me, like he was going to say "Mum, bloody hell feed me, why do you think I'm doing this??? For fun??? Definitely not!!!" It was hilarious! We all had a good laugh and enjoyed our training session.

this morning, we walked a little later and missed the roos. But we practiced the 'stay' in front of a cow paddic with young heifers on it. Janus was getting a bit distracted and the heifers were rather curious, so I thought it might be a good opportunity to introduce Janus to cows as long as they were still little. We approached them and all but one brown heifer walked away. The brown one was really curious and so was Janus, he was getting closer and closer always looking for reassurance which I gave him and then I saw a black pointy nose and a black round nose closer and closer together until they finally touched and then both of them jumped away! Janus was very proud and so was the brown heifer. And I was just happy, watching these two this morning made my day.

Janus, I know you were sent to me by Hera and Quentin and I'm so grateful that you're part of my life - love you big Fluffball!!!

Spring Cleaning

Spring has well and truly arrived! I sat down outside on the weekend to take a quick break from all my activities and noticed one of my Hippeastrum's has began flowering! Christmas can't be too far off now...

Those are certainly Christmas colours.

Over the last weekend I have been busy. I made myself these bags - one each for the embroidery and sewing machine and one for the overlocker. They look great and are very handy!

The broody hen has been sitting on the fertile eggs for a week now and I keep my fingers crossed she stays on them for another 2 weeks. I'm really curious to see if my eggsperiment works and I end up with little chicks. The eggs of my Indian Ringneck haven't hatched yet. Still not sure if they're developing or not and she's so protective of them, I can't check. I guess I just have to wait and see.

The weekend was reserved for some spring cleaning action. I cleaned the windows, the couch, put new cushion covers on and deep cleaned the rugs. Now all looks nice and fresh now ready for spring and summer.

Mum, you're going to be sitting here soon!!!

I cleaned the kitchen, all lights, fans and air conditioners - ready for another hot summer - hopefully a wet one!!! Also I don't like my chances...

I also deep cleaned the mattress, washed all protectors and the pillows and exchanged the autumn/winter doona to the spring/summer one.

I also checked on my productive garden. I spent last weekend moving cow manure all over my gardenbeds and trees to ensure everything is growing nicely. This is part of my lemon and tomato harvest. I already made a lemon slice, froze juice, started my own batch of limoncello and I still have over a dozen lemons left. More cocktails I reckon! I have dried the tomatoes and marinated them with balsamic onions and feta - that will be my lunch sometime this week.

I'm nearly done with all my chores. My Mum is coming to visit me soon and I'm looking to spend some time with her relaxing and sitting in the garden and talk. By the time she leaves it's going to be pretty warm and the end of the gardening season is near. Over summer I do keep my herbs and any perennial plants going but everything else will be removed, I put the chooks on the area to 'clean' up and then I plant a cover crop to provide nutrients to the soil and to protect it. Depending on the weather, planting will start again in March. I normally plant cherry tomatoes and lettuce in pots in the patio to keep us going over summer. I also preserve all my excess fruit and veggies so we have plenty during the hot weather. 

How are you preparing for spring - or autumn, depending on where you are....

Spring is in the air

A few weeks ago I experienced a willy willy which pushed the bird cage over and moving the dog kennel in the chookpen. The dog kennel is used for protection of the chooks during rain or sun and it was moved about half a metre to the front. One of the chhoks was injured and she has been a bit weird since. Looks like she has some sort of neurological damage since the incident, poor thing.

When the bird cage fell over, Bella, our blue Ringneck escaped. She has escaped previously and always came back but she's about 10 years old now. So we were a bit worried about her. Mr S and I seen her flying around and one day I came home from work he reported he observed her feeding on our Grevillea when a Hawk too her. She was screaming and wiggling and eventually the Hawk let go of her. Mr S checked where she was dropped and she flew on his shoulder. When he wanted to take her to the cage, Janus jumped on him and she flew away again. She was gone for a week and our hopes for her safe return were diminishing.

On Saturday morning I observed her in a nearby tree and went to put a bowl of seeds down for her. She quickly went for the food and I caught her with a net and took her back to her cage. Since then she hardly came out of her Nestbox which she normally used for sleeping only. I checked the box and found 2 eggs in there! Ah well, I wonder what she was up to when she flew away... She had a few partners before but she always killed them and therefore she has ended up alone. I don't know if these eggs are developing, probably not but I would be curious to see what they are... She must have known it's spring...

My 200 x 150 cm study is too small for my sewing so Mr S and I have been thinking of options on where I could sew. Mr S really likes his mancave and he also wants to keep a separate room for Guests, so there's no other option than for me to move into the Patio. I bought a couple of cube shelves and put a door across and voila there's my new custom made sewing desk! Janus approved!

After painting the floor and giving the Patio a good clean, I redecorated. Janus received his 'big-boy-bed', a larger kennel where he can sleep in and rest, I made some mats for his feeding station and organised everything into boxes to keep it clean.

Mr S oiled all of our beautiful timber furniture, so they look like new again.

Love the Patio - it's one of my favourite places to be and now where it's spring again, it's nice and warm to be out here most days.

I decorated the table nicely...

... and even have some beautiful 'Night-Roses' on my sewing table.

The garden is ready for spring as well and this is the first harvest of my 'accidental' eggplants. Accidental in terms of I didn't plant them, the planted themselves in the chookpen. I sold some at work and made eggplant balls (like meatballs but with eggplant instead of meat) , cooked in tomato sauce and served with spaghetti - yum, they were amazing!

I replanted our hanging baskets on the Patio with some colourful plants.

These ones just look so cute!

Janus dropped in for work with me one day, he loves all the attention. Everybody loves having him around, the office seems a whole lot happier with him there.

Janus spending the evening with me on the couch...

He's so placid, loves to play and is just THE best thing which ever happened to me...

And he needs to rest and chew on his leather.

Selfie time!!!

I love my boy!!!

We have been doing Rally O and Janus is actually really good! I still make a few mistakes, but Janus is doing great!

Mr S and I enjoyed a few markets/event such as the Cultural Festival and CQ Eat Street. trying out new food in a nice atmosphere is always a lot of fun!

We need rain - desperately!!! It's really hard to keep everything alive. We haven't had rain since March...

However, I did manage to grow my first asparagus!!! How exciting! Now I need to read up about propagating it.

I'm also trying to grow Rhubarb again, I grew it once before but it wasn't the best spot, so I moved it to a partially shady position this time round. Fingers crossed. I've planted asparagus, rhubarb and perennial capsicum in one gardenbed as they should last for a few years.

I've ordered some 3 m3 of pure cow manure to fertilise all my gardenbeds and then I will water them thoroughly and I should get a successful harvest. This time of the year is great to work in the garden. It's not too hot, not too cold and I can get everything done befor the summer heat starts. I will post a few pics of my spring garden soon.