5 August 2020

How quickly life changes. We are in the Metro Melbourne area: Stage 4 restrictions as of Monday. My instant reaction was to dash down to Bunnings and buy veg seedlings and enough plants to last me 6 weeks. The announcement that we can order and pick up was a great relief but how would I know what to order if I can’t browse slowly around the aisles, wondering if that plant would fit somewhere, suddenly fall in love with one I just have to buy? The whole process of buying plants is a complex one that can’t easily be reduced to ‘order and pick up’. There are colours to consider, height and foliage to complement what’s in the garden already. Sun or shade tolerant, frost or drought. In the latter case, I admit to being very mean to native plants in summer, expecting them to survive in totally dry conditions. The trees and shrubs are almost all natives now, to suit the birds and the bees in the now- fallen big old tree.

I was determined to face down the bitter wind and rain the next day and planted broccoli in the raised self- irrigating veg plots that Pat made by cutting an old corrugated tank in half. I just had time to add a couple of trees to the ‘hedge’ growing behind the tanks when the rain came. ‘Hedge’ in this case being a 3-deep corridor of indigenous trees and shrubs along the fence line. We’ll put in grasses where shrubs did not thrive.

26 July 2020   @cantylane.com

My World

No travelling this year! We had a big trip planned to celebrate Pat’s big birthday. UK, Isle of Man, Croatia and finally Portugal to meet friends and ride the Camino route to Santiago. All on hold, like countless others. I’ve been thinking about blogging lately because we are usually overseas at this time, travelling, escaping Melbourne’s winter. This year’s journey will be through this extraordinary time of Covid-19 restrictions. As if the horrendous bushfires that began the year were not enough. Our planet is warning us. The Earth is fighting back.

Enough doom and gloom. This blog will be about my world, the 5 km radius I’m presently allowed to roam. ‘My World. is about writing and gardening and family and home. Welcome.