A New Year At The Hedge

It's high time to rid your blog rolls of the Hedge's Merry Christmas post, so just a quick update on what's been happening here.

• Chrissie came & went in a flash & baby Gracie now has a direct line to Peppa Pig via her new Peppa cell phone.
• MOTH & I hopped in the car on Boxing Day & drove to Melbourne. It's a long 7 hour drive & by Bordertown we've well & truly run out of things to say to each other. But this year was a breeze thanks to Pinterest & the great 4G network on my phone. I managed to add a further 1,278 pins to my account on the trip over & back......how good is that! 
• We did Chrissie Mk11 with MOTH's family, caught up with our mob of lovely Melbourne friends, spent quality time with the 3 Melbourne sons & hit the post-Chrissie sales with a vengeance (well at least I did!)
• Work has been full-on since the 2nd week of the year, lots of nerve-racking, complex cases to welcome me back. I just want it to get easier......
• We've just lived through one of the worst heat-waves in decades, think 5 days + of unrelenting 110-115F. The poor Hills wild-life really suffers in this weather, this photo of a koala trying to find some shade on the verandah roof of my favourite store Maple, in Stirling's main street sums up how we all felt on Day 6.
• A shiny new PC has been installed on the desk at home, I'm optimistic that it may provide me with the impetus to post more regularly, although I think I just heard a collective global laugh from Hedgies everywhere!
• The main bedroom has been totally out of commission for nearly 3 weeks. As usual, what started out as a small 2 hour job, has turned into the full catastrophe. It's too complicated to explain now......pics & an explanation to follow soon.
• The birthday fairy waved her wand at me & added another year to my passport.
• Sadly, no offers for full-time work in the media have been forthcoming since I dropped that less-than subtle hint in my Chrissie post. MOTH's offered to act as my appointment maker, so Helen McCabe from Bauer Media's PA had better be prepared for the call from His Smoothness. Although I'm not sure his opening line of 'Gidday love, MOTH here, put me through to Hels will ya.' will achieve the desired result!
• How are things in your world? 

Getting My Drift

MOTH 's crook back is giving him less grief at the moment, so yesterday he spent all day in the garden. He continued on with the huge task of laying all the big stepping stones into the terrace he's made as a path down onto the small meadow. I was very excited as I peeped out the window at one stage & saw him mixing up concrete to set the stones. Believe me that is progress!

We've been talking a lot about what we are going to do next in that space. It's lovely & sheltered as it's surrounded by the laurel hedge & has a number of wonderful old shady trees, so I have gardens on my mind big time. I don't want any structured plantings, just drifts of flowers with a gravel path meandering through. In my research yesterday, I stumbled across the work of UK-based Kiwi ex-pat Anthony Paull. This garden he completed in Provence won him 1st prize for the 'best private garden' in the 2009 Torsanlorenzo International design competition. I can understand why. I love your drifts Anthony babe.

MOTH wandered out early this morning to check on his work & came back inside to report that there will be a couple of koalas in the neighbourhood not too happy this morning. The wet concrete was covered in koala foot prints. Yes, it's that time of the year dear Hedgies, so stay turned for this year's amorous koala report. I reckon the boy koalas are loading new Barry White songs into the koala stereo as quick as their little concrete-covered paws will let them!

Images: Anthony Paull

Kiss And Say Goodbye

This post is 'dedicated' to the noisy koalas in our garden, who have kept MOTH & I awake for the past 3 nights. Almost to the day & right on cue, our local boy koala once again put his Barry White CD's on the koala stereo on Friday night & went off looking for luuuurve. As posted in previous November's here & here, the koala breeding season in The Hedge's garden is short & sharp, extremely noisy & every year is conducted right outside our bedroom window.

FYI

• the boy koalas are highly vocal.


• they advertise their mating prowess with loud snarling calls, deep bellows & grunts which are meant to impress the females.


• the female lets the boy know she's up for it by emitting a sharp, screeching noise similar to a fighting cat.

• the male chases the female across the ground or up a tree until he catches her, or unless she can outrun or fight him off.
  

• the deed then takes place, with the ensuing noise between the two of them described as a cross between 2 ferrets fighting & a chainsaw.


• it only lasts for 90 seconds & the male then packs up his CD's & moves on, looking for luuuurve in the next tree.

Unlike other years, there was no sign yesterday morning of either party. MOTH thinks they headed off to a stand of eucalypts next door to bask in the afterglow & sleep it off. As we are desperate for a peaceful night's sleep, we are hoping that Barry has weaved his magic & all this loud, amorous cavorting is well & truly over for another year!

Love is in the Air

Yes, it's that time again here behind The Hedge. And before you jump to any fast conclusions, it's love in our garden not in the MPP! Almost to the day every year, MOTH & I are awakened by the amorous goings-on of our resident koalas. Last night the boy koala took my advice from last year, put Barry White on the koala stereo & spent a couple of very noisy hours actively pursuing his lady-love right outside our bedroom window.

When I took my breakfast coffee out for a hobble around the garden this morning, he was still sitting in the undergrowth by our hedge. Tired & emotional from his night of 'romance', he let me come right up to him. Hopping through this part of our jungle garden with crutches & camera was a challenge, but what a treat it was to be able to have a little chat with our resident Lover Boy! I was thrilled to see him looking so healthy & fat, last year they were all scrawny & in poor condition due to the relentless drought we were experiencing. So for him, I guess you could say the drought's broken in more ways than one!

Image: Millie

Sleepless in Stirling

Images Millie

We are lucky to live in a koala corridor, & have regular families living in the eucalypts in our side garden. During winter we don't see much of them, but as soon as Spring arrives well, to put it delicately, a boy's got to do what a boy's got to do!!

Just as we were falling asleep last night there was a almighty fracas right outside our bedroom window. After lying there trying to ignore the very noisy goings-on, MOTH had had enough & went outside with the torch to see what on earth was going on. He came back to report that a big boy koala was 'actively' pursuing a girl koala around the garden. MOTH said she was none too pleased, as she had a baby with her, but that didn't seem to worry her 'friend' who MOTH said was relentless in his pursuit. MOTH reckons the boy koala might have had more luck if he'd chucked a Barry White CD on in the background to get her in the mood!!!

I ended up putting the pillow over my head & eventually went to sleep despite the noise & MOTH, now wide awake, ended up in our Home Office doing Invoices until 3a.m.! This morning the poor 'victim' is sitting sleepily on a branch in their usual tree along with her beautiful baby. By the sounds of last night, I would be pretty certain that this time next year she will have a new baby with her!