Down The Garden Path

MOTH told me I had to wander down to the Tennis Court early this morning as there was a surprise for me. His girls the Christmas & Oriental Lillies are starting to bloom, with the yellow Orientals beating their Christmas sisters by at least 3 weeks.

They are so strong & vigorous this year & are taller than me (but that's not saying much!). Whatever secret MOTH concoction he's put on them has worked I reckon.

I was surprised to see these beauties as well. MOTH had a client who didn't want them any more in her garden, so MOTH's dug them out & adopted them. I did suggest that in this early phase of his crook back recovery & return to a few hours work a day he remain vigilant about any heavy lifting. I can see that suggestion was taken on board - NOT. I thought that a freezing cold Adelaide Hills Winter wouldn't be the best for the Dracenas, but then I looked at the Oriental Lillies & figured they do OK.

His spud patch is coming along well. It's full of his favourite Tasmanian Pink Eyes. If you've never tasted them do yourself a favour & hunt them down, they truly are the King of Spuds. Thanks to everyone who left kind comments on yesterday's post. I really have run out of emotional steam & am so looking forward to restoking my coals tomorrow & Sunday. Its the weekend my friends, go enjoy!

Hit Refresh!

Hitting my refresh button nearly 4 weeks ago was a very good move & its really made a difference to Miss Millie's general demeanour! I've had such a lovely time, eating & drinking, reading & snoozing, swimming & gardening & enjoying the wonderful company of family & friends - all very therapeutic. Although I'd still rather be down on the coast, its back to work tomorrow & the 'fun' of disabling the Out-Of-Office reply on my laptop & watching all hell break loose!

Thanks to everyone for all the gorgeous comments left while I've been away, you are all just the best - big, big hugs. I've taken the occasional wander around Blogworld & I have to say wow, has this year started with a bang & the occasional controversy!

It seems that everyone has cranked up the quality & content of their blogs a notch or 50 - a very scary thing I reckon. I sat here today having an attack of the 'OMG no-one will ever want to visit the Hedge again!' but then I realized I have Blogland's secret weapon - MOTH!!!

While he's still wearing his favourite daggy shorts, rolled down Melbourne Footy Club socks, torn paint-covered 'I rowed in the 1997 World Masters Games' t-shirt & his eyes still have the glazed over appearance of a Serial Renovator, the Hedge won't run out of posts for a while!

He started the total demolition of our main bathroom last weekend, see pic below. More of the advanced stages later in the week if you're up for it! As you can see, those turquoise beauties on the floor are the original tiles circa 1972. I did mention to MOTH as he started, that as there's probably a market on ebay to sell these tiles intact to mosaic artists, maybe he should try & remove them individually, unbroken. I shan't repeat his answer here, but it was somewhat colourful, & involved something about what both ebay & myself could do with the tiles & delicate parts of our anatomy!

We had a wonderful Christmas & New Year & the Birthday Fairy paid me a visit to add another year to my odometer. She also warned me her wicked step-sister the Wrinkle Fairy has me on the top of her Priority list for 2009! This year everyone felt the overwhelming need to put my new age on all my birthday cards - very poor form in my opinion. However in looking at them again the other day, I had a cathartic moment - 53 backwards is 35, so that's going to be my age for all of this year - yippee!!

The Christmas Lillies finally appeared this month (thanks Kimberlee for your care & concern) & so will be renamed the Hopelessly Late Lillies, however they redeemed their late arrival by giving us literally hundreds of blooms. It's been an absolute treat wandering down & picking armfuls to put throughout the house. The kids are so impressed they reckon they are putting a Business Plan together for MOTH to go into commercial production, in exchange for a healthy Consulting commission for them of course!

And we've had some communication (unedited) from Son # 2, who's travelling in far away places .
Just letting you know im still alive & so Im now in Fes which is one of the nost surreal places you could ever imagine.

Anyway: the people are great and the food is excellent so enjoying it very much. (Editors Note - this comment validates my observations in previous post!)

The guy thats showing me around is just like Borat: Hes quite strange. Might have to forget the Sahara for now as the some kind of conflict involving large missiles.

I hired a car as all the donkeys were out of action and driving around the mountains. (Editors Note - how do they get a drivers licence?!) - Ended up in the oldest University in the world where it was snowing. They wouldnt let me in because I havent finished year 12. Couldnt wait to get rid of Borat in the end though. Where ever I went hed pop out from a building. Nice guy but really annoying. Hanging out with some french guys which is very handy in language department.

I'm in Spain, Barcelona actually which is great. Today's my b/day so off for tapas and copious amounts of ceveza. Think I need to shorten the trip as the euro seems to be eating my balance at faster rate than expected.

And this gem after a comment by his father about the 'interesting' construction of his emails:

Yes da gramma duz need emproovmant!

Millie 1, Jack Frost 0

Some of the Christmas Lilies on the old Tennis Court

MOTH trying to make his way through the Lilies last Christmas Day

It is with great relief that I can report that all is well on the Christmas Lilies front at The Hedge. Our coldest Hills winter since 1952 + a run of very harsh frosts, saw MOTH appear at the back door a couple of months ago looking very sad. He'd just been down to the old Tennis Court where all our prized Lilies are sitting in their pots.

"I think we've lost the Lilies Millie" he said, gulping hard as he spoke. "Oh no, what's happened?" I gasped with shock. "The frosts have got 'em love, looks very bad, I reckon they're done for" was his muffled reply. Devastated & shattered, he took my hand & led me down to the Lilies, & yes, things looked grim. The new growth was stunted & black & indeed the situation looked hopeless. Together we made the long walk back to the house, not speaking, just grieving for the flowers that have given us & many others such pleasure each Christmas.

Well, all is not lost ! The Lilies have made a miraculous recovery, & on paying them a visit on Sunday, this is what I found! Not only do they look incredibly healthy, but they have doubled their blooms & it looks like we'll have well over 100 stems this year. So the Lilie god has smiled on us here in Stirling & for that we are very grateful!