Posted on by activejon

Lizzie, bugs and gaps – no more!

It has become too hot for me to be outside – unless I’m in the shade – during the day. The temperature is in the mid 30’s  ugh! So my days are stretching in to the night when the temperature is acceptable. During the day I am doing my Engoo English teaching and scampering up and down between the kitchen and my room. Both rooms remain relatively cool if I keep the doors and windows losed during the day.  Hence not a lot has been happening. Every other night I go out and water all the new trees and the tomatos and do a little other gardening.  Once a week I go to town for supplies and have brief interactions with real people – cashiers, shop assistants and the occasional bureaucrat!

The little gooseberry bush has been struggling to survive since we planted it two years ago but it is now producing fruit, three of them and pink!
One of my fave big mugs took a tumble and broke in a rather unusual way, so I was able to reconstruct it in such a way that it makes a good flower pot but sadly no longer “a cuppa”!
This is the main grass pathway from the bench to the house. It is proving quite a challenge to keep these paths clear but I really like the effect that is developing.
This bright green little lizard scarpered away when I lifted up a bag of compost it was hiding under. He was not terribly quick or clever or perhaps the word has got around that there are only vegans living at Barabrith nowadays!
Cute little thing isn’t he or she!
Not sure if lizzie thought he was hiding here but I didn’t want to get any closer in case I gave him a heartattack.
Having linked three hoses together I can now reach the furthest away new plants – the Wisteria – in the far corner of the left hand side of this photo.
The next day Lizzie was dead and laid out in the middle of the gazebo. I wonder if one of the neighbours cats is trying to move in and left me this offering as a way of impressing me? Failed! Still it gave me a better photo op.
Its been a long time since I mixed wheat paste for anything other than putting up posters. One of the jobs I’ve been putting off for “ever” is how to fill up the long thin gaps between the wooden cieling and the wooden beams and the walls in my room. Some time ago I decided to try papier-mâché but only this week did I start the process.
This is part of the gap between the ceiling and a wooden beam. The black cloth visible in the gap is the waterproofing layer that covers the upperside of the cieling panels.
And here we have the final destination of various Croatian supermarket weekly offer catalogues, mashed up, sticky and soggy and nicely filling the gap! I was thinking of painting it over when dry but now I’m thinking of just putting a couple of layers of brown parcel paper over it instead.
The second day after death Lizzie had been overturned and the bugs had started to feast. I said good bye and sent him into the long grass.
This is an old boot that has lost its partner – ok I lost it!. I tried growing silver dollar plants in an old boot back in the 1980s when that was the only plant I grew! It’s so easy! This time I have loads of marigolds grown from seed and here are three in one of the original Dr Martin vegan boots!
A couple of weeks ago the potatos were doing fine and I kind of left them to it! Unfortunately the Colorado “Bastard” beetle did not. Almost the entire crop 30-40 plants are now dead, stripped down to dying yellow stalks by these voracious little buggers. As you can see from the surrounding vegetation they don’t care for anything except the potato leaves. I might try planting another late crop of spuds but it looks like the summers mash and chips will be coming from the supermarkets again!
Colorado beetle bugs in action destroying my potato plants just before I swooped and forcibly evicted them if only in retribution as it was obviously a tad late to save the plants.
Finding a corner of the gazebo which is in the shade is a real bonus for my “al fresco” evening meals.