Autumn in Queensland

We are still finding the weather a little hard to come to grips with, normally at this time of year there we were used to Liquid Amber and other deciduous trees changing colours and dropping their leaves as they go dormant before winter. Up here the garden continues to grow, the lawns need mowing and the trees have massive growth spurts!

The Firewheel (Stenocarpus sinuatus) tree we planted seemed to sit a do very little since we planted it in February last year. However in the last two or three weeks it has exploded and grown at least 40cm in height! The photo below clearly shows the newer bright green growth. When it grows a bit larger we might actually get to see some Autumn hues as the leaves of the Firewheel tree change colour, ranging from yellow, orange, ruby-red and crimson! An added bonus are the bright orange and red flowers, we wont see them for another six or seven years though.

 

Massive growth on Firewheel tree

 Continuing on the garden theme, Rosie's veggie garden is also going gang busters, in fact I might need to start taking drastic measure to curb the spread of the pumpkins...

Massive Pumpkin

Beetroot nearly ready to harvest.

The beetroot will be the first veggie we harvest, followed by the lettuce and carrots. We have been using the herbs in the kitchen for a few weeks now. We didn't have a very successful harvest of Mangoes this year, the tree was still in shock after the treatment it received during the pool build. The Oranges and Mandarins didn't fair much better, we didn't water them enough to get the magnificent fruit we got last season, what is on the tree is of acceptable standard however the Deer have enjoyed feasting on the fruit before we could pick it.

We celebrated Nan's 70th birthday in Ballarat a couple of weeks ago, it was wonderful to catch up with the family again. My sister and Aunts did a sensational job of preparing food and Alan did a marvellous job of cooking the roast meats. Nan was blown away by the birthday cake that my sister lovingly produced for her. it was simply stunning and the amount of work that went into it was amazing!

The most beautiful birthday cake!

Nan and the girls from up north

The whole clan, boys heavily outnumbered!

We packed what we thought were winter clothes but unfortunately due to the rapid growth of the girls, and the frigid Ballarat weather they simply didn't have enough warm clothes, a quick shopping trip fixed that. I have a strange feeling that the clothes wont get much more wear before they are out grown.

The Brookfield show is on this weekend and the highlight tonight is the Rodeo, we will head along and have a squiz, provided Rosie has recovered sufficiently from her bout of gastro. The timing of this little illness could not have been worse, right smack bang in the middle of Naplan testing. Rosie will miss her numeracy test. Something she can't sit at a later date, which is plainly ridiculous if the Naplan is as important as the shiny arsed bureaucrats tell us. She wont be alone either as only seven of her class managed to attend school yesterday due to the gastro outbreak, I am sure that there wont be many at school today either.

The netball is going along swimmingly, Emily's team is undefeated, with three solid wins, Rosie's team is winless but the are improving each week.