Almost a Grandma but not really

Well I can't speak for anyone else but I'd be anywhere but gardening without mine! Too many bugs and slugs for my liking!

Ant bites! I don't know what kind of ant infests my garden, but they inject a dose of formic acid that has me hopping around and saying very unladylike things. One of them managed to crawl up and get me on my capacious spare tyre. The pain abates quite quickly but - imagine the scene when one of little b****rs bit my younger GD.

Are they red ants? DC camped in the garden years ago too near the hedge and got bitten, lots of shouts and squeals! They were red ants.

We are built on an anthill I think.

We have a fire ant problem here - you can ring for a free inspection and if they find them, they clear them free of charge. I thought I had some last year, but they were another species. Their bite still hurt though.

Harmony and I had quite a bit of fun today, planting silverbeet. She poked the hole with a trowel handle, and I put in seed raising mix, she dropped the seed in and I topped it with more seed raising mix. She watered it all, then we went across the road with the dog on the lead to the 'grassy path' that runs alongside a small beck. We gathered dried grass cuttings for the chicken pen and weeds to supplement their diet. We planted some rocket later, then I gave her some dog books to look at, full of cute puppies etc. All the while we were throwing the ball to Beth the dog as she is obsessed with chasing the thing.

I'm having a rest now, at my computer!

"If it was'ne fair yer wellies, where would ye be, yu'd be in the hospital or infirmary, you wu'd have a dose of the flu or even pleurisy, if ye did'ne have yer feet in yer wellies!"

Oh, I was trying to remember that song!! Thamnks phoenix

At least you can see red ants coming, but these ones are quite small, though not as tiny as the 'sugar ants' that so often get into kitchens.

I do recall seeing notices on the highways in NQ telling us to report 'electric ants' - presumably even more painful than fire ants!

We didn't have much time this afternoon so we just went for a short walk with the dog, to collect weeds for the chickens. However, on the way we passed 4 horses in the paddock behind our houses. Beth the dog and Harmony spent a bit of time socialising with them, then we had a short conversation with a talking pet cockatoo in his aviary across the road from them. Soon we were near the cattle yards, just as the 'cowboy', a bloke on horseback was driving them towards the meatworks. She was fascinated by this - I didn't tell her it was the cattle's last run!! Then home to collect the eggs - but they only laid one today, usually it is 4.

The thing is, I wouldn't be doing most of these things if I was on my own. Her Mum and Dad were sitting on the outside steps, and laughed at her running with Beth and asked me if she'd talked me to death. Well, she does talk nineteen to the dozen but it is OK by me. For now, anyway. :D

I think she wore out the dog though - Beth flopped on the back concrete ramp, and wouldn't come in for her dinner till she'd recovered an hour or two later.

DD's chickens love pumpkin, SIL says it is like chocolate to them!

They particularly love the soggy stringy middle with the seeds. Yes, I agree it is a favourite food for chickens - a close second after curl grubs!

I'll stick with the pumpkin myself!

Ha ha. Mind you, another similar grub, witchita grubs, are a favourite in certain parts of Australia, or so I'm told!

I saw my SIL throw a dead mouse to his hens and one gulped it down. I didn't fancy eating their eggs for quite awhile.

I was advised that, if I was 'lost in the bush' I could find the type of ants with green backsides and eat them - they're full of vitamin C and apparently taste citrussy!

Well, I hope I'm not boring too many people but summat else happened today. Harmony, Beth the dog, and I have taken to going for a walk at around 4pm. It is just down past the horses and cockatoo, round the corner, onto a grassy path, across a little lane to another grassy path next to a small beck, and home. Someone new with two dogs has just moved into a house on the corner at the start of our walk. Harmony insisted on calling their dogs to the fence: their owner Jane came to talk to us, Harmony asked if she'd join us on our walk and if she (Harmony) could walk one of them (A rescue Shah Pei) So the three humans and three dogs went on the walk. We all got to know each other, and then all came to look at my veggie garden as Jane wants to start a garden and have chickens. Without that little lass I would never have got to know our new neighbour, or known we share the same interests.

Lovely

What a happy story, Joan. That little girl has a most appropriate name.

Hi Joan - Harmony sounds delightful and is really enjoying your company so get in there quick and offer to look after her occasionally I feel it will benefit both of you

We’ve been going on our walks together most days, the three of us and the three dogs, since the end of May. Recently the horses, Beauty, Mack, Archie and Titan have been let out onto our grassy pathway near the railway line. They are perfectly tame and friendly apart from Titan, who is best left alone. We let the dogs off the lead , and they interact well with the horses. At the end of that part of the path is a fenced off area with a pigsty. We’ve seen the big pink pig and her black and white piglet. I’m pretty sure they’re pets: Old John, who owns three of the retired horses, lost his wife to cancer a few years ago and I think the cockatoo, the pigs, his dog, and the horses are his companions and his solace. Archie is owned and ridden by a Scottish lady who lives up the road.

Harmony noticed a three legged dog in a garden near the grassy path. The owner came out and talked to us – the little dog, Bella, was injured at birth and had to have a front leg amputated but she seems quite happy on three legs.

Yesterday it was a drizzly miserable day – we all went on our usual walk, but I brought Harmony inside to look on the computer about how beans germinate, because she’d planted a few. We found a timelapse film showing mung beans – fascinating to both Harmony and me. I put the heater on and Harmony took off her cardi. We heard Beth go out and come back through her dog door but thought nothing of it till we saw the cardi was missing. Then I remembered: Harmony had collected the eggs and put two of them in her cardi pocket. Beth had brushed up against her and squashed an egg. We removed the egg and gave it to Beth to eat, but she must have remembered there was now an eggy part of the cardi, which was irresistible. She had buried the thing and it was now too dark to search!! When I took Harmony home to her sisters who were looking after her, I explained about the cardi, ‘cos I was sure they wouldn’t believe her!

I found it this morning and put it to soak.

These days, I never know what is going to happen!

Joan I so enjoyed reading about you and Harmony, Its lovely to hear about how other people live.

Joan what a great story where you live sounds idyllic great your friendship with Harmony is going stong

Joan, its lovely that you and Harmony are giving each other so much. She's a very lucky little girl to have found a surrogate granny like you.

That was a lovely day for you both, Joan. She is learning a lot from you.

DD1 has mentioned that the weather in NQ is unusual - wet and chilly (I know it is winter but apparently should be hot and sunny in the day).

When we were near your part of the world this time last year the days were lovey and sunny and the nights very cold, sounds as if it is not so good there at the moment.

Harmony turned 6 today, and decided not to come on our walk as she got a 'proper' bike for her birthday, without training wheels, and she was learning to ride it with the help of 4 sisters and numerous uncles and aunties. She went with her Mum and the four sisters to see Disney on Ice in Brisbane, all dressed up in a Snow White dress. She said it was 'utterly amazing' - she loved it.

Jane, an artist, gave her chocolates and made her a card with photos of her and us on our walks, and a big paper-engineered ball in the middle that opens out as you open the card. I gave her some children's gardening tools and gloves, plus a stuffed toy - a penguin that I bought ages ago as a charity thing for wildlife. I also gave her a card with this poem on it. She loved it all:

HARMONY’S BIRTHDAY

There’s a girl who lives nearby
Who’s turning 6 today
She loves to take the dogs for walks
And run and climb and play.

But today’s a special treat
To see a Disney show,
Harmony’s the birthday girl
Who just can’t wait to go

But later on it’s time to walk
Just like she does each day
With Joan and Jane and all three dogs
They’ll soon be on their way.

The dogs are Oommee, Maggs and Beth,
Then there’s John’s cockatoo,
And further on the horses wait,
For their rendez vous.

There’s Beauty, Archie, big black Mack
And naughty Titan too,
He likes to check their pockets out
For something nice to chew.

Along the stream just by the bridge
Two pigs are resting there,
There’s Babe and little Smellie too
A truly happy pair.

And further up some geese patrol,
And turkeys, chickens too,
But now it’s time to turn for home
Because the walk is through.

The walk is through, it’s truth to say,
But they’ll be back another day.