Oh no, no more news print?

There is talk that printed newspapers are fast becoming a thing of the past.

With the high take up rate of people reading their news on line,

and declining hard copy sales, it does make economic sense,

however

My entire garden has been flood proofed using the humble newspaper.

I needed to raise the ground level and I had limited dirt so I

concentrated all available dirt on the circles and the ground in between was

paved with large bricks of newsprint, resulting in instant lift of ground level.

I then cover the newsprint bricks with leaf litter raked from my forest.

It takes 12 wheel barrows full to completely cover around one circle.

This all breaks down perfectly and I have taken to creating thin newsprint pavers to go over the paths for a second round again raising the ground level.

Flood proofing is relative to the severity of the flood, I have used the 1992 flood levels as my guide.

 This little balloon crew member needed a nap before tea

Stella thought it was a great idea

Dirk (Balloonatic) did a tether at the Farmers market.

This is his tethering envelope, quite stunning and a crowd pleaser.

I  got to watch the inflation from the market stall.

Now it is just back to normal, feet on the ground and back to the regular grind.

Oh well it was fun and exciting while it lasted.

Until next time!

OMG minus 3

What kind of crazy sport is this?

Early mornings in the middle of winter!

Beautiful

Spectacular

Breath taking

(that's the cold air)

Can you see the man on the crown line here?

Stunning

Exhilarating

Exhausting

 Challenging

A most exciting week was had by all!

Great flying weather, coldest mornings for 20 years or more.

Thank you Blitz family for sharing this crazy sport with us!



Sweat box sculpture

Last week I was involved in an unusual exhibition

Unique to this area I believe

Sweat box art has to be constructed from the old wooden

boxes that were used to carry dried fruit to the packing sheds

I was most excited to sell my piece to an artist whom I admire

(which made it more exciting)

I hadn't photographed it before delivery to the gallery and

I forgot to take my camera to the exhibition opening.

I did remember to take the camera when I went to collect it

after the show but it had sold and was gone.

I had to take this picture in the back yard of the new owner.

I did need a memento of the piece.

Ballooning at the lake

Early morning start

5.30am  from Mildura to get to 6am briefing

Flying from the Werrimul school oval at first light.

Not frosty this morning.

We are the last balloon to leave the ground

Dirk is flying solo and we are ready to retrieve

"Bifrost" is the orange, green and maroon balloon.

The paddocks out here are big open fields that have been sown to wheat.

There has been very little rain out this way and it is hard to see the crop.

The landing was a little fast and Dirk draged his way to a halt.

He waited for us to find him so we could help him pack up the balloon 

It looks a bit more hectic from this angle.

Isn't the paddock dry.

Dirk thought it was a fallow paddock and was upset he had landed on a crop.

Not too much damage done. Not too much crop to damage.

Frosty visited

The sun has been out since 7am

The sky is blue, clear blue

There is no wind

but

plenty of ice

 This photo was taken after 10am

Iced borage anyone?

Perfect hot air ballooning weather

Maybe next week if our friend comes to stay

It is definately cold enough

For those of you who experience snow in winter

this must seem a bit lame

I just can't imagine it getting any colder than this.

It is very hard to get myself out there and prepare for spring.

I have to harvest my rocket seeds from this circle

and reclaim some growing space

All of this was self sown

It does pay to relax and enjoy the flowers for a few weeks

Tidy gardeners rarely have self sown rocket

Do yourself a favour and leave the flowers to set seed.

Camel lamps

There is nothing quite as exciting as a new idea.

This one happened as a result of many mosquito's in the pottery studio.

The first one actually blew up because I was in such a hurry.

I was excited.

It became a great reminder to my young students, things can blow up.

The first few models were hard to fill, hard to put the wicks in etc.

With most of those technical issues solved I am having fun with the idea,

The next one will be wearing a cowboy hat.



Celery

I have grown celery for the last few years 

But this year is the most successful.

I think the soil conditions must be just right in this circle.

It is quite heavy clay that I have added horse poo to.

It holds the moisture, keeping the plants sweet.

 I have been experimenting with tree guards for blanching,

I does work and keeps the stems white.

Personally  I prefer the regular green celery

that has grown free from constraints.

Flavour is the same but I feel better about the freedom.

I pick bunches for the market and these plants have been providing for some months now.

I was reading about wild celery the other day..........

In the wild they do not stand up straight as we like to think of them.

More like a flattened rosette

I found this seedling that must have missed out on being planted in the circle.

It was reverting to type.

I was amazed it was still alive. I will reward its persistence

with a place in the circle.

We added dried celery flowers to a sausage roll mix last week.

Mmmmmmm will do that again!

I went to the hardware shop with my market money this morning

and came home with plenty to keep me working.