November is the most beautiful month in our garden. In a good Spring we can enjoy the wisteria, followed by the roses, the gardenias, agapanthus and then the hydrangeas – all interspersed with salvias and lavender, gaura and lupins. The grass is green and a perfect backdrop to the flower beds. We always say that all the hard work is worth it in November and if we’re lucky it will all still look great at Christmas. But we live in Australia so of course there is always SOMETHING that is going to come along and spoil it. We had our first bushfire of the season last weekend, a timely reminder that things can and do get out of hand pretty quickly especially if there hasn’t been much rain. Of course, we only got 5 inches of rain a month ago but it was all in one day and then the westerly winds came and dried it all out again! The sprinkler is doing its thing most days now and I have to hand water the flowers about 3 times a week to try and keep them happy. Probably not the best time for me to have planted a new baby hedge but hey ho that’s exactly what I did!
Just as things were all starting to bud and look gorgeous we awoke to a back yard that was a seething mass of caterpillars. Hundreds of thousands of them. The army worms had invaded us. An innocuous moth that only lives for 2 weeks yet somehow manages to lay up to 2000 eggs had inundated the dairy farm surrounding us and when the farmers noticed the first of the worms they immediately sprayed all the back paddocks as the army worm can eat a paddock clean in 24 hours if left to their own devices. A natural phenomena that can bankrupt a farmer, golf course, wedding venue, turf farm or anyone else dependent on their grass for an income. Spraying made the worms advance quick smart onto our property and onto our immediate neighbours and soon there wasn’t a square inch that wasn’t full of squirming caterpillars. Indiana Jones vibes in The Meadow. Soon they invaded the pool area and kamikazied into the pool, oozing bright green as they died, creating more stains to be dealt with. I was like a woman possessed stalking them with my spray bottle of soapy detergent water if they so much as dared veer off the lawn into the garden beds. Overnight they nestled in my soft velvety lambs ears and climbed up blades of grass looking for all the world like the teeny tiny stilt fisherman of Sri Lanka, swaying in the breeze as they efficiently gobbled up every blade of grass in a methodical manner. Army indeed.
Social media revealed that people were experiencing them in all the surrounding towns too but how much easier is it to “treat” them in a small garden. 2 acres all of a sudden seemed huge and unmanageable in view of the numbers invading us but as with all things in the natural world, they come and they go and after a week we were relatively free of them. Our back garden is a dry straw rather than grass but the rest of the property fared better and we still have our plants thank goodness. I had a tiny inkling what it must be like for farmers when they are just ready to harvest and a plague of locusts arrives and decimates the crop, that feeling of having no control and just hoping for the best. Hats off to them – between fires, floods, droughts and vermin it is a miracle that they manage to produce anything!
Mother Nature also delivered beauty in spades this week when the stars were aligned for a magnificent showing of the Southern Aurora. Two nights in a row we were treated to a spectacle of beautiful swirling colours in our night sky. Getting the timing right is hard…people were saying 2 or 3am was the time to expect the best results so on night one when I set my alarm and got up at 2am I was informed that the show had been and gone at around 11pm! Second night I ventured outside before bedtime around 10.30 and got a bit of green and purple – enough to make me feel awed but nothing like these (mostly pinky purple) pictures witnessed locally….the proper camera no doubt helps!
In more earthly pursuits we had a quick trip up to Sydney for Grandparents Day. This has become an annual affair everywhere with Grandparents whizzing all around the country to be there for their little Grandies, not a parent in sight and a very sweet afternoon. They ‘performed’ a few songs, we ate yummy sandwiches and fairy bread, visited their classrooms where Ollie proudly showed us all his favourite things to play with and where he puts his bag etc. It was lovely as we obviously don’t see him there on a day to day basis and now we feel a bit more connected. He had the most grandparents there on the day I think, with all 5 of us turning up for the event! How cute is his little face grinning out of the group like a meerkat….!
We also enjoyed an outdoor concert at the Berry Showground in October when the Red Hot Summer Tour came to town headlining Crowded House who we have loved for years and have never seen live. Luckily it was neither 35 degrees or pouring rain (both of which it has been in the past for these events!) and we enjoyed an eight hour concert with some great bands, culminating in Neil Finn and the boys putting on a terrific finale with all our old favourites plus a couple of new songs. The whole showground was packed out and I think we are very lucky that such well known artists are happy to come to small rural communities like ours to perform and spread the love. Great to not always have to drive to Sydney for everything….
So here we are, roughly a month until Christmas and this year will be special with the whole gang being together (even our London boy is making the trip home) for the festivities in The Meadow. Apart from the gifts and the decorations we have to upgrade our sleeping arrangements this year as all our littlies are growing fast and all need their own beds! The days of plonking a mobile cot in a corner somewhere are over so I’m off this week to buy an extra few mattresses and bedding so they can all be comfy! Christmas this year will be a week of noise and chaos but also of love and family memories made. Bing Crosby or Michael Bublé, Champagne or eggnog, Xmas pudding or pavlova, however you celebrate it I hope you enjoy every moment. Bring. It. On.
My Move To The Meadow 