Plum tree.

The old orchard plum trees have a bumper crop this year thanks to the rain and mild summer. 

Preparing the citrus bed.

The old avocado spot and compost heap is now stoned in and dug over. Just need to wait for all the organic matter to break down, the seeds to germinate so I can mulch them and a sprinkle of gypsum won't go astray. 

I've also put in two more steps with some railway sleepers I moved from the place the avo tree is now in. 

The winter garden, the avocado tree and me.

A few weeks ago I decided that I would need to move the avocado tree I recently planted. Ostensibly because it wasn't in the right spot, but really I wanted to fit in more mandarin trees. My rescue mandarin is doing so well this year I felt encouraged to plant more and have successive fruiting. 

I didn't look up the 'right' time to move the avo. It looks like it has buds ready to go and the roots were dormant. I moved three barrow loads of its soil that I'd built up out of compost so it felt at home. 

This spot looked so sunny in the midday winter sun. Previously it has been a chicken run, duck puddle and most recently a dumping ground for logs too large to fit into the Nectre. 

I feel content with my garden progress and useful morning exercise!

Coro Walk

   I haven't ever really set goals before, so earlier this year I set myself a goal of learning to walk.  By this I mean developing the habit of walking regularly and not quitting.  I also have a vague goal of learning to write but I haven't quantified it so it's a bit behind.

    This morning I um'ed and ah'ed, debating whether I should sit and crochet all day or go for a 'big' walk beforehand, to delay dying.  

   (It occurs to me that I have had a previous goal which I set when I was 29 and half and my Saturn was returning or something, to finish all the unfinished projects I was hoarding. I pretty much did that too.  Ok, maybe I've lied about not setting goals.)

  Later on this year I tacked on losing weight to my learning to walk goal, to support my hubby in his "I'm 40 and I'm gonna die" losing weight goal.  

    So far I've lost nearly 10 kgs, which is how fat the Wii Fit said I was, so that's nice.  Can't say I've enjoyed not eating, but there you go.  

    Anyway, my walking goal started at 30 mins a day. Walking 30 mins was easy enough, but not every day. I had small landmark achievements such as walking three days in a row, missing only one day in a week, losing count of how many days since I hadn't walked.  I learnt to celebrate every small thing by playing World of Warcraft.  

    I was pretty sure this morning as I overcame the small hillock of apathy and put on my hiking shoes, no light weight walking shoes for me, I'm hardcore! Off I set.  It started well, with my usual 'round the block, walk the dog, hilly' walk, I then deviated at the end for my 'long river' walk, yes they all have names.  The plan was to continue down this walk to the Primary School, but as that goal neared I started wavering in my mind.  One step at a time, I thought. As the diversion to the Frank Smith Reserve walk approached I realised I wasn't going to make it, this time.  I asked Badger, he concurred, time to head home.  

I arrived home feeling slightly defeated, but warm and tingly, I'll have to work on that stamina.  The free pedometre app I downloaded before I left said I took 7500 steps and walked for an hour, so that's quite pleasing.  Next goal, 10,000 steps! 

(And I've managed to write something today, whee!)

Pipe works at the park.

The Sandow Crescent Pecan Tree

   We live in a beautiful part of the world called Coromandel Valley.  At the centre of our street is an old orchard, Sandow Park Reserve, named after one of the old families in the area who grew apples,  pears and plums. Sandow Reserve is home to an old Pecan trees, thought to have been planted by George Summers in 1899.

   Every year the sulphur-crested cockatoos strip the tree bare before the nuts are mature, but this year, they didn't!  The stars and weather aligned to produce a bumper crop that the local parrots got bored of before destroying the whole lot, they didn't even make it down to the lower accessible branches.  I've been keeping my eyes on the nuts every time I go past ( I walk through quite often this time of year), growing more excited with each visit.

   Today, success, the fruits are ripe and splitting open and the nuts inside are ready to harvest, what joy!

You can read more about pecans here.

 Pecan nuts on ground, thrown down by raucous cockatoos.

This seasonal creek used to feed the orchard before multiple dams were put in upstream.  Now it features in my 'bug-out' plans for the zombie apocalypse.

Badger dog, pleased with todays adventure.