Ms Fifikins

This week’s My Place and Yours theme from Hello Owl is ‘3 Things you do everyday.’

Doing things everyday would kinda mean you had some kind of routine. Yes, I pack the kids lunches most days, and some days I do some laundry. I feed the fish and the rat and teh kittehs! And I play with the said kittehs if they are in the mood! I like to veg on my hammock if I have time…

I think the closest I came to each day was showering and toileting… And I’m not going to snap pictures of either! Then there’s food, and you can see what I am consuming each day over here!

Most days I check in on my Zombie Farm… as you do!

it’s actually doing rather well, even if it looks a little cluttered! I could actually link to a lot of the apps I use on a day to day basis, but perhaps that is not really what I want to dwell on when I think of My Place and Yours!

So I got to thinking of the things I do on a semi-regular basis. Some people might laugh, but I do sometimes make my bed…

if only so the cats can use it as their bathroom…

I also try and take care of my pots and my plants. It is quite relaxing standing with the hose (on the right days of the week for our side of the street, or else attached to the bore!) and watching these plants bloom and grow.

MIML™ convinced me to start watering my staghorns and I am so glad he did! They are positively blooming!

This is my sort of kitchen garden!

And this…

is my blooming chillis!

Upstairs I have my hanging baskets…

Perhaps not everyday watering, but enough watering! And that is what is needed.

There was once a tree in the front yard. I didn’t take a picture today, but here is one the afternoon of Cyclone Larry a few years back:

Note it’s not the spindly palm things in the front, but that lump of palms behind.

Now originally, this was not a palm tree. It was something else. And then the palms around it dropped their seeds and 7 trees grew around the original and killed the original. And these 7 had bits of dead stuff hanging off them, and some dead branches, and dropped fronds and were growing across the steps to the front door. I would trim them and then they would grow again and were taking over a vast proportion of the front yard.

So MIML™ and I decided to do some chopping. We trimmed the thinner fronds and then got to it with the axe.

You can see the sunlight hitting the lower fronds that hadn’t been attacked yet- yes, sunlight little fronds!

Cathartic plus! Draw your own metaphor, but cutting dead wood, making light, getting rid of parasites, swinging the axe, yeah, I’m sure you get the picture.

Next step is the chainsaw to cut it to the ground. Oh and I need to organise a rather large skip to take it all away!

I am hoping my thumbs have had some sort of metamorphosis. They have never been particularly green, but I am hoping that they may still help the plants purchased today thrive.

MIML™, the kids and I tripped it along to Bunnings to get a new pump for the water feature, a lime tree for a lonely pot and some potting mix. We came away with the pump, 2 pots, lime tree, coffee (arabica bean) tree, japoticaba tree (which MIML™ has just found may take several years to fruit!), parsley, coriander, chives and mint. It is all potted and the pump is working. I am waiting patiently for the coffee to fruit so I can roast my own beans in a popcorn maker!

Now to remember to water them every day, and to play classical music to them, and talk to them, and well… let’s hope they survive and thrive! Am still not sure about gardening in the tropics. I know you are meant to grow tomatoes and other ‘Summer’ veggies over Winter… Will see how we go with the herbs. If all else fails I will plant lots of lemon grass, Thai basil and the like. Now to find those chilli seeds I have been meaning to germinate…