Of many things

We fooled ourselves into thinking that today would be a relaxing day as there wasn’t much on our to-do list which had been in any case left at home. By now we should know better.

As Ellie had arranged for the ride-on mower to be fetched for service one of us had to stay behind at the nursery so I got cracking at dismantling the old picnic benches while Ellie braved the cold water of the Tilapia dam to do some “gardening” on the big island.

We have finally decided that the old wooden picnic benches are beyond repair so we have bought three plastic picnic benches to replace them. To rip them up and take them to the nursery was quickly done , we are afraid installing the new ones will take a bit longer as it involves concreting them in and buying a pocket of cement is a major undertaking.

The mower was duly fetched and we could go to the Arboretum where a major surprise awaited us. Skali and Patrick had taken it upon themselves to mow all the paths and what a fantastic job they had done.

Ellie and Cathy cleared one of the old flower beds and dug in a variety of new plants while I removed some more of the burnt branches and also planted some vygies along the entrance path.

The main picnic area has also been tidied up and it is good to see that most of the trees we planted last year are surviving quite well considering the fire and the drought.

In the meantime the nursery has become something of a stepchild as there is just no time to look after it properly. Thankfully the staff is doing some of the weeding but there is a lot more to be done.