I think today I am feeling almost-completely-back-to-calm again and have spent most of the day just glorying in being in my garden and all the good stuff that is "our life" you know? I know it seems a bit of a contrast to go from my writing about how totally freaked out I am to 'back to the garden happenings' but I think I need a good dose of normal to ground myself so to speak.

I took up a lot more bricks and there is satisfaction in taking all that nervous energy, putting it into something physical and seeing something physically achieved at the end of it. Here's the progress so far - the path started on the other side of the porch where the black pram is and swings around the corner and toward the lower right corner which is still brick path. The bricks are stacked in several piles for re-use later on.

And this is in the front corner of the left corner of the garden, the road being on the other side of the brown fence. If I'd taken a before shot you'd have seen a yucky varigated pittosporum where the splodge of a stump is now in the lower lefthand of the picture. It's now firewood! The area on the other side of the tree that's forming a V will be a natural sand pit (to be turned into a pond when the kids are older) and fern grotto and where the varigated pittosporum was removed we'll put Laurent's Wollemi pine.

I also got two new "toys" today - a purdy John Deere ride-on lawn mower! (The neighbors cows LOVE this new toy because we're giving them all the grass and come trotting up to the fence for it! LOL) And a neat-o spiffy Stihl whipper-snipper. We got one in the commercial range, so it should have a good bit of grunt to it. ^_^

And last but not least a random shot of my gorgeous ducks. I'll put it in my chook blog too but he was just looking so nice I couldn't resist putting it here too.

We're now sitting down to a yummy dinner of tomato soup made with homegrown tomatos, herbs and stocks; chicken, artichoke, onion, garlic and cheese omlet also made out of mostly home-grown produce... artichoke and the cheese being from local small producers and about to go curl up near a bon-fire under the stars. (So have to go to the America store - I'm dying to get some graham crackers for bonefire s'mores!) There is just nothing like the taste of fresh, home-grown food is there???

And the other day we planted a bunch more salad greens, spinach, broccoli, asian greens, spring onions etc. I have to hurry myself up to get some garlic and the beans and peas in!