Journal Entries
Home again...
Posted Apr 17, 2005
Hi everyone.
Despite the best efforts of Qantas, I've made it home. Hurrah for that. Living out of a suitcase, even in one's mother's house and the houses of friends, gets a bit draining after a while.
Have I missed anything important?
I'll turn the highlights of the trip into journal entries over the next few days. Right now I'll just say that today's flights were nightmares, with the first being delayed and the second aborted during take-off. But a spare plane was found and I got here, and so did my luggage, so I shouldn't really ask for more.
Now, I'm off to assess the scale of the backlog, answer a few threads, and collapse with exhaustion. Before that, though, I need some Red.
Ivan.
Discuss this Journal entry [18]
Latest reply: Apr 17, 2005
Ivan's Garden
Posted Mar 6, 2005
As I’ve been rambling on about my garden, and gardening, and reconstructing the garden after a sudden flood, and so on, I thought I might as well write a journal piece about it. (Besides, Hati wanted to know about it.)
For a start, I’d better explain that this is a very small 1930s house on what was a very large block. Sometime in the 90s, real estate greed set in and two new houses were built in what was originally the rear garden and orchard. As a result, the garden that comes with this house is now only the front garden, a small courtyard-type area on the southern side, and a strip about four feet wide behind the house. Not much, but enough to go on with. The block slopes down from the street – hence the flooding possibilities. There’s a 70-year-old oak tree between the street and the footpath, which means that the garden gets buried in leaves once a year.
The front garden, when I moved in here, had several mangy-looking rose bushes, far too many clumps of lavender, and some deciduous shrubs which might be cotoneasters. (These are actually classed as an environmental weed here, as are oleander, broom, bracken, blackberry, willow… oh, lots of things. I’ve no idea why they were planted in the first place.) There was also a standardised wisteria looking incongruous in a formal rondel in the middle of a spleen-shaped patch of straggly lawn. The driveway was lined with cotoneasters interspersed with rosemary. The ground was covered in coarse woodchip mulch, which was supposed to suppress weeds but didn’t. The general effect, in winter, was of a dead grey garden. The side area had an ancient japonica, and some more wisteria, as well as lots of terracotta and concrete planters and urns, with dead plants in them. The clothesline is tucked into a back corner, where it’s of no use at all. The only tree in the front garden is a solitary sad-looking casuarina. These don’t do well in isolation – but the landlord put it there, so I think I’m stuck with it.
The strip at the back of the house is covered in coarse gravel, presumably to suppress weeds. It doesn’t work. There’s mint growing through it as well, which I don’t mind so much. There’s a Manchurian pear tree out there too. It’s far too big for the space it’s in.
I’ve tried to liven up the front area by planting several types of grevillea and various native ground-covers, as well as convolvulus, alyssum and native (white) violets. There’s also some hebe and other small flowering things, and a few pittosporums, and a clump of dianella. The main reasons for picking these things is that they’re drought-tolerant, frost-tolerant, and evergreen.
Some of the terracotta horrors are now hidden by scented geraniums and scaevola. The more formal urns have been filled with dwarf bamboo – the sort that has red foliage at odd times.
The japonica has been hacked back mercilessly, and the liberated space filled with catmint and other ornamental herbs, some more scented geraniums, and a callistemon. There is still scope for work in the side garden, but with it being south-facing it gets no light in winter. I need to find plants that cope with frost, drought, *and* shade… Any ideas?
The back area is still a gravel-infested nuisance. It might turn into a rock-garden of sorts, filled with plants that don’t mind neglect. I’m still thinking about that one.
I still need to hack some more bits of japonica away, and get rid of some more lavender…
Anyway. That’s what I’ve been doing, when I’ve been saying things about gardening. You can wake up now.
http://www.anbg.gov.au/callistemon/
http://www.huntergardens.org.au/3grevillea.htm
http://www.gardenguru.com.au/html/pittosporum.html
http://www.anbg.gov.au/aborig.s.e.aust/casuarina-sp.html
http://web.apolloparkps.vic.edu.au/Content/grade_area/pegasus/pegasus_2002/Science_Pegasus/Plant_Database/Viola_hederacea.html
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Latest reply: Mar 6, 2005
Not a journal entry about my Sydney trip...
Posted Jan 20, 2005
I had a lovely day at w*rk today, watching the rain coming down and hoping that some of it was faling in my garden. Then I got home, and found that a hailstorm had come through this part of town. Half of my garden - the half I'd just replanted and tidied - has been washed away, and the wreckage is covered in leaves that have been stripped off the oak trees that line the street. There's a good 6 inches of silt piled up against the back gate, and the carport's flooded. And there's not a 
ing thing I can do about it, not with a ed ankle... 
Why the blazes do I bother?
I was going to write a long piece about last weekend, and what I did in Sydney, and how much fun it all was even though it was 40C and 85% humidity, and how travelling from Parramatta to the city by ferry is simply the most civilised form of commuting possible, and about long walks around Darlinghurst and The Rocks and Newtown, and all about the 14 pubs and 5 restaurants and uncounted shops that I spent time in... but somehow I'm not in the mood right now. I mean, this is Summer - what's a hailstorm doing smashing up my garden at this time of year? 
Discuss this Journal entry [40]
Latest reply: Jan 20, 2005
In case I'm offline for a while...
Posted Nov 8, 2004
I'm about to head up to the hospital, for a few tests. I'll probably be home later tonight, but they may want to keep me for a couple of days. If I've posted anything after this on this thread, then I'm home.
Ivan.
Discuss this Journal entry [350]
Latest reply: Nov 8, 2004
Not a random quote
Posted Nov 4, 2004
I just found this on a mailing-list email (yes az, you'll recognise it) and I thought it was too good to ignore, so I've put it here so I'll be able to find it again when I need it. Considering recent political events, it's quite apposite.
'The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.'
-Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, author, Nobel laureate (1872-1970)
Discuss this Journal entry [24]
Latest reply: Nov 4, 2004
Ivan the Terribly Average
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