winter solstice

Yarra Glen winter photos by Bo

22.6.2020

We celebrated the shortest day at Bo’s house last night.  Simon cooked a fabulous meal and the wine flowed. It is no good trying to have our usual mid winter feast this year because of restrictions.  Today we are all back in lockdown regulations as the cases of coVid 19 in Victoria continue to grow.  We are told that large family gatherings have caused the main problem but over 1000 contacts have been traced so things look bad.

I am glad we were able to get out and do the things we needed to whilst restrictions were reduced.  Last week we had some lovely days that were actually hot and sunny.  However, we are back to rain and mud today.  I have lit the first day time fire of the winter and have been sitting by it doing accounts.

Edd is busy trying to mend the cracks in the old water tank. He borrowed a pressure sprayer from Simon and cleaned it out so that he could see the damage. The next step is getting it to dry out.  Edd has also made beer traps for the vegetable garden and we are now catching loads of the slugs who took over from the rabbits to destroy our crops.

When the sun shines, I work in the garden.  I have weeded under the raspberries and move logs of wood and fallen timber into piles where they can be dealt with.  I even managed to get the grass mowed between rainfalls.  The ground is so saturated that it takes days to dry out enough to do anything.

The goats are still giving a lot of milk, so I am making cheese about three times a week this winter. We have never done this before. Luckily, I can store the hard cheese a long time now that we use the vacuum packer.  

Indi came last week in a borrowed bee suit and sorted out the beehives. Rather to our surprise they are doing very well, and she had to move several frames. She got stung through the suit a few times, but this does not seem to bother her too much.  She and Bo have been into town and brought gear so that they can go hiking together. They planned a 15 k walk at Kinglake for Sunday, but the weather was too bad, so they cleaned up after the honey mess instead. Nothing is worse than spilled raw honey on the floors. I had to deal with them in the donga a bit ago, so I know from experience.

We have a new tenant in the donga now as cityB has stayed on.  It felt a bit empty here when Ben and Indi left, so I am happy to have her here. She plays Irish music with her friend too, which is nice.