Back At The Farm

There has been so much that has happened at the farm over the last month or so, that I decided to just pick a few things to show you.
Just before we went away, Rob our bee  friend came out and took some bee frames and extracted the honey and brought us back 3 X 2 litre mik bottles of honey( just under half of the total honey he told us)  We were amazed at that  as we had said at this point we would have been happy with just a few jars.

We decanted the honey into smaller jars, as we want to share with many people and this way everyone gets some.

We ended up with 25 small jars.
Our new Wisteria  flowered  this season,

As did the Cliveas,

One special treat in the garden this week was seeing my new lilac  bloom. They  hold special memories for me, a huge  shrub used to grow outside my bedroom window as a child.

My Iris's have been bloomin' beautiful, but all my colours seems to have been lost with the whole garden this year only blooming  these two colours.

Finally we received some very welcome rain. We recorded a total of 23 mm,

Not a lot but already we can see  what a difference it has made, all we need now is some follow up.
The weekend that we arrived home we attended the engagement party of our neice Jessica to Ethan over in Dubbo.

It was a wonderful night of catching up with family from my side of the tree and these cupcakes that served as the engagement cake were  totally delicous.
The next day our Son In Law arrived and  dropped off  out two youngest granddaughters who were going to stay with us at the farm for 5 days .
We had such fun, I loved watching Poppy head off to feed the sheep with a fairy and Ballerina in gumboots in tow.

We maintained a fairly busy schedule, with painting,

Trampolining,

Bead necklace and bracelet making,

Lot's of running and bike riding which resulted in two skinned knees and special bandaids being applied,

 Lastly but not least there was chicken whispering,

This activity proved to be one of the most popular ,having to repeated a few times during the visit.
I loved my washing line this week, instead of boring old farm clothes and the odd "tidy " outfits,  my line became a rainbow of colour with dress up clothes and tutus and little girls clothes .

I did  major face reconstructive surgery on "Bunny"a very special toy that  our granddaughter has had since birth. Bunny has seen better days and after a nasty experience in a washing machine when Daddy didn't realize that Bunny was meant to be hand washed, she needed a mend.

With help from Bunny's owner, we overlaid her head with lace curtaining( to contain the filling)  added buttons for eyes and a new nose and mouth and a few extra stiches on legs and arms and all was good. We had a wonderful time with the girls and look forward to their next visit with us.
We were lucky enough to be invited  to a tour of a new Correctional Centre that is opening in our area,

I was so  surprised by the sheer enormity of the place, having never been in a jail before  it really was very confronting as to  the sterility and bareness  of the whole complex.

The communal "rooms" also were a surprise. Twenty Five prisoners will share this large room, sleeping quarters only separated by the  low walls, Each man will have a bed,desk and chair,tv
They will share  bathrooms, and a small kitchenette and dining area.
It was a very inteesting tour and one I am glad we made the effort to do.
Last weekend I attended a luncheon in Dubbo with my mother,

The lunch is held each year to celebrate the recipients of  certain medals, in my mother's case  the OAM (The Order Of Australia Medal)
Mum received her medal about 7 years ago for 50 years of voluntary service to the RSL Auxilliary , but  attends the lunch each year along with all the other past and current recipients.

Our Orchard is  progressing well, Brian has really been concentrating the water onto them. We have not planted any vegetable  garden this year m preferring to keep the fruit trees  going  as their loss would have been expensive and  a serious time loss.

Rob the bee man called out again last week, and he and Brian sorted out another set of frames to extract.

Today Rob arrived back at our place with another 3 litre bottles of honey9 approx another 8 kgs.)

This gave us another 28 small jars of honey, so much honey, looks like all our friends and family will be getting gifts of honey in the near future.
We are just still in awe of what a good bee hive can produce, they are just amazing little creatures.
It's been a big month and this is just a little.
Canning and preserving has taken a back seat for a while, but  I am sure it won't be long until I am back at it again.
Take care until we meet again,
Cheers
Jane and Brian.