Merry Christmas from My Patch of Heaven, Down Under

Hey Everyone,
Boy, has it been DISGUSTINGLY HOT!  It is every year but still, BLURGH, the grass is dead, most of the trees are dead-ish, the garden is drooping and a lot of the cooler growing orchids are wilting, but alas, Christmas is in the air.

My mornings are either spent snoozing on my bed in the Air-con or out in the garden doing some gardening before the sun makes it too hot, or the ground to impenetrable.  When midday approaches I eventually end up back in the cool of the house, with all the windows open and the nice wide veranda cooling the air a bit before it enters.  The days play their course accompanied by the never-ending accompaniment of the grasshoppers and crickets, and all the birds go quiet as the heat increases.  Then around 4pm I normally start my tentative steps back outside to try and do a bit more gardening and to make sure all the animals and the most precious plants have enough water.  Then as the afternoon turns to twilight, and then night everything starts to move again, the crickets change their tune and strum nicely, the occasional plover voices it's presence and the air is occasionally punctuated by the sound of laughter coming from one of the nearby houses where someone is having friends over, visiting.

Tonight there was some lovely rain for about 30 minutes so everything has cooled down very nicely.

To let you know what's been keeping me busy lately I think I'll do a role call of the family pets we have here at the moment.... *clears throat*

We have

Nalle Our Giant Schnauzer
Teddy Our Miniature Schnauzer
Beau My Sister's Boyfriend's Dog (unknown breed to me)
Brock My Sister's Male Kelpie
Roxie My Sister's Dog, Brock's Sister from the same litter

Roman My Sister's Horse
Sergeant My Sister's Friend's Horse, who's agisting at our house

Tilly Our Female Janday Conure
Henry Our Male Janday Conure
Fred My Cockatiel
Bert My Green Cheeked Conure

and then,
there's the 20 chooks,
the duck,
and the 30 Fishtanks of Siamese fighting fish, 29 of which are my sister's,
my two fish tanks of guppies and catfish.

not to mention all of the gardens and everything else, but hey, it's christmas.

Tomorrow (Christmas Eve), my Aunt is coming down to celebrate Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day with us.  Tomorrow is as significant for us as the other two because Dad is Finnish and in Finland the majority of the festive celebrations occur on Christmas eve, so I get half my presents tomorrow night, and the other half the following morning, yay.  I already know what my presents are from mum and dad; The stay at Dubbo Zoo, 50m of Shade-cloth and a HEAP of much needed clothes.

Then Boxing Day we're catching up with the rest of mum's family and it should be lots of fun.

Then on the 28th we're going up to Bundaberg to see all of the Turtles and my brother's going to have to look after all of the animals.... muhahahaha, sucked in for him.


We'll be up there until the new year, so I guess this means a temporary good-bye.... AGAIN.

So, I would like to wish all of you, and your families, a VERY Merry Christmas, and a Safe, Happy, and Successful New Year.


Happy Gardening,
Michael


p.s. .... I seriously hope that I'll get my act together with this whole blogging thing, but bear with me, I'm only new to this :) hehehehe