The season is turning

For many of you spring has sprung already.... but for us up on the tablelands ... well we are only just seeing the first signs of a season changing.

So with more snow predicted for tonight and tomorrow in the higher hills near Orange I share these pictures of the our plants starting to warm up to spring...

The Blackcurrant cuttings that I took in early winter are waking up

(earlier because they are inside on a head bed)

The plum tree blossoms are almost popping open....

The roses are opening their first leaves...

The apricot tree is heavy with blossom buds...

and the magnolia buds are about to open....

I love the change in seasons... it's been such a long wet winter here....

Food Inc

I just took my littlest along to see Food Inc today.  I am not sure where to start with any digests that I have walked away with today apart from the fact that I don't really know where to start looking at "food quality" issues here in Australia.

My littlest walked away saying she just wanted to eat healthy food - but that some chocolate was OK - she is a chocoholic.

I liked the quotes at the end of the movie - I think I got a these couple correct:

"You can vote to change the system - three times a day"

"You can change the world with every bite"

On the way home from the movies I stopped down  the street to collect something from a shop - the shop attendant asked how my movie was and then enquired as to what film I watched - I said Food Inc.  Silence. Then after an explanation about the fact that 80% of Americas beef is processed by only 4 companies the shop attendant replied - "it would have been good to be friends with those company owners before they got that big".  And then came "that would not happen in Australia though".

Designs nearing completion

In earlier blog entries I have referred to the Permaculture Design Course that I am doing here in Orange.  Well - we are nearing the completion of the course and our garden designs are due to be presented to the rest of the class next weekend.

I am feeling nearly ready in some areas of our home garden design... like what I have put together for a section of the front yard.... I have plans for a mix of fruit trees, fruit bearing shrubs, the native pea Hardenbergia violoacea and other flowers to attract pollinators and predators - a perfect plant guild I think.

... but work on the back yard design is still well a little more in draft ...

I have had lots of fun reading and thinking about how we can be more productive in our home yard... and I love the ideas of permaculture that encourage the use a a wide range of perennial plants so that the maintenance of the garden once established will be less.  That sounds good for someone like me who is struggling to say no to new work projects.

I look forward to sharing with you how I progress in implementing my grand ideas to our garden... or maybe how the harder task of getting the design ideas past the family committee progresses.