News & Updates from Vicki Avcin ~ AusCrafts · Page 13
Last week I wrote about wanting spring to come early after some cold and frosty weather.Well I think my plants heard me.
The Gerbras are flowering as is the Crucifix orchids and some bromeliads. Most exciting is my King Orchids!
When we moved 3 years ago they not only got disturbed by having to remove them but they got knocked around a bit in our travels.
Ive been hoping theyd survive and pick up and although I had a flower spike last year it seemed they were still struggling.
I am so excited this year as between the two plants I have at the moment 9 spikes coming out.
There is the possibility of a couple more that Im not sure about at the moment but to have 9 so far is fantastic.
I will post down the track when they are all out as they truly do have magnificent flowers.
So I think with this weather and my wish for an early spring it is fantastic that the garden will be looking great even before our official spring which is not until September.
Yes it is winter. Yes it is supposed to be cold in winter but our winters are mild compared to other parts of the world so when we get frost it is still something of an eye opener.
When the kids have been going to work in the morning theyve had to de-ice the windscreens on the cars.
Usually Im still nice and snug in bed but Tuesday morning I got up a bit earlier than I normally do and went down to one of the cars and wrote on a windscreen……Signed Jack Frost.
It was that icy that I had to get a stick to actually do it. Weve had frosts previously and just a fingernail would work to scratch the ice but not this time. Of course we dont get snow but also on Tuesday snow fell in Queensland at Spicers Peak about an hour and a half drive from here.
There has been a few places on the border that have had snow flurries at night so its a bit of excitement and I guess a bit of wishful thinking that snow might fall more generally.
A lot of people actually packed the car and drove three hours south where snow has fallen for a few days now.
They are saying we are in for more cold days yet so the fire has been kept going all day this week.
Our grass is dying off from the frost too. Roll on Spring.
Recently it was one of our grandsons 18th Birthday. Adulthood! Amazing to watch your grandbabies growing up but makes one feel old when you remember them as a baby and going through the toddler stage, then to school, high school, graduation and then legally an adult.
Weve watched this cheeky little boy grow into a man. Those who were long time CUP designers and customers might remember Zac as he did a couple of CUP TVs with me making cards.
He loved doing them and the one thing hed ask when he came to visit was Are we doing a movie and making a card Nanny?.
Both him and his sister loved making cards with Nanny and would always make one to take home for Dad.
Hes not so big on celebrations so didnt want a party but we had to do something to celebrate so we ended up taking him to lunch.
The girl that served us seemed quite taken back when she asked what he was going to drink (thinking 18 equals alcohol) but all he wanted was water.
Good thing right? Still it was an amazing lunch with him. Photo is of his Dad, with his Dad (Poppy) Zac (yes with headphones lol) and me.
I was doing the shopping a couple of weeks ago and saw these kits to be able to grow indoors.
I was quite intrigued as I had been looking for something to send to my birth mother.
She loves her garden and had the most fantastic greenhouse where she grew I think every imaginable orchid that could be grown as well as having a beautiful garden.
As she is now in residential aged care (she is 92) sadly she cannot spend her days pottering around in her beautiful garden so previously I bought her a couple of smaller orchids so she could have them in her room.
She loved them.
A cousin that lives down there and visits her every week and he often takes an orchid in that is coming into flower and leaves it with her till the flowers die off and then takes it back to the greenhouse.
When I saw these kits I thought it would be perfect for her to be able to watch them grow and be able to look after.
I also decided Id buy myself one too just to see how they went.
Now anyone who knows me knows that I can pretty much kill any plant I try and grow! But I was so pleased to see these little seedlings pop up. Im not sure how Mums are going but will find out when I speak to her next. Hopefully when I go down in August I will see a tub with some healthy plants in it too.
I asked if she like pansies and she said yes so hopefully it will give her lots of pleasure with some pretty flowers.
Last Saturday our grandson did his grading for Tae Kwon Do for his black belt. We went along to watch the gradings for the first time. We had no idea what they were doing or why they were doing it but we did enjoy learning a little about it all.
It was interesting to see all the people at different levels go through their sections and from what I could see Riley did really well.
There was only one other person going for their black belt that day and sadly they missed out. It was really wonderful to hear that hed gained his black and see them put it on him.
Normally they dont find out until they go to their next class if theyve been successful or not but as classes have a break for two weeks because of school holidays they did announce it on the day.
The rest have to wait to see if theyve achieved whatever belt they were going for. So that makes two members of family now with black belts as my daughter holds a couple in different martial arts.
I joked with my son that he has to take orders from his son now as my son had to stop classes a couple of years ago after an accident and has only just started doing them again.
But Im one proud Nanny.