Well, after some very changeable weather leading into summer, we have had a couple of weeks of scorching temperatures with four days in a row above 40 degrees Celsius!

We went out regularly to top up bird baths, rigged up a gazebo over the bee hives, and tried to stay cool ourselves. Despite the heat, we have had some great bird visitors including a Grey Shrike Thrush, Rainbow Beeaters, and Scarlett Robins, as well as all the usual.

We even, amazingly, had an echidna!

Our insect visitors really crank it up in summer with the sunshine and heat, and it has been fabulous to watch the Blue Banded Bees and this fascinating stick insect.

With the warmer weather, (although those over 40 degree days are tough!), the aquaponics, orchard and dirt gardens have thrived and provided kilos of nectarines, peaches, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, sweet corn……….

Of course, with all that produce, a lot of preserving goes on! Our favourite chutney is Nectarine Chutney, which is also great made with peaches. We made so many jars of Nectarine Chutney though we decided to make some Peach Jam to give out as Christmas presents (and of course to keep a supply for ourselves!)

And finally, to finish off 2021, our first full year at McCarthy Park 2, the beehives are thriving and after a couple of poor seasons we had a great harvest of 24 litres of honey.

There was a considerable amount of wax cappings so this was cleaned, melted and strained to provide nice blocks of wax- the colours are amazing!

We use the beeswax for a variety of home products and remedies, including wax wraps to use instead of a plastic wrap.

And that is a wrap for 2021!

Work on the billabong has continued and it is now complete! it looks fabulous and has already been visited by local birds including a flock of Carnaby cockatoos. A solar powered fountain just adds a little something during daylight hours.

Well, every now and then we are getting some warm spring sunshine, in between the rain and cold winds! Despite the cold, our pineapple has finally ripened….and it was delicious!

The end of winter brought with it a big tidy up in the aquaponics systems- it was amazing how much was removed to make way for spring planting, but the grow beds still looked lush and healthy!

One of our final development projects is to create a ‘billabong’ as a habitat for frogs and a water source for a variety of native animals. A big hole was dug (with a bobcat fortunately!) and lined with plastic. We then filled it with water to let it all settle prior to trimming the plastic, adding stones around the edges. Still to come are the Western Pygmy Perch to eat any mosquito larvae, and some water plants!

Well, the rain continued into August! This has been a good thing though……. as it brought the Noongar season of Djilba during which there are clear sunny days in between. Our winter planting is dong really well, though some of the tube stock in ‘the oval‘ has suffered from the heavy rains and storms….and we suspect, rabbits……so needed replacing. The addition of a small electrified wire around the perimeter has now stopped the rabbits, and the plants are thriving.

The succulents in the garden have really enjoyed the cool winter, and many of these are flowering for the first time.

With the change of season, we even saw the first Monarch butterfly! Although these are not native to Australia, they have become very common in some areas and when we first moved into McCarthy Park 2 there were so many.

The Djilba season also is the time for magpies to prepare their nests, and we have seen our resident family of magpies collecting fibre from ropes and from the palm trees. they also love the occasional snack left over from the dogs!

Along with the rains, we have seen even more fungi.……some varieties we have never seen before!

So July 2021 is Perth’s wettest July in 26 years! We have had days of 30-40mm, but Monday 26 July was the record, with 64mm!

The pool has flooded several times, and some plants have suffered from the wind, rain and frost (we had -1.8 at the end of June…… but there has been a wonderful abundance of fungi!

Planting of the ‘oval’ is now finished, and the rain is really helping everything settle in!

And the orchard trees are going really well, with so many of the deciduous trees now in full bud after almost a year long transplant process.

We love McCarthy Park 2, but ever since we saw it we knew ‘the oval’ would have to be revegetated. Not only did we want to reduce the amount of lawn (and mowing), but we wanted to reintroduce the native plants that would have been removed to make the large driveway turnaround. Doing this will provide extra cover and food for the native animals, and be much more sustainable than lawn. It will look better too!

We waited until June, so the weather was cooler and with the guidance of Apace WA who specialise in community regeneration, we have begun the preparations for a July plant out. Apace helped us design the space, choose plants that were native to the area, preferably fire retardant or resistant, and a variety of sizes and textures to improve the aesthetics.

First was removal of the lawn, then delivery of loads of mulch and crushed gravel for the path.

Then, several balgas (grass trees) were planted. These were purchased from and planted by Replants, a company that specialises in rescuing and on-selling grass trees from land that is being bull dozed. We were so very happy to get some lovely larger additions to go with the existing grass trees already there.

Once transplanted, all were burnt- including our existing grass trees that still showed plenty of couch within them.

Already it is looking better! But next came the pathways through ‘the oval’….

…..and then the spreading of the mulch. Now it all settles in for a while until July when the native tube stock will be planted.

Gosh it has been a busy time! After 30 years on 10 acres, there has been lots to do at both the old and new places. Here is a summary!

We are thrilled to once again have kangaroos around us! With a nature reserve nearby, there are plenty around and they are very adept at jumping the fences to get some nice green grass. We often see them on the road or in neighbouring paddocks too.

Then there are the birds!! We see and hear so many native birds that we used to see occasionally in MP1, but now see in abundance, in particular Splendid Wrens and Scarlett Robins.

The insects also have been in abundance! Blue banded bees just love the white agapanthus in particular!

These have all been very welcome distractions when there has been so much do do, including a considerable amount of lawn mowing, until winter comes and we replace some with native plants.

Our downsizing to 5 acres meant a reassessment of what we want to do, so (for now) we sold our sheep, geese and ducks, and gave away the top bar and Warre hives. We relocated our two horizontal hives one night when it was cool enough to lock them in for a few hours, and they are going well.

The chickens are safely installed in their new pen….

And… we have had our first nearby bushfire. While bushfires are always a concern, this was far enough for us to practice and refine our bush fire plan for the new property without being too stressed.