Fairies in the woods

 A Sunday morning walk along the Orara River.

We have chilly nights and mornings, but once the sun comes through the trees it transforms in a glorious day with temperatures in the twenties.

Unlike the hot and muggy Summer, these beautiful sunny Winter days are very tempting to get out and catch some sun.

Now the nights get colder, Fireweed is starting to show again. It’s a real pest in the area and thrives here, seed heads like dandelions get happily blown around. We don’t like to use chemicals, instead we go out with gloves and garbage bags every couple of weeks and pull it out, root and all. Last year we would have picked 40 garbage bags. It seems to be paying off, because this year not a lot comes up, that’s something, but until the pasture improves and the ground cover becomes denser, we are a sitting duck for all those weeds growing on the other side of the boundary fence.
No, that’s not me nagging about our neighbours, we are very fortunate with them. We all do what we can and will be the first to help each other out. Our next-door neighbour has been slashing the paddocks and forest maintenance track for us. The paddocks were overgrown waist high with blady grass, it’s nasty stuff and a fire risk. To keep mowing it should give room for other grasses to grow. Having paddocks around the house, will also become a bit of a firebreak. Now it’s only a matter of getting money saved up for a 800m fence and a couple head of cattle. Although our whole property is fenced off, we want to keep cattle out of the forest and the gully.
To bad that copping a double mortgage is leaving no room at all for savings for our very long wish-list...