Underhill to end the year

 After Christmas Geoff, Jen, the girls, Ponyo and I went to Underhill.

We arrived in the rain and it was really cold. I had worn a thin summer dress and got quite wet opening the gate.

Everything is so green but unfortunately we have lost our Golden Deliciou apple. It seems to have happened in only the last few weeks as there are still green leaves on it.

After Geoff spent a bit of time cutting the apple up he chose a tree to fell for firewood once it is dried out. It turned out quite a huge job for his large battery chainsaw but it was all done. We just now need to take our time to cut it and stack the timber for drying.

One of the pears is quite laden with fruit.

So we have now netted it to keep just a few for ourselves.

The dams are overflowing and so the trees and bamboo planted on the edges will probably not survive the inundation.

The rest of the day was spent with the girls picking Youngberries, an activity that continued most of the following day as there were so many. Lots were eaten as they were picked or for desserts and breakfasts.

The next day I spent making a mess by cleaning out the scullery after the mouse plague and the termite attacks. This took me all day with a little help when larger cupboards needed to be moved out or new cupboards from Geoff's Kogarah house put in place. We were lucky that it was so calm and wet so that Geoff could light the open fire and burn off the termite infested cupboards.

While I continued in the scullery the family went for a walk to see how full the dams actually were.

By the end of the day the scullery was usable again although now we'll need to remember where everything is kept again. This is a stitched image so is a bit odd but it allows you to see the completed job.

Ponyo just loved the green.

And the termites just loved the newly felled tree. In just one day they had almost surrounded the branch that was touching their mound.

The temperature was great (about 9-16 C) so we slept well and I did not seem to suffer too much from my flu (not Covid) that I am now recovering from. I'm so glad we went down and can't wait to go again as soon as possible.