In a previous post, I showed the banana trees that were taking over the back yard garden. Having trimmed the trees, we soon realised that this mini banana plantation was going to give us grief in future, due to it’s invasive root system spreading out under the paving. I bought a reciprocating saw with a 300mm pruning blade and cut the trees down, to be confronted with the stumps and roots, which I attacked with a new axe. After four days of swinging the axe and swearing at the stumps, Johno the tree feller came to my rescue with his stump grinder. Annie eyed the open patch.

Installing the treated 200 x 50 mm sleepers.

She had her heart set on a veggie and herb garden, so on August 2, I went to Bunnings in Belrose with my Ryobi reciprocating saw to cut 4 x 3.0 m long timber sleepers into shorter lengths for this garden. Bunnings don’t offer a cutting service for wet timber, so after cutting the 200 x 50 mm sleepers, I loaded the timber into Karen’s 13 year old little Nissan Micra to cart it back to our house.

Ready for the garden soil.

Building the treated timber walls was straight forward, but then treating the lumpy and acidic soil with bags of lime and chalk, carting in three loads of 15 x 50 litre bags of garden soil and compost with the Micra, was hard yakka.

Annie planting her veggies and herbs.

It was a pleasant surprise to bump into an old friend Judith MacDonald at a local bottle shop, so we met for dinner with her and partner Neil, at the local Forest hotel pub. We share the dubious reputation of being thrown out of the Dee Why RSL with some other friends, after a raucous and liquid “Black Sorrows” concert, years ago.

Judith, Dirk, Annie and Neil.

We enjoyed a visit from Karen’s fiancé Evan’s dad, Eugene and his partner Adelaide and had a slideshow of our sailing and a BBQ. The next day we did a wetlands walk and showed them around the Pittwater before they took the train back to Newcastle.

Eugene, Adelaide, Dirk and Annie.

News from Michelle came in from Europe: After her Swiss Alps hikes, she went to Portugal and spent a week in Lisbon with friends and attended the Boom Festival.

With her friends at the Boom Festival.

Portugal: finding shade in the heatwave.

Kristian flew over to join her and they travelled along the north coast of Spain, visiting the Guggenheim in Bilbao, before he returned to Singapore.

Bilbao – Guggenheim museum.

Kristian & Michelle in Spain.

This was followed by a five day, 150 km hike through Spain on the Camino de Santiago trail.

Camino de Santiago – which way now?

Back here in Sydney, we have settled down in Warriewood and now focus on getting Esprit, our home of six years back in shape again. There a numerous components on the boat that need maintenance and upgrading before we can sail offshore again. Yesterday I fitted a new toilet pump and fixed the shower pump in the aft head (bathroom). It was quite a job to remove the VHF radio and handsets which B&G will replace for us, after ongoing malfunctions.

Pete Murray at the DY RSL.

In between, we have attended a few music shows, including Pete Murray and his band, drove up to Newcastle for consecutive Saturdays to look at open homes, with the view of purchasing an investment property in the area. On Sunday evenings we have methodically invited our fellow strata owners in batches for sundowners, in order to get to know everyone. Quite a diverse and friendly group of people, who we could get along with well (we hope).

Sydney rainfall 2022

Our weather gurus predict that La Niña will continue! The chance that the current La Niña will last through this year is over 70%. If it happens, this will be only the third time with three La Niña winters in a row on record. Meanwhile the record temperatures and droughts in the UK and Europe continue and Pakistan has had the worst flooding in history. Our Bureau of Meteorology confirmed yesterday that Sydney had its wettest and coldest August since 1859. Don’t tell me climate change is not real!

Burning Man 2019.

At the end of August, Michelle met up again with Kristian in the Black Rock Desert, 160 km north of Reno, Nevada for the annual nine-day Burning Man Festival. This follows a 2-year hiatus due to the pandemic shutdown. Its name derives from the week’s main event, where a 12 m tall wooden man atop a 9 m structure is set ablaze. The event includes music, art installations and no money changes hands. Gifting is the rule.

Kristian loading provisions and water for 30 friends at Burning Man into their U-haul.

Paradisium: Constructed of charred trees from the Californian wildfires.

Gaia, a 12 m high metal sculpture.

Continuing a tradition that started in 1986, the annual Nevada event draws tens of thousands to the bike-friendly temporary city. Participants must bring everything they need to survive in the desert, with summer heat often tipping into near-freezing temperatures at night. The principle of inclusion and self-reliance, guide the behaviour of the participants.

Our metal birds.

We have an African Secretary Bird and Guinea Fowl metal sculptures in our front garden. A local Kookaburra (Kingfisher) has taken to sitting on the Secretary Bird’s head. I can’t figure if this is for company, or to show the Secretary Bird who is in charge.

G’day mate.

Australians were saddened by the passing of Elizabeth II on 8 September 2022, their queen and head of state for 70 years. At her coronation in 1952, I was a grade 1 pupil at Northmead Primary School in South Africa. As a British Commonwealth country, she was head of state of South Africa as well and each pupil received a glass with her picture on it to commemorate the event. After a referendum, South Africa became a republic in 1961.

Since arriving in Australia 26 years ago we became accustomed to her profile on our coins and notes and despite an Australian republic referendum in 1999, our multicultural society admire her so much, to vote to retain the status quo. Charles III will now be king and head of state of Australia.

On this sombre note we sign off this post. Look out for exciting news of our new solar panel installation and delivery of our new electric vehicle.

Cheers!