FLOWERS

My life has been taken up with picking proteas these last few weeks. Beautiful as they are I'm beginning to see them as just plain hard work rather than the beautiful blooms that they are. Why is it that outdoor work always seems to happen in the heat. I wish I could organise for them to bloom in the cooler months. I'm sunburned, hot, dirty and exhausted and I think the only crafty thing about them is what the florists do with them long after we've put them on a truck to the southern states. Never mind, I'm sure if we keep plodding along we will finally get to the end and we'll be proud of what we've achieved.

I managed to sneak a few photos the other day when my "boss" didn't notice that I'd slacked off a little.

First we have to cut them off the bushes. They're not as easy to find as you might think.

We load them into the trailer.

There's plenty of company, but we  think   hope they're scared of us too.  We have learned not to work after dark as that's when the toads come out. When I found that out, I got REALLY scared.

Please Armstrong, we really could do with some help and there you are being lazy in the shade.

This is the really tedious part where we trim off all the excess growth. At least we can work in the shed out of the sun. 

Trimming done and into the bucket.

The cold room fills up pretty quickly and then they're off to Melbourne. No longer our problem.


Now that's about the story of my life right now and will be more of the same for a few more weeks.

I have to tell you though, that the house is all painted and FINISHED. YAY!!! I had to cheat just a little and get help for the high walls at the back where I wasn't game to go. I have to paint the fence yet, but at least it's ground level. Will get some photos when it's done.