Eight days ago we handed Charlie-the-dog back to his owner.
We've been his caregivers for eight months while his master was deployed to the Middle East and over that time we got quite attached to him and he to us - but never could we have imagined such a joyous reunion between a dog and his master as the one we saw when Charlie and R were reunited.
Charlie whimpered, barked, and cried with joy, R cried with joy, Mr E and I wiped away our own tears and found we could not speak. When we drove away our hearts sang with praise for the love R and Charlie share, even though we felt a hole in our own hearts at no longer having him.
As soon as he'd arrived to stay with us Charlie had taken up complete residence on our back deck so it was no longer a place where Mr E and I could sit and share coffee, read or relax at the end of the day.
Now with Charlie back in his own home once again, and cradling our loss of this lovable fellow, we decided to put all our efforts this weekend into reclaiming the deck and spending time on our individual gardening pursuits - Mr E with his bonsai, and me with a few new herbs and flowers.
We've also been part of a Dengue Fever Elimination trial in our town which meant the past four months our home has hosted a mosquito release container - believe me when I say you could not move outside without walking through a wall of mozzies! Last week the container was removed and though we still have a lot of the stinging blighters around they are far fewer day by day...
...so returning to what little bit of gardening we can achieve in this rental home was a blessing.
Mr E's first attempt at propagating azaleas for bonsai a couple of months ago has been quite successful with new shoots appearing on his cuttings. They've been in an artificial 'greenhouse' for about 8 weeks now so they're almost ready to be planted in ceramic bonsai pots very soon...
On Saturday he began the propagation process over again with another azalea plant...
...a white one this time.
Meanwhile I refreshed my old pots and filled some new ones with herbs and flowers. The basil I'd sprouted from the seeds of last spring's harvest, and I purchased small punnets of of parsley, thyme, rosemary and mint at Bunnings for potting.
There's so much green from all the palm trees here that I thought I'd nurture some colour in pots - things like succulents, lavender and petunias are now on our front steps. I planted some petunias in an old tea pot without any base holes using a drainage idea that seems to be working for now...
Kalanchoe...
French lavender and a petunia seedling in the tea pot...
Last year when Mr E took me up to Cooktown I saw the most gorgeous purple flowering shrub and hoped to find it someday so I could have it in my garden. On our wandering through the Bunnings garden centre on Saturday afternoon I found it!
Geisha Girl (Duranta Repens) now sits on the back deck where I can admire it while sipping my morning coffee...
I placed more pots of petunias on the deck as well as a few of the herbs...
...and planted plenty of coriander seeds around the aloe vera that grows in an old styrofoam box under the palm trees. More coriander seeds (we eats loads of coriander) were planted in a second foam box which also holds a broken stem from the Kalanchoe that's been planted in an empty tomato can. You never know, it might just strike if I look after it...
Final step was to scrub down our white cane chairs, buy some bright new seat cushions, and carry our round garden table up the stairs to the deck. I added a vanilla citronella candle and my much-loved-$1-from-the-op-shop-chicken-table-topper before Bob-the-dog settled comfortably beside the table on his hessian mat as though we'd been doing this for years...
From the deck we can see the mango tree which is already laden with new fruit. This time next month we'll be able to pluck some of these lovelies - though they are very early this year due to our region having it's driest wet season in history ...
My friend Heather told me there's a saying up here that if the mango trees flower early it will be a bumper wet season. I hope so. We really need rain...
As you can see, in the front yard there is no grass at all. In fact it's so dry (and hot, even now in our tropical winter) that our bird bath split in half...
...and our pineapple plant will not bear fruit.
But with plenty of regular and patient hand watering the Mock Orange tree I showed you
back here is still soldiering on and has new growth...
The sun was going down so I quickly dug out a project of mine from 2012 that I'd never used and made notes on all the things we'd planted during the day...
"My Garden" journal...
Mr E and I ended the day sharing a glass of French red and a platter of nibblies out on our deck watching the sun set...
We still miss Charlie, but life goes on. Moving forward, even by reclaiming the deck and planting some flowers, was the best thing to do, and now we have a place to take in the view every sunrise and sunset.
