What a heartbreaker 2018 has been & it just continues (so far) into 2019. We are struggling here keeping our crucial things alive-our fruit trees- my Jacaranda trees? -(doubtful) ?  lots of things battling- quite a few big trees- can you believe even Peppercorns? hard to believe? Lots of dead trees-dead limbs- all got to be carted away-cleaned up. Cannot complain though as compared to the poor buggers up north-and out west- we are okay really. I hope you are keeping your beloved garden alive- all your favorite things! Don't laugh but I have actually got (fake turf) along beside the Bungalow! Fabulous- no water-no weeds-no mowing? is that cheating? I don't know. But it gives us a nice green outlook! (George loves it)  I still have trees to plant out- but obviously not going to until they can survive- so potting some of them up into bigger pots for another time! Got the courtyard all covered in with Sail Cloths- lovely & shaded now-and will keep my plants safe from frosts as well. But paddocks are all so depressing- not a pretty sight right now! This photo just about sums it up for now- a big red sun setting at Bony Mountain!  February 2019.  

Just to cheer everyone up-my big red geranium - love it-I can remember Grandma Murphy-had dozens of Geraniums in pots- that was her only garden in the Mallee- and I can appreciate what she went though now! most people take water for granted!  

I am jealous of this report- adding this comment in March 2019-and we are desperate for rain?   Bony Mountain for 2016 ! Now easter 2017 how the years fly by! Was a very hot summer here the hottest I can recall since we came to Bony Mountain. We got amazing rain during March over 100 mls and seeing the benefit of that !  Our dam is full nearly overflowing ! & while our bore was broken down we constantly pumped up into the cube on the ute, and watered all the trees that way. How precious is the mulch, we need several more truckloads here it was so benificial the mulch I did get but need much more!  I will take some fresh photo's and get them up on here as everything is growing, changing and some real success stories. Our fruit trees are powering this year, loaded with fruit, and I feel like going back to preserves! I love having all that fruit, the apricots were so sweet and the plums as well. The navels & one lime covered in tiny fruit at present! again they seem to be quite prolific! The navels love the sandy ground! I planted three London Plane trees a few years back, have lost two now ,one left! devastating.  They are such an elegant tree, and grow very well in this area some fine specimens in Warwick, Allora , but of course need good water in the lighter soil, we had our grey water on it, and pump broke down, could not save it.  Planning on planting more plane trees but the lesson is , they are thirsty.  Read up on them though they live for hundreds of years! what a wonderful legacy to leave my kids & grandkids, look Grandma planted that tree?  It is one very special legacy we can leave our family.

Sunflowers happy smiling faces! musy grow some this year?

I was born and bred beside the mighty Murray River , Australia's biggest/longest River. I swam in her, I spent hours sitting beside her banks as a child, dreamed my dreams! swam my horses in the river, and over those childhood years developed a real passion for her majesty and seemingly eternal strength. Sadly over the last twenty odd years I have seen her reduced to nearly nothing, polluted and dammed, abused, drained and so on it goes! During the last few years she has had a huge revival, no thanks to man, but because of the seasons, the rain and simply because this is what happens. We watched in horror, during the big dry, here near our place when the Condamine River which flows at the bottom of our valley, ran dry! and became a long dry gully.  But it does prove we can take nothing for granted, we should revere and guard our Rivers and Creeks and waterways, any water, underground or otherwise. Because without water we have nothing, and both us and the land will perish! This sounds pretty dramatic I know, but sadly very real.   (love my ducks)