started the week with a bushwalk along the Popes Glen track to Govetts Leap
the track to Cripps Lookout has just opened!
Popes Glen Creek
Horseshoe Falls from Cripps Lookout
ancient rock formation at Cripps Lookout
Pulpit Rock from Govetts Leap
the next day I started baring the bones of the garden at Dunmovin which has been neglected since 2019 when the previous owner went into a nursing home
cut the Photinia hedge on the driveway back buy a third, a big job that took 4 hours!
the next day Cathy & I went for a bushwalk to Mount Banks
Cathy enjoying the view from the track
Old Man Banksia aka Banksia serrata
Banksia serrata flower
my grin says it all!
the next day I got back to work in the garden, the Buxus & Hebes on the verandah needed sorting
Buxus cut back by a third with a view of the orange flowered Crocosmia a class 4 weed in the Blue Mountains
Roderick’s spirit eyes have been helping, he was so good at pruning hedges!
feels like I am honouring Liesa’s spirit by bringing some order back to her garden
removed all the ivy from under the deck, will plant a Cecil Brunner rose on the white trellis and cut the bamboo back, the good news is it is contained in an old septic tank so it can’t spread
blackberry is also a class 4 weed here so I removed it from the old boat
will add fresh potting mix and plant it out with spring annuals and bulbs
more blackberry behind the garden
the neighbour on the other aside of the back fence had just cut down the blackberry on his side so the timing is good
my ladder & pruning tools in the back shed
so I bought a padlock and in a funny way it makes me feel like this garden and shed and house will be mine one day in the not too faraway!
It's Crow Time 
I feel you are really in your element Mo, perfect.
(((Jude))) it’s so good to start getting a feel for the space and the neighbourhood!
It’s fortunate that you are able to go into Dunmovin and sort the garden out. It’s not quite the same as moving in but it’s a start.
(((Jenny))) it feels more like a MeMo Garden Services job at this stage of the game than my very own forever place!
Wow – what work in the garden Mo – feeling your way into it all! And how lovely to be walking and viewing those incredible places
(((Susi))) just have to rein in the enthusiasm & pace myself to 3 hours a day in the garden, this time out before settlement is a blessing in a way!
This feels so good Mo. And am soaking up that luscious green in our bleak winter. I’m really glad you are getting to work in the garden now.
(((Beth))) it’s a voyage of discovery and so much better than trying to sort all the things that I had already sorted to move up here to the mountains last May !
Hi MC – not everyone goes on an arduous bushwalk to recovery from a hard day of gardening. Must be grand to start to recover the garden in preparation for settlement and move. Stay well and fit; but don’t over do it. B
(((Barry))) took the day off today, a girlfriend drove us to a gallery opening at Clifton School of Arts so we cruised the fabulous Sea Cliff Bridge along the edge of the ocean from Stanwell Park on Lawrence Hargrave Dr, it was a perfect sunny day, don’t think I have ever seen the ocean such a deep blue!
Your hands have introduced themselves to the garden. You have pruned and cared and taken account of what is here. Your heart has opened to the caring that is so essential to a garden and by doing so, you have begun to claim this place as home. Your photos of this magical place that you call home, this land, ancient and with a deep sense of spirit, are wonderful to see with their stunning vistas, green all over the place and you smiling like a ray of sun.
(((Marti))) I am so in love with these Blue Mountains, they romance my soul and gardening at Dunmovin is the best magic, feeling like I have come home.
The good life!
(((Graham))) Magic Days!
Oh Mo, this is so good. Even before actually moving in, you are home…you are home on the trail (love those big, sturdy, flat rocks for walking on), you are home in your soon-to-be forever garden…you are home within your new community – with neighbors and friends to move through it all with you. I’m so happy for you.
(((Nancy))) the longtime dream of becoming a Blackheathen has come true!
I have a love/hate relationship with blackberries … how they are so beautiful when in bloom and so tasty when ripe, but they are relentless in their overtaking … pruning is my most favorite thing to do … hard to stop once started!
as ever, I imagine those breath-taking views must be even more so in person …
(((Liz))) Dunmovin is two houses away from the edge of the bush so weed management is an imperative, cut off both flowers and fruit from the blackberries this week and although the Crocosmia is pretty it needed to go too. Agapanthus isn’t a declared weed but spreads too easily from seed so I will cut off all the flowers before they set seed. The bushwalking is spectacular up here in the mountains, it’s like living in one of the seven wonders of the natural world!
Oh I love this all! I have found 3 hours to be the magic number for how long to prune/do more strenuous gardening. It’s time for me to start pruning the blackberries again…. Hope to see a Cecil Brunner rose flourishing in your garden one day. 🙂
(((Deb))) I love your blue house and sustainable garden, such an inspiration!
Bravo Mo!
I would want to be outdoors as much as possible in your neck of the woods, the countryside is simply breathtaking and the garden plants are all so luscious. Look forward to seeing your garden return to it’s former glory.
(((Saskia))) I wake up every morning so excited about everything, I love being a Blackheathen!
Mo, your verandah looks wonderful and you are doing great things in the garden. Every photo makes my heart sing for you. Huge hugs, Carol xxx
(((Carol))) Yesterday I cut back the Photinia hedge with Potato Vine growing through it all on the fence line with my lovely next door neighbours, he worked on his side and I worked on mine. It has to to be kept at app 3 m high for privacy so it was hard work & am feeling totally knackered today!
Hi Mo! Goodness, you have your work cut out for you with that garden! Good job you’re so fit as Rod is only there in spirit to help! The photographs are beautiful-what a spectacular part of the world.
(((René))) having this time in between to get the garden in shape before I move in is a blessing in disguise and I am certainly getting fitter with all this ladder work!
Hi, great to see you active in the garden.
Hedges do ask us to look closely to care for them as many times in their lives they have been ‘done’, so sometimes when they are freeee / or forgotten, they ask more attention as they can easily loose themselves into bushes again.
Such beautiful views, one could be forgiven for forgetting the gardening just to take in the views. Great your lock on the shed and its invocation.
Also the boat in the back yard; must have been a big wave or is it for the waterfall ?
I had a nice dream with you last night. We were travelling together and out exploring some plants beside the road early one morning. Nice to feel you close. Take care. lovely to see you in the photo too. Love Pete
(((Pete))) am working on the fence line with the neighbours this week, thought it was nearly finished yesterday til I had a coffee with Vicki and realized the hedge can come down another metre, we will both get more light and still retain privacy. Sawing into 5 cm branches to get just below where the hedge had been trimmed back to in 2019 is hard work. Photinia is not my favourite shrub/tree but the hedges are so will established they will stay in situ as they form 7 garden rooms. The neighbours have grown a passionfruit vine through their side as well as the Potato Vine so I am cutting very carefully, surprised it copes with frost!
Good to meet in dreamland, look forward to you visiting up here in these mountains one day in real life!
Hard work, so take care of your fingers. I feel sort of the same about Photinia, but it does have nice new pink / red leaves for a while to wake you up. It will be worth it all; gardens do love being loved and restored.
x fingers doing the hard pruning in this last month of summer going into the gentler days of autumn should give the hedges time to recover & put on some lovely new growth before slowing down in winter
It looks like you’ve really made the garden your own and doesn’t it feel wonderful when you’ve done so much work in the garden. I bet you can hardly wait to move in and make that place your own home.
(((Lana))) with every visit i feel my roots digging in!