About a month ago, we planted two different types of baby trees around our back fenceline. The trees are Tasmanian blue gums (the compact variety – up to 8 metres tall) and variegated pottosporums (up to 9 metres tall). We chose these two trees because they’re very quick growing and they make good screen breaks. We have some rowdy neighbours at the back there and we’re hoping that by planting these trees that we will have a permanent visual and audio screen break between us and those rowdy neighbours.  Perhaps in 3 or 4 years time they will grow to be as high as the fence.  Unfortunately the old trees that we have in the garden are mostly deciduous so they don’t provide much help for blocking out noise and neighbours in the winter. We have planted the trees so that we have a blue gum, then a pottosporum and then a blue gum and then a pottosporum. 

The first blue gum in the row is getting eaten by possums so I have to devise something to put around it so that the poor little tree can start growing. I am thinking about using shade cloth by stapling it to a few stakes so that the possums can’t get into it. These little trees are still so very young and very small. I’m hoping in the next few weeks they will put on a growth spurt as the weather gets warmer. We have 6 more Blue gums which we’ve purchased which are still waiting to go into the ground. Unfortunately where we bought the pottosporums from has sold out of them so we now have to wait until January to get some more pottosporums to plant in between the blue gums.

Speaking of possums, one of them decided to pay us a visit on the back patio. We managed to snap a photo of him before he ran across the roof.

A couple of weeks ago at the Sorrell market, I bought these 3 beautiful purple daisy shrubs for $10. I will plant them in the garden bed below the study window because there is already two shrubs there which have purple flowers. I thought I would make a purple themed garden bed.

We went back to the Sorrell market last Sunday and I was hoping that the same guy with the daisies would be there so that I could buy 3 more to go ino the bed nder the lounge room window, but the guy was nowhere to be seen

On a different note, I have finally found the perfect dinner set. This one is from Target and I love it. It ’s called Gingko and it contains not only a bowel, large plate, small plate and mug, but it also contains matching placemats, coasters, salt & pepper shakers and napkin holder.  

I bought two of these sets so I now have a nice dinner set for 8 people. The set goes so well with the new table that we just purchased at auction and the bowl that comes in the set is a decent size. (Is it just me or are the bowls that come with dinner sets these days just way too small?) You can actully put your cereal in these bowls! And I love the design on them, so simple and understated. It wasn’t long before the first plate was broken, though. Smokey must have jumped up at the kitchen benchtop and knocked one of the small plates onto the floor, smashing it into a hundred tiny pieces. I was so disappointed that I only had 7  of the small plates left that I went back to Target the other day and bought a third set. So now I have an overabundance of 12 dinner plates, and 11 small plates, 12 mugs, 12 place mats, 12 coasters, 3 sets of salt and pepper shakers and 3 napkin holders. At least we’ll be okay for plates if we have a lot of people come round I suppose if any of the other pieces get broken, then there are still plenty of replacements to go around.