Haunted Melbourne !

Yep the CBD has more ghosts than you can poke a stick at !
Did The Haunted Melbourne Ghost Tour last night and it was great value , not just for entertainment but also for historical points you don't usually get in a 2 paragraph guide of Melbourne.
Melbourne's first cemetary is now Flagstaff Gardens...next time you're lounging on the cool grass think of many bodies still buried under you...and the odd ghost flitting amidst the gum trees.
Melbourne's second cemetary is the asphalted car park of the Queen Vic market.....all 9,000 bodies and our founding father John Batman still over-seeing the haggling of the fruit and veg.Outside the original cemetary wall-that brick wall inside the market itself- ghosts of criminals are still seen,late at night by security guards....at the spot marked E 13.
Did you know John Batman actually built Young and Jacksons pub-as a girls school ...as he had 7 daughters(great way to get them out of the house !).
His stately home was where the Spencer St Station train yards were...he is still seen in all places he lived in or built...including Little Lons where he visited the "painted ladies".
Want to visit a forgotten Melbourne pub ? The Mitre Tavern in Bank Place has gorgeous architecture and a female ghost...looking towards the mens club across the lane.
Visiting Federation Square soon ? Look carefully and you might see some of the ghosts from Melbourne's first morgue.
Little Lonsdale Street...infamously known as Little Lons....the red light district where anything could and did happen.....wander down there in the wee small hours and you might spy the painted lads and ladies of years gone by.
The Little Lonsdale st car park-unable to be used for anything due to a nasty being still residing there almost 60 years after the not-so-accidental-death-by-axe.........which everyone saw and got photos of.....
The State Library of Victoria with it's many ghosts that have been seen throughout the buildings....claimed as Melbourne's "Most Haunted Building" on international sites.
MANY ghosts abound in the busy city...they're even busker proof !

Possible backyard purchases.....

Thinking of getting another water-tank....this time a 2100 litre with pump,connected to the laundry and toilet(for flushing,not spin rinsing),can also use the pump for hosing,rather than watering can labour ! Found a spot to tuck it away(as well as anyone can tuck away a mini-behemoth) with downpipe to feed water from the roof....just got to do some final measurements and sell Grumpy on eBay to fund it !
Almost got all the greywater outlets organised to recycle H2O too-each year we pipe another waste pipe(water waste NOT sewerage waste !!!).Not cheap to set up,but saves $ (and watering labour) in the long run.
Also I fell over The Fruit Salad Tree Company which makes sooooo much sense with decreased yard space across suburbia.Thinking of knee-capping a self-seeded leafy-tree-thing for the spot(NFI what it is,apart from a so-so shade tree that drops leaves on my vegies).Right between the Granny Smith and the plum trees,perfect !
Which grafted fruit tree to choose tho?
Sad to say I'd probably be greedy and get a combined stone fruit and should the lemon tree turn up it's toes and pop it's clogs,I'd get a combined citrus graft.Already have a lime and a tangelo,but the more the merrier.Tangelos are extra sweet,a hybrid cross between manderine and grapefruit-YUM.
Up the ladder the other day,cleaning out spouting(usually perform this during a storm when the "oh-poo-the-spouting's-overflowing" realisation hits LOL ) and I found where the Rainbow Lorikeets had deserted us for....a few backyards away there is a magnificent red-flowering gum tree that is literally seething with these parrots ! Might talk Grumpy into holding the ladder again while I attempt to take a pic ...without trying any daring trapeze moves of my own.

Eat my tomato dust.....!!!!

What's left of today's crop of home grown cherry tomatoes-sweet,juicy and full of sun-ripened flavour.The kids eat them like they're lollies,but I aint complaining !
With warm weather,there'll be plenty more to pick tomorrow...and the day after that...and the day after that...(you get the idea).The neighbours will be getting LARGE punnets of them soon,along with the limes,passionfruit,cucumbers and other vegie gluts we have.
Always plant way too many vegies but it keeps me off the street and out of mischief ...most times ;)
Love this plate(one of a pair) for it's sheer fun value.If you look closely the egg-plant girl is running away from the reprobate tomato and cucumber lads,who are imbibing what appears to be beer*gasp*.

Home grown joys....

Pear tree with canna lillies. Home grown cucumber .


Have found hidden treasures in my garden...cucumbers, itty-bitty zucchini babies and missing chook eggs .Have also confirmed our suspicions that the dog is stealing the eggs for her brekkie,each morning (thought it was only hair of the dog that needed raw egg !?).
Tangello and nashi trees have dropped an awful lot of fruit,from that nasty bout of heat.
I think the heat knocked the stuffing out of the screeching neighbours too -not heard a peep since before NYE !!!
Still hacking away at the lemon tree(sob)...we have Gall Wasp infestation( it's not caught from toilet seats and over-the-counter medicine won't eradicate it either).
Planted another crop of peas,beans,capsicum and zucchini...juicy,delicious vegies with no sprayed on nasties -and those catapillars are extra roughage LMFAO !

Plum trees have more than fruit amidst the foliage...

Look at that gorgeous face !
Evening snacking Rainbow Lorikeet,while we were dining el fresco in our backyard,tonight.
We were enjoying BBQ-ed banana dessert(recipe to follow) and this cheeky chappy was voicing his opinon about our plums to us.A tad concerned here,as the others seem to have vanished,leaving us with only a mated pair of lorikeets to entertain and clean up the plums,which is unusual.Hopefully the late rains have them busy elsewhere....goodness knows I only slave over pruning,watering and fertilising the plum tree for 1 bowl of plums and evening acrobatics from these beauties !
Speaking of pruning(sob) my 100 year old lemon tree has had to be butchered...more later,after I've finished the hacking(sob).

BBQ-ed Banana dessert-
Take either normal 'nanas or lady finger 'nanas,peel,lay on sheet of foil,press choc chips into side(as many as you can fit along 1 side).
Sprinkle with coconut and nuts(optional),wrap up in foil,place on bbq.
Leave for 20mins(depending on bbq heat),serve with ice cream.
YUM.

Again...isn't that bird a stunningly beautiful exhibit of nature ?!

The amazing things that comes from chooks bums...

Yes apart from the usual egg thingies,sunflower seeds (and many other items we won't discuss here) spring into life after travelling the digestive tract of a chook.Grumpy had tried many times to grow sunflowers,only resulting in stunted sad looking things that Van Gogh wouldn't have given himself a papercut over.Then this beauty starts growing from the mucked out bedding of the chook pen....proving the old saying "sometimes you gotta go through a lotta crap to get something worthwhile ".