Accommodation in Sheffield Tasmania – Glencoe Country Guesthouse: An update on last month’s activities.
The chickens – my talk with the girls worked and I am being supplied with eggs again.
Redmond rooster is a lot happier, as I found a home for the three other roosters that were from the last chick clutch that hatched.
They were fully grown and ganging up on poor Redmond. The painter doing the renos happened to mention he was looking for a rooster and took all three.
I have three ducks nesting around the place – one under the logs that Russ wants to move…so he can’t until she hatches her eggs, one under the steps in the barn, and another in the agapanthus.
We will have to look at fixing up the duck house to protect any ducklings. I have lost ducklings to crows, feral cats and even rats.
The yard is still a minefield due to the bandicoots, but I haven’t had a rabbit attack on the veg garden for a while.
Maybe the spray to keep them and the birds away actually works. The fruit trees have been pruned but I still have to do the berries.
First copper spray has been done, but it will have to be done every 2 weeks now to prevent leaf curl, brown rot etc.
We had some leaf curl last year, but as soon as it appeared I picked off all the affected leaves and I got it under control.
I need to have a war council to plan my attack on the cherry slugs. We had them bad last year – nasty little beasties they are and cause a lot of damage to the trees.
The renovations are progressing well. The back of the house looks brand new with all the boards replaced.
Russ has done a fantastic job on the veranda posts, too. The iron work is back and it looks amazing on our accommodation in Sheffield Tasmania.
You can see so much more detail in it now the numerous layers of paint have been removed. It’s going to be a hard job putting them back up.
The framing is up in the big shed and Russ has started doing the walls. He has painted his workshop a light green – it looks really good.
We still need to finish off around the deck, do some roof repairs and the hardest job, which is dealing with the window sills that have some rot.
The little old shed has been pulled down – I think Russ is still shaking from jackhammering up the old concrete slab.
This is going to be rebuilt as a toilet for people to use that are not guests. I plan to put a chandelier in there and I have an antique print of Queen Victoria’s Silver Jubilee to put in there as well.
It is a very old print because on the back there is old newspaper with an article about Hitler when he was in the army.
We have had a very mild winter and the bulbs have been up for a few weeks now which is early. There are lots of daffodils and jonquils everywhere, too.
It’s still not officially spring in Tassie, but the weather is very spring like – even the rhododendrons are starting to flower. There are some beautiful gardens to visit within an easy drive of Glencoe B&B.
Emu Valley Rhododendron Garden offers walking tracks, lakes, bridges and many other unique design features.
The Garden features an amphitheatre consisting mainly of rich volcanic soil which was never farmed.
The walls slope moderately steeply into a large stepped basin fed by several natural springs forming a series of lakes.
There’s also lots of landscaped features to enjoy, including four lakes, waterfalls, several bridges, gazebos, dry stone walls, well-paved paths and internal roads; native fauna such as platypus, echidna, frogs and many bird species.
Native flora include many tree and fern species; the garden is classified as a plant museum. As such, it is a repository for many species of the genus rhododendron that are or may become endangered mostly due to human activity.
There is also Shinrin Yoku Forest Therapy walks, which include stretching, mindfulness and a tea ceremony.
You do need to book for these walks. Closer by the Arboretum in Spreyton is 60 hectors of gardens to walk through – a great way to spend the day.
Of course, there are many festivals to celebrate spring around the area and our accommodation in Sheffield Tasmania, but I will leave that for another post.
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