ANNE
LAYTON-BENNETT

With September not far away theoretically we’re nearing the finishing line so far as winter goes, and from the look of them some of my houseplants are feeling the same way I do: hanging out for some warmth, sunshine and freedom from all the layers of clothing needed to stay…

One of the less delightful aspects of living in a semi-rural suburb are the uninvited guests that tend to arrive with autumn, and then hang around during winter. They are of course, rodents, and we no sooner get rid of one lot than another lot soon realise there's a vacancy,…

They say having houseplants keeps houses healthy by purifying the air we breathe. They’re also good for concentration and productivity, as well as reducing stress levels and improving our moods. Based on that assessment I should be a picture of calmness and serenity, while pumping out written pieces by the…

It’s almost the end of April yet the swallows are still swooping and darting about outside the window. That’s unusual. Not that many years ago we were waving these migratory birds off sometime in March. This was from our previous property where swallows were annual visitors who would fly in…

By the time March comes around all the daily harvesting of produce does become a bit tedious and rather a grind, but there are compensations. One of them is having a steady crop of raspberries and strawberries for weeks on end. The strawberries have been into their second fruiting for…

Green and gold frogs that is, and who continue to call the sunken bath tub beside the little garden potting shed, home. Actually our whole back garden seems to be something of a frog nursery, and although the green and golds rule, we’ve also spotted tiny tree frogs amongst the…

At least not when the temperatures are as warm as they’ve been this summer, and there’s a lot of harvesting to be done. I'm rather over getting up at 5.30 every morning to walk Della dog, and then start the picking. Breakfast has become a hasty meal for the duration,…

Now we have two (at least) green and gold frogs in the sunken bath tub. Although both are a similar size neither is the bright green of a mature frog, so we’re assuming they’ve still a bit of growing up to do. One of them especially was quite timid to…

We’ve always had frogs on the property, both where we are now, and at our previous place a few kilometres away. Initially though we didn’t realise the large green frogs that we regularly spotted basking in the spring and summer sunshine were becoming increasingly rare. The first inkling these frogs…