Whilst the garden is in reasonable condition whilst waiting to get through Winter and the plants are becoming dormant, I’m still surprised at how much I’m finding to do outdoors.

This trip I’ve:

• Planted a Judas Tree out the front. The front yard still needs a few more substantial plantings to fill it out and I couldn’t go past this name. It’s also a beautiful flowering ornamental tree
• Planted more bulbs – this time around the newly planted trees. Mainly pretty little Snowflakes
• Added another Tumbler Compost Bin to the garden collateral, which I put together myself and have already filled with the Maple leaves that went from full red to fully dropped over the weekend
• Build a garden bed in what was originally a troublesome bare rock-hard area of the garden off the Chapel porch. The jury is still out on this one, but in general I’m pleased with how this area is progressing. The bed contains Pentestemon and Heartsease (a personal favourite)
• Planted Autumn White Crocuses in the central front garden bed
• Weed sprayed the Ivy that was beginning to peek through again at the Grotto
• Dean mowed the lawn which should now stay in reasonable shape through Winter
• Visited the local Museum to get photos of the original Convent garden.

This latter point was a bit disappointing as I found that the Convent used to have beautiful garden paths with edging as well as well trimmed hedges and garden beds that have all disappeared. It was particularly hard to see how beautiful the central garden bed once was – considering the concrete is so badly damaged around the edges from where they were broken to wedge in the bush rock (which I have now removed).

The local Museum is well worth a visit – housing the social history of the town, which is unusual in that it is a 20th century industrial town. As another Spanish Mission (ex-Church) building, it is considered a sister building to the Convent.

All-in-all a good weekend as I now prepare for the work to begin in earnest on the inside. The painters are planning to start in the next two weeks with floors to follow afterwards.