Indeed, it has been a beautiful turn. The rolling hills surrounding El Noor, now have a tinge of green. My paddock finally has some sprouts of grass, and the chickens are happy to go out and eat to their hearts content.
The weather is cold, and we have had some rain showers over the past week which have been an unspeakable blessing from Mother Earth. And finally, El Noor Gardens can breathe a real sigh of relief. Everything can now recover from the onslaught of the driest Summer, and talking to a couple of my farmer neighbours, we all feel the same way.
Naturally, I have been out in it. It is the best weather for working, for I can breathe and go about my days without the distant (or close) humming of the mosquito or fly, working out in my rose beds. In fact, I have been rooting rose cuttings, as you can see below. Click the link HERE, to see a video at my YT Channel, showing you this process.
I have definitely had my trials and errors with this method, and I finally feel confident that I have worked out the 'sweet spot'...giving me success with this method, time and time again.
Cuttings are always hit and miss, but the beautiful thing about rose cuttings is that it will be a true rose with its own true root system. Unlike almost 98% of the ones you buy now, they are most likely grafted from a root stock rose.
These will be my first true roses grown from cuttings because I have killed all the others due to transplanting them to the paddock too hastily. Either that or my timing for planting them was off altogether. But since my last experience with rose cuttings, I now have suitable shade houses to nurture their first couple of years of growth.
Not only this, the roses already established in my gardens, are recovering from the dry Summer (and autumn) and are able to put themselves to bed for the Winter dormancy, quietly working underground now, developing new root systems and strength for the Spring (and Summer of '22) to come.
The natural world is full of extreme dynamics, the sprouting of plants and trees that have taken months of gentle nurturing, or the blooming of flowers 'our of their season' gives me a joy untold! Then there is the other side of the natural world which I don't particularly enjoy. The rescuing of animals and them dying, or seeing the harshness of a species turning on its own kind.
I speak of a current situation. I have had a mice/rat issue at El Noor Gardens for a couple of months. I have done my very best in capturing the little rodents in 'ethical traps'... wherein you put the food in a big box and they come inside and eat it. I have caught over 70 mice so far and have relocated them down in the creek, far away from my kitchen. What I am observing though, is the more adult mice, attacking the baby mice of the colony.
I have heard the squealing of mice every now and then, which I assume is an attack, but then in the last few days, I have found 2 baby mice attacked by bigger mice in these ethical traps, with the babies unable to escape. One attack happened outside the trap however. I had caught a baby mouse in the trap one cold night, and proceeded to take him outside before I went to bed. I watched this little mouse struggle to find cover in the bitter cold and felt so bad for it, that I scooped it up in my hands and took it back inside.
As an empath, I speak about the energetic experience on both sides of the coin on my latest LIVESTREAM YT Vid of being a clairvoyant, wherein that, you FEEL everything. I felt the fear, the cold, the struggle of this baby mouse, and any mouse or rat that I have caught. And much to the dismay of those living immediately around me, I feel much better relocating them all, as opposed to killing them, because they are a 'pest'. As I explain to those willing to listen, who am I to decide the fate of a species that humanity feels is superior to? In the video I explain the different layers of why some years mice plagues maybe worse off than others, but everything works in cycles upon the Earth.
The baby mouse was nestled in between my pair of Ugg boots and went to sleep, and finally recovered from the cold.
After about 20 mins, I hear a big squealing, and I saw a bigger mouse, scooting away from the baby mouse, who I found shoved up in a corner of the walls shaking, and had been attacked. Again, I scooped it up, and just nursed it for a half hour, to give it some warmth and it seemed to recover quickly again. It was getting late, and this time I put it inside my Ugg boot, and in the morning it was gone, so I knew it was okay.
A few mornings thereafter, I woke up and found 2 baby mice attacked and killed by one big adult mouse in the trap. Its saddening, but this, people of Earth, is the nature of the natural world. Beautiful and yet, equally as harsh. It reminds me of seeing Dr. Jane Goodall observing apes in Kenya, and how at one moment, they are peaceful, loving and good to each other, but it only takes one to change that dynamic and cause havoc among the family...and we as humans, are helpless to do anything about it.
I also rescued a fledging pigeon yesterday. She came to me, at sunset the day prior. She was missing all but one tail feather, and I seem to think she was attacked.
I got so close to her that I almost scooped her up, and at the moment of scooping her up, she flew up into the tree. I seemed to think she already knew me, for several pigeons would come everyday to feed at the chooks water bowl. And besides, I was happy that she was off the ground, by any means necessary, because as soon as night falls, the neighbours cats are here and in force, as well as Mrs Fox.
Thankfully I checked on her first thing after a cold night and she was still up in the tree. But the morning became frigidly cold and a rain storm came, whipping up the branches of the trees and pelting her with rain. I knew she was injured, tired and cold as I anxiously looked up at her. Suddenly she got caught in the wind, lost her footing and her wings got caught in tiny twigs--pinning them away from her body, showering her inner body with freezing rain. I knew I had to do something!
I grabbed the big ladder, which is very heavy (even by my standards) and with the rain now pelting me, pushed it up into the tree. After haggling with that, swearing with anxiety for not getting up there as quickly as I wanted, I thought to myself how the hell can I reach her? Even with the ladder (over 5 meters high) I was no where near her.
Then I remembered the custom paint brush I had made-it was about 4 meters in length--used for those high reaching paint spots on my newly painted ceiling. I found it, grabbed it and went back up the ladder, to the highest rung I was able to without falling and pushed the brush up under the wing of the bird. Finally I released her, she fell and flapped down from the tree and I raced down the ladder as quickly as I could and scooped her up in my arms. She did not resist this time and closed her eyes as soon as I put her in my warm jumper. I sat her nearby to the fire for hours. She became dry, and slept...every now and then opening her eyes and then would go back to sleep.
Rescuing wild animals is always a gamble, because you just don't know how injured they are. I knew there was a very high risk of her not surviving, and every hour I went to check on her. By the afternoon, I found her out of the blanket, and she had died. Its always awful. But I reasoned to myself, as least she was warm, quiet and seemingly peaceful when she departed back into the Eternal Fires of the Cosmos. I couldn't dream of leaving her up in the cold wet whipping winds, with her wings spread out and dying of hypothermia, and did the very best I could.
So, life at El Noor Gardens is extreme at times. I'm sharing with you not only the beautiful aspects, but also the challenging ones. I respect and honour that we are all creative expressions of the Radiant One, and no one life is inferior of the other. I also try to not interfere with the natural world unless someone or something is hurt and I know needs help. I seem to think that the natural world is very much influenced and shaped by the human influence. Perhaps the reason we have mouse plagues or predatory animals is due to our own aggression to one another, and our competitive outlook on the world. I believe each is symbiotic to the other. I also think there are many aspects of the natural world that are entirely misunderstood by the human consciousness.
On a brighter note, I would like to move on to the lovelier aspects of the natural world. I had planted my first Saffron bulbs in January, as is the time to plant in this part of the world.
I put them in and forgot about them, watering sporadically. I was hoping I would see some sort of life around March. March came and went. And there was nothing. Saffron Crocus needs a bit of a cold snap to awaken from her dormancy, and truth be told, we hadn't experienced much of anything (rain or cold) in March. But then April came and went too. I figured, "Well, Saffron is not suited to this climate"... and forgot about her for the time.
Unbeknownst to me, May 4th rolled along and I was out watering my vegetables in the shade house. I walked past my saffron patch and something green caught my eye. I looked down, and sure enough, there were the first signs of the saffron peeking through. I cannot tell you the elation that I felt seeping over my body. It was amazing. Within a couple of days, I had 7 flowers popping up through the soil with a vengeance. The growth within those few hours was staggering to me, and it was clear that they had taken months of self nurturing growth to get to this pivotal stage.
Once the flower buds appeared, within a couple of hours they were opened, and I picked my first saffron harvest. Granted, it wasn't much, but I didn't care. The mere thought of being able to grow saffron on El Noor eclipsed my small harvest. I separated the red stigmas, the yellow anthers and the petals- each in their own drying containers. They have all since dried and the saffron especially, has that undeniable aroma - the signature of its greatness, that has tried to be artificially replicated, the world over. It's very much like Oudh, it just cannot be replicated.
I am hoping for a 2nd harvest sometime over the next month, but we will see.
These last few weeks have been busy for me.
This year, I wanted to invest in a small amount of proteas at El Noor. Luckily for me, the biggest supplier of proteas, in Australia is right in my backyard, down on the Fleurieu Pennisula.
However, they have an online store, and I was attempting to put my order through that means. It wasn't to be. The online store that opened on the 1st May was shut on the 4th, due to a flood of orders.
I called the owner of the protea farm, and she insisted I make the drive down, for the proteas I desired, were not going to be for sale online anyway. So, that's what I did. You can watch my video here.
Needless to say, it was a huge day of driving, leaving at 5am, avoiding the city (Adelaide) at all costs, and I was exhausted by the time I reach home about 5.30pm the same day. But! I did get my fare of proteas. And I have been planting them out on El Noor ever since.
I am pleased to say, the Winter rains have eased into the month. We have had days of consecutive rain, sometimes drizzly rain, but it's cold and wet. Perfect weather, in my opinion. I can garden, sleep and enjoy my home without constant mosquitoes, ants and flies. There is still a mice issue, but catching and relocating over 70 now, (I stopped counting after 70) the house is much much more quiet.
With any new venture, such as the development of land, it comes with its ups and downs. One of my biggest curveballs has been the privacy issue around my area. Although I live in quite an isolated region, El Noor Gardens has always lacked trees. Hence, lacking privacy. I have no proper fencing or shielding around my land, so whatever I do, has always been on display for passing motorists, the ever curious farming neighbour, and anybody else taking an interest in seeing someone work the land.
I am always hearing along the grapevine of "Oh, I see you are working hard on your land!" or "Whats that big frame I see you building?" or "So and so told me you are planting these kinds of plants, why?" or "have you checked with the Council for approval?"
I know it is human nature to be interested in what other humans beings are doing on the planet, but If I were to have some privacy in the form of boundary/screening trees, I could at least minimise the overbearing curiosity at times, and perhaps enjoy working out in El Noor Gardens naked if I wanted (haha joking)!
I have invested money into buying some natives, and will be planting them along the fence lines of my land. They are only tube stock size plants, but it is the start of any tree's life, and I will be happy knowing I am doing something about the privacy issue. There is a small, non-profit organisation that regenerate our local land with planting native trees endemic to this area, at no cost to me. I made a phone call about it last night, and it sounds like it could be something for the near future. These trees however, will be planted outside my fence line, which is great. I wish I had called sooner!
When I did my latest livestream on YT, I quickly read a comment in the live feed, asking what did I do all day? What were my days like? Well, like so many other creators in the world, like you guys, I am creating.
Usually (and I only speak from my own personal experience here) when I am in the 'creative frequency', I tend to lose track of time- Do you also?
My type of living is entirely intuitive living, meaning that, I act on the impulse of the heart. Everything is heart based. And so when it comes to my renovations, they are done sporadically. I still have half painted cupboards, and I had the most recent of renovations, the vintage 1940's sofa you see in the pic, sitting in a pile of dust, rags and one dead rat for months.(I had no idea how long that rat had been in there btw!!! I found the skeleton of it wedged right up into the arm rest of the sofa as I was pulling it all apart.)
Reupholstering furniture has been a filthy job for me. Granted, if the furniture was newer, it probably wouldn't have been as bad, but once all the old wadding, and rats have been removed, the frame needs to be thoroughly cleaned, the copper springs cleaned and tied down again, webbing applied, its been a big job. Thankfully, Im done now and I can now kick my feet up (on my new sofa) and relax! Now for the blue carpet.... ...
Winter promotes so much productivity for me at El Noor Gardens.
I've been back at the bench, completing the "Nisig Atlantis" (Thank you to Monique for the suggestion of using the word Nisig, which is a Black Opal from Australia set in Gold.
In Sumerian, Nisig means blue sea and sky and I thought that was perfect for this creation. If you would like to see the listing it is currently on my ETSY page here. After its completion, I actually had the psychic vibe that it represented a time much older than Sumeria, and though it was more around the time period of Atlantis. It obviously still has Sumerian influence, hence why I named it the Nisig Atlantis.
Ive also been a little soap mad lately also. I have a clearance happening, making way for some new exotic varieties of soap. I love making soap in accordance to the seasons, and whilst I have a few fav's, I do love experimenting, forever making new varieties and blends. You just never know what you can conjure, and it could be life changing!!
The nights are fresh and cold to rug up in bed, with peace and quiet, and the days allow me to get out and work without sweating profusely whilst at the same time getting attack by the relentless, ever-hungry onslaught of female mosquitoes. I recognise their place and purpose within the Grand Radiance of Existence, but I would appreciate it, if they could leave me alone. Perhaps one day we will find peace together...but it could be a cold day in hell before that happens! We'll see.
Blessings and Radiance to all my gardening, Earth-loving friends around the world.
Andulairah
~*~