I despair because there’s almost nothing in flower, then, suddenly, up they pop, all over the garden and seem to grow before your eyes. In fact, one ‘Naked Lady’ (Amaryllis belladonna) gave Lyn Wittenden a fright, coming up at a sideways lean, looking like the snake that had been basking under a sprinkler she was about to move the other day.

It is, of course, snake time, but one in particular is going to have to rehouse itself. We have a brown living under the eastern verandah going in through a wide gap, which won’t exist for much longer. The whole area behind the kitchen is being revamped to alleviate the damp, and will be smoothed and gravelled as an outdoor sitting area.

That’s where we’re putting two lavender-filled wine barrel halves, kindly given to us by Elly and Howard from Kingsdale. We have been given a generous donation to do the work and it will enhance our group seating for morning teas and lunches.

It is wonderful to have so many generous people keeping a gem of our shared history viable.

For months, Marie Kennedy has been researching the people who have lived here, back in the early 1800s. A walking encyclopaedia, she can tell you anything and everything about the place. She was the one who told me John Fulljames, here in the 1860s, advertised 6000 dozen apples of good size for sale. We think he possibly got some from somewhere else because it seems an inordinate amount.

Anyway, Marie has nearly finished and editing is just beginning. Julie Elliot is helping out. It’s always great to have another pair of eyes and she is so knowledgeable as well. The finished product is going to be amazing, filling in all the empty spaces in other histories of the area.

Entries for the photographic competition close February 26, with a $5 per photo entry fee, and some great prizes, to be exhibited March 5 to April 23. In fact, I wonder where Dawn Giles and Lizzie Underwood are going to put everything, because when we have Devonshire teas in the garden for Goulburn’s ‘Our Living History’, March 10-12, there is also the Twynam family exhibition and an amazing amount of the most exquisite lacework, dating back to the 1800s, you’ve ever seen.