I must have jinxed it the other day when I wrote about how few restrictions we currently have here and how free to move about we are. Due to a case of an extremely contagious mutation of Covid, we went into a 3-day lockdown and mandatory mask-wearing at 6 pm last night. Here's hoping it stops the virus moving long enough for them to carry out the contact tracing and testing they need to do.
It coincided with me going on holidays for a couple of weeks. No big deal at the moment as I was planning on spending the first week around home anyway. I've booked a beach getaway for the second week though, so we'll have to wait and see if that needs to be cancelled now.
So what do you do in lockdown when it's cool and rainy? Start working on some more home projects of course. The gardens are in dire need of a weed, and I may as well have not mown the other day as the grass is jungle height again, but at least the petunias are loving it.
The mango trees are still quite laden with fruit. While we've had rain, we haven't had the wild storms that usually knock the blossoms and juvenile fruit off. So lots of mangos in the trees, on the ground, on my shed roof, and on the rainwater tank. They make a huge BANG! when they fall and hit the roof or the tank. Gives you a fright when it happens at night! The fruit bats also make a huge amount of noise in them at night, and the rainbow lorikeets are still visiting at least once a day.
The first job of the day was to get out in the drizzly rain with gloves and a bucket and start picking up all the fallen ones. I've managed to overfill the compost bin and barely made a dent in how many are on the ground. Planning on a different tactic tomorrow and will rake them into a pile. It's still too wet to mow, but I want to get as many out of the grass as possible before I do.
I also need to get the ladder out and clear them off the shed roof. That will be fun. There's a gutter guard in there to stop them clogging the gutter up, but they still need to be cleared off. I also don't fancy the smell of rotting mango wafting into the house once the sun comes back and heats that roof.
There are just so many fallen mangoes though. I'm reminded of many years ago when we had a glut and ended up digging a couple of large holes in the yard to bury them in. The grass still grows greener over those spots. Perhaps I'll be out with the shovel tomorrow. And after lockdown, it may be time to invest in a second compost bin.
Until next time,
@Sammie
Original content created by @Sammie.