A day in the garden

Today I thought that I'd have a day in the garden.  After recent rains the grass was growing quite long and needed cutting.  Plants I had bought a couple of weeks ago needed repotting.  My veggie patch is now growing nicely and a few of the plants that had gone over needed to be removed.  It also needed remulching, and of course it had been voraciously attacked by grasshoppers while I was out bush last week and so I also had to spray them with a chilli pesticide that I made up to stop them eating all the plants.

The vegetable patch and surrounding garden before the clean up.

The grasshoppers chomping away on my plants.

Another grasshopper getting ready to chomp.

The vegetable patch after the clean up.  While I didn't get to start on the vegetable patch (a job for later in the week) I did clear and plant a bit around it.  A desert pea at the front and some portulaca at the side.  You can see the large pile of clippings in the compost patch at the back.

Still much more grass to cut.

Meeting the neighbours dogs

As part of my current ‘Get Fit’ scheme I’ve been trying to get out and go for a walk more often than I have in the past. Unfortunately walking is dangerous. On Wednesday afternoon (30th November) I left my flat, set up my Strava and powered out of my front door and down the driveway. I was just walking past the house at the end of the row (unit 7) when all of a sudden a dog came running at me with its teeth bared.

I did not notice that the two dogs (German Shepards) were were sitting in the back of the car in the carport. One of them, called Wolf, I later found out, jumped out and went for me trying to bite me a few times. He did get his teeth into me giving me a bite on the belly. While the teeth didn’t go fully in they did break the skin and put a hole in my shirt. I also received a bruise to my leg where he again went to have a go. Luckily the owner was nearby and called the dog off me.

The owner, Patrick, apologised many times and said that it was totally his fault. Not that I thought it was mine of course. He took me into the house where he helped me clean the wound. Patrick said that he was just about to take the dogs for a walk and had received a phone call that had taken his attention from the dogs leaving them unattended. I was a bit shocked as you can imagine and so he sat me down and gave me a drink. I left after about half an hour after I’d stopped shaking.

I reported it to the Body Corporate (Whittles) who told me "I will make a record of the incident, however, it is completely up to you if you wish to take further action. Knowing Pat, he would have been devastated that the incident occurred, and would truly have been remorseful. For now, with it being a civil matter, I will leave it your hands”. It was an interesting response that seems like they’re sticking up for him. Anne has been speaking to some of the other neighbours and she tells me that the same dog had had a go one of the other neighbours as well. I’ll have to think about whether I should report it also to the Town Council.



The bite has now healed and the scabs and brushing is slowly going away. Soon it should be gone with hopefully no scaring left over.