Two Years In Orange

Mr L’Orange and I are soon to celebrate our two year anniversary of moving to Orange – how time flies when you are busy doing house renovations. We clearly remember the day we moved here as it was so cold (minus 5 at night), all our plants died from shock and Mr L’Orange’s brother refused to visit again until summer!

Since we moved into Dalton St we have been engrossed in home and garden improvements and honestly feel all our hard work is slowly starting to pay off – at least now we have a warm house!

We felt we couldn’t let the special date go unnoticed, so we are throwing an Olympics themed party for our Orange friends. The timing is perfect as London 2012 is just around the corner plus everyone seems to have gone into winter hibernation here, so it is about time we got them in the party mood.

We have asked everyone to come dressed in their favourite Olympic sporting attire. Which I think is a pretty cool, yet easy theme for most people. Mr L’Orange and I are going to have to get busy creating an Olympic inspired décor for the party, burning torches would be fantastic… but maybe a tad dangerous after several drinks.

I thought you would like to see our rather funky party invite. Click here for a preview.

I’m trying to think up some Olympics influenced food – any suggestions LALO readers? I keep thinking food in the colours of the Olympic flag would be very cool except what am I going to make that is blue?

Backyard Cabin - Day 11

The electrics go in, the cladding is finished and the insulation and gyprock have been purchased, we are well on the way to finishing.

Something at the bottom of the garden...

No garden is complete without a gnome and so my brother decided to get us a box set of knomes for Christmas.

I’d like to introduce Bill, Bob & Ben our new gnomes and guards of the veggie patch, they wobble in the wind and I’m hoping will scare off the birds and other pests from our delicious vegetables.

Now that the zuccini and cucumbers are growing over the edges of the raised veggie patch, the knomes peek out from underneath and do look pretty cute. More photos to come shortly!



Backyard Cabin - Gettin Ready

There was plenty of prep work before the cabin could even get started. You've already seen on the blog the demolish of the old sheds, but these pics give you a taste of what else we have been up to.

Mr L'Orange in action

The rusty old water tank

We managed to rescue most of the plants that had been near the cabin and pop them in the ground elsewhere in the garden, ready for the arrival of the excavator.

The new flower bed

Sleepers & edging installed by Mr L'Orange

Front Garden Update

I’m very excited as the front garden beds continue to blossom. Our one year old camellia plant has had its first flower, at long last – it seemed as if the buds have been there but closed for the last 6 months!

If any readers have any recommendations on how best to care for camellias, please feel free to comment! It is currently in a sheltered shady corner close to the house, as I’ve seen others in Orange planted like this. But perhaps like me they also had no idea what they were doing!

Our irises have started to open out and are a beautiful pale yellow in colour, I planted in a few purple irises that I picked up at a garage sale at the weekend which I think will make a nice contrast.

Our little mop top tree finally has got some leaves and is looking very cute,especially as we get to enjoy it from both dining room and lounge windows.

I’ve transplanted some yellow pigface from the back garden into the front beds as I want to get more of a yellow theme happening. I have also planted a Stella Bella which should clump up nicely and add another shade of yellow to the front garden.

One Year On - Our Move To Orange

What a difference a year can make, we have been in our Dalton St home in Orange for a total of 12 months. Take a look at these before and after pictures taken from the front of our house.It is pretty amazing to see the transformation, especially considering we haven’t even paid too much attention to the front garden in the scheme of things.

Reflecting on what we have achieved so far has spurned me and thus by default (or rather nagging) Mr L’Orange into completing our multitude of other unfinished DIY tasks about the house.