June 2018 – Head in the Clouds

A Little Weeding

I must say, it was extremely nice to be out in the fresh (very fresh!!) air today instead of in windowless rooms in courthouses!
It only rained a little bit here and there, but it was the blustery winter wind that was more of the challenge! Brrrrr

My first patch of the early garlic is coming along really well! I will need to get on and restock with seaweed grass to mulch it in the near future. Its really held the weeds at bay in the cabbage patch, so I have to stir myself to get this done!

My parsley is taking over the world

So… you want to see how completely dreadful my garden is???

Its overwhelming isn’t it??
I really just have to break it down into sections and try not to look at it as one big project.
Today I thought I would go with sorting out the raised beds.

I need to top this one up with some decent compost. Still… the random potatoes that grew in here were marvellous!

Tomatoes well and truly dead. Time to salvage the stakes and ties and dig it all up! (Oh… but leaving that parsley plant alone – you know, because I don’t have enough)

This third round of late corn would have gone well if not for the abrupt change of season this year. Never mind. It was good to see how it progressed at that time of year.
I pulled everything out but the lettuce – more self seeded plants
Then I put a couple of the frames back in and covered them up to help shelter them from the crazy wind.

In other garden news… my leek patch doing well. Might even pick some soon!

I ate this bit of asparagus:

The couple of potatoes I put into the hothouse have sprung up well!

The tulip bulbs are poking up already!
And whats this??

I’ll find a spot to put it in to find out the old fashioned way if no-one can tell me! 🙂

Pip enjoyed a bit of a snooze in the sunshine for a while!

Its pretty chilly tonight, thats for sure. Its only about 2C but feels like -2!
Keeping the fire going and rugged up with my crochet!

Hope everybody’s weekend is fantastic
Cheers

Friday Done!

Hello!
How weird! I have a normal weekend like a normal person! I even have to go back to work on Monday!!
Its been a long week really. I am not used to sitting inside concentrating on people talking! Its more tiring than I would have suspected. I get very fidgety and uncomfortable by the end of the day!
It’s harder to keep up concentration when you can’t join in the discussion or ask questions or generally be involved!
We are nearly done. The judge didn’t want to finish her summing up of points regarding the law and make us deliberate on Friday afternoon/evening after a long day listening again. So we are back Monday to hopefully come to a decision.

Even at this point I am still undecided – as I mentioned before, its a tricky case.
Will be glad to get it done and dusted.
This weekend the weather is meant to be dismal… still hoping for some garden time as I need to not be inside for a while!
Was lovely and foggy this morning. I had time to take a couple of snaps before heading out.

So… for my ‘Real Weekend Like Normal People’ what have I got planned?
Pretty sure the house needs a vacuum! Love the fire, could do without the debris & dust it brings! Oh well.
Garlic – more in the dehydrator!
Mind just went blank. I ran up a mental list of about 20 things I had to do over the weekend while I was cooking dinner!!
Yawn – (thats me yawning in the real world here) I suppose I better get to bed and tomorrow I will regale you of tales of all the useful things I did with my Saturday!

Happy weekend everyone!
Cheers

Hi

Hello!
Just dropping by to say hi!
Trial still going on. Got quite interesting this afternoon! (As opposed to yesterday afternoon where it got to be a challenge to concentrate!)
I have succeeded in remembering all 10 of my fellow jurors names. We lost one juror after the first day as he belatedly recognised a conflict of interest.
So… any guesses on who was chosen to be the Juror foreperson?
😀
Yah – I have the responsibility of reading out the verdict when the time comes.
Better get to bed – this real person schedule takes some adjusting to!!
Hope everyone’s week is going wonderfully and you are as happy and content as Pip looks in the above photo!
Cheers!

A Week In Court.

Well… I suspect I shall be a little boring this week.
I went into court this morning and got picked to sit on the jury. The judge estimates a five day trial, so thats my schedule fixed!!
It was an annoyingly gorgeous day out there too!!

Clearly I can’t talk about anything, so I will just say I am getting a bit more crochet done while we are stuck in rooms waiting for things to happen.
We got out later than usual tonight, so I need to go fix myself some kind of lunch to take tomorrow to do it all again!

How was everybody elses Monday?
Cheers!

Tip Day

Hello!
We are having some mouse issues. At least I found this one in the chook feed bin (and not in the house) bouncing about trying to get out!

Today was tip day. I love the feeling after gathering up all the bits and pieces that have accumulated over a few months and getting rid of it all!
A chance to tidy up that perpetually untidy BBQ area!

I rediscovered bags of pine needles, so quickly got onto another little task that has been on my mind – clearing the space at the base of the blueberry bushes

I used some of our free bricks to outline the area which should make keeping the weeds from taking over a little easier, as well as being able to fill with mulch and keeping the mulch from being scattered everywhere.
I gave each bush a generous covering of mushroom compost and topped it up with pine needles.

Jeff got on to some random weeding in the strawberry patch

My grand idea here though is to make another complete garden just down from the current strawberry patch. The ground slopes, so using those free besser blocks might work. That area dries out in summer and is pretty useless, so building it up into another garden seems like a decent plan. I would move all the strawberries out into the new garden, dig the old patch up completely as its quite weedy and needs a big going over anyway.
I like plans. Never mind about being in the middle of 20 unfinished ones! 😀

Still scrounging food in the garden!
Tonight I made salmon patties. They tasted really good, but I doubt I will make them again… I am all for dinners that are a lot less fiddly and time consuming. Granted, a LOT of the time was spent picking out bones. Probably why we eat more beef and chicken. Bones!
On the upside – enough mixture was made to have them again tomorrow night! Yay.
Court in the morning. Got my crochet packed in case I get picked for the jury and have to stick around all day in town!
Hope your weekends were super!
Cheers

Weekend Jobs

Quite the beautiful afternoon!
On occasions the sun would slip behind clouds and the wind would be quite chilly.

Yesterday Jeff and I got into the car port and dragged in all the remaining fence palings, pulled out nails and cut into usable sections. That frees up the trailer finally as we really need to make a tip run soon!
Today we sat down and split up a number of the pieces to fill the kindling box at the back door.

I started cleaning up around the yard. I am such a messer!! Just little things here and there that really – shouldn’t be!
I spent some time sorting out the netting that should have been done looooong ago

I actually cut off the edges of the raspberry netting to salvage the rest. Next season I am determined to put in a better system for this. The grass grows into the netting and… well… it just gets messy and awkward. I am thinking to surround the entire raspberry patch with a low wooden fence (probably made out of pallet wood) so Jeff and mow and whippersnip up to the edge on the outside and I can cover and mulch to stop the weeds on the inside, then attach the netting to the fence instead of having it sit on the ground. This all makes perfect sense in my own head 😀

Garlic progress! A number of cloves from the first lot I planted have shot up!
Two of the cloves from the recent planting popped out of the ground??

And the cabbage! I am seeing visions of Okonomiyaki and Yakisoba in my future!! (Japanese dishes that I love)

I found some potting mix so made a start on putting some oregano into pots as well as trying out some garlic. If they go well they will be a nice addition to my stall in spring where I am hoping to have a lot more seedlings for sale this year. (Yes I will do more than this)

In very exciting gardening news, I picked and ate my first spear of asparagus ever!! Actually I don’t think I have ever eaten fresh asparagus! I have no idea what I am doing with them yet… I just put them in and let them go.

Maybe in the upcoming season I will be able to make a side dish of some sort out of them!

Well… that was my Saturday!
How was yours?
Cheers!

Postmans Track

Hello there! Steadily marching towards another weekend!
Late this afternoon Jeff and I got out for a bit of a hike. We stopped before getting to Sisters Beach where part of the ‘Postman’s Track’ goes from the road, across the hills and down to the beach. We hadn’t gotten around to checking it out before! Its a really nice walk!

It was actually a beautiful warm sunny day – just clouded over a bit in the late afternoon.

Once we got up over the hill, we started catching glimpses of the ocean through the trees

So many beautiful gnarly old Banksia trees grow along this track!

Also plenty of Xanthorrhoea

Eventually we got down to one of the little beach areas

As always, love the lichen

We didn’t wander down to the main stretch of beach as there was a significant amount of ‘up’ to tackle before getting back to the car. Sun is setting so much earlier now, best not to be walking in the dark!

On the road side of the hill the vegetation is quite different from the other side. More man ferns, mosses etc.

Quite pleased we have finally tried this stretch of track. Not a bad one to take visitors on – a few ups and downs, but gorgeous views and trees, so it will go on our ever expanding list!

Hope your day was great too
Cheers!

Eau De Garlic

Wow.
Has anyone dehydrated garlic before?
I have a new cure for ‘dead rotting rat under the floorboards’
The smell in the house is amazing – walking in from outside is almost a physical smack!! Honestly, a vampire would last 2 seconds before vaporising!!
I spent quite some time peeling this lot which hasn’t put a dent in the overall supple of cloves I still have.
I cut the tails off, then put them in a jar, shook them vigorously then they peeled fairly well. Still took ages!
Anyway, I minced them up and chucked them in the dehydrator where they have been taking over the house ever since.
I am hoping to grind them into powder and make garlic salt. Will see how this first lot goes.
Was also thinking of mincing up into butter and freezing – easy to throw in the pan when needed.

Oh, here is the finished glove that I will need to take apart!

I think its pretty and I can now work out the sizing better.
This is the one I did the other day from different yarn

I have so many single gloves right now!!
I made another bag tonight but didn’t take a snap yet.

Most of the day was fairly domestic. My winter really isn’t so glamorous but I am enjoying anyway. Jeff and I promised each other that rain, hail or shine we would hike somewhere tomorrow!! I’ll let you know how that goes!! 😀

Cheers!

Garlic – Tick!

Hello! Winter is doing its best – starts off nice, ends up dodgy!
I picked a bunch of my thyme to put in my hanging basket to dry out. I haven’t tried drying thyme before. It smells so good!

I risked a bit of laundry – although its currently finishing off in front of the fire.
I also spent a LOT of time filling in forms and applying for a special registration for a ‘project’ next month. I’ll outline some details when I know a little more!

Finally… out to the garden to get the last of the garlic in. I was able to fit another 120 cloves in this patch, so all up I now have 180 planted! A good start to the growing season later this year. I want my out-the-front-stall to go well!
Since I have so many cloves I was also thinking of potting up a few just for the novelty value…

Seems I don’t have to rush off to court tomorrow. Their current trial must be longer than expected. We are not due back now until next Monday.

I got some yarn in the mail!! Exciting. I used a couple of vouchers that I had to buy them via Amazon.

I made a new style of glove out of one of them (the start of which is below)

It looks quite pretty, but the finished product is not quite right so I need to pull it all apart and try again!!
I enjoy these projects – I think I am in the middle of about 10!!
Once spring returns there won’t be as much time for this.

Hope everyone’s week is going along beautifully!
Cheers!

More Digging

Hello!
Monday – what an annoying day! I don’t usually have a problem with Mondays! I was trying to get ready for getting into court and I kicked over the cats water. Wet sock.
Emptied some water out of a cup into the sink and it magically hit some curve of the sink. Wet pants.
Somehow when getting into the car, half the keys on the chain flipped off somewhere and took me 5 minutes to find. (Actual car key was one of the ones that mysteriously disappeared)
Get to the courthouse. Drink bottle leaked cordial through my bag. Wet everything.
I was starting to get really titchy by then!
Several other little irritating things also followed so I really wanted to just go back to bed and start over!!!

Luckily today I wasn’t chosen to be on the jury panel (I heard what the case was about and I am very glad not to be participating for that one) and also luckily the day was a stunner. So no sulking and going back to bed.

Jeff got out in the garlic patch with me and did an amazing job getting the second plot ready (he is way more meticulous at weeding than I am!)

I am hoping to fit at least another 100 cloves into this area. That should give me quite a few extras to sell if they grow nicely. Organic garlic is easy to sell.
All part of the grand plan to really make some $$ out of the garden next season.

I dug through the lime and blood and bone but we didn’t get the cloves in. By that time it was getting chilly. Still, hopefully tomorrow it won’t take me too long to get them all in now that the plot is all prepped!

Hopefully everyone had a less annoying start to the week! 😀

Cheers