A happy traveller through life!
Right now living in NW Tasmania with a gorgeous Nurse-Husband, a fool of a Siamese Cat and several chickens.
We love our fairly simple lifestyle of growing a lot of what we eat and enjoying the stunning surrounds of our little patch.
Finally! A super stonkingly gorgeous day here today! So, on with the gardening clothes and into the vegie patch!
We got about 3/4 of the way through before bailing out because it was getting chilly working in the shade
Improvements!Little clumps of beautiful parsley everywhereA few short leeks remainThese little fellows self seeding around the place – will transplant soonWinter garden haul!! The two larger potatoes were undiscovered from last season – only just put out a shoot each so they may be ok to eat. The others are actually new potatoes from self seeded plants that didn’t die over winter!!
Jeff got to chopping some wood with his new axe! Cousin Jeff showed him a better technique and now we have small wood and kindling all over the place!
We filled the veranda wood box – always a good thing to do when the weather is good!
To warm up we also decided to head down the back paddock to stock up on pine cones! Pallets make a great temp. ladder for barbed wire fences!
Note our filthy grotty gardening clothes!! It may be better to just burn them!!
No show without the curious cows!At least the ones fresh from the tree are not covered in cow pooTaking our haul home!
As usual… we had a bunch of curious followers on our walk back up the paddock
Cow faces crack me up
He had to lick me – honestly after all the work we did today I couldn’t have tasted nice!
Much to Pip’s disgust, I went and dragged him out of bed, where he was buried under a doona and two blankets, for a refreshing paddock walk
A man and his cat…
We had a slight ‘Oopsie’ moment when somebody stepped in cow poo…
OK – we stepped in our share too, but we had gumboots on! Poor Pip!!
Hope your day was as fabulous as ours (minus the cow poo)
My day turned out completely different to plans! It was meant to be a wool shop outing with Ruby, Margie and Shirley, however Ruby remembered in the nick of time that her God-Daughters were coming over to celebrate an early birthday for her as they are away on the big day. So it was just Shirley and I frolicking about the wool shop making the most of a 30% sale.
We dropped in to Ruby to deliver a dessert that Shirley had made and accidentally crashed the party!!! I told Margie we weren’t staying (after-all, Ruby sees me all the time) and her face fell about a mile! So, being that both Shirley and I are not bound to schedules, we didn’t rush off! I am glad we stayed – lovely to meet more people from Ruby’s life and the stories were so funny and interesting
AND I DIDN’T HAVE MY CAMERA!! Sigh.
Anyway – onto today’s post!
I keep seeing facebooks ‘timehop’ or whatever they call it photos coming up and was surprised to see our plum trees much more advanced in the blossom department than what they are now. So I thought it might be interesting so see how everything was comparing.
AUGUST 2015
The Plum Trees
This was the 2nd August 2015 – to me looking the same as what I took photos of a few days agoSee that clear blue sky??? Not like this August!
The photo below was taken exactly one year ago – the weather seems similar, but the blossoms are way ahead!
The Garden
Actually I think the vegie patch was in worse condition last year!!Tomato AND lettuce in the last month of winter!
I got keen early and put in snow pea seeds and tomato seeds (failure as usual on growing tomatoes from seed…)
Snow peas!Planting tomato slices! This worked fine – most germinated – then I killed them somehowThe beginnings of my current carpet of broccoli!!!!I even had a cabbage!
As you know -the strawberry patch has changed a ‘little bit’
This was right at the end of August, but I keenly planted EVERYTHING!!
Weather?
The usual – rain, hail and shine!
Familiar sightQuite the hailstorm!Frozen GeraniumSeeking Sole-Mate
Knitting
As you know right now I am obsessing with shawls, but here is what I was making a year ago
These went to Jeff’s hospital for his kid patients
Cozy Cuffs with the new stitchThe face-washers that take forever to finish!!I thought the kid bootee’s looked great – so I made a grown up pairThe green ones were slightly too small for my great hoof, so I made another pair. Perfect size – and Oh So Stylish!! Snicker.
Among whatever other rash promises I have made in regards to Ruby’s upcoming birthaday party – one was to make a dedicated batch of home made tomato sauce that will accompany a host of home-made savoury snacks that Ruby’s Church Guild will be making.
When tomatoes are on – wow! I get boxes of them – so I start making the relish and sauce as well as trying to sell a few and eating insane amounts!
At some point I get completely over it and start just chopping and freezing them in 6lb batches – so I can just pull a container out of the freezer like I did today to make a new batch of sauce.
My recipe is pretty basic – easy and tastes great. Not exotic, but good standard tomato sauce (ok – ketchup 🙂 )
6lb tomatoes chopped
2lb sugar
1/2 pint vinegar (I use white)(300ml)
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon allspice
2&1/2 tablespoons salt.
Dump all ingredients into a big pot and bring to boil, dissolving sugar.
Boil for 2&1/2 hours
‘mooleying’ out the skin and seeds
I then run the whole lot through my little mooley to get rid of the seeds and skins, put back on stove to heat and thicken with some cornflour (cornstarch)
Job done
Pour hot into bottles that have been sterilised in the oven and you are done!
If tomato relish is more your style, click here and scroll to bottom of post!
I can’t wait until we have buckets of fat juicy tomatoes again!
I spent quite a lovely afternoon scratching about the garden. I had domestic overload yesterday, so I was pretty keen to get outside.
As I mentioned a few days back, the main vegetable patch is a bit over run and weedy and I was pretty keen to start sorting it out.
I really didn’t get very far before the weather set in and got colder and damper than I was happy being – and the weeding here is pretty slow as there are so many tiny little weeds to fiddle about with!
I suppose its a start!
I kept having to catch and throw chickens over the fence that were getting into the lower garden somehow! I need to revamp my fences ASAP
The one with the silly look on her face is the one that keeps getting into the vegetable garden!
I noticed I was lacking a few chickens during the bread frenzy – I stuck my head in the coop to see 4 of them trying to lay an egg in the same nesting box! Idiots! (Two jumped down straight away before I could get the photo as they spied the bread!)
Since I was already filthy, I didn’t want to quit my gardening day, so I figured clearing out the hothouse was a good move
The tangle of dead tomato bush on the right bottom is a plant that has been growing for over 18 months! I had taken a lateral at the end of a season, kept it alive over winter, then replanted it in the hothouse. Amazing. (By the way I managed to kill ALL the laterals I was trying to winter this year!!)
After I cleared things up, weeded and dug, I put some of the compost that we got from the local nursery around all the remaining plants.
So much better
I sadly picked my last tomatoes. Now the long wait until the next season gets underway (I won’t buy shop tomatoes anymore. We just go without for a while. Too expensive for no flavour.)
Last tomatoes and a chilli!Before I picked it…
I found a bag of bulbs that were desperately trying to grow! Poor things.
I shoved them in the little garden behind the hothouse, so its up to them now.
The possible cabbages growing nicelyI know its early… but these are what I want in the old strawberry patch.. so starting a few in the hothouseI have also started a bunch of cos lettuce (this is my saved seed)More blossoms everyday are starting to show on the beautiful old cherry plum treesPip on a rare walk sans lead…This one cow raced up to the fence to check Pip out!
And what is a day in Flowerdale without a rainbow or six??
I spent a delightful day yesterday slothing in front of the fire with my crochet. Very pleased to have quite quickly finish off the shawl for Ruby’s birthday. I know she will growl at me, because there is a ‘no presents’ rule, but I did manage to get her to agree to a ‘home made’ loop-hole! 🙂 I will still probably get into a little bit of trouble! 😀
I need to write a list. We have all the family arriving at various times at the start of next month so we are all here to party on at Ruby’s 100th birthday gathering! It was with a bit of horror that I realised we are halfway through August!! How did that happen?? I clearly have not been paying attention!
Since the weather continued on its abysmal track, (Dark, rain, wind, rain, sun, rainbow, rain, wind) we decided to clear out the library, as it needed to fit two mattresses in. (I say library, as that’s what we want to properly kit it out to being, but its more the room where you browse-for-a-book-or-put-stuff-in-here-that-doesn’t-have-a-real-home-yet room.)
SighLook! Floor space!
We very much want to get in and completely cover this room in floor to ceiling bookshelves… we are probably a little scared to start such a big project, but I am getting increasingly sad that a lot of our books are still in boxes, or not well set out.
I also took time today to start a new batch of rocks tumbling. This entails grabbing one of the many buckets of previously collected rocks…
Its an addiction…
Then a container of water with a towel, so you can dunk the stones in to see potentially how they will look when polished. The dry rocks are very uninspiring really –
But after a quick dip, the colours come up startlingly different!
Hard to believe they are the same rocks!
My sister, Michelle, said my nephew, Riley was VERY keen to go collect rocks for me to polish for him!! Apparently he reckons he will be taking the final product home with him. He may be a tad disappointed to find out its a 4 week process!! 😀
Can’t wait for all the family to arrive! It will be like one giant slumber party!!
Not far from us we have a really great privately owned wildlife park called ‘Wings Wildlife Park’ They rescue and rehabilitate native animals – as well as release if possible, or take lifelong care of the animals that cannot be released for whatever reason.
They also hand rear a number of animals so visitors can get up close, learn and even have a pat of some of the babies.
Note for Non-Australians … Tasmanian Devils do not spin. 😀
Peeking out of its denEnjoying a snooze in the sun
Devils are a carnivorous marsupial – more of a scavenger than a hunter. A powerful bite force lets them crunch through all parts of a carcass
Hanging off a wallaby leg (road kill)
They really are very feisty at feeding time
Our Devil population is endangered. The usual interference by humans – Habitat reductions and they had a bounty on their heads until 1941 when they were declared a protected species. One of the biggest threats today is the facial tumor. A cancer that spreads through bites and wounds – and as you can see by their table manners, a disease like this is devastating.
They actually remind me of the greedy chickens (just with more teeth) the way they grab and snatch food and run off with it, only to be chased and have someone else snatch the goodies back.
Babies:
Baby Devil
A female is pregnant for about 21 days and will give birth to about 20-40 babies – all the size of a grain of rice!!!
However – the mother only has four teats, so its a race for survival as the first four devils to latch on win the prize at a go at life.
They stay in the pouch for about 4 months.
I think they are waaaaay cute!
A baby Devil is called an Imp or Joey. They mature at around 2 years and will live for about 5 – longer if conditions are good.
All this young devil wanted to do was snuggle!
The staff are the ones that raise orphaned devils – in their own homes alongside the cats, dogs and kids! I had a laugh during one visit as a keeper jumped in the pen before her information session started so she could have a cuddle with a former ward. They have to be released into an enclosure with other similar aged devils once they reach maturity. They can get a little aggressive at that point in their life.
The sookiest devil I have ever seen!
She had managed to turn our most fearsome icon into a woose! Basically an overgrown house-cat (that can bite through steel) lol (ok, just kidding about the steel bit)
They have awesome expressions and I find them really appealing.
Also at the park you can get a bag of food or two and go into the kangaroo enclosure and get up close, feed and pat the kangaroos and wallabies.
This is a great place to take our international guests especially
Just like a cat enjoying a scratch!Our friend Sanae enjoying meeting the locals!
Jeff showed us how to relax a kangaroo – step one:
Step two:
snicker
We have been lucky at times to get a glimpse of the joeys in their Mum’s pouches
Funny how they go in head first leaving their feet sticking out!
There are also a couple of koala’s that you can go in and see and even have a pat of.
The keepers come in and tell you a bit about how they look after the koalas and also bring out a baby wombat – another little chap that has been hand reared.
Wombats are rather adorable.
And for those non-Australians – our swans are black! (and from experience – slightly cranky!)
They also have a freaky emu. OK – they are cool birds, but they look so prehistoric they freak me out a little!
Emu
There are plenty of other birds and animals at this park, but I hope you have enjoyed the highlights!
Want something less run-of-the-mill when it comes to jam?
If you are overstocked with kiwi fruit – this might be one to try. I just taste tested it on some fresh bread and I am pretty happy with it. Will be a nice addition to my morning jam choice!
How To…
Get 24 kiwi fruit (maybe a few more if they are only titchy little ones), cut skin off and mash them in your jam cooking pot.
I just used my potato masher!
Once you have them nicely mashed, get three Granny Smith apples.
Don’t bother peeling them, just cut them in half. I did take the core and stem out because I knew it would be a pain trying to fish them out later.
Put your apples in the pot
Add 4 tablespoons of lemon juice (Lucky Ruby has plenty of lemons)(Well… they were so juicy I only needed 2)
I annoyingly had to buy two litres of pineapple juice when the recipe only calls for 175mls!! (So I bought some lemonade and have enjoyed the rest of the juice as a nice fizzy mixed drink)
800gm of caster sugar (1.75lb)
Put on the stove and bring to boil, dissolving sugar. Let simmer reasonably fast for half an hour.
Take out apples, have sterilised jars ready.
I used my Gee Whizzer stick to blend it a bit more before putting it into jars. Perhaps take out the apples earlier than I did – ie before they pulp too much.
It set really easily (I think that was due to the apple) so apart from the eon it took to cut the peel off all those kiwis, its a pretty painless jam to make!
Glad I moved the strawberry patch – the old area got a bit swamped today!
The new patch of strawberries got a decent drink from the sky all last night and pretty much all today.
See the rainbow?
A short break in the weather produced a rainbow… I went a bit closer and the chooks were disappointed I had the camera and was not carrying scraps
I felt bad, so I returned with a container of scraps for them
I am trying not to look too closely at my forlorn vegetable garden! What a neglected mess! I console myself that within the next month or so it will be all cleaned up and new plants will be put in to start to do their thing
Still… the garden beside the house looks rather nice in the rain – I can’t wait until this area leafs-up and starts producing spring colours!
Pip was in a foul mood today. He wasn’t allowed into the bedroom to sleep with Jeff (who had just come off a night-shift) and was also Mr Mega Whingy Arse because Margie had come to visit and he wasn’t getting my undivided attention!
He FURTHER disgraced himself by hissing at Margie who was trying to be nice to him! (The only other person he tends to hiss at is my mother – charming, I know – but I think its the whole jealously thing)
SO – he got ‘spoken to’ and tossed into his sleeping bag where he remained for the rest of the day!!
My embarrassing cat…
Back to my fire and crochet!! The only thing to do on a cold rainy night
The weather turned dismal again today, so it was a good day to go down and have a cuppa with Ruby.
Margie and Ruby had been going through some photos – one of my Party Jobs is to scan the old images and sort out a digital display of them during the birthday party!
It was fun looking through the old images, hearing a story or two.
The one that really caught my attention was “The Banana Diet”
At the start of the Great Banana Diet
As a young nurse, Ruby went to Melbourne to work for a few months. At that particular time banana’s were plentiful and cheap. Ruby really loved bananas and – in her own words – made a glutton of herself!
There was always a big bowl of them on her work desk – and when emptied, there was a rush to restock!
Apparently she put on a substantial amount of weight – the only time ever she was over weight! There was a photo of her post-Banana-Diet standing on the steps of the Flinders Street Station, but sadly that photo was destroyed!! By Ruby – she said she was so disgusted with herself she ripped up the evidence of her gluttony!! 🙂
On the farm feeding a whole bunch of lambs!Ruby and Bill, proud parents of Margaret!
I have a nice box full of memories to scan!
While there was a little break in the weather I slipped outside to photograph some of the flowers in Ruby’s garden that are starting to show up.
I tried not to look too hard at the weeds that I HAVE to get in and sort out soon – next weather break I reckon!
The early blossoms at the foot of Ruby’s driveway
Fallen CamelliasRhododendrons out in full force!
Lemon tree still laden with fruit
This plot is where I put all the excess bulbs last season.. another week or so and it will be a mass of colour
Magnolia starting to bud!Flowering Aloe Vera
Ruby is so pleased with her orchids that are just starting to bloom!
Before long it will be all about vegetables, but for now, we are enjoying the new colours of the upcoming spring!
Having a week of no rain kept me outside a lot more – consequently happily ignoring housework!
The floor was getting a bit manky – having a wood fire will dust up the place and the floor gets woodchips all over it pretty quickly!
Oh – and I was totally living on the edge today!! THREE loads of laundry and it didn’t start spitting rain until 2.30pm!! Clothes finished off drying easily by the fire – with me happily in front of the fire as well adding a few more rows to Ruby’s shawl.
Lots of other things got ticked off the mundane list too. Yay me.
Hope your Monday was painless!!
Cheers
I really have lost my Nanna-Knee-Rug! (Right now he is totally buried in it)
