Lisa – Page 151 – Head in the Clouds

A Day of Sloth

Wearing my pjs & knitted slippers until an undisclosed time of day

Its a rare thing to actively plan to do nothing! I found myself thinking of all the things to do tomorrow that I was trying not to do today!

Really it was about moseying along and doing what took my fancy (And staying in my pjs for as long as possible)

I did eventually get outside and enjoyed picking what was ready in the garden

Making sure I don’t run out of things to do

I went into town and stocked up on a few containers as I plan to partly cook and freeze the tomatoes into smaller packs, convenient dinner sized, rather than the 6lb packs that I have frozen for relish and sauce batches!

I have a rogue jam melon plant or two growing a bit late in the season around the rose bushes… I was wondering if they would ripen in time before the weather turned. I have noticed they are expanding quite quickly

This was one week ago –

This was today –

Jam melons are funny things. I had never come across them until moving here. Seem an old fashioned fruit. They are not edible like rock melons or watermelons, but are cooked into jams. I haven’t had them for a couple of seasons, and not sure how the seeds ended up growing where they are!

I don’t mind the little garden mysteries! Like how this snap dragon appeared –

I had never planted them deliberately… but they popped up a couple of seasons ago, then disappeared. Nice to see at least one back!

OK – here is a little challenge for you, if you care to participate!

Guess the zucchini weight. I will send a small mystery prize to the person who gets closest. (Don’t get over-excited, it’ll probably be something quirky) 😀

In Kg/grams (google will be your friend here if you are used to imperial measurements.)

For example “1.436kgs” The clue is that it is more than 1.000kg and less than 10.000kgs 😀

Guests & Banana/Raspberry Loaf Recipe

We had the luck of being able to catch up with long time family friends today! Helen & Geoff have been on a cruise, which stops off at Burnie for a day!

So with our house all scrubbed and shiny, and lawns mowed, we were able to show them our little patch of Tassie for the first time.

And as you can see – The north-west put on some rather lovely weather!

We enjoyed a little fossick at Fossil Bluff before coming home to indulge in tea & banana/raspberry loaf, garden tours and lunch!

Of course, since making her famous, a must do on guests lists, is a visit to meet and enjoy a cuppa with Ruby! Time was scarce, but we dropped in, and it was so gorgeous as she had the good china out, so we were all posh and drank in style (accompanied by a fabulous Ruby-Made sponge cake!)

So just a short post tonight, although I will add the recipe for the Banana/Raspberry Loaf just in case someone needs it! 🙂

Tomorrow I have scheduled a day of nothing for myself!! I have been working on this idea for a while 🙂 Not sure how I will spend my day of leisurely idleness, but I am looking forward to it!

Hope you have had a lovely day.

Cheers

Basic Banana Bread:

Ingredients:

125g butter softened

1 cup (175g) brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 cups mashed banana (although I use 1&1/2 and it is a little less heavy)

1&3/4 cups plain (All purpose) flour, sifted

1 teaspoon baking powder, sifted

1 teaspoon bicarb soda, sifted

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/3 cup golden syrup

Method:

Preheat oven to 160C (325F)

Place butter, sugar, vanilla in mixer and beat until pale and creamy

Add eggs, beat well to combine

Add the rest of ingredients and stir to combine

At this point I mix in a cup of frozen raspberries (some whole some a bit crushed)

Spoon into loaf tin (approx. 26 X 11cm) lightly greased and lined with baking paper

Recipe says bake for an hour, but mine seem to take 1.5 hours or even a little longer.

I prefer it cooled, and spread with butter to eat.

In fact… I am going to indulge in some now!

Domestic Rampage

Pip buried himself under the doona most of the day – best idea when the scary vacuum cleaner is about!

So – who is like me, happily bopping along in their little world when suddenly you realise that your guests are arriving tomorrow and not the day after, and have a major panic because you’ve spent the last couple of weeks pretending that you are allergic to most forms of housework? Please tell me there is at least one person out there that does this!

Eep, and double eep! 😀

I suppose that’s why at 10 something pm I am just pulling a banana/raspberry loaf out of the oven as one of my last things on todays extensive ‘to do’ list.

My housework stories are not blogable. Boring! 🙂

I did escape outside for a bit to inspect Jeff’s lawn manicuring job (it looks spiffy out there) and to play the ‘inside – outside’ game with the clothes and the rain.

Also did a quick round of the garden, (ate a tomato mmm) and checked out my broccolini –

They perked up again nicely after being transplanted

While they are not looking as fabulous as Ruby’s they are at least sitting up now!

And check this out!! –

Not weeds but about 1,000 more self seeded broccolini plants. Oopsie. Probably never going to get rid of them! They are pretty keen!! Maybe I will be able to sell a few at the market next time…

I thought my cucumber was about done, but when I checked out things in the hothouse I could see a number of new ones in various stages of growth! I wish I had counted how many it has produced this season! Its done incredibly well.

Still got some heirloom capsicums ripening –

I see two that will be on the lunch table tomorrow!

But my main outside plot of tomatoes is looking a bit woebegone!

Still producing tomatoes.. just a bit slower now

And the plant nurturing my oversized zucchini had pretty much had the gong, so I picked it! I think its heavier than the cat! No idea what I am going to do with it, other than make people look at it! 🙂

I tried to get Pip to pose with it – but I got that look again!

I think the wind was ruffling his fur up the wrong way.

Well – The last lot of dishes are waiting for me and I am ready to fall into bed!

Hope you have had a great day

Cheers

PS It was one of those off and on again rainy/sunny days and the wind was quite fierce!! We got up to around 18C – (64F) it was lovely in the sun when the wind dropped. Right now, we are down to 9C (48F) and we are indulging in a fire!

Friday’s Footprints – Picnic in the Rain and Fantastic Fungi

Source Images: DSC_1972.JPG (Av: F14.0; Tv: 1/15 sec.; ISO: 0; FL: 28.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Creek at Magnet Mine

A day out was needed, so we packed a picnic and headed out past Waratah to the site of an old mining town/area. The weather was a bit dubious, but we figured we were waterproof enough and I think the bush looks prettier in the wet.

Once off the main road you come to this encouraging sign –

So onward!!

The road in is overgrown, a bit rough in places but very pretty. The drive over the creek is a little steep but not much of a challenge

Would have been more exciting with a few feet more of water!

The flats along the side of the creek are littered with the remains of the mining era – from what I can find out was in its heyday, from around 1877 to 1940 where they mainly mined silver, zinc & lead.

You can still find interesting rocks –

Source Images: DSC_5308.JPG (Av: F6.3; Tv: 1/160 sec.; ISO: 800; FL: 75.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Fabulous colours

Boots, bottles and broken glass are everywhere

There was an amazing amount of glass and bottles

Beautiful river driftwood was everywhere and I spent the first hour plotting how to convince Jeff that we needed to take a lot of it back with us to give it a good home.

Eventually I got distracted by mushrooms –

It was a scramble up the hill to reach the small walking tracks that are lined with ferns and trees dressed in fluffy lichen

It was dark, green and a little spooky

But beautiful

Source Images: DSC_1987.JPG (Av: F4.0; Tv: 1/60 sec.; ISO: 320; FL: 20.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Standing in the middle of moss covered trees

Everything was covered in a carpet of green

Source Images: DSC_1991.JPG (Av: F3.5; Tv: 1/50 sec.; ISO: 800; FL: 20.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Tree, moss and man-ferns

I kept finding abandoned boots & shoes!

Source Images: DSC_1999.JPG (Av: F14.0; Tv: 1/3 sec.; ISO: 1000; FL: 20.0 mm) Processing: Fusion F.3 (HDR; Mode 1) — Still a pair!

There were so many different types of mosses, lichen and fungi

I have never actually studied fungi so I can’t tell you the names of all these beauties! Maybe it could be a winter sideline for me to get a book and do a bit of reading!

Eventually we realised it was after 2pm and the weird noises we were hearing was grumbling stomachs!

Ham, cheese, kewpie mayo & homemade tomato relish in case anyone needs to know.

We ate in the back of the car under the boot hood as the rain started to get more than misty

We drove down the muddy track further, where a lot of town remnants could be seen

The creek running alongside the track was pretty

We went back up into the Myrtle forest to hunt out a few more fungi. I kept face-planting spider webs so I don’t know how many of these I brought home –

I could have stayed for a lot longer but I was starting to get a bit precious & whingey about my camera getting soggy (Plus we wanted to get up the hill before it got too mucky and slippery)

Everything smells so fresh and looks so good in the rain!

This is very much off the beaten track of tourism, so is a great experience to just go and fossick around. Its peaceful, quiet and beautiful.

I’ll leave you with my favourite fungi – which I learned is an introduced species! But beautiful nonetheless!

Cheers

PS It’s 1am, its 15 degrees Celsius (59F) and it’s POURING with rain!! 🙂

Garlic…mmmmm

We were away all day today, but will save that story for tomorrow’s Fridays Footprints.

So just a bit about how I love garlic, before I fall off my chair into a snooze! 🙂

I hadn’t tried to grow garlic before coming to live in Tasmania. I enjoy using garlic in cooking (and now a lot in some of my sauces) so it seemed sensible to put some in the ground. The first year, they were tiddly little things. The flavour was excellent, but they were rather small.

I got some advice from one of my cousins who was growing garlic in a much bigger way. First prepare the area and dust with some lime as they like a ‘sweeter’ soil.

After that, fertilise – I used some blood and bone to dig in to the soil

June is when I put my garlic cloves in the ground. Then I pretty much forget about them until they are poking up properly out of the soil

If I am on top of my game, this is when I go down to the beach and liberate a few bags of seaweed to mulch the garlic with.

By October they are sitting up well

This last season I had to water them a bit more as our spring unusually had very little rain

December is when I pulled them all up and set them on a table (that eventually went into the garage) to dry.

I find them a lovely low maintenance crop – a bit of soil prep, plant and forget. (mostly)

A few days ago I got what was left out of the Garage (you’re welcome Jeff) and cleaned them up to store in the pantry.

I was actually a bit shocked at how little I had left already! I sell a few – reluctantly – They make a nice addition to the market table and are really popular. But to be honest I would rather keep them all to myself!

Cleaned up – easier than running to the garage every time I want a bulb!

Some of them have these great little seed heads. Will throw these in the baking pan for some extra flavour next dinner I do in the oven. Does anyone else use these for anything special?

Out of what is left has to last me until the end of the year (unlikely) as well as provide the next seasons crop. I suspect this year I will set aside a larger area and plant more. That way they can pay their way yet leave me with enough for all I want to do with them too!

Who enjoys garlic and who grows their own? Do you grow enough?

Have a great day

Cheers

PS I missed what todays highest temperature was, (It was really soggy but not too cold) but right now at a little past midnight its 16 degrees Celsius (60.8F) and tomorrow is to continue with some more Autumn rain and reach about 21 deg. Celsius (70F)

We had the fire on tonight – it wasn’t super cold, but it was just cosier and nicer. Family on the mainland were laughing at me because they are still hanging out in shorts & t-shirts at night!

Free Stuff, Happy Chickens and Neater Paths

The baker at our local supermarket is totally awesome. If I drop in and ask, he will save whatever bread that is destined for the bin the next day for me to collect and give to our chickens. What a great haul today!! I will have to freeze some of that!

I took the buns down – there was great anticipation –

Then there was snatching –

And then there was the running and chasing –

Chickens are so funny to watch (or maybe I am just easily amused!)

Anyway, the last few days we have been doing a little path tidying/weeding & re-woodchipping. The main path to the house was looking a bit scruffy and tired.

So we weeded it and got a load of woodchips to cover it up again.

Easy to get trailer loads of garden goods from the local nursery

A trailer load didn’t quite finish the job

Not quite done… so Jeff moved on to weeding the lawn

But today we managed to finish it off – now the grass just needs a mow and it will look reasonably spiffy

A much nicer view when I look out the kitchen window

The path in front of the hothouse has been an eyesore for ages and I have just ignored it…

So I got my favourite weed-digging tool (Thanks to my Mum for sharing this tip)

An old file without the handle is a brilliant weed digger. Easy to find these at markets/bricabrac shops etc. They are so strong and the point digs in deep. Really handy for those weeds with the tap roots that hang on.

The messiest end done!

The water pipes run under this path – we learned that the hard way 🙁

We ended up with about 100 feet of pulverised rock from when we had a bore dug at the end of last year. We have been using it as fill here and there. Being rock it has no nutritional value, but useful around the place. So we put down a layer of it first before the woodchip. (My theory is to help smother the weeds)

And finally, the fun part – the woodchip and whatever paving stones we could scrounge up (again – just stuff that had been left on the property when we bought it that we have found uses for)

I am thinking a vast improvement and come winter I won’t be sloshing about in mud! Excellent!

Hope your day was great too!

Cheers!

Ruby Tuesday – Autumn in the Garden

A familiar sight smiling over her front gate

I dropped into Ruby’s this afternoon and found her in the midst of preserving her peaches in possibly the oldest steamer I have ever seen! It really looks like it has done some miles, and then some!

Why buy new stuff when the old stuff works?

Apparently it was bought in a ‘mighty hurry’ as years ago she was preserving some peas when her mothers canner sprung a leak! Being very serious about their peas and panicking about losing their gardens harvest, a very speedy trip to the shop was made. (And back then things weren’t as easy to come by as the department store shopping we have now!) The shop owner said he didn’t think he had one, but found this copper one out the back! Not thinking twice, Ruby snapped it up and raced home to rescue the precious peas! Clearly it has worked well ever since.

Just before Easter I got out into Ruby’s garden to do some overdue weeding. Its probably the worst weeding job I have done, as to stop the seed heads spreading I simply yanked the tops off as many plants as I could – I will return to dig the roots up properly garden bed by garden bed. Ruby gets out and pulls out what she can too of course

What I DID notice in her garden was pumpkins

Orange ones –

Pale salmon coloured ones –

Big ones –

And generally pumpkin vines running amok all over the place!

There are at least 10 pumpkins hiding in this patch

Ruby is a classic for burying peels and food scraps all over the garden, which eventually turn into plenty more random potato and pumpkin plants!

I counted 23 established pumpkins growing – she was a bit surprised when I told her how many she had! ‘Oh well’ she says with a grin and a shrug ‘I like my pumpkins and eat them everyday, so that’s good!’

We went up the back for a look at what needed to be done and got side-tracked picking beans. Ruby got a cardigan full – no doubt they ended up on the plate that day

I hope I am this photogenic when I am nearly 100!

I finally got around to checking out the broccolini that I had put under one of my vegie nets a while back, and decided they needed a good weeding! I was amazed at how healthy and sturdy they were looking (not like my poor manky things)

I knew Ruby would have had no idea how they were coming along, as she is nearly blind and there was no way she would have been able to see through the white netting

So cleaned up and mulched with some remaining seaweed, I dragged her back up the yard to check them out. She was so thrilled – I think she is planning her meals with them already!

Her artichoke plants are reaching the sky –

And the new lettuce, despite the oxalis, is thriving.

RUBY RECIPES

I thought I may try to share a recipe each week from this crazy recipe book of Ruby’s. As you can see, its a falling apart, tatty old diary that is stuffed full of notes, newspaper & magazine clippings and other collected recipes from friends. It’s a family heirloom in itself I reckon!

Today I will share the “Apple Slump” recipe – some readers from One Hundred Dollars a Month may have seen this already…

Ingredients:

5 or so apples, sliced

1 & 1/2 cups of self raising flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 ounces melted butter

pinch salt

1 cup water

Method:

Slice up your apples

Place in baking dish. I sprinkle cinnamon and sugar between layers

Fill baking dish

Mix other ingredients until smooth

Slowly pour over apples

Put into oven at 180 deg. Celsius

Bake for an hour or until sponge top cooked.

It will ‘slump’ as it cools.

Easy old fashioned recipe – lovely with cream or ice-cream.

Cheers!

All Creatures Great and Small

I am a sucker for animals – there are not many I don’t like. I’d even rather relocate a spider than kill it.

The ones we officially own, like the cat and chickens are spoiled silly. Pretty sure Pip runs the house –

Although he has to put up with small indignities –

The chickens get premium scraps, as well as cakes baked for them –

A mix of grains, egg (with shell) garlic, rolled oats, a dash of flour etc

Seed blocks made for them –

Proper funerals if they fall off the perch-

Admittedly they also have to put up with occasional indignities –

We unofficially share our place with possums –

Brush tailed possum. They do share our fruit, but so far not too destructive.

And a cheeky rabbit –

We had an exciting drama once with a 4 foot tiger snake that decided our bathroom was the best place to hang out!! I couldn’t believe my eyes when I came home and saw it gliding into the bathroom!! Pip was on the bench just watching it and I was desperately hoping he wasn’t going to pounce, as I was going to have to go after him and that wasn’t going to end well for any of us!

I saw it go under the bath, so I went in and scooped up the cat, closed the door and ran to wake up Jeff (who was on nightshift) so I could share the news. Bleary eyed he dutifully came to the bathroom, we opened the door and there’s me grovelling about on the floor with a torch looking for the damn snake – and then I look up! Draped over the towel rack like an ornament!!

Well, you can’t have a bloody great poisonous snake cavorting about the bathroom, so I did some phoning about to get a snake person in to catch and relocate it.

They eventually arrived (two and a half hours later – and with only one loo in the house, I had to make other arrangements as even though I like snakes, I wasn’t ready to sit on the toilet with it lurking nearby!) From memory it only cost about $40 for the mother & son team to come in and do their thing! Money well spent and we immediately blocked up the offending hole in the bathroom!

Of course we get lots of interesting insects – ranging from your usual grasshopper-

through to the weird and wonderful –

But todays unusual animal drama came from a lizard. There are a lot of them scampering about out the back at the moment.

I was finally getting around to cleaning up the back veranda, and I found this poor fellow stuck to a bit of packing tape that was hanging off a box!!

It probably took about an hour of delicate work with a cotton bud and a jar of warm water – I dunked him in a few times…

I think I would have cried if I killed him, so we took it pretty slow – and the trick was keeping the newly unstuck limbs from resticking themselves on again! He could feel the freedom coming along and got quite wiggly (understandably) once a few feet were loose.

I thought he may like his new found freedom in the herb garden among the oregano-

Well that was my good deed for the day – I even got the veranda done (with a bit of help from the wonderful husband)

Hope your day was great!

Cheers

Growing Tomatoes from Laterals

Apart from stuffing ourselves silly at Ruby’s on roast turkey and vegetables – and double helpings of trifle for dessert – it was a reasonably quiet day.

I did get out in the garden and fluffed about picking what tomatoes remained, a few other vegetables (small pumpkins!!) and half heartedly collected a variety of seeds that seemed ready (Beans, sunflower & marigold)

Pumpkins store well for a long time – in a dry well aired area on their sides.

I am thinking roast pumpkin as well as pumpkin soup

I picked a variety of laterals off my waning tomato plants with the hope I may be able to nurture a few through the winter to get a head start next season. For those of you just heading into the warmer spring weather that have not tried growing tomatoes from laterals – here is a bit of a guide.

I am not good at growing tomatoes from seed. I haven’t given up and am saving several seeds from fruit this season. However, I have no trouble snapping a lateral off an established plant and growing a new one.

This season I spent approximately $5 on three new tomato plants and the rest of the 20-something plants came from laterals or self seeded.

First, if you are not sure which branch is a lateral, check the photos below

email t1 — A lateral starts in the crook of the main stem and the leaf branch

email t4 — A good sized lateral to break off to start a new plant

While it is not essential, I put my laterals into a jar or glass of water to watch the process of the roots forming, simply because I enjoy it!

You can plonk them straight in the ground and have the same success as long as you keep them watered.

Depending on how warm it is, roots can start showing as early as a week, but not unusual for them to take a couple of weeks.

To me its like magic watching the process! I have found the plants grown from laterals quite vigorous and produce well… don’t forget free, which is about as economical as you can get!

This jar full got packaged up and posted out to another state where they survived and grew for a friend who needed more plants. That’s tough!!

Well – we have a cool night here so the fire is on and beckoning me to go and stare at it! Pip is already snugged up in his sleeping bag

Cheers

Easter Weekend

Someone needs to move these out of my reach for a while.

It doesn’t matter that I am starting to feel a little funny, I can’t stop eating them!!!

We dived into “Egg Money” to treat ourselves to a packet (each) (That saves the husband – wife squabbles because someone may have eaten more than his fair share)

So – what are people doing over this long weekend? Celebrating Easter? Taking a well earned breather? Work as normal?

I think one of our chooks is taking a well earned breather, as she laid a marble this morning!! I mean really! It wasn’t worth her effort!!

Probably the reason I had those Cadbury chocolate eggs on my mind! Clever chook!

One of the fun things about living around here is randomness. I was sitting inside avoiding some housework today when I heard someone walking around the house. I saw a lady looking lost, so I went out to say hi and see what she wanted.

Turns out she and her husband dropped in because they had seen my sign and wanted vegetables – even though the tables weren’t out!

Fabulous! Here – grab a box and follow me! What do you want?

So I dragged them all over the yard and let them pick and dig what they fancied, including cherry tomatoes –

Beans, parsley, carrots, apples and beetroot

I threw in a few seedlings and seeds as they are just preparing a garden, then we got down to the business end of the deal.

“How much?”

“Um… more than $5, less than $10?” (you can tell I am totally prepared and businesslike for all of this)

They laughed, handed me $10 and promised to return!

River Afternoon

Since Jeff has a nice stretch off from work and the day was warm, we decided to take advantage of the autumn sunshine and take the kayaks out for a paddle.

We only recently invested in kayaks. I had been putting little bits of money aside for about a year – the five year plan was to head to Ireland – but Jeff got a bit keen when he heard how much I had squirrelled away and suggested we get the kayaks.

We had often seen people kayaking on a lot of the local tidal rivers and it looked a wonderful way to spend a few hours.

Mine is the Kitty-Cat-Kayak

I found the coolest sticker ever at a market – perfect for my kayak

We usually like to put the kayaks in the water about an hour before high tide. The theory is that it will be easier going upriver and a doddle coming back!

Its lovely on the river. You see the occasional other paddler, birdlife and if you are lucky, a pademelon. (Imagine a kangaroo that is not as tall as up to your knee and is as fat as a basketball and you have a pademelon)