Garden – Page 11 – Head in the Clouds

Windy

Hello all!
Crazy windy day out there! Hasn’t let up tonight either. Thinking of Jeff out there in the wilderness!! As long as he managed to get to the hut and is snugged up warm in his sleeping bag!

I went and stocked up on seaweed and was lucky enough to find lots of kelp too!

I noticed a lot of it as we drove past the other day – I had to hunt for it today as most had been covered by the seaweed grass. Still – I got three bags full (great – now I have a nursery rhyme running about in my head)
One I gave to Ruby and the others went into a barrel of water to make kelp juice

I filled a good number of bags with the seaweed grass – a painful job today with the wind. I had planned to put it out on the area that David and Ruth weeded for me with a newspaper underlay, but with the howling gale I could only imagine that ending badly.

Since I wasn’t spreading seaweed around I thought I might prep an area for the cabbage seedlings I have that are more than ready to go out.

And no matter how many people you have digging potatoes – you never get them all!! I think I managed to stab half of these! Most annoying.

I put a generous amount of mushroom compost on top of the area and put the arches in ready for the netting to go over.

I use the fine mesh netting on brassicas while the weather is still warm to stop the cabbage moths getting to the plants.

I uncovered a lot of massive worms today! Clearly the soil is doing well

With no help from me this patch has started to produce a nice amount of tomatoes. Yay for the self seeded plants!

I picked a few cucumbers, but left some of the really big ones which I will collect some seed from

Now that I have a little time, I figured I should pick the chillies as I can probably squeeze in some chopping/deseeding time!

And a stroll throughout the whole garden got me another swag full of tomatoes. I did make the new batch of relish today but too lazy to go back and snap the final result! I am just happy I am restocked!

Midweek done!
Cheers!

Pottering About

Hello!!
For the first time in I don’t even remember, I had no deadlines, no plans, no people, no obligations!!
It was a lovely day!
I did think I was going to stay in bed and read all day, but…

I just had a great day wandering from this job to that doing whatever I felt like doing.
I cleaned up my cos lettuce seeds a bit then pulled out the first sunflower patch and collected a bunch of the seeds.

The chooks very much enjoyed pecking through the leftover sunflowers!

Even got a few eggs!

Check out some of the amazing weeding my friends Ruth and David did!! It really was a fantastic job… and now gives me a starting point to work on.

There are lots more tomatoes out there to go and pick… maybe tomorrow.

After a months worth of guests, our tomato relish situation has become dire. It seems to be a big hit with everybody!!
So – time to get chopping and make a new batch – or three!

I teared up a lot chopping the onions! But this lot can sit overnight before cooking it up tomorrow.

I threw together a meal for myself and Kirrily tonight – bits and pieces of leftovers and some baked potatoes
One of the perks of having visitors is gaining a few new kitchen ideas.
David mixed some of my pesto through the tomato salad the other day and I am quite the fan!

The temperature has dropped a bit in the last few nights so I have treated myself to a fire. I feel a little guilty thinking of my husband who is probably permanently soggy up there in the wilderness! The forecast wasn’t very hopeful, but I am still keeping my fingers crossed that he will get a bit of clear weather for a while!

Anyway, best be off to bed. Don’t want to let the night get too late. I have a long list to start working my way through tomorrow!
Cheers!

Walking, Cooking and Catching Up!

Hello!

I hope everyone’s weekend has started splendidly!
We are having a lovely time catching up with friends, David and Ruth who are staying with us this week!

David was my business partner in Canberra when we had the shop and it has been great finally seeing them in Tassie, showing them around and generally catching up on stories and events.
David has been teaching me a few things in the kitchen which is awesome (now I know what to do with rhubarb!!! 😀 😀 )

The weather has been a bit off and on but mostly we have been lucky when wanting to walk or be outside.
Right now its storming away out there with bursts of extremely heavy rain.

It was a beautiful afternoon so we got to do a lap of Anniversary Bay.

I really have to get back out there into some regular hiking. Struggled a bit on the hills today!! (too many hamburgers?) I have a month before being due to start out on my Overland Trek. (Jeff is due to start Monday!!! )

That little stretch of track!! Feels like its straight up!!

Back home Ruth and David got into an area in the garden and did a sensational weeding job! Ruth stayed on out there until dusk while David came back in to make a bread and butter pudding – I did some side dishes and Jeff BBQed up the steaks on our new BBQ that we put together this morning! (Slacking on photos of all garden & BBQ stuff… maybe tomorrow?)

Time for me to toddle off to bed – everyone else is well and truly snoozing!
Have a great day!
Cheers!

Disappearing Hamburgers!

Well… it was the last day for the boys here at Norwich House. I managed to get a snap of them with our new boarder Kirrily – they have all had a lot of fun and laughs together. Its going to be a bit quiet around here for a while after tomorrow!

While I didn’t get to drag them around the complete Anniversary Bay loop today (Daisuke hurt his ankle with some enthusiastic trampolining the other day so we didn’t push it) but we went up to the Wet Cave and up to see the view over the beach

It was a really sunny warm day which was nice of Tasmania to behave for their last day!

Smack in the middle of the day is not ideal for photos… but I can never help snapping a few

I left the boys at the beach and came home to make the rissoles (hamburgers) up for dinner later.
Cousin Jeff appeared with a rather large load of firewood!

And I was like ‘Awesome – thanks so much because I had totally run out of things to do and I was getting bored’
No, wait…
I think it was more like “Don’t you think I have enough to do?” (I might have said a mild emphatic swear word in there too)
Cousin Jeff said with my bad attitude the price just went up
I love family! haha
Anyway, he figured while I had three strong lads staying I should be able to get this lot stacked in a jiffy!

And for city boys they did a pretty great job… sure the wheelbarrow might have crashed once or three times but once they sorted the balance thing out we were on our way!
Certainly a lot quicker than what I can do on my own that was for sure!

So I cooked up a stack of rissoles and we all made up our own burgers at the table – Quite something to see 18 hamburgers devoured in one sitting!
Something gratifying about seeing your home cooked meals enjoyed so much!

Well… I have to get up at 4am (which is closer to my normal going to bed time) so I need to scoot.
Not promising a story tomorrow as I reckon I will be like a zombie tomorrow evening!

Cheers!

Food

I got into the garden today to pick a few things – yay me!

Made up another large pasta mix to feed the hordes and a bit for the last square inch of space in the freezers

The boys made us dinner last night… Okonomiyaki!! Yummo. I don’t think they have ever made it before (the clue to that was someone googling how to cut a cabbage!)
Still… they worked it out and it was fabulous.
If you haven’t had it – its sort of a mix between an omelette and a pancake. We love it. I should remember to make it a little more often… so I bought some cabbage seedlings in the hope that I will get around to planting them!

Back to dinner – Put out some good side salad dishes to go along with the main dishes and got out some of our nice plates too!

The beetroot patch in the garden is going along amazingly well

My asparagus is not dead… I am just ignoring it as it takes so long to take hold. Actually I think it is going along ok

Lettuce is lovely… and I have carpets of parsley!

I made the chooks a couple of chicken cakes… they were very happy indeed.

Sadly we lost Screecher the other day. I think she was just old (since she has been with us since we first got here) For a couple of days she was mopey and not eating, then just died on the second morning. Poor old girl. We miss her – she was so naughty about getting into things she shouldn’t and showing no remorse!! She had a good life though!!
So we are down to 7 birds now. We have plans to get some more but not until we have gone through our string of visitors and upcoming hikes (so end April perhaps)

The boys have one more full day left.
Then Wednesday I have to get up hideously early to get them to the airport. Then almost a full day before our next guests arrive! Will be a speedy housework session followed by me passing out that evening haha

Snap dragons self seeded as I was hoping!

Anyway, I need to get a wriggle on and get to bed!! (and its not even 11pm!! wow!)
Hope your week has started amazingly!

Cheers

Hothouse Rescue

Hello!
My grand plan of slothing is still not quite coming to fruition! Still… I am enjoying a few days at home and not travelling so much each day for a change!

I made a nice big batch of pickled beetroot! So happy to be stocked up again!
Poor Jeff – he finds the smell of that cooking quite hard to take. I must admit it does get eye watering in the kitchen while its simmering!

Anyway, I promised myself at least one big garden task to knock on the head today – and the hothouse seemed like a good place to start.
I literally had to begin at the doorway and slowly work my way in.
I pulled out a lot more tomatoes and tied up the more promising ones.
I also pulled out dozens of strawberry runners!

Have no clue where to plant them. Hoping they can live in this tray until I am done with visitors.
I also found a lot of hiding cucumbers! I was going to pull all the plants out but relented and left some there that looked like they were flowering again. I did thin it out, cut back some of the leaves and vines – so we shall see.
These old cucumbers will be great to collect seeds from. (oh.. and one failed rock melon)

At least I can get into the hothouse now without doing some complicated twisting dance through the greenery!

The whitefly has taken hold again so I will need to get back in there daily with my spray to calm them down again.

Finished off the night with a lovely dinner that included my favourite stuffed tomatoes!

Cheers!

Small Catch Up in the Garden

Hello! A nice Sunday meandered through here in Tasmania!
Yesterday I drove the boys up to Launceston where they caught an early flight out to Melbourne this morning … then a bus out to Ballarat to meet Rachel for a few days of sightseeing in Victoria.

It ended up quite a hot afternoon… and after such a lot of walking the day before, we only took a picnic at the Gorge and a brief walk around the area before finding their hostel.

I tried to mostly take it easy today after what seems quite a long time of being far busier than I would normally be! I like to be lazy at least some of the time!

I sifted my celery seeds and now have a container full of billions.

I also had a go at the cos lettuce seeds… I think I might just shrug my shoulders on that one, shove the whole thing in a bag and extract seeds as needed. Would take forever to get a clean stash of them!

My potatoes are so ready for harvesting. I am really itching to get in there and dig everything out – but I figure its an activity that our Japanese guests would probably like to have a go at, so I am trying to be patient. Plus I need to go to the supermarket and stock up on boxes to store them in first.

I am going to take advantage of a few visitor-less days to get some more pickled beetroot done. I missed them at dinner tonight! Time to stock up.

The chooks got the leaves!

Another quick round of the garden this afternoon yielded a lot more tomatoes and apple cucumber. Even a bit of lettuce to add to tonights salad! (and corn which got eaten and not photographed!)

Hope your weekend was fabulous!
I am off to bed. I am still quite tired and yet to catch up with all the excess activity!

Cheers

Lots of Jam

Hi there!
My poor gardens are so unruly!
They have gotten such a good lot of rain over the last couple of days!

Even though these patches are doing well, I was hoping to have lots of lettuce available for when our guests arrive!

Hungry caterpillar making itself at home in my tomato!! Happily this season, we haven’t really had any grub issues with the tomatoes which is excellent. This is the only one so far that I have seen. So the chooks got a bit of a tomato/grub feast!

This afternoon late, the rain cleared up so I took a basket around and collected tomatoes.

And some corn for dinner!

The majority of the day was spent in the kitchen. I had to make a start on clearing space in the freezer. So I had taken out a bucket of plum pulp and a bag of raspberries.
I made a heap of raspberry/plum jam. Its a nice mixture. I found a stash of all these really big jars so I used those, which made for much less work.
I also finished off the ice cream – also plum/raspberry flavoured. Thats one I haven’t tried before so hoping its ok.

I have a small amount of the plum pulp left but I ran out of care-factor to do another batch of jam. Maybe tomorrow??

Screecher, now in her dotage, lays very odd shaped thin shelled eggs. They have a tendency to go off a lot more quickly and the white is not clear. I figured best not to eat those ourselves. So I scrambled all her eggs today and fed it back to the chickens. Wow… I know it sounds weird, but did they ever scoff that down! I should have included the shells too. I often include the shells when making them a cake!

My second planting of sunflowers have just started to bloom! Rather pleased I have the timing right on that at least. Just in time for guests.
Also, not so brilliantly timed for guests, a rat has had the audacity to die in the walls in the kitchen!!! I am burning a LOT of incense!!! Eye roll. Sometimes country living is a bit whiffy! haha

Hope your weekends are going fantastically!
Cheers

Tied Up Tomatoes

Hello!
Tasmania had one of its spectacular weather hissy-fits today!
I extracted myself from housework this afternoon to get out and do something useful in the garden and – its overcast and spitting. Not bad. Then the sun came out and I was baking – had to go in and get my hat!
About 15 minutes later, it all changed, I got cold and rained on – a lot. Then the cycle started again !!

A lot of windfall apples!! This trees fruit won’t be really ready for another month. The other tree we are eating a few from… a bit tart but enjoyable. They will sweeten up eventually.
I need to see if I can make some kind of cider soup thats nutritious for the garden out of the windfalls.

Oh – and you should see the hugely fat pademelon (small wallaby) that is gorging itself on the windfalls!! Such a big bottom its a wonder it can still bounce!!! Spotted it tonight. Will work on getting a photo for you!

Jeff got in and did a lot of pruning today! Now its a lot easier to use the pathways without fighting our trees!

Self seeded pumpkin doing really well! Have no idea what variety it is, but its free and has needed no help from me!

This tomato patch was full of sprawling tomatoes – the wind was keeping them flattened too, so about time to get in and tie them all up. (And weed)

I am enjoying this whole new garden area. So much produce in a small space! Even the new planting of sunflowers are going well and about to bloom!

I tied up some other tomatoes too … but after staring at these self seeded beauties, I just shrugged and told them they could do what they wanted! They are so huge I just don’t know where to begin. I think I will just let them be wild.

I have officially lost control of the hothouse!
There is a good days work in there to untangle things and sort it out. Never mind. I am quite liking it!

The passionfruit is loving its new home in the hothouse. Hopefully I will get in and train it a bit better and cut it back a bit before it totally takes over. Also hoping next year the fruit is a bit bigger and more plentiful, but thrilled with the few small ones we got for our first season.

Last task in the garden today was to do the rounds and harvest a few things!
Will make up some more pasta mix tomorrow and use up some more of the ripe tomatoes and zucchinis.

Hope your weekend is fabulous!
Cheers

Almost a Day in my Nightie.

So… I actively planned to do nothing today.
I really tried to sloth.
Eventually I got the guilts and (still in my nightie) chopped up the tomato and onion to make some relish!
I cried a lot. (onions, not because I failed to sloth)

I’ll probably cook it up tomorrow.

I did get out of my nightie before wandering about the yard. Saves explaining myself when I get caught by people dropping in! (I did replace the nightie with outside clothes otherwise the explaining might have had to be more creative)

Compared to last years pathetic attempt at pumpkins, this season is going fabulously well! I think I have at least 5 of this type of pumpkin growing happily. I have heaps of the smaller butternuts growing beautifully too!

Did I mention I finally pickled some beetroot the other day? Have been scoffing it ever since.

The potatoes are slowly dying off. I am hoping they will be ready to dig up completely while the three Japanese boys are here. They might enjoy the process!

Dodgy photo but this patch is my second round of sunflowers! While I was in the garden I did some random weeding around the place – just because I could! Every bit helps right?