Hi there!
Last night I baked a tea cake as my cousin and his girlfriend were popping in to see me today. I thought baking a cake would be civilised! 🙂
It turned out pretty well… and there is none left! Good sign I guess! Jeff took the last bit to work with him.
I squeezed in a little house painting – I had to wash it down first. Hot day again so it dried quickly and was able to get the first coat on in short order. The weatherboards here are a bit dodgier than the other areas… Still, its has come up ok so far.
I went down and collected my lettuce seeds. They are now sitting in a box in the sunroom drying.
Not too much else to share today!
Nice to have a slower Sunday!
Would you look at that! A lovely afternoon of decent soaking rain!
The garden was loving it. I think its great the leaves on a lot of the plants sit up like cups when it rains!
It made a lovely change. I let it get on with it and stayed mostly inside and continued my domestic bliss.
Apart from decluttering and vacuuming, I managed to bake bread and a cake.
Nothing earth shattering tho 🙂
Nice and grubby today! I am trying to encourage myself to get at least an hour of weeding done per day. That’s got to help doesn’t it?
We did get a bit further on the tall front part of the house
Jeff wobbled about on the extension ladder and I did some second coats of the lower half.
Meanwhile – I started with this:
And ended up with this:
The parsley has self seeded ferociously!!
I also managed to put together a little plot of celery by relocating some self seeded plants
My dodgy bit of plastic worked… now to get some more convenient sized stuff to work with over the pathways in the garden to kill some more weeds!
The accidental potatoes in the failed broccoli patch are enormous!! I have never seen plants like it! They are huge and spilling over the side. I dug about and found some really good sized spuds in there too! I need this plot back soon but don’t have the heart to uproot them until they are ready. Hoping for a lot of potatoes from them
The newer patches of lettuce and beetroot are going beautifully!
Gave everything a good drink today. Its just so incredibly dry and hot! Not used to that anymore. So glad we have the bore!
The last day of the challenge is today (when I say last day I mean last album to be posted and then follows ten more days of annoying people to get their last images in and vote haha.)
Anyway, subject was twisty… had a nice time sitting down and photographing the tendrils from the adventurous pumpkin plants!
Jobs that take on a life of their own.
We got the second coat on the front today which was great – and a lot more quickly done as Jeff didn’t need the extension ladder like I did to reach the top!
We then started eyeing off the boards that were all beginning to warp upwards.
Meh- why not? Grabbed the crowbars and other useful tools and started prying them up.
Under that layer of dirt and debris, there was a nice big concrete slab.
The timber pieces laying on top that were bolted into the cement and used to nail the veranda boards onto were completely rotting away.
We now have a mini renovation job at the corner where the slab ends (Leaving a dip and a hole) as well as making the cement slab even and prettier!
The veranda boards are actually in quite good condition – just grotty and in need of cleaning and staining. We removed all the nails which took a while, but they are all stacked and ready to be used… not sure where, but we will think of something!
We also did our tip trip today to get rid of about 3 months of rubbish. Mostly household stuff with a bit of stuff around the yard that really was past its used by date. Not photo worthy, but great to start fresh with empty bins again.
Looking forward to pickling these beauties and adding them into my salads!
Found another couple of ears of corn ready today – they are already in our tummies and much enjoyed!
Lots of home grown on the plate tonight… not least our fav. summer side dish, the stuffed tomatoes!
Hello! Hope Monday wasn’t/isn’t too tragic for everyone!
Well… that’s the photo I was working on yesterday. Hopefully some of you will recognise what I was trying to do.
For those who don’t know – its a wartime propaganda poster (well, my copy of. I am not quite as glamorous as the original Rosie the Riveter though!!)
Anyway… I like my new hair bandanna so I wore it today as I spring cleaned the sunroom… here is the appalling before photo (I am such a clutterer)
Too easy for me to just drop things when I am busy and in a hurry!
Anyway, its all cleared out, vacuumed, mopped and de-spidered. I don’t like sprays, but sometimes we go for a surface spray to keep them from taking over.
I spent some quality time with Merv, Kevin, Annabelle, Daisy, Gertrude, Bob and the rest of the gang in Mealworm City (ie I cleaned their box out)
They are active and happy, so I must be doing something right.
Latest beret… I lashed out on some fancy yarn. I undid half of it as the thicker wool was making it huge. Now its more kid sized. Fits on my head but not as well as the other ones.
Its pretty tho.
I had a lovely time in the garden digging potatoes. I love doing that so much! I got a good amount in one go so I can leave them alone to grow for a while longer. I ate some of these tonight.
Then more apple cucumbers, a big zucchini and a few more tomatoes!
There was a bit of discussion about what a zucchini slice was yesterday!! I didn’t realise that everyone in the world who ever grew zucchinis didn’t have this as their ‘go to’ recipe!! 😀
Anyway, its half loaf, half omlette:
This was before I cooked it. Its quite flat.. an inch or so high.
Ingredients:
375g (14oz) grated zucchini (pffft… who measures? Just keep grating)
1 large onion finely chopped
1 large carrot grated
1 cup grated cheese
3 rashers of bacon chopped
1 cup self raising flour
1/2 cup oil
5 eggs salt/pepper
Method
Combine vegetables, bacon and cheese
Add flour – stir through with some salt & pepper
Whisk oil and eggs then add to the mixture
Pour into a baking tray (well greased or lined with baking paper)
Bake at 180C (350F) until golden brown (30-40 minutes)
Serve with some fresh garden salad and enjoy!
You can add other things if you like (sun dried tomatoes??) Its pretty versatile.
Hello! How was the weekend?
I wrote up an ambitious ‘to do’ list for today and got through everything except cutting up those chillis!
Firstly was to finish the first coat at the front of the house.
Tick. I needed both ladders to do this. (Jeff sleeping today) So I wasn’t super fast, but it didn’t take as long as I thought it might.
I followed that job up by bagging up the rest of the mushroom compost out of the trailer. We need to make a trip to the tip soon so it will be handy to have the trailer empty!
Make part one of the next batch of ice cream (tick) (Yes the recipe requires eggs)
Make Pesto! Tick!
On a side note, I finally got some roots happening with the basil cuttings!
Prepare ingredients for tonights zucchini slice dinner (another tick)
Step one.. go pick some carrots and whatever else is out there…
Step two… chop and grate
I moved the sprinklers all over the place today to give some of the dry areas a good soaking. The ground is cracking!!
I also spent some time getting my challenge photo for the subject of ‘recreating art’ and I think I like the result… but will post tomorrow as its not due in the challenge until the day after tomorrow.
THEN it was a speedy trip to Ruby’s to plant some lettuce before coming home to cook my zucchini slice.
I like getting lots of things crossed off a list!
Cheers!
PS anyone else having issues with getting/not getting the blog post emailed to them? Suddenly wordpress doesn’t want to send me my own posts!! I can’t figure out why but to be honest I have spent very little time trying to problem solve this one 🙂
Hello!
Weekend is here and Jeff is working! Nevermind, I have lots of jobs planned too!
Yesterday we managed, among other things, get the second coat of paint onto the side of the house.
Today I decided to wash down the front in prep for painting.
We rarely use the front door and it shows. A million spiders have taken up residence.
Ew. I swear sweeping out the cobwebs was like removing birds nests!! Rains of spiders anyone??
Anyway, nothing two ladders, water and a bit of elbow grease won’t fix!
I was going to put on the first coat today but Jeff got called into work early so I had to hustle in the kitchen to get dinner made on time. (Pizza which got no photos as we were in a rush! But they were tasty and there are leftovers!)
We got our first corn today! And was it ever good!!! (Nice pizza side dish haha)
Sadly this was a bit funny on the inside. I picked a green one today and it was fine!
I need to go and hand out some cucumbers soon!
I have a really good amount of pumpkins developing now! After thinking I would get none… there should be plenty this season!
My cos lettuce seeds
The new beetroot patch is looking great. I think I need to get in there though and move a few around. More germinated than I expected!
Today’s challenge subject was umbrella/s. I had plans with some cocktail umbrellas but didn’t make it to the beach to complete said plan. Then I mucked about with some photos with my Japanese umbrella… then I got in touch with my inner-Totoro and grabbed a rhubarb leaf!
Why be serious?
Then, while doing the rounds this evening, I lucked out finding this ‘bug’ (an upcoming subject) sitting in one of my roses! Nice!
I am going to HAVE to spend some time spying on Screecher tomorrow to see where she is squeezing out from.
I looked all over the yard this afternoon only to find her trampling my carrots and scoffing the self seeded silverbeet growing in there!
You can really tell that she just doesn’t care even when Jeff was giving her a telling-off!
I think we put her back 4-5 times a day!!
Despite bad behaviour… I cooked them a cake.
I also cooked us a big pot of pasta sauce which was lovely over spiral noodles for dinner tonight.
I really need to get in and chop up those chillies tomorrow. Got a lot that need attention now.
I tied these tomatoes up in a tree – they were the green ones on the Black Russian tomato plants that I pulled out. They are ripening up nicely.
This afternoon we went for a short walk down the abandoned railway line that cuts through Wynyard.
I need a photo of ‘tracks’ for my photo challenge and thought that would do. (I did have grander plans of finding some wombat tracks but I am a little time poor at the moment!)
Above is the back of the milk processing factory – a side I hadn’t seen before
I think I would really like to walk the whole line through town just to see where it goes! I’ll put that onto my ‘To Do’ list!!
Hi There! How are all your weekends going?
We had good painting weather today – hot, dry and breezy.
Managed to get two coats on the back veranda walls and a second coat on the first panel we started. Definitely looks better with the second coat
Tall people are handy with paintbrushes!!
I think that was only the first coat. Its a bit yellower than I probably wanted, but from an overall view its not too bad. We are going to do all the trim in a federation-style green as well… first things first. Walls need doing.
We will be moving on to the daunting tricky parts soon. There are a lot of boards that really need replacing as well as some windows. But $$$ so before we can do that, we will just paint and at least it will offer some protection to what’s there.
Even had time for a little gardening – namely pulling out the hothouse tomatoes that were really pretty much dead.
I was surprised they died off so quickly. The fruit was tasty and plenty but smaller than normal. Not sure if its something I did or just dud stock.
Anyway, more than enough self seeded tomatoes to replace them with. And the poor chillies REALLY needed some breathing space!
I know I am not supposed to just plant the same thing back in the same spot… I may have regrets later, but…
Now what to do with the massive bucket of tomato plants!!?? (Something to worry about another day)
Second passionfruit! A little bigger than the first. I ate the small one today as it seemed ripe enough… a bit tart but pretty tasty.
A few more outdoor tomatoes ripening – I’ll be making relish before I know it!
Well… bedtime for me. Got a big day planned tomorrow so I need to not be awake so late!
Enjoy what is left of your weekend!
Hello!
I finally got myself down to Ruby’s for a bit of gardening! I didn’t get photos of Ruby – she had an appointment so I will get back there at a nicer time of day for a cuppa and a few snaps.
I was pretty filthy by the time I finished in here! And warm!
Back home I did the rounds with the watering and we picked what is probably the last bucket of plums
My capsicum is going red! Exciting times!
Another couple of outside tomatoes and a heap of hothouse ones plus chillies!
On a roll with the cucumbers!
Dinner tonight was courtesy of the chooks, with eggs on toast and salad on the side!
