Hello Beautiful Sunday!
Well… it wasn’t raining or blowing a gale, so in my books – beautiful!
I actually managed to get sunburned at the markets today despite it being rather heavily overcast!!
This afternoon I took Emma and Alasdair down to the river and set them off to paddle for a couple of hours!
The wind made it hard work going up river, but coming back down was a doddle! And at least no-one fell in!
Meanwhile I thought I would do some more therapeutic weeding. Most satisfying
BeforeAfterBeforeAfter
As always, my little crooning fanclub kept me company
Got some more sprawling tomatoes under control
Decided to put in round two of the lettuce
Bit of shelter while they get used to life out of the hothouse.Pulled up the last lot of garlic. Now I have a large plot free to put to good use!I love the hothouse. Its so lush!
I am enjoying the few flower patches that I deliberately planted… I haven’t done much of that in the past… the flowers had mostly been put in before we moved here and we just get the pleasure of them.
But the ones I have done this season are a real patch of cheerfulness at our back door and is rather inspiring me to get on and continue developing the back yard into a mass of cottage garden plots. Something to entice the bees and look beautiful as well.
Sweet peas have done a great job climbing up their frameSunflowers are so fabulous
Marigolds are so easy – easy to collect their seeds and easy to grow.I never imagined this patch would be so successful!
Enjoy what is left of your weekend and have a fabulous Monday!
Hello! Midweek already! I spent most of the day procrastinating my way through housework – Our niece Emma is turning up tomorrow, with boyfriend in tow for a week so I thought I should sort a few rooms out!!
It was so windy!! The chooks spent a lot of their time huddled up in protective spots while the garden got blown about. Thought I should secure some of the tomatoes that were beginning to sprawl in the duck yard garden.
A bit unruly
I gathered up a bunch of stakes, a hammer and my roll of garden tie – which I love to death its soooo easy to use.
I found a number of tiny tomatoes while I was tying them back that I couldn’t see yesterday
End result was a lot neater, and will save them some stress by not being blown all over the place!
Looks like I might nearly have a zucchini! They are taking their sweet time this season!
Not lacking for flowers…
I might have to go back down to the zucchini patch with some romantic music and a paintbrush…
The one pumpkin that I could see has actually escaped into next doors paddock. Will have to climb the fence and retrain it back over our direction!!
The corn is looking healthy – but no fuzzy bits yet.
In other produce news the girls seemed to like their fresh new hay and presented us with 6 eggs. All laid in the middle nest which has not been used for about a year!! Funny chooks!
Anyway – a few more domestics before bed… and maybe some raspberry ice cream??
Cheers
In preparation for my raspberry-loving niece, Emma!! Good Aunty!!!
Usually by this time of year we will have picked buckets and buckets of cherry plums and I would be madly cooking & freezing.
Not so this season. Because the season is a good three weeks behind normal, the plums have only just started to ripen here and there -and the birds have found the trees and are stripping them bare. I am a bit sad about that – plum jam is my morning staple! My Dad loves it too and I enjoy keeping him well stocked up with it!
They have only just found this small stand of plum trees but I don’t think I can save themDead plums
All previous seasons I have had a good relationship with the birds. We get our fill, then the clean up crew come in and take care of the rest – even the mess on the ground!
Sadly they are eating everything in sight, and most of it isn’t even nearly ripe! Is it churlish of me to heartily wish them all a massive stomach ache?
I think I have one more frozen container of plums residing in Ruby’s freezer (leftover from when we couldn’t fit anything else in ours!)
I will just have to console myself with copious amounts of raspberries and strawberries. (I picked 2 & a half kilos of raspberries yesterday (5.5lb)) and this evening I picked 1.2kg of strawberries (2.6lb)
I picked a lot more of my garlic today too – I was actually out there bandicooting potatoes for tonight’s dinner but then got side tracked pulling up more garlic. Some small ones in there but mostly a reasonable size! I love having garlic again!
Happy with my armful!Day lilies a cheerful part of the garden
Hope your day was great!
Cheers!
Loving the flowers at the back door. The sunflowers are towering and the smell of the sweet peas as you walk past is divine!
Well, thats Saturday gone! I must say I was a bit half-hearted about it.
I finally got myself together and went down to Ruby’s to put in a couple of hours weeding… only to find she had almost half done the patch that I was intending to clean up for her!!
Sometimes I can’t believe she is 100! Apparently she had a really good day yesterday and got out on her milk crate and went weeding-mad!
This was the patch the other day – (taken from the other side)
Not wanting to let the side down, I got stuck into the rest.
I had to hose myself off before I was fit to go into the house to have a cuppa! Hot, sweaty and grubby!
Anyway, back home I muddled about the yard, picked some stuff and did the watering
A few more cherry-plums
I ate a little purple carrot! 🙂
Remember the weedy then bare duck yard from last year?
Well… I think the progress is beautiful!
Sprinklers on – drink time
Back to the main vegie patch –
Busy little area – needs a weeding of course, but there are runner beans both sides, zucchini in the middle and some rogue tomatoes that I have just left to do whatever they pleaseCould this be the year that the runner beans go up and over the arch?? I live in hope.
Something is nibbling off the carrot tops!Tomato patch slowly slowly getting thereOutside tomatoes making an appearanceThe rhubarb that I thought I killedSome of my marigolds have actually perked up and done well!So much parsley gone to seed. Its going to take over the garden I bet!
Onto the hothouse! Its so lush and busy in there! I need to spend some time tying up all the crazy plants that are growing out of control!
One of the tomato plants that is just sprawling everywhere!Chillies, rock melon & basilFlowers on my heirloom capsicum! Excited much??Perhaps three cucumbers was too many….
chilliBasil and a couple of new self seeded beetroots!
And then a bit of colour that makes me happy –
Well… that’s a bit of a circuit around the garden! Time for bed.
Hope your weekends are awesome!
I had to be up early this morning to get to an appointment before 9am. This was good for me because my sleeping habits lately have become ridiculous!
My appointment woke me right up – bikini wax!! haha – more effective than coffee I can assure you, but perhaps not as economical??
Anyway… moving right along…
So, since I was bright eyed and bushy tailed (well maybe not bushy tailed anymore)(yeah I said I was moving right along 🙂 ) I thought a good long walk along Sisters beach would be a grand thing to do. The tides were right this morning and the sun was beating down, so off I went.
Acres of sand and only me to walk it!
I did a lot of paddling about
I thought they were all mildly love heart shaped… or maybe my brain was addled from the early morning trauma.
I love the tea tree stained water that runs into the ocean from the stream
Its a popular area for families with little kids to come and swim/paddle
Well… there was work at home to be done, so I left the sparkling shores, came back and changed into my gardening clothes.
The main vegie patch hasn’t been properly weeded for ages (seriously… WHAT do I do with my time??) So that was my aim… to really get a good portion of that knocked over!
BeforeAfterBeforeafterbeforeafterDumped out a few of these!
And boy oh boy did I need a good scrubbing tonight!!
Feels good to get rid of so many of those weeds… still a lot there but I am pleased with how its looking already!
Hope your weeks ends fantastically!
Hello! How is everyone’s week trundling along?
I thought I would take a weeding break and tackle a few kitchen things.
First things first – need to show off my beetroot!
I figured it was about time to dig it out of its cosy home in the hothouse and see if it would cook up alright
I suppose a photo session first is ok
It cut rather nicely and I have been cooking it tonight. I probably need to taste it properly when its cool to give you a verdict on whether I left it too insanely long.
As I type I am waiting for some cooked and pureed strawberries to cool off. I want to make some ice cream before hitting the hay
Making step one – the vanilla ice cream with plums cooking behind
I picked a few plums and cooked them up too – wanted to try a different flavour in the ice cream.
When they had cooled I picked out the pips by hand then ‘mooleyed’ all the skin etc out so I was left with pulp
Also cooked up a pot of raspberries then sieved all the seeds out.
Raspberries, strawberries & plums
What I don’t use in the ice cream I will pop into the dehydrator to make fruit leather.
Strawberry and blueberry fruit leather
We made some the other day but I am yet to scrape it all off the trays! They got a bit stuck. I will use some baking paper for the next lot!! Still… tastes good!
Well – I suppose my strawberry mix might have cooled down enough to finish up this ice cream caper. (Its only 11.30pm 😀 )
Hope your day was great!
Cheers
Todays pickings! We ate most of those potatoes!! Same with the lettuce and basil. One of the Black Russian tomatoes is showing colour. Can’t wait to get into that! Another cucumber, oodles of snow peas and all those luscious raspberries!
A grand start to the new year when I peeked into the hothouse and saw colour on the tomatoes! I am very excited. Its been too long since I tasted a real tomato.
Jeff decided to sort out the scruffy lawn…
While I went back to my happy place
I don’t usually pick consecutive days, but I wasn’t sure if it was going to rain or not – was overcast most of the day. I learned that you don’t pick berries when its raining or just rained. The fruit goes mouldy really quickly!
I got a reasonable amount considering how many I got yesterday!I even made a couple of jars of jam today! This one is earmarked to travel up to the winner of my photo challenge as part of her prize. There is more of course, which I will be testing out on my toast tomorrow morning. Bread is now baking.
I had some fun picking more snow peas, digging a few potatoes and getting some lettuce. I couldn’t help pulling up a few more garlic bulbs too.
So happy with the size of some of these!Some of the snow peas got missed and are now fattening up. Will leave them to brown off and will collect the seed for next season
Somehow a whole lot of tomatoes have sprung up among my runner beans! Meh… will just leave them to play together and see what happens.
The sunflower in my hothouse has sprung open! Hope it will attract more bees
I didn’t pick through the strawberries today – must get onto them tomorrow. I could see a number ready! Of course – I had to sample at least one…
Despite the overcast day, at around 7pm the skies cleared a little and it was lovely sitting on the back veranda for a while just enjoying the view.
Hello! I ate a scandalous amount of raspberries today! But I still managed to bring a kilo up to the house (About two and a bit pounds) Takes a long time to pick, but very enjoyable job!
It was a weird muggy kind of day. The rain had let up which was nice. The garden, weeds and all seemed to have shot up about a foot!
I had to uncover the first corn patch as they had reached the top of the net. Hopefully no possums want to snack on them now.A couple of zucchini hopefulsHave noticed tiny tomatoes showing on some of these!!LadenBonus with two cucumbers
The most exciting thing about today was digging up a few garlic plants! Some of the bulbs were really big! Lots of good sized ones and a few tiddly ones. This is about a third of the patch. I think the others need a wee bit more time
I was so pleased… they had taken so long to form up I thought this year was going to be a garlic-failure!
This lot is upstairs starting the drying process. Vampire Free Zone. And I can smell them from downstairs!! 🙂
This was before I started raiding the garlicThings aren’t looking so titchy in here anymore either. Still debating about moving the self seeded tomatoes
Even though we have the bore, I still like my rain barrels. They all did a great job of being topped up in the last 24 hours. The big one at the front I put up yesterday evening, empty. By this morning it was over half full!
Pip really needed a run around outside today! He has been cooped up too long.
He chases me all over the yard which is kind of cute… except he head-butts the camera which makes getting the shot I actually wanted tricky.
Another day of self imposed quarantine. Throat marginally better but still not worth going out and possibly sharing it around.
It turned nasty again – wind was battering everything and it turned a bit cold. Sigh. That 4 days of summer was so enjoyable!! 🙁
Did another raspberry pick. Quite a few never made it back to the house.
Scarce cherry plums
By now we should be thoroughly sick of dealing with cherry plums. We should be swimming in bucket loads. Weird season thats for sure!
Apart from the weeds, the main garden is going along ok. The runner beans are slowly climbing and showing flowers, the rhubarb is getting bigger and the spaced out beetroots are sitting up well. Need to harvest the garlic to make space for more beetroots!
Carrot seedsI spy the first of the outdoor tomatoes!Kind of sad… the two baby birds never survived. Not sure what happened to them. One lonely unhatched egg left. (well – for the best. The Blackbirds are a pest species here)
Dinner again was a lot of fresh salad, a potato salad and some sausages dug out of the freezer. Of course, lots of berries at dessert time too!
We put a fire on to take the chill off the house which was quite nice but mad considering we are at the end of the first month of summer!!
Hope everyone is enjoying a relaxing post-Christmas time!
Gorgeous roses sent home with Jeff for me from one of his workmates!
Its a bit strange to hang out by yourself on Christmas Day – but I had quite a nice day really!
Jeff woke me when he got in from work and we exchanged presents –
A new hose and gardening knee pads for me (yay!!) and I gave Jeff a headlamp torch thingy. We plan to do a six day hike/camp adventure in a few months and figured it would come in useful! And is it ever bright!!! Its going to knock possums out of trees I reckon!!
Anyway, it was too early for me and my throat was pretty awful so I went back to bed!
I resurfaced at a more civilised hour and opened some presents my parents left for me while I was having my toast and coffee.
Mum made me this gorgeous scarf!
I also got these terrific flat pack boxes too! (Probably because Mum thinks I am untidy) 😀
Ok – I AM untidy, but I am very much looking forward to using these – I think all my wool and knitting stuff would be great in these!
It was a fabulously hot day today! (Thats 4 in a row!!) I had to give a few garden things a drink and then spent a very happy half an hour picking through the raspberry canes!
The chooks got some Christmas greens
There are scores of not yet ripe tomatoes in the hothouse. I should stop looking at them every five minutes to see if one is ripe yet!
There was also a ton of self seeded plants popping up everywhere and doing well… time to move them. (Isn’t that what you amuse yourself with on Christmas day??)
A couple of the main plants going mad
Here is a Hot Gardening Tip:
When you go ferreting about for pots to use, do so in a nice open space, so when a Huntsman tries to scramble up your leg, you don’t hurt yourself flinging your arms about doing the Spider Dance
Oh – and make sure the pot you select is not full of her spiderlings!!
I don’t know how well you can see them but there were HUNDREDS!!
Anyway – obstacles hurdled, I managed to dig up and pot a good number of tomato seedlings.
I can’t wait…
I also did some weeding and tidying and plant-training
Rock melon tied to frame. I want it to go up, not sprawl over the groundThe cucumbers have also been coaxed into climbing. Last season my one plant went crazy… will have to direct these three so I don’t end up with a jungleWhat is the collective noun for cucumbers? A collaborative? A cluster? A conglomerate? Hmmm According to Google its a Brace of Cucumbers! There you go!Dinner
Chillies starting to be a more impressive sizeMore chillies
Making my own rainbows (raspberries getting a soaking)I have eaten the odd one or two, but the cherry-plums are so behind this year! We should be collecting bucketfuls by now!
Some snap dragons have appeared in my new little flowerbed!
When Jeff got up, we ended up having leftovers for dinner (shock-horror) Although I did make a fresh salad.
AND I had made a choc-ripple cake for dessert – so it got a bit fancy at the end! 🙂
