23rd January 2009
We just gorged ourselves on a home-grown tomato salad. Unfortunately, they weren’t grown in our home, but my Mum and Dad’s. Above is our entire tomato harvest for this year so far nestled in the palms of Amelia’s not very big hands. There are more ripening on the vines, but not a lot. I think there’s something in that old adage that vegetables need full sun, good soil and lots of water. Hmmm, who woulda thunk it? I will try that next year. We might even lash out and get that long spoken about water tank – that will make vegetable gardening all the more satisfying. I seemed to have lost my gardening mojo for this season. I always start off the Spring with such good intentions but life, and weeds, seem to get in the way. Maybe I need to break out a ukulele tune for the wandering garden muse too.
6th November 2008
This is the view that can be seen from our bedroom window. The people who bought the block of land next door have subdivided the property and are building a two story, three bedroom town house in the backyard. This is the first floor, one more to come. It’s unbelievably compact and scarily close to our fence. But, that’s progress, hey? And I try to look at the positives, like – I guess it’s a good thing to be building up suburbia so that we prevent the greater suburban sprawl… but I am starting to feel just a tad hemmed in, what with this and the other place on the other side of us towering over our yard.
(And yes, they killed the creeper on the fence.)
So my urge to uproot and run for the hills has intensified – but in the meantime, I plant my vegies and think about how there are things that can be done right here which will make me feel like we are a little closer to my fantasy life of rural bliss. It’s really just a state of mind — right?
(I nicked the title from the Slow Guide: Melbourne blog – thanks Martin – it’s my new ethos).
31st October 2008
Look what’s on the agenda this weekend.
I have just got back from our local nursery where I bought a small tray of the things we found most useful in our vegie garden last year. Tomatoes, basil, zucchini, cucumbers and squash for starters. The little yellow squash were the biggest surprise hit of last Summer. While they aren’t really a vegetable that causes much excitement when we buy them from the greengrocer, fresh from the garden they are melt-in-the-mouth delectable. But today’s great thrill was finding Digger’s Club heirloom tomato seedlings for sale! Hooray! I get their catalogue every season and sometimes splash out on a few packets of exotic sounding seeds but we haven’t had much luck with our tiny little tomato plants that grow from the packet – mostly due to our lack of commitment. Seedlings are very exciting.
This year we are keeping a firm track of our receipts for all that we buy for the vegie patch – it will be interesting to see if we actually manage to save anything by growing a lot of our own. The expense is always huge at this point – mulch, compost (if only we had some local horses!), seedlings etc., not to mention our longer term plan of getting a rainwater tank installed. Today I spent $55 on seedlings. Hmm. Mind you, last week I spent $3.50 on a very mangy bunch of basil (non-organic) at the greengrocer (of which half I couldn’t even use) so even just the two punnets of basil I brought home today could theoretically save me $55 or more… I just need to plan to make loads of pesto.
26th October 2008
I spent a lot of time in the garden today, whipping it into shape ready for vegetable planting. While the kids scrabbled in the leaf litter looking for pill bugs to put in their newly established pillbugaterium, I filled our green waste wheely bin with armloads of weeds. Once I got into it, I was too enthused to stop, so I kept piling weeds and prunings on to the brick paving. I’m not exactly sure what I am going to do with this mountain of vegetation. Did you read The Nargun and the Stars when you were young? It’s a spooky Australian tale which has stayed with me ever since I read it when I was about 9 or so. Instead of ancient rocks which move around at night, I have a huge weed pile – which I hope stays where it is.
** Just for those who are feeling incredulous, I did add the fireflies and teeth in Photoshop.
11th April 2008
Amelia started piano lessons on Wednesday. We hired an old bomb of an electric keyboard for $12 for the term – how can you go wrong with that?? Piano practice went swimmingly until we discovered the Hip-Hop button and then it dissolved into one of those slightly hysterical, over tired, pre-dinner dance parties where we all tried to out do each other with moves we’ve gleaned from Hi-5.
And we have a new plant which arrived in a cardboard box labled “Live Plants” from Diggers. It’s a “True Curry Tree” – which sounds pretty awesome when you read what Kurma has to say about it. I like the bit about all the groaning. Must be good. It’s just a wee little thing at the moment – about a foot tall – but it will grow to two metres and has lovely lush looking (groan inducing) foliage. We planted it outside the back door and fed it organic chook poo and lots of water. Now I hope it manages to avoid those pesky possums and we’ll be having curry for dinner in 2009!
17th March 2008
Phil’s back from a week long business trip to California and I can’t tell you how good it is to have him home! We have all been pining for him. Lily most of all. She’s been stomping around the house saying in the most heartbreaking of tones “Daddy – home?”. The cockroaches and spiders are the only ones not pleased to have him back – they get away with a lot more when it’s just me around. I tend to freeze up in terror and revulsion while they make their mad-scrambling escape. On top of the spiders and the cockroaches I have been sick with some throat, chest, lung thing and apart from making me feel crappy I haven’t been able to shout effectively at tired, overheated, misbehaving children and of course the weather has been unbelievably foul. I am feeling compelled to pack up and move to Tasmania. But whinging aside… Upon arriving home Phil discovered a pumpkin on the vine. Hooray! I can’t see any more but they seem to grow fast. I have just had a look at some photos I took of the girls playing out the back from the weekend before last and could see the itty bitty pumpkin just starting to look pumpkin-like only 7 days ago. This is Lily and her baby doll “Shep” playing alongside the pumpkin without even realising it! You can click on the photo for a better look.
Go pumpkin, go! It’s growing underneath Lily’s window which makes me wonder if it’s been growing happily there because of the gentle lilting sleepy music that we play to Lily at nap time and bed time. Ya never know.
27th February 2008
Ink! And brushes!
I am not sure what I am going to turn this in to — gocco print? Embroidery? I am still playing with it. It’s meant to be Lily in our garden, hence the pumpkin leaves, cucumbers, beans and tomatoes. I haven’t drawn the possum-massacred capsicum bushes nor the forgot-to-be-watered herb pots… nor the weeds! That will be an entirely different embroidery or gocco print.
Kirsty started this little meme and just as I was wondering what I should post today, this came along. It’s nice that it’s happening on a Wednesday as I have some time to do some work on Wednesdays so can do a kind of WIP thing.
Truth be told, This isn’t actually my desk. This is the kitchen table but it was my desk for today so it kind of counts. My desk is below — and as you can see it’s got too dark to take any more photographs so that will have to do for this week.
26th February 2008
When we need a little comfort-reading we always turn to Milly Molly Mandy
. We chat about what it would be like to live in a little white cottage with a thatched roof with a brook at the bottom of the nearest meadow. It’s a very nice fantasy, and quite different from our current “eat your breakfast!”…”Hurry up! We’re late! We’re leaving in five minutes!”…”Can someone wipe Lily’s nose/hands?!” reality. At the beginning of last Spring we read the story “Milly Molly Mandy and the Surprise Plant”. MMM is given a little mystery seedling as a gift and plants it in her garden. As the Summer goes by the plant grows and grows; “It spread out branches along the earth, with tendrils which curled round any stalk or twig they met and held fast.” After much theorising It turns out to be a prolific pumpkin. After giving away the largest pumpkin for Harvest Festival they cook up the rest and everyone gets a little bread and butter with pumpkin and ginger jam spread on it.
So of course we decided we should plant a pumpkin to fill the new garden bed which we had put in when the deck was taken away (hooray!). True to the story the crawling creeper has grown and grown and is slowly but surely spreading it’s long tentacle, triffid-like arms around the garden. Amelia keeps talking about growing a prize winning pumpkin. “Ooh, this sunshine will be good for our Prize Winning Pumpkin!” etc. Despite the enthusiasm we have only just seen a few male flowers popping up their heads in the last couple of weeks and nothing in the way of female flowers let alone any signs of a pumpkin. Perhaps it’s been the lack of rain or maybe our new topsoil is lacking in goodies, but I may have to wait until next year and another attempt to try my hand and pumpkin and ginger jam. Perhaps Jane will have a recipe in her book!
18th February 2008
Hello!
It’s just a few days over a year since I stopped updating here and, predictably, I have been missing it. I feel like it’s time to start up again. Do you like our button squash? Some got a little too big and tough but the little ones are delicious steamed, with a big blob of butter and sprinkling of pepper. See you tomorrow!
