Sunshine after the rain

We have a small grove of Casuarina otherwise known as She-oak trees in our paddock. The other day when I was backing out of the driveway I noticed how pretty they looked. We had just had a heavy shower of rain and now the sun was shining brightly on them and all the raindrops looked like diamonds sparkling in the trees.

I drive or walk past these trees all the time, I see them out my kitchen window and yet, I very rarely notice them. I am so glad I stopped the car the other day and got out and took pictures. I only wish my photos were better to truly show just how clean, fresh and gorgeous it looked out there. I know I will be appreciating these trees a lot more from now on.

It's amazing how something so simple as raindrops and a bit of sunshine can stop you in your tracks and make you take a deep breath at the wonder of nature.

Winter Warmer's

The official start of winter is still six days away, but this past weekend was a real taste of what is to come.
We had about 40mm of rain fall, beautiful soaking rain. The big rainwater tank is now just over half full which is good news. The weeds are sprouting like crazy. In between rain showers I rugged up and went outside and started pulling weeds and then retreated back inside when once again the rain fell.

We had candles lit and the fire going all weekend. The ceramic pot on the wood stove has water and a few drops of eucalyptus oil in it to help ward off germs or at least help them to stop spreading as both teens are full of head colds at the moment. I got the idea originally from Julie at Country Living by the Sea.

I made a pot of pumpkin soup from a homegrown pumpkin. It was a little on the spicy side but still really delicious. It was certainly very warming and filling anyway.

The sun made an appearance a couple of times and I just loved the way it highlighted the last of the grape vine leaves and the gum trees against the very dark stormy sky. They had forecast very strong damaging winds, but thankfully we didn't get those. It did get quite blustery for awhile Saturday afternoon and blow a few things around, but nowhere near as bad as what had been predicted.

This morning is a grey overcast day but I think the rain has gone for the time being. It is definitely on the chilly side out there though. Hope everyone's week gets off to a good start and is able to keep warm or cool as the case may be!

A Grey And Drizzly Day

On the drive home from work at lunch time today

It's not very often I make dessert, but last night I did some baked apples.

Awhile back I saw Christine from Slow Living Essentials had cooked

them in her wood fired oven. Unfortunately I don't have a wood fired

oven, so just my regular oven had to do. Although the picture doesn't

look very appetising, they were delicious!

With the start of winter just under two weeks away and the mornings cooler

I decided it was time to start eating porridge again.

This morning's featured chia seeds, stewed apple and pear,

cinnamon and organic honey - yum! It filled me up until lunch time too!

We have had a visitor today, Shorty came to keep BJ company while Mum and Dad

are in the city. Not sure why he is flat out asleep in front of the fire, when I haven't

even lit the fire yet. Maybe he is telling me it is time I did.

I posted a picture of the Gerbera bud the other day

and this is it out in flower!!

The first photo was taken around lunch time when it was fine misty rain, but the sky is much darker out there now and the rain is steady and the temperature has dropped. Think it is time to light the fire and get the house all cosy. Hopefully this rain keeps up we badly need it. I love going to bed and listening to the rain on the tin roof. It's a wonderful sound.

A Few Flowers

A little while back Mum gave me some Gladiolus corms which I planted,

I was surprised to see them flower so quickly.

A friend dug up some tiny Valerian plants from her garden

and kindly gave them to me, I think it is a really pretty flower.

I have had this Gerber in a pot for a long time and it has never really

done any good. A couple of months ago I planted it out in the garden

and it is doing so much better. Can't wait for the flowers to open.

We don't really get the beautiful autumn colours here,

this is about the best we get when the grape vine

leaves change colour and fall to the ground.

A new plant in the garden Osteospermum 'spider white'

I think the buds on the Plumbago are really cool looking!

Today was the first morning we woke up to fog! 

I guess with winter only being a couple of weeks

away we can expect lots more fog to come :)

So there is just a few things that are flowering in my garden in mid May. I only have to go to work for a short time in the morning, so I am very much looking forward to spending some time out in the garden and also some time in the kitchen. A bit of baking and some soup making sounds good to me. Have an enjoyable weekend!

The Vegie Garden In Mid May

Love the seed heads on the chive plants

The brassica bed is planted out

Looking forward to lots of tasty kale to eat

Grow little lettuce grow!

We are still eating capsicums from the garden, some red ones too!

Just waiting for the beetroot seedlings to grow a bit bigger before planting out :)

All of the snow peas are looking very unhealthy, they all have this

black spot/mildew/fungus? thing on them. Does anyone know what

it is and can I get rid of it or should I just pull the plants out and

start again? Have never had this problem before and I don't want

it spreading to any other plants in the garden.

Finally one of our new girls, Laverne says hi :)

Once again I have been absent from here for awhile, I didn't mean to, I suppose I didn't really think I had anything worth posting. The thing is I really miss not being here. Time to get some priorities straight! Took some more photos from around the garden this morning, so will be back in a couple of days to post those. Right now I am off to get myself cleaned up as a friend has invited me around for lunch. Not long until the weekend :)

Plants, seeds and eggs

Gee this week has gone fast, I can't believe it is Friday already. After having very little work for months now, this week was definitely busier. I have certainly clocked up some kilometres for the week. Also still helping my neighbour as she is unable to do very much at all. Parent/teacher meetings and other appointments and the week has flown by. I did however manage a quick five minute stop in at the garden centre in our neighbouring town yesterday.

I went in specifically for the sprouting tray. Mum had bought herself one a few weeks back and said how well it worked. I did have a sprouting jar from years ago but never had much success with that, and thought the tray sounded simpler. Mum has some other seeds so we can swap some seeds and have a bit of variety. Can't wait to get it started and have some fresh sprouts to eat, as they are so healthy for you.

That quick five minute dash also resulted in a few more plants coming home with me :). A little while ago Dad built a new garden bed for me at the end of the patio. I thought it would be a nice spot to put some perenniels in for some colour and make the area a nicer place to sit and eat meals when it's not too hot. It is still too hot to plant them at the moment, but it has to cool off soon...surely. I have noticed the mornings are a little cooler and it's not as light as it was when I get up. Some evenings have been cooling off earlier too, but still some stay hot well into the night, even though the night is closing in earlier.

Ptilotus exaltatus Joey

An Australian native plant with a profusion of feathery pink conical flowers.

I couldn't resist this one when I saw it and think I will be back for a few more

as I can see they would look spectacular in a  large clump.

A dark blue/purple verbena

A tough and hardy groundcover. The other plant I bought was a Brachyscome called metallic blue

which is more a very pale pinky lavender colour.

I also recently got my seed containers out of the cupboard with the intention of putting some seeds in today. As yet I haven't as it is so stinking hot today, although I suppose it doesn't matter so much for the seeds if it is hot or not, unlike for the plants. Definitely need to wait until it is cooler to put those in. As for the seeds I don't seem to have much variety. I have lots and lots of packets of onions and some turnips and the rest are more summer vegies. Looks like I need to get some more seeds!

A lovely surprise this week has been eggs from our silkies!! These are good sized eggs too considering how small silkie hens are. I thought they had stopped laying completely as it would have to be at least eighteen months if not longer since we last had any eggs from them. I will enjoy them while they last.

Finally just a photo of Jess. Not really supposed to be up on that cabinet, but she seems to like sleeping up there when it is really hot. She was sound asleep when I saw her, but she seemed to know the camera was pointed her way and woke up.

I would like to thank everyone that left comments on my last post. I had great fun joining in and have lots of ideas swirling around in my head. It is great to find so many like minded people who also care about their family's health, the health of our planet and love gardening. Looking forward to lots more reading and doing!

I keep getting muddled up and thinking today is Saturday, not sure why I am one day ahead of myself. Anyway I hope everyone has a great weekend and that the weather is neither too hot nor too cold :).

Slow Living Essentials Monthly 9 Link Up - February 2014

This is my first time joining in with this monthly link up. I have been following Christine at Slow Living Essentials for quite awhile now and have always enjoyed reading these posts. I have never contributed before as I always felt I wasn't doing enough in any of the nine categories. I still feel that way, but am much more committed to changing our ways and trying to live more sustainably. I thought if I did participate each month it would keep me accountable and would also be the motivation I need to keep going and keep improving. So here goes my very first link up!

Nourish 
February was the month of lots of smoothies and salads, perfect for the very hot weather we were having (and continue to have). The salads were made up of cherry tomatoes that had self seeded, lots of cucumbers from our garden to start with and later from Mum's garden. There was also oodles of capsicums and as always zucchini. The chooks had slowed down with egg production with all the heat, but in the last week they have started to lay a little more regularly.

Prepare
February saw lots of tomatoes and capsicums ripening all at once. Far too much for us to eat fresh. I have never really been much good at preserving our harvest, but was determined to do so this time. The tomatoes I turned into a roasted tomato soup which then went into the freezer for when (if) the weather cools down. I also had my first attempt at making a tomato based pasta sauce that also had garlic and onions from Mum's garden. That was a real hit, tasted so good and will definitely be making that again. I also have a tomato chutney recipe put aside for next summer's tomato harvest. The zucchini weren't left out either they were grated and also cubed and put into the freezer for using throughout the year.

Reduce
Once school had started back in early February I started de-cluttering. At this stage I have done all but one kitchen cupboard, they have all been cleaned out, things no longer used have been donated to the local op shop and they are all nicely organised. Not sure how long that will last, but it is good at the moment. The most difficult cupboard was the pantry and that one is already slightly unorganised. Hoping to put that one back in order again sometime over the weekend. I also got stuck into the teens bedrooms. Wow, what a job that was. One bedroom is almost finished the other one is about three quarters done. Quite a lot of stuff was donated from both rooms.

Green
I am stuck on this one, really not sure what to enter for this category. Will have to have a bit more of a think about this for next month.

Grow
As I said earlier we have had plenty of tomatoes, capsicums, cucumbers and early corn.  At the moment I am waiting patiently for the beans to start flowering, I was probably a little late getting them in the ground. Once they were in though, they took off at a rate of knots. We are really looking forward to hopefully lots of young tender beans to eat.

One vegetable that has been producing really well this summer is kale. I have only ever grown kale in the winter months previously. Back at the start of summer Mum saw some kale seedlings in the hardware store so bought them and kindly split the punnet with me. Mum's were all eaten virtually overnight, but mine although a little slow to start, eventually took off and has been very prolific all summer. It is a different variety than what we usually grow, but it has been a most welcome addition to our summer vegetable garden.

Create
I have nothing to show for this category for February, but I am excitedly waiting for my parcel to arrive from Bendigo Woollen Mills. I have ordered some 100% cotton as I have decided that this year will be the year I learn to knit. I figured knitting some dishcloths would be a fairly easy project to start with. I am itching to get started so I hope my package arrives soon!

Discover 
I have recently discovered Open2study a great online resource. I have only had a bit of a look around at this stage but will be on there shortly enrolling for a course. There are so many to choose from. As well I have been enjoying books from the library on gardening and on health. I also recently purchased a book on artisan breads. Hoping to have a go at making some bread over the weekend. Will talk about that one more next month.

Enhance
Hmm not sure what to put for this one. I guess helping my frail elderly neighbour with meals, errands and daily living tasks would fit the bill. After falling heavily and being on the kitchen floor all night last month and sustaining a very nasty injury to her arm. Life is a bit grim for her at the moment, so I guess by helping where I can I am enhancing her life. It is very sad that family can't/won't help...

Enjoy
With eldest teen turning 17 last Saturday, I have been enjoying all the little snatches of time we have together between her long days at school and the long bus ride home, her part-time weekend job and her social life. Being on her L's and soon to be on her P's I fear I will see very little of her. I am trying to make the most of each moment as I am already thinking ahead to next year once she has graduated year 12 and will hopefully be following her dream of the career path she is hoping to be accepted into. All that means is that she will have to leave home and move to the city. Something I dread. I just wish their childhood didn't have to go so quickly. Sometimes I wish we could halt time. On the other hand that is life learning to adjust to changes and embracing all that comes with those changes.

Well there is my first month complete. Looking forward to thinking, learning, growing, creating and much more for the following month. Time to go and look at what everyone else has been doing for the month.