Weekend Reading

Tomorrow is Hanno's 80th birthday so our family will be here for lunch and celebrations. I met Hanno when he was 37 and I was 28, we sure have come a long way since then 😳.

Weekend Reading

Yesterday afternoon, I'd just planted some snapdragons.

I've never grown Californian poppies before but some were in a bee and butterfly seed mix I broadcast over the garden a couple of months ago. I was surprised and very pleased when I saw these charming, buttercup flowers spring up right in the middle of the cottage garden last week. But when I saw about 20 stingless bees in that yellow cup, I decided that California poppies would be a part of my forever garden. We need flowers such as those poppies to help provide pollin for visiting bees. We have a lot of bees here, many solitary bees like blue banded bees, teddy bear bees, leafcutter bees, resin bees and some more social bees such as our native stingless bees.  Stingless bees produce honey known as Sugarbag. We buy our raw honey from a man down the street who keeps hives and I'm pretty sure his bees come here too. The honey bees we're all so used to seeing are an introduced species from England.

Weekend Reading

Each week the weather is warmer and each week I try to do more in the garden because I know that come November, I won't want to be outside.  It's peaceful here. We hear trees rustling in the wind, there is sometimes a faint buzz of traffic in the distance, birds twitter, the chooks squark and occasionally a gate will open and close.  That's it. That's an accurate summary of the sounds in our back yard.  So with a minimum of sound, it's easy to focus on what I'm doing, think about how I can improve what's before my eyes and, most importantly, relax and feel secure in my home. Feeling relaxed and safe is a good feeling and the foundation of most things that happen here.

Summer memories is being grown in a large pot. It opens out to be a large cabbage-type pale rose.

Weekend Reading

The backyard at 3pm with Gracie's woollen blanket drying in the sun.

Hanno having a rest while he fixes the pathway in the chook run.  That's the mini Cavendish banana in the foreground. He's going to cut the pups off and transplant one to that bare space on the wire fence.

All citrus grow too many flowers at the beginning of the fruiting season but tend to either drop them or lose them to birds or insects in the following weeks.  Our main orange tree is bursting with flowers. I'll pick many of them off soon to help it grow a good crop of large fruit instead of many small fruit.

Weekend Reading

More work in the garden this week. It's been good to be outside although the wind is annoying as it dries out the soil too quickly. Hanno is preparing the corner of the garden to transplant some banana pups so we have more bananas and, hopefully, at different times.  Overall though, these mini bananas are easier to tend than the taller ones. The minis grow to just about a metre tall so checking the leaves, removing dead leaves and harvesting are much easier. After a question from a reader on IG, I searched for these mini bananas online and found Diggers has them in stock. In a frost-free climate, these are a valuable addition to the backyard.

Weekend Reading

I've spent time every day in the garden this week. The warmer weather has promoted growth and the two tomato plants have grown a lot in a week. There are plenty of flowers out now too. Today I'll finished the planting with a punnet of foxgloves - surely the sweetest flower name of all.  My aim was to get all the planting, weeding and mulching done before the hot weather, and we've done that, so from now on, it's pruning, dead-heading, fertilising, watering and a little bit of harvesting. Speaking of which, Hanno harvested the curly kale on Wednesday for his annual pork and kale feast.

Weekend Reading

I showed you a photo of our sofa recently but I've gone closer now so you can see the Australia cushion made by my sister, Tricia. She upcycled an old wool blanket, made the little pom-poms from scrap materials and embroidered the Coat of Arms. I love it. I want to make another small cushion for this area, I've decided on the design so I'll go through my stash to make sure I have the materials I need.

After spending almost two years growing out my layers, my hair is now a blunt cut below my shoulders. I like having long hair because I can wear it up or down. But the sad truth is it takes a long time to wash and dry, and the shower, which is a dangerous place for me anyway because of my dizziness, becomes a slippery accident waiting to happen with shampoo and hair conditioner on the tiles. So I'm having my hair cut short again next week. It will be easier to care for and in summer I can wash my hair every day if I want to. I hope I don't chicken out before the big day.  😳  

Weekend Reading

I will never tire of looking at this face. Gracie was under the table on the back verandah with the sun streaming in. She enjoys being there on winter afternoons because it's warm and out of the wind.  Good girl, Gracie!

We got another stimulus payment from the government this month, a payment that needs to go back into the economy to help businesses survive.  I bought a new camera and this week I've been experimenting with it and trying to get through the 550-page manual.  Hopefully, in the coming weeks you see an improvement in my photos.  I'll never stage them but I hope you'll be able to see more details in what I do present for you here and on IG. 

Weekend Reading

I forgot it's Friday! 😳  I just came home from grocery shopping and it clicked. I'm glad I remembered now and not Sunday afternoon.  

Making finger lime and lemon cordial. The little floaters in the pot are finger lime pearls.

It's been a busy week here with a few exciting things happening that I can't tell you about just yet. Tuesday I had my eyes seen to by my eye specialist and I was convinced I'd have to have surgery again.  But no, he said a film had grown over the artificial lenses and he could fix one eye immediately, the other one will be done next week.  He burnt the film off with a laser, the entire procedure lasted less than two minutes and was entirely pain-free.  Go science!

Weekend Reading

This week I've been reading through a recently published book, The ultimate guide to preserving vegetables. I've really enjoyed it and found a lot to inspire me.  Written by Angi Schneider, she writes about canning, pickling, fermenting, dehydrating and freezing fresh produce.