Christmas in Sydney with Family.

 Only a short blog today, after a busy family Christmas, today we celebrate our youngest son's 41st. Birthday. I made a simple chocolate cake for the first time since he was 18, as our other daughter in law took over, because our youngest grandaughter has egg and gluten allergies.

BBQ again but this house has gourmet meat with great salads.

Eating on a verandah overlooking the Berowra Valley National Park. 

Interestingly one of two Christmas trees is a gum tree branch.

I received a fantastic holiday for two from the family to Lord Howe Island for a week. We will take it about Sept. or Oct.  I am really looking forward to it and we fly out from Port Macquarie, so not far to drive either.

Taken by the eldest son of the decoration next door.

As a result of the reindeer with masks our eldest decided that at this year's Santa photo, every one wore a mask as well. Something for a future memory.

The same family gave John this Christmas shirt.

I also  received a wonderful garden diary from my best friend and a subscription to Vasili's garden magazine.

I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas just as much.

Till next time. 

Community Garden Christmas Party & A Surprise.

 On the 2nd. attempt we finally got to have the Pizza Party for the Gardens. The rain has finally stopped except for the odd drizzle now and then, and the weather once more is hotting up. I think about 25 attended so it was a good night. Taught everyone how to make pizzas properly as last year I was sick and it was a bit of a disaster. Luckily though the dough was donated so didn't have to fuss with that. John cooked all night. 

The little pizza oven was part of a grant and we have used it 3 times now. John has earnt the SCCG nearly $100,00.00 in grants as well his dedication to attending 3 days a week plus, and has been nominated for Volunteer of the Year, and yesterday received a letter to attend the ceremony, along with a few others. We haven't heard anything about Sawtell of the Year yet which is New Years Day, probably can't get both.

 

We had extra dough over so I turned it into a Loaf the next day. 

 The rest of the week I have spent wrapping presents, shopping, dodging the rain and as I am not sleeping well catching up on that, which wastes an afternoon as far as I am concerned, and very annoying.

This week I will do some packing and cooking to take with me etc for Christmas in Sydney. Covid has hit again there, but we are an hour away from it, so feel we will be ok, certainly not going anywhere that is for sure. 

We celebrated our 48th wedding anniversary on the 16th, and as usual, always wondering why do the years go by so fast. We had lunch at our favorite restaurant, by the river. It was certainly nice to leave the house this past week. We also had a spur of the moment lunch, the next day, with our ex sister in law and was great to catch up with her and partner, at another restaurant, also by the water. 

                                                         Surprise, Surprise!!

                                Janome S6 on special from Hobby Sew with bonus's,Workspace is 210mm/8.3″

I received a surprise this week as I ordered a sewing machine for my Christmas, Anniversary present, as better than the Bunnings card I usually get lol. 

They said it would be sent from Korea, which didn't worry me, no time now to sew, and lo and behold arrived Wednesday after confirming my address Monday by phone.

I know mind blowing!

It is very super modern with all sorts of bells and whistles. Even has a button for cutting the threads. My old machine is 25 years old computer driven and I wasn't expecting the upgrades this has, to that degree. Certainly going to take a while to learn. I am hoping to do some quilting with it to use up a large stash of fabric I have, from working at Spotlight years ago.

$400 worth of extras came with it as a bonus which is why I went for this one.

 Love the little pin cushion you put on top somewhere, and all these bobbins extra, plus the long extend table, and more feet. Look out 2021. A short no sound demonstration video if curious 

 

 

HAVE A WONDERFUL AND SAFE CHRISTMAS DAY 2020 EVERYONE.

Till Next Time.

Rain and More Rain

 Well did it ever rain, filled all the Community Garden tanks of which one is 10,000 litres, and nearly empty, they were about to buy water, also filled all of ours and filled the pool. Such heavy rain that went all Friday night and then most of Saturday with a break now and then. Apparantly there is more to come down from the north this time. Other than local flooding where several houses had to be evacuated by Police and SES workers there wasn't much harm done, certainly the land absorbed it with no problem. As I write this the birds are chirping so they have loved this cooler weather, and at the moment not raining so I dashed out earlier, to pick some nut grass which comes out so easily after a heavy rain. 

As I knew the rain was coming decided to prune the hedges. Took 2 days to do it but they look great now. They have been in over 35 years now. 

Before

Rose still producing red roses.

 Next on the list is to clean the gazebo out. This is all the stuff that was in the old garden shed I had down the back of the vegetable garden. I was hoping Miss P would have helped yesterday but due to the rain, cancelled it. She came Dux of the school, and so very proud of her, a great way to start High School next year. School finishes Wednesday so may be able to get in a day or two before we go to Sydney. 

 The other thing I managed to do was mulch the rose and poolside  gardens. Emptied out the trailer and have some left for the hedge Rose garden, that is still producing lovely red roses. I might have to dig up a smaller rose next to it, as it is not doing well, and find another place to plant.

Nut grass in the path is so hard to get rid of.

Next year to save work we either have to dig up all the pavers and lay grass then have someone to mow it, or put concrete down, although the edges will still need dealing with. Most of the time is trying to keep the nut grass down. Nothing kills it either. We have had a certain success with the pretend grass around the beds in the front as it has a rubber back and on weed mat, so that is another alternative.

I like getting out in the morning to garden, usually till 9.30am when the UV starts to become too high. Doing it every day though means at least 10 hrs or more a week, just enough to keep everything under control. 

This week I made myself a little bit of Christmas with lights and all, as pulling everything out just for us seems a waste of time. The lights are very bright.

I have had good news this week passed all the blood tests so no more now for a month. I am feeling better and slowly building my energy levels up, finally! Now that the borders are open maybe next year we can have a caravan holiday, without any time limits as I have my own injections. Something to plan anyway. 

I hope all your Christmas Plans are going well.

Till Next Time.

Lunch at Clog Barn, Hot Weather Gardening.

 It has been a hot week and I am so tired from it, no energy at all. Today is a bit cooler and hopefully it will rain, but I suspect it will miss us. I am not sure what to do about the garden at the moment.

Latest carrot bed still 3 others to pick from though.

   Lots of carrots and beans to pick, zuchinni  coming along nicely as well. 

Beans outdoing us so getting too big in some cases.

Silver beet is on its way out, and new ones coming on.

The cucumber has been hit with powdery mildew, so I need to plant another one. They are quick to grow in this weather. The trouble is we are going to Sydney for Christmas for a week, which is enough to have most green leafy things die, then I might be back again to mind the children 2 weeks before school starts.

The new lot of tomatoes have been difficult to grow this time. I blame the weather it hasn't been consistent, either full on rain in the beginning, a couple of nice weeks,then super winds, now super heat.

Mr Stripey large cherry tomatoes.

A new lot of plantings.

The soil we used to top the beds with is horrible, it drys out very quickly and sets hard. Our favourite landscaper closed down so we were trying a new one. It needs more water holding stuff so when I am able will have to dig in a heap of finely chopped hay and what ever natural compost I have ready.

The general rule is to not garden in sub tropical from November to March just use up what you have and start again so I am thinking this is the best thing for now, considering everything. 

This week was our embroidery ladies Christmas Lunch. We exchanged home made biscuits or slice and I got a nice chocolate slice, and ended up giving jam drops. They turned out so well will make some more.

We went to the Clog Barn. This has a shop set on a Dutch theme and the restaurant next door, with some dutch food. I had a Thai Chicken Crepe but it came literally  floating in a runny sauce and tasted all right but the presentation was horrible, so very disapointing

Both Shops together.

 It wasn't air conditioned either and the day was 32C, other than that it was a day out and enjoyable.

Not long now till the end of the year, and only 19 days till Christmas. Hope you are ready!

Till Next Time.

Community Garden New Grant.

 It hasn't been the best of weeks for me, as after getting over my painful lower back from mulching the garden last week, I decided to weed the new rose garden along the back fence. It has been very hot so at 5pm last Wednesday, out I went it was lovely and cool, and sat on a milk crate to help my knees. Unfortunately my back didn't like it, although I did finish the weeding, and spent the next 3 days with hot water bottles and rubbing in a special cream to ease it. So now I am not game to try anything major. Consequently not much has been done this week. To top it off my heart Dr. rang as a result of the holter monitor,I had on last week, and now says I have Long QT syndrome which is an extended gap in the beats and not good, and Rheumatoid  Dr. wants yet another blood test the 6th in a row, as although the Neutrophils are creeping up, he feels it should be over and done with by now.

I agree with him on that score.!! It feels like I am always writing about it too, so I am sure you are all getting sick of it as I am. He has added B12 and iron tests to the mix this time.

 

 Good news is John has his bandages off and stitches out, so now just waiting on the bruising  to completely come through, but at least he is now driving. 

He also received notification that he won a $15,000 grant for the Community Garden to purchase the bucket for the tractor, a vacuuming system so clean up the cut grass etc, and a little trailer, and to build 3 more compost bins. This means the compost can be turned easily and carting soil or bricks or whatever can now be done without to much hassle. He now has to organize others though to drive the thing. It will be a surprise announcement at the meeting Tuesday.

One of the advantages of keeping a blog is I looked up this time last year and we were  out and about doing a lot of public singing for the choir, plus their Christmas Party,visiting mum of course, the fires in this area were easing off. It was also the beginning of my arthritis woes. Such a different year for 2020.

I did manage to make some Madagascar bean rissoles, I added grated beetroot,carrot,celery,fresh beans,silverbeet from the garden, to the cooked Madagascar ones. All done with my food processor, so not too hard. I froze half of them raw as above, to see how they go to cook up again. Such a cheap meal for me. The beetroot made them an interesting red colour this time. 

I have had an interesting collection of flowers this week that I picked for the Community Garden when I took John in, and didn't sell. One advantage of having to drive John in and out last Sunday. 

Till next time. 

 

New Verandah Railing & Bank Garden Continued

 Yesterday the 7 year old twins and Miss P came over to help me in the garden, to finish off the Bank. John bought the mulch before he had his hand done for carpal tunnel.

I picked them up at at 8am so we could beat the heat, and between us all and some more weeding managed to finish the job, before the twins had had enough. Bribing  them with chocolate biscuits for morning tea did the trick. Didn't do my back any good though, been stiff and sore since. Could hardly move in the afternoon, so lots of heat bags and panadol.

 

One of the problems I have  here, is the couch grass and nut grass that grows between the cracks. Will resort to painting it with roundup. Hate doing that, but it is the only way.

Pretty pleased with the result and just have a few succulents to plant and to broom over the path and rocks, kids aren't that neat. We picked some more sweet potatoes and cut back some of the vine, still plenty more in the ground when I need them.

Snail Vine looking a treat at the moment.

The verandah has reached a point of do I keep painting all the different rails, and floor boards or pay someone an enormous amount of money to do it every 5 years or so and we came to the conclusion to get rid of the spindles all together and replace with wire. As a starter project on it John did the corner nearest the Kitchen.

I feel it will work, now that I have got used to it and will certainly save a lot of mucking around painting everything. 

The next thing will be putting the floor boards down and John is looking at the plastic version. He will start down at the other end, doing a panel at a time with wire and the floorboards for that section only. 

  

John painted the poles white as it is the easiest to do, and matches the roof. 5 more of these to go down the backside.

 We had another cooking lesson for Miss P while the twins watched a movie and taught her to make lemon butter, 3 jars, and a boiled fruit cake. Lots of eggs to crack open so Little Miss V had a go as well. Just love watching them trying to do it. Lemon butter went to the Community Gardens for our Sunday Market one sold, so other two in fridge for next week.The fruit cake was delicious used up all my dried fruit plus a tiny pineapple that I picked. Cranberries, dates, sultanas,cherries,dried apricots, all went into it. 

My health is slowly improving, neurophils are creeping up still low though, another blood test this week, and had an Echocardiogram  and Holter monitor on for  21 hours. I feel things will be ok there as have improved quite a bit in the last month. 2021 is my goal to feel well though.

 Stay safe everyone. 

 

Till Next Time.

Petite a PetiteAu... Etsy Shop    Dolls and Christmas Cards

Scribbly Gum Fairies ... Etsy Shop ... Fairy Cards.

The Bank Garden

 Alongside our driveway is a raised area held back by a row of logs. This is due to the slope of the land. 

Miss P helped me weed it, as it was getting out of hand. I still have to deal with some couch grass, nasty stuff to get rid of and thinking I need to get some poison on to it, as it goes into every little crevice and is so fine, making it very hard to pull out. 

If you regularly follow this blog you will maybe remember Lawrence the Landscaper put in a path so I could actually deal with the slope. It was covered all over with weeds. I asked John to also cut the avocado back and along the bottom, to neaten it up. It is never going to grow avocados which is such a disappointment, but other than cutting it at the base decided to leave it for the time being.

  Our new trailer finally got to be in use with all the rubbish. There were so many leaves around from the tree that I also asked John to set up a wire cylinder for them. They will take a while to break down, but it is the best compost to have. This was set up with the other compost bins at the front.  Miss P gathered the leaves by pushing it all onto the driveway for me, and I swept them up into a bucket for her to take up to the bin. 

 

 

 The area although looks clean, there is still the odd weed that needs pulling and I am hoping that John will get a trailer load of mulch to go over it all, before he has both his hands done for carpel tunnel next week. Miss P then can cover it all with the mulch next visit. 

On the to do list is also new garage doors I think it is time our temporary ones are gone, after all it has been 40 years roughly.

The entrance where the normal bins are, I think I will plant my succulants that I collect, in that tiny area. I have a few that double up and are bigger so it would be easy to do and look nice. The area in front of the compost bins is full of sweet potatoes, some of them were poking out and they were collected, much to Miss P's delight.

 The two biggest went home with Miss P she loved  the duck shaped one. I am so grateful to my grandaughter as she makes me think of these little jobs you put off.

 

My strawberries are doing very well this year, every day I am collecting some. Love them on my yogurt every morning.

My RA specialist rang me with the results of my knee Xrays and both require new knee implants as they are now bone on bone as he said, but I am not going to think about it till next year, and maybe investigate strengthening muscles in the leg instead. 

I started the injection this week, but need yet another blood test, as the neutrophils went down again, and he suspects it is something else going on, could be I need B12, despite I take Vita B tablet daily.  We shall see what happens next week.

As promised last week, have put my other etsy shop up on the page list at the top, except blogger is having trouble and I cannot save it to appear.  I have organised 20% discount on that also till the 28th Nov. This one has the  dolls and some Christmas Cards.  

Here is the  discount link for Petit a Petit direct to the shop and will automatically apply to the cart price.      Just looking helps.

                                                     CHRISTMAS

 

 

Till Next Time