Rockmelon, Pickles and So Much Rain

 It seems every time I write this blog it has or is raining, Ground Hog Week comes to mind. Today though it is pouring and we measured 220mls since Wednesday in the rain gauge. It will be more next measure as the Tropical low moved from Brisbane and above yesterday, and  now we get to "enjoy" it. It is a pity it hasn't moved inland where I am sure they could use some water. 

Fortunately during the week I managed to get the washing dry, and garden a couple of beds, planting the bean seeds that had grown, plus the beetroot, and just hoping they are surviving. 

I picked a Cantaloupe/Rockmelon earlier this week and it has been hard to get through it, yesterday I picked 3. Now what to do with them, I was going to send them in to the Sunday Market at the Community Garden, but no-one will be going today. There is just so much you can eat, I don't think I will grown them again.

John bought home yet more cucumbers and made another batch of bread and butter pickles. The rest went to the Community Gardens but this lot he will keep for himself, I don't like anything with vinegar.

I started painting the entrance hall again, and will be glad to finish the last coat of paint, but probably not this week with all the rain. Been working on my quilt, and embroidery and Miss P had a competition in cooking with our son's best friend whom I call my adopted son as he spent most of his time at our place. He loves making desserts.

Cream and  raspberry jam between  2 sponges and rasberries are filled with Nutella. Made for his MIL's birthday. How fabulous is that!

 

Miss P made profiteroles, one of my favourite dishes. She did a great job too with a little help from mum as this was new to both of them. Filled with cream, Not bad for a first try with Choux Pastry.

Well that's it for this week, although I keep busy, I must say life is becoming a bit tiresome without a change of scene.

Till Next Time.

New Roses & Lemons or Lime?

What a cold and windy week we have had. The fire is now being lit every night, although it means cleaning out and restocking every morning, it definitely is worth it. One of the high lights of winter for me. Speaking of winter, surprisingly, two of the 5 bare root roses I ordered, arrived this week.

 This meant  I have had to dig up the garden to plant them, and decided to put these in the front. This area has been a bit of a pain and was originally where the original Pierre rose was. One of the azaleas was always in the wrong place to I removed it completely.

Azealea in the middle removed

Side View

I started to cleanup and managed to plant the two roses, then my back gave way again.

Pierre is left and will climb up. Peace is right and is a normal hybrid tea.

Side view showing rest of garden .

Once I dig in the rest of the compost bag, will probably put  annual flowers in here, or small ornamentals like modern dahlias, or maybe chrysthamums that only grow to  about 40cm.

My back of course has been aching ever since. It could be the fact that my Rheumatoid Specialist rang again this week, to say the white blood count has gone down yet again and I have to give it another week for another blood test Wednesday, to see if I can go back on the Actemra infusion. Generally not feeling great mentally, as well as aching joints. John is never home or around so it is a pretty lonely life as well, so I was glad to get back to sewing this week. At the moment doing a drawn thread project, but have dragged out an old blanket project to take as well being a chance to do wool while it is cold. Teachers orders lol.

Drawn Thread

Rocking Horse Wool Blanker

 I also had to order some more wool thread as searched high and low for the remnants of it. Luckily I managed to get some, as DMC specialist stuff is hard to get.

Lime curd with 6 eggs used to make these 3 small jars.

I also made some delicious lime curd/spread, but can't tell the difference if its lemon or not. I am beginning to wonder about these huge limes we have, whether they were labeled wrongly in the first place, or the trees are back to front and what I think is the lemon is the lime.

Lemon

Lime?

Whatever they are certainly very juicy, and will have to freeze the juice, before long.
The rest of the vegetable garden is going great, picking snow peas and this week the beans will be ready.

Beans

Snow Peas

Beans,lettuce,carrots, leeks and a wild cherry tomato.

Hope you all had a good week. Till next time. 

Mother's Day 2020

Happy Mother's Day to all the mums who read this. Hope despite the current problems that you manage to have a special day. John made me a breakfast tray and included some Ferrero Rocher chocolates.
I heard from No.2 son, and our youngest daughter in America sent me a Bunnings Voucher, she knows me well,  but as yet I haven't heard from any of the other 3 kids, but it is only mid morning and no doubt busy. We can not visit mum in the nursing home of course, and the rule now is to have a flu injection before we are allowed in, when it is open that is. I have not had one since 1970 when I got very, very sick after it as a young girl with my first job, it was given to all of us at work, and I am undecided at what to do.

Queen Elizabeth Roses from the Garden.

 It has been a difficult week with my back, I am trying not to take too many tablets and the tens machine and hot water bottles have been great. My right hip is now down to a constant ache and have done a little bit of gardening  and picked some roses as sitting in the sun has been lovely. I have to sit now as if I get down on my knees, can not get up anymore. I was hoping the infusions I get would fix that but still feeling the arthritis too much. We shall see what my specialist says in July.

Coleous overtaking the rose, one of them needs relocating.

John went to Bunnings so I asked for some Parsley and Rhubarb, the Parsley died and so did my wonderful front garden Rhubarb both rotted out at the base, and were close to each other. The trouble is you buy these in punnets of 6 and who needs 6 parsley plants, even that many rhubarb is a bit over the top. Although rhubarb I can give away so will plant them all. Parsley though will pot up spares and see who wants them.

The pumpkins are still not ready to pick, I am waiting for the stem to die back but they are really yellow now, also have two other Jap pumpkins growing.

I planted some Stocks in the front corner and John cleared the Elderberry out also as the suckers went all over the area. I would like to plant the yellow frangipani there but the other has gotten quite big so not sure about that either.

No more Elderberry

Cleared weeds and old plants, bulbs coming up and planted Stocks.

Basically though I have just been sitting and making my dolls, really need to move faster with them, doing a bit of quilting, and listening to the audio books. Not a lot of housework either, everything just seems too hard at the moment.

Not finished need to add ribons in hair and shoes.

Till Next Time Stay Safe.

Cutting Down The Mulberry.

This week I started to cut down the tall mulberry limbs that grow every year. Normally I have used them to make my french style stick fences. This dries out the wood and then the following year they are my kindling for starting the fire. This year I just cut it all up. John also helped me out and cut the tree down to 3 main limbs. Hopefully it will grow back but the tree had so many twists and turns it was a bit of a mess.

Mulberry Tree in Background.

Mulberry Tree Now

Branches waiting to be carried to the top level.

 I dragged all the branches up to the top level and cut them up, leaves and all ready for drying out. Eventually we will use these for the fire but not this year.

The strawberry bed is finished, and seem to be growing all right. Not sure whether to add a few more.
Left the tomato bush there as it has quite a few cherry tomatoes on.

The bottom area always gets out of control as I tend not to go down there much. So as usual it was a mess and this week filled the bin with all the weeds. My sister gave me some fish along with a bucket full of heads and tails, which I planted deep with some cow manure over the top before filling in with the soil. I marked the spots and have ordered more roses. I know, I know don't need any more but was reading up on old fashioned roses and how they are much easier to grow than the newer varieties, which tend to be high maintenance. These date back to the 1800's plus and often named after Mrs. somebody or Duchess somebody. Be a funny conversations if two rose enthusiasts started talking about how Duchess Somebody is not looking too good compared to Mrs Somebody. Haha.

New Rose Garden with fish parts buried underneath. 

There has been some nasty weeds growing from the land behind us, which is only dealt with every now and then so getting into our garden. Resorted in John  spraying them something I never do, but getting to the bottom of this is the only way to control them.

 I pass this lime tree every time I go into the back and they are certainly getting big. Really thick skins though.

As much as I want to get rid of the pool, the waterlilies still look lovely.

I try and spend an hour every morning in the garden before tackling the housework or decluttering. The afternoon is for my craft, usually my dolls, because by then I have mostly run out of energy, so the days are settling into routine.

 I have also started listening to The Dragonriders Of Pern one of my favorite book series, by Anne McCaffrey, as I sew, You Tube has quite a few of  them in audible, so if you like Sci Fi stuff  this is the list of recommended reading  or listening in this case, how she wrote them, rather than in chronological order.

Dragon Riders of Pern Book List.

and this is the first book on youtube, but be warned I find them addictive.

Hope everyone is managing to keep busy in lock down.


Till Next Time.

Autumn Time to Plant and Prune.

Well it has finally stopped raining for now, although it is predicted again around Easter. It has given me an opportunity to attack the back garden. I go out about 8am and work till morning tea time. I also haven't found it easy, my right knee and elbow are painful and my actual strength low, but it is building up thankfully. I said to my sister I am starting to feel like an old lady, but certainly intend to change that. The front garden is ok. Carrots, peas,cucumber, pumpkins plus a few other bits and pieces all looking good.

Pumpkin Vine

Dwarf Beans

Rouge De Marmande Tomatoes with wild lettuce seedlings.

Snow Peas will add more to right of them.

Wild Lettuce

Carrots ready for picking.

Long Green Cucumber

 It is so much easier to walk out and attend to the front, even if it is only 10 mins. The back though has 8 steps down plus stepping off the verandah, and just seems too far away.
 I asked John also, to cut the plum tree out and has started on that. I no longer want to preserve in large quantities and half the tree died.

The Mulberry in the distance is next for a pruning, I started on the tree RHS it has mini white flowers, like magnolias.

 I have pruned the hedges also this week, and it looks so much cleaner.

 

  Yesterday I pruned the lemon and lime trees. They grow so fast and are next to each other.

Still look too big but that is it for now, full of fruit.

 

Einstein has been helping.

This is a lot of tree, even the neighbour next door who looks down commented.

The limes are huge. I also lost the Lemonade Lemon, during the drought, and way down the back, but have in the freezer bags full of frozen lemon juice, which one day will have to do something with it.

These are lemons, but strange looking don't know why. They were hidden under the leaves. Normal ones are up higher.

These are the limes at the moment.

It took 8 loads of waste that I had to carry up those steps to the front. Our wheely bin is full of plum tree.

These are waiting on the front step to see whose bin we can snazzle

These got as far as the side verandah

 The roses are getting a bit straggly and I am wondering just how early I can cut them back, to prune in June just seems to far away. This lot are around the tree area, in pots.

Very straggly

This Buddleia is next in line, I may have to move it but need to investigate that.

I haven't left the house since we got back from Sydney, Feb 24th., except for sewing class and choir twice each, plus our outdoor gig last Friday night 13th, for choir. My last outing.
John has been out just about every day, with one thing or another. We are fine with food, always been a bit of a prepper, and luckily had a big Coles delivery just after we got back. Have plenty of stuff to do, but now I feel it is time to actually look at staying home. John is going to organise the community garden to cut down to 4 people only 3 times a week, just to keep it going. He will do a Sunday.

Both of us a have compromised immune systems. This virus has played havoc on all of us but maybe the earth needs to change and people need to change. Have you noticed Venice Canals now have fish and dolphins in them. Swans float up and down. China's air is cleaning up. Is this nature's way of saying enough is enough. Not a lot of us can do much, but stay calm, and help your fellow mankind as best you can. Stay connected by phone, Skype, emails, and the internet. Those in Power are doing the best they can.


Till Next Time. Stay Safe.