Cleaning up Backyard Sweet Peas Gone

 With the help of Miss P again this weekend we got stuck into the backyard garden. I have been working on it all week. No more sweet peas, kept what had gone to seed, but the rest was thrown into the bin, there is just so much of the seed you need and I kept plenty. 

John took advantage of this and put up some new arches as the others had really rusted through the pipes. I think they had been up 3 years so not bad for a $20 arch, but this time we lashed out as the new ones are higher and pipes much thicker. 

Still a bit to do but it is so much cleaner.

I have already planted some  purple climbing beans on one of them and will do another lot when they come up, then I am not overwhelmed with beans all at once.

Much higher than the old ones so hopefully can still pick beans.

I moved some of the rose pots around, emptied the sweet potato one, and moved one of the dahlias that has started to come up again, to a new fancy pot and shifted it to the fenceline. I always have trouble here with the soil so decided to just cover it up. 

Pot turned upside down

Sweet Potato Haul

Leftovers which I threw out, don't need any more growing here.

Think this is a burgundy dahlia and will grow high up the fence.

The lemon tree which we pruned really hard has new growth and just slightly higher then me, so now I will prune the ends to keep it that height. I have so much lemon juice frozen now. I don't need a big tree.

New growth is very pretty and a couple of flowers have just started.

What amazed me today is the red rose on the stand it is absolutely beautiful. Photos do not give it a proper look, but it is amazing. I had been thinking it was passed it's prime and getting ready for it to die, so pruned it back hard. Voila!

The pumpkins are getting bigger, but the rhubarb is really big so will pick some for my sewing friends tomorrow.

Jap at back, butternut in front

Rhubarb ready for picking

New Rhubarb in opposite corner. Must be a good spot.

We put a third arch in the front as Pierre de Ronsard is growing fast and now that we took the sweetpeas off the old wooden one it has something sturdier to climb.

Corner Rose Garden.

Self sown Tomato has turned out to be a grape cherry.

Last of the cabbages to pick and will make a double lot of chow mein this week.

Currently pulling carrots from the front bed

Front yard purple climbing beans already producing rapidly.

Throwing these in with the Madagascar bean burgers I am making for dinner tonight.

So as you can see, it is a great time in the garden I am trying to manage an hour a day, as it gets hot by 9.30 plus watching the UV which is about 5 then. I was speaking to someone in Seattle in the US and they don't follow the UV at all, she had a hard time finding what it was. Then again they get snow from about November to March, such a different lifestyle to mine. 

Carnations have started to bloom.

 While Miss P was here, yesterday, also taught her to make All Bran cake. I had forgotten about this one even though I used to make it all the time. It is delicious and didn't last long, some went home as it had no eggs so Miss G could eat it. I will definitely have to make another one though. 

I don't usually add recipes but for those interested here it is. 

All Bran Cake No eggs, No butter

1 1/2 cups of All Bran soaked in 1 cup milk, till soft.

 Add 1 cup SR flour

 1 cup sultanas or any dried fruit and nuts.

1/2 cup sugar

Mix all together, and you can add a little milk if it needs it, depends on how the all brand soaks up the milk. 

Put in a greased and lined loaf tin, 180C degrees, for about 40 mins.

When cool slice and put butter on it. Will freeze if it keeps that long. A double mix does a basic square tin.

Stay safe everyone. Till Next Time.

I made a Quillo

 It was one of my grand daughters 13th Birthday so all year I have been making a quillo for her. Sent it last week and she is very happy with it. 

I think it was last year, or the year before, no just checked 2017 lol,  time disappears so much, that I started the patchwork, and now finally  finishing the Muddy Garden Quilt by Lyn Anderson.

 So many pieces to cut out first and ended up each block looks like these above. 

Then it is a case of ironing on the different fabric cutouts using vliesofix, a fusible paper for applique. The pattern also called for doing buttonhole stitch around each one, I chose a fancy zig zag on the machine, and only hand buttonhole on the pillow part on the back of the quilt.

It is hard to see the zig zag, but I made the quillo 2 blocks wide, and added the border of each colour. The back was in a burgundy fabric I had, which I washed 4 times till the dye stopped running. Hope it doesn't cause a problem in the future.

I embroidered her name on the front and mine and date on the back. with the printed label that came with the kit. 

 The biggest problem was folding it up into the pillow placed as one of the squares on the back, so pre warned dad to check out a couple of videos. When I queried him after they got it in the mail, he replied he was a quillo master by the time they had to refolded it. Sent me a few photos also with huge smiles on my grand daughters face. My family don't like the children on social media but cut this one to show the actual pillow, being cuddled by a happy grand daughter. 

Miss J and quillo.

So it is on to the next one, and the current grand daughter who comes here to help me is next, she will turn 12 in March and be starting high school next year. The dilemma is so is Miss J's ( above picture) brother, so looks like 2 to do. It will be a first to make for a grandson who is also into scouts and camping.

The sweet peas are outdoing my picking this year. I have 5 stands of them, but cut a huge bunch for the Community Garden this week and sent in some limes as well for the market table.

Our garden is coming to life and the new roses are starting to flower. They look wonderful so very  pleased with them.  

The first of the bluebells and freesias are also blooming not up to the standard of their Victorian cousins but they came from mum's place originally and remind me of home so much. 

My first injection was successful, as yet noticing no difference, another fairly chilly week early morning, but Spring is definitely in the air. Started quite a few seeds off both for the Conmmunity Garden and mine. 

The Pantry is still a work in progress while I wait on more containers, hopefully next week will finish. 

So much work to do now the days are nicer, like painting the above verandah grey, only 2 years behind in that. Oh Well. 

Till Next Time. 

 

 

More Roses Arrived, and an Outing.

I have just come from the backyard, where I have been  planting the new roses that arrived this week. I can tell you officially that I am very unfit. First I had to weed the spot, dig it over, then plant. Took about 2 hours. I was so in need of a cup of tea and it is beside me, along with left over apple tarts from yesterdays outing.

Spot the Roses.

Considering it has been another rainy week, I am pleased that today was fine, and the soil quite soft. If you remember a few weeks back I planted fish heads and bits in the garden and found today that most of it has disintegrated, which makes for a very nourishing soil. Plus I have added some good compost and sprinkled a fertilizer on the top. The three roses are

Duchesse De Brabant

Golden Celebration

Gruss An Aauchen

They are all old fashioned and should do well down the back, it is open and airy. Just got to remember to water them over summer. When I have more energy will cover with hay. This garden is also going to have more flowers around them.

The game below is Calliente, a family game that goes back generations. We use tiny rocks as our chips. In America it is known as Tipoli. These are the rules.

Calliente Tipoli Rules

 The board has been embroidered as my mum did, and this one my sister did and is fabric paint. Everyone in the family has one. We played this last night at our sons house where we went for a roast dinner. I took the dessert and made a lovely Key Lime Pie cheesecake. Condensed milk. lime juice and one packet of cream cheese. Turned out great an can highly recommend, really creamy, tart and so easy to do. I used Marie Biscuits for the base.
No-Bake-Key-Lime-Pie

I wasn't sure if the kids would like it so made an Apple crumble and used my family pie maker for it.

What a success and will do it again with different fillings. Basically put shortcrust pastry on bottom filled with Ardmona tinned apples and then put the crumble on top. Only took 15 mins, and as I had left overs filled the little ones with the remainder.

Just love these pie makers so handy and quick. Really just a mini oven, and best Kmart purchases ever. Took the big one in the pie maker and we heated it up quickly. Of course most of us had a bit of each lol. My rhubarb needs picking so think that will be the next thing to make.

That's it for this week stay safe everyone.

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.