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.

It's All Too Much

Once the family all headed back to Sydney, things have really slowed down. The weather became hot and humid, which this year has really drained my energy levels, upset my sleeping patterns, and I have had to "lie down" in the afternoons to catch up. Of course this has also thrown out my entire routine and I end up reading, to while away the time in air conditioning.

Self sown tomatoes amongst other things like celery .

The garden of course is still a jungle, more like a food forest with seedlings like lettuce popping up, cherry tomatoes all over the place, carrot beds that need pulling up as they didn't grow fast enough, so a bit stringy or too small to eat. Beans and cucumbers doing well but now I need to start new seeds off for the last of summer.

I must be tired as I can't even get the ooomph to weed it or embroider, sew, or declutter, soooooo not like me. This year is not turning out as I thought it would. Change must definitely be in the air.

Front Beans

Rockmelon/Canteloupe

Herb Garden with self sown tomatoes

It rained last night which was lovely and if I had got up earlier I could have done some weeding in the cool, but didn't have the energy.

 Let's hope that things get better, because now I am thinking time to stop blogging every week. Nothing changes, much at the moment.

Back with more beans and undergrowth that needs pulling.

Queen Elizabeth Rose

At least the roses are pretty, and our youngest son, is getting over covid this week, so it's not all bad.

Till Next Time.

What a Busy Week!

What a busy week I have had Embroidery class Monday, quilting Tuesday, Card Making teaching Wednesday, and a Christmas Party Thursday. I am not used to going out everyday.

 Another funny week of weather hot one minute and raining the next. Have weeded several beds, and need to pull up a heap of beetroot, which will have to be bottled as well, as too much there, in 3 beds.

This bed I managed to clean up had  the sweet peas and garlic

One of the Beetroot beds

 The garden is getting over run with weeds, with all this rain and again, as I write this, it has been pouring rain all morning, and last night a severe storm which thank goodness had no hail. I was going to take more photos today, but just too wet. Luckily I though about it Friday.

The front Jungle

The back jungle

The beans are growing well and just starting to be pickable.

No 2. Dried bean bed, wired against the bush turkeys.

Climbing beans North Easter, new carrots behind

 Yesterday Miss P came over for her usual 3 hrs and in the last hour after we weeded some of the garden, and in the middle of teaching her to make a cheesecake, suddenly fainted on me. Luckily I was standing next to her because she said " my head feels fuzzy", one look and I made her sit on the floor which ended up being a sudden plop then I held her and laid her down. Talk about having my own attack, and she doesn't remember any of it. When I took her home, dad took her to emergency to make sure, and after lots of tests was fine, but still an MRI to go.

The mix was finished just had to add it to the crumbs. Will freeze for Christmas.

It was so similar when Miss C did the same thing while minding her after school and the day before her 9th birthday, which ended up being a nasty brain bleed and being sent to Sydney via Westpac Helicopter, and 2 years of recovery, not a good time for any of us. Hence Miss P's MRI just to make sure.

 I am pleased to report though, Miss C now 18, graduated year 12 last week, with 3rd in English, a Merit award for Maths, 3rd in Art. So proud of her, and she is now looking at a degree in Teaching.

My choice of flowers I picked this week. Time to wrap Christmas presents.

Till Next Time.

 

Preserving Potato & Leek Soup, & Beetroot

 I managed this week to finish off planting the leek seedlings. This meant digging up all the leeks from the old bed and some beautiful beetroot to make room in a new bed. The new bed had some lovely soil so not too hard planting but the weather was hot and draining, yet today it is cool again. 

Last year I froze all the big leeks that ended up in the kitchen, by chopping them all up, and then using handfuls of frozen leek pieces when cooking. This year I decided to preserve them in a soup, in my pint bottles with the pressure cooker. I also used my vacola bottles which work just as well as the Balls brand.

The beetroot I did in plain water so it can be used in anything from a dip to hot for a meal. The soup is in chicken stock with potato and carrots as well as leeks, and can be heated up as is or added to with other vegetables, or meat.

All set to fill bottles, carrots from the garden also.

Now to find a space of where to store them.

Miss P came yesterday and I am feeling really tired today, as usual, the price of getting old, and  we weeded the back rose garden, which was way overdue, lots of digging, but it looks very nice. I am going to put more free mulch on as well, and sweep the false grass. The aborists have been very busy in this area and the pile of mulch getting bigger. So lucky they have a spot to dump it at the beginning of a forest walk, in the corner of a small car park. It always disappears as well.

 Interestingly as this path has been an experiment, the part where the weed mat was hasn't any nut grass under it except on the edges but the part without has long nut grass under it. So another project to finish properly.

 The hippeastrums are all flowering as well, I wish they weren't so expensive at anywhere between $15 - $50 just for one bulb or I would get more.

Miss P was complaining how her year 7 cooking class was not very exciting or challenging, they made hamburgers from scratch, so I decided to teach her how to make an upside down cake, this time apricot , as I had a tin of them. 

 

Turned out lovely and I love apricots so been very nice with a cup of tea, and heated for dessert with ice cream.

 

 Till Next Time, stay safe.

New Seed Starting Method.

 I was looking at You Tube and this idea came up from M I Gardener, and I thought it such a brilliant solution. If you remember way back I mentioned how I put a sheet of paper towel in a zip lock bag, wet it  and sprinkle seeds on and wait for them to germinate. Sometimes though the seed, roots into the paper and is difficult to get out without breaking so often I would cut bits up etc. Quite a fiddly process.

 

 M I Gardener thought of using small commercial sauce dishes, that you get with takeaways, and calling it the Petrie Dish, so I bought a pack of 30 thinking way too many, but managed to fill all of them. Really though you could even use takeaway containers, or anything small and lidded.

  A small bit of paper towel goes in the bottom, which  you wet, so there is some moisture to start the seeds off. 

Sprinkle away and close the lid. I labelled all mine as I wouldn't remember what is what. The seeds tend to grow up to the lid, and much easy to pull out than across the paper.

Marigolds and Poppies started on day 4.

Lettuce and rocket started the next day, cucumber day 3, so I have planted them into a larger system. You have to be very careful picking up seeds that have just stated so you don't break off the root. 

Beans went mouldy so not a big enough space for them and paper towel folded just on a plate, much better.

Growing in the glass house.

Seeds from the Petrie dishes will go into the grey container which makes a  seedling plug you push out from the bottom, ready for planting out in the garden.

John cut open a supermarket capsicum and cut out the seed inside in one whole piece, so I planted it as an experiment, into a pot as is, stalk and all. Then underneath the stalk 3 weeks later little seedling trying to come up.

 So I repotted some of them and threw the rest away, otherwise I could have started a farmers market in capsicums. I put 4 into 4 pots which is ample, and will give some to the community garden, after I repot each into single containers. I also don't really like capsicums, so will just plant 3 or 4 for John.

 The weather has been so lovely, I am spending a bit of time in the garden cleaning up and preparing for all these seeds. I also have been working on the craft area again trying to sort more stuff.

Blue bells from the garden

 Last week I went to the physio to learn exercises, to strengthen muscles, to help my knees, with another visit on Wednesday, which is the day I go back on my RA medicines, thank goodness.

We had a surprise phone call from our Caravan people to say it would be ready, end of first week in September. Only trouble is it will be at the Gold Coast to pick up, that is, if it gets there, as the caravans are made in Victoria. NSW of course, is locked out to Qld. 

We are now waiting instructions for the next step.

Till Next Time.

Planting Seedlings, Seeds & 2nd. Prize.

I have spent a great deal of time weeding this week and noticed, baby tomatoes are coming up in my garden all over the place and I feel that we may have an early Spring. With this in mind I decided to start some seeds off, as it does take approximately one month to get them up and potted on ready. Some seeds like carrots will naturally go in the ground. 

I put several seeds in two or three spaces and will pot up when big enough. Parsley is hard to germinate so I bought a  plant which had so many in it divided it up for giving away or SCCG (community garden) can sell them.

Always one thing leads to another, so the glasshouse and wet table were cleaned out and made ready for the seeds. This then led to sorting out the seeds I have and getting them in to an organized way. I threw out a lot and sent some into the Community Garden to use. I had way, way too many different kinds and  so needed to downsize to my favourites. Really how many different types of tomatoes or cucumbers does one need!!!

Putting seeds away in one of the 4 boxes I keep in the spare fridge.

I bought a Vanilla plant many years ago with my friend at a Diggers Club visit to Cloudhill, and it has been living in the glass house but got so big we had to move it. They grow up trees and attach themselves like an orchid so the only tree around that would do was the Frangipani. I hope it survives. 

Vanilla Orchid

 John roughly cleaned the garden in the back and filled it up with the cow manure/mushroom compost mix I like. I then this week planted beetroot, bok choy, and some flowers. All which I purchased as there are so many in the tubs not worth trying to grow sometimes. The broccoli planted two months ago are just ready to pick so watching them every day. The cabbages also and I have decided to preserve bottles of Chow Mein a favorite mince and cabbage dish using my Balls Pressure cooker. 8 cabbages all nearly ready, although I don't have to pick them all at once, as they will hang on a week or two. In fact I  may do quite a few meals like chilli con carne and shepherds pie mix, while I am at it. Not that mince is cheap anymore but it is so easy to heat up preserved meals, when tired. 

Yellow butter and green beans,Pak Choy and some beetroot seedlings.

More beetroot seedlings, Tatsoi and Leeks. Rhubarb in pot.

I divided my rhubarb into three pieces and a bit for a pot, and as I am also keeping an eye on the lemons, noticed that the leaves are lacking in magnesium so will have to find the epsom salts and water it in. There is a nasty looking ant nest on one of the branches I will have to deal with also. 

Notice the leaf veins and yellowing also Ants on top RHS

The Quilting group I now go to, is part of the  CWA so I attend the monthly meetings, as an extra something to do and was presented with a 2nd. prize win in the State Judging at Bega  for a Schwalm embroidery I did, which was judged first at a district handicraft Competition  and winning my section,earlier in the year.  Very pleased but also very surprised, with a bonus of a $15 cheque. 

Lastly for my email subscribers, Blogger has now dropped hosting this service, and from the end of the month will no longer function. I have looked at other ways for this, but it requires joining up to another host and with only a dozen email subscribers have decided to do it myself through an email account we don't use that is part of our internet provider. Up to now I have not known who is subscribing but have been given access to download the addresses, in order to provide a new service. 

Next weeks blog will be sent this way with a direct link. If it doesn't suit anyone in the future you can always join by the "Follow" on the side bar, but it requires you to have a Google Account in order to join. This is all new for me so we shall see what happens next week. 

Till Next Time

Pond Cleaning, Seed Collecting, & Embroidery

It is a strange muggy, overcast day today and rain expected but after yesterdays hour pulling weed out of the pond I am really tired. I was hoping to get some seedlings in, and may try this afternoon. The pond is very low on water and getting rather crowded with a weed that will quickly fill it, and cover the water lilies, so out it had to come. It was very awkward and the darn stuff is really heavy, once the roots take hold of the bottom mud. John helped thank goodness, but there is still more to go if we can get to it. 

Piles of it are around the pathways to dry out so we can bin it, some of it will go as mulch on the garden. 

Notice how the liner is now showing. I wish I could fill it in now as it is a lot of work no one wants to do, but also difficult with no access except the side path. 

Mini Maple has Overnight  produced its leaves

Dreamcatcher Rose out in bloom with its delicate rose buds. Moved it last week.

This morning I did manage to collect all the seeds hovering in the garden. If it rains I might lose them. They are Rocket,(Arugala) and Tatsoi, a small leaf spinach type, both a leafy salad vegetable. 

I pulled them from the above back round garden, from which also the sweet peas were pulled a couple of weeks ago. I may plant some flowers in this one, as there are cosmos and zinnias ready. Dedicating a whole bed to flowers is unusual for me but I am only planting what I need this year, all the basic salad vegetable, and beans. Not going to experiment with, or preserve anything, at all. Will try and get some carrot seeds in before it rains somewhere as well. 

Sweet peas left in the garden.

Red Cos lettuce from the front.

Tatsoi seeds

Rocket seeds.

I will package all these up in small plastic ziplocks I have especially for seeds. It is nice to know that another year of fresh seeds is sorted. Love how nature works. 

I am going to experiment with a zucchini by growing it up a pole. Most zucchini grow along the ground leaving behind a thick stem as they move forward, and taking a lot of space.  I read recently that if you catch it early and tie the stem up a pole it saves a lot of space. Apparently the leaves above the new fruit you keep but the ones before the fruit and therefore old you can pull off, which will save a lot of powdery mildew happening.  

Pretty sure the pole is big enough

From little things big things grow.

I finally finished my drawn thread embroidery cloth, which puts me in to a bit of a quandary as I do not want to do another cloth. They take so long, although in saying that the repetition of the stitches is soothing. I want to do small embroidery projects but having trouble deciding on what. There is a small blackwork project I started if I can work it out, or maybe some book covers.

Stay safe everyone, that's all for this week, 

 

Till Next Time