Scatterbrained

I am a terrible gardener

But I can sure grow these

They grow too big though. I have to remember to pick them before they get too big. I am going to cook all these big ones up and puree them up and freeze them for winter soups.

These yellow zucchini are growing fast too. We like them marinated in olive oil and garlic and then char grilled on the BBQ.

I call the ruby chard 'Ruby spinach' and the white one 'Dustin spinach'. I know it is not spinach but the kids like that it is named after them and they like spinach. Spinach is one of the only vegetables Dustin likes.

The beans are not very good. They were when they were young but they have also grown too big. Ruby eats the tomatoes right off the bushes. She sneaks out there from time to time and I see her standing amongst the bushes shovelling them into her mouth or sometimes she just wanders inside with tomato seeds trailing down her chin :)

Vampires and vegies

We had a little vegie harvest.

Big yellow zucchinis, two different kinds of squash, beans and two different kinds of tomatoes. They are all delicious.

I have to find some good zucchini recipes because these yellow ones are growing fast!

This lovely wool came in the mail at the end of last year from an online friend and I pulled it and spun it on Saturday night.

Here it is drying after I washed it. I'm not very good at spinning but fortunately I love the over spun bits as much as I love the underspun bits :)

I have already crocheted it into a little purse. I haven't taken a photo yet but I'll do that today.

I spun this one from wool from my own sheep. Some is dyed red but most of it is natural. The yellow and orange wispy bits are locks from those curly wooled sheep. They are not mine but I think I need some :) I have already crocheted this into a little 'pot'. Photos to come.

So here is the Vampire Isabell (with no E on the end). She didn't take as long as Petunia because there wasn't quite as much stitching but I like her. I still haven't quite gotten her fangs sharp enough. I like how the ink comes out on the cotton fabric. I need to get some more of this.

I am starting another vampire today.

I also have a new kitchen bench :) This is what the old one looked like.

Pretty ugly hey! I got our builder to use plywood for the new bench because I wanted something cheap. Eventually this kitchen will be pulled out and will become a walkway to our extension when we get around to doing that, sometime in the future.

Here the new bench is in its raw state. Looks nice.

And then I rubbed it down with linseed oil.

Bummer!

Scott left yesterday to go to Melbourne to do a job for Southern Cross Shipping, the company who owns the boat which took us to Flinders Island. When he got there this morning he discovered that the company went into liquidation and was advised not to do any work. Fortunately, due to the fact that the people who own the Southern Shipping Company have been in some financial distress, Scott requested payment for the trip in advance.

So Scott's work trip has turned into a leisure trip and it now looks like he will be taking his cousin and her friend who are visiting from Norway on the trip along the Great Ocean Road which they really wanted to do before they left Australia. We probably wont get paid for his time but at least Scott gets a mini break in Melbourne and at least he will have time to go to Ikea for me (he has a shopping list).

All the herbs in my herb garden need pruning. They have all gone to flower and are getting too big. Today I am going to chop the rest of them off and put them in vases around the house. I've already put a bunch in the bathroom.

A peek in my herb garden

The little herb garden I made in Autumn under the Japanese maple tree is looking lovely right now and we have fresh herbs with dinner every night.

Those are sage flowers. I grew the sage from seed last year and had it growing in pots but planted it in the herb garden early spring. The sage is wonderful fried in butter and poured over chicken breasts. Yum!

As well as herbs I put in a few iris bulbs. Most of them were the purple kind but I also got a few of these delightful bright yellow ones. Irises are Scott's favourite flowers. He says they look like vaginas.

 

I had heaps of coriander growing which I use a lot of but I cut most of it off the other day to make corrianada pesto. The rest is going to seed so I might pull it out and get some more.

The parsley is growing the best. I have two different kinds, curly parsley and continental parsley. I put a bunch of the curly stuff in some bolgnaise sauce last night.

Chamomile planted only a couple of months ago.

The lavender looks pretty next to the parsley.

I put a strawberry on one of the corners and that is the only lettuce the ducks didn't eat. They must not have found that one.

Chive flowers.

I need to go in and give it all a bit of a prune up today. Cut things back a bit so it doesn't grow weedy and pull out the last of the coriander and then I can plant a few more things like some basil before I go away. I have a couple of days in Melbourne planned for the end of the week.

Spring is here now!

The days are warm and sunny and the nights are still cool enough to have the fire on. It is heaven! Except spring is busy season. So much to do after a long and very wet winter. The wettest winter in Tasmania in fifty years actually.

 

We have another baby lamb. Ruby's sheep Butter gave birth, also to twins last week. We lost one of her twins as well sadly, but all is good with each surviving twin and we are hoping to have more twins next year.

The shearer came today and they were all shorn so they are all white and clean and pretty. Ruby named her baby Jesse, the husband of the lady who Dustin named his lamb after. So now my herd of sheep has grown to five and I have three more bags of wool to wash, card, dye and felt... or spin if I ever learn how to use the spinning wheel given to me by a neighbor friend last year.

 

I have tulips growing in my apple orchard and I am so proud of them. It is amazing how long they last in comparison to picked tulips you buy in a florist. The white ones have been in flower for weeks and are still looking good.

I grew red, white, pink and a deep burgundy colour tulips. The red ones opened before they actually grew tall. I don't know why that happened. Then the white and then the pink and now the burgundy ones are opening up.

I planted thirteen apple trees during the winter in this new orchard. They are all different varieties. It is kind of like a sample orchard. To see what grows well and what we like the most. The first to flower was the crab apple which I bought to help pollinate the others and also because they are so pretty. In fact, I have four other crab apple trees in my front and back yard just because they are petty in spring.

Under all the apple trees I have red, white and pink flowers, strawberries, thyme and some ground covers.

Last week I had a truck load of mulch delivered. Wood chips actually, from a friend who owns a tree trimming and removal business.

The wood chips are a lovely golden colour an smell great. The kids and I go out every day and spread a little more around and we have almost finished. You can see how badly we need them when you look at how thick the grass is on the other side of the fence. A few more days of shovelling and we'll be done.