sunday

a day off at last!

enjoying spring and fresh salad greens every day from the garden.

went with birthday money from mum to buy a lovely galvanised steel watering can, white oil for the kaffir lime tree, radish and dill seeds, teeny tiny creeping seaside daisies, potting mix, a new pot for my jellybean succulent and some more cos seedlings!

thanks mum!

(and kee is off to an interview for a potential apprenticeship.....fingers crossed!!!!)

terrariums

how are these for terrariums, nina?

found here via a lovely blog by jeana sohn

spring

spring was here.............(in my garden, at least!)

but now it's like winter is back again!

busy at work and planning on a quiet week...kee is rockclimbing in the grampians this week so lots of knitting, dvd's and some fringe festival shows are keeping me occupied in a very agreeable way!

hope your monday wasn't so bad....

laura

planted these bulbs the day of laura's funeral (may 13, 2009)
and here they are after a spring shower..........

weather forecast to be mid 20's this weekend - first time in a long time! looking forward to it.

opshopping / dinner party / gardening / pootling around..........

this week has been hard

saturday

::photos came too easily today with so much sunshine around::

snow peas, jasmine and rocket going crazy in the garden

time to wash the sheets!

today / tonight

great day today. lunch/coffee/theatre with the ladies...

now snuggled up with some new books:
:: the royal horticultural society - fruit & veg gardening in australia
:: organic gardening in australia
:: 200 crochet blocks by jan eaton

and listening to cd's that remind me of uni days....

a few days off

::tulips are so cheap and beautiful at the moment::

::my first ever attempt at knitting a beret::

::spent the morning with mum in the front garden (can't wait for spring now!)::

i like having dirty hands

nan & harry gave us HEAPS of plant cuttings so today garden beds were cleared and in they went. also planted my chrystanthemum's in the ground (which i've never done before!)

found rocket in there amongst the weeds!

lets hope all the cuttings take...
(and thanks to the gardening fairy who helped me!)

first thing saturday morning

because of the really late and incredibly hot summer, gardeners in victoria have been reporting all sorts of strange thing happening!

this is mine! our emperor's hat chili tree is simply bursting with fruit! they were harvested and will shortly be thread onto string (some for us, some for next door neighbours and some for the boys)

my fave thing to do early on saturday morning when kee is still in bed is slip on the gumboots and go outside into the positively crisp winter air and poke around in my pots and garden beds! something about the quiet and the fresh air, the stillness and discovering anything new (bulbs planted on the day of laura's funeral are shooting through!!!)

now for a cup of tea, rage and some knitting of sorts.

i do love a saturday morning!

weekend

trip to ikea (hooray for $29 quilt cover)
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plenty of organising and tidying
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garage sale perusing
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market shopping
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cooking: whole baked snapper with stephanie alexander's north african ginger marinade recipe and a lemon tart
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camberwell markets: 2 x chrysanthemums and a yellow plaid capelet all for $12!

garden / home made food = happiness

a day in the garden

when mum, pip and andy were over i decided to give the 'garden' a long overdue tidy up!
finally bought a cover for the webber, made a 'shed' (more a little divider) to keep lucerne, fertiliser and potting mix behind and basically just gave my plants a whole lot of tlc.

also finally got around to planting some of the cuttings Nanny Ward gave us - hoya, various succulents, angel wings, begonias...

our wild alpine strawberries are producing enough for a handful of strawberries each morning and our tomatoes keep getting fatter and fatter!

and our emperor's hat chilli's are coming along really well!

i'm very proud of my vegetable babies...the balcony garden is solely my domain!

doona day

had a doona day today...we get two a year at work and i woke up feeling like today was one of those days! it drizzled all day and was quite fresh despite the 26 and fine forecast.

i rode my bike and dropped off some stuff at the op shop up the road (thanks to I Op Therefore I Am for letting me know the opening hours!) I came upon a whole box of Golden Hands craft books and various crochet pattern books. i sat on this chair in the opshop for about an hour flicking through with giddiness. all for 10c each! and then i bought two of the most beautiful, large cacti that are about to burst into flower and are as big as my head for $2!!!

it surely is the simple things....

(i will have to consult my secondhand copy of 'what flower is that' by stirling macaboy to determine what cacti they are exactly)

also (sorry, am a bit of a chatterbox tonight) we ate our first bowl of christmas cherries. yum.

a few things

ian was visiting from perth last weekend - this is his shirt he left. so silly. so ian.


my acid yellow 'mum's - awesome!


when ian visited he promised to make me his carbonara. so kee made a big batch of pasta.


kee took this photo - last weekend's breakfast. beautiful bright, orange yolks. yum!

dirty hands

the old cactus that nanny ward gave us, errupted in beatiful fuschia flowers. planted strawberries, cherry tomatoes, yellow pear tomatoes, spearmint, peppermint and generally gave all the plants some tlc. the chryssies are threatening to burst into acid yellow goodness!

mary mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

how can a few pots with some things growin' in em bring so much happiness? this is the balcony garden mum helped us set up when she was over......and zac's chilli? we planted about ten seeds and two lil baby tiny sprouts are showing their faces!!!!