Right – I am about 34 minutes from 2017! Jeff has gone to bed and I have no intentions of going out and living it up somewhere!! (sooooo boring huh? lol)
Never mind.
Apart from the excessive rain, I think I have rather enjoyed 2016. I just went back through a few thousand photographs to realise we had quite a busy, fun and productive year.
So – because I did nothing of note to share today I thought I would post a bit of a 12 month round-up.
I must say first – thank-you all so very much for following my blog. It has been a lot of fun to write and share little adventures and images from our lives here in North West Tasmania, Australia.
For those of you that have had time to write notes, comments & advice – I thank you very much for doing so. I enjoy the interaction and I enjoy learning the things people have taken time to share with me.
So, if you are partying tonight – have a heap of fun and stay safe! If you are snugged up at home like me – enjoy the peace!
Have an absolutely staggeringly amazing 2017 everyone
xxx
January – Bushfires everywhere started the year – Sun almost blotted out!Despite no rain, our vegetable garden was fabulousFebruary saw a lot more food coming in – a lot of time spent picking and processingCucumber flower – a dying wish to become a ballerina?March saw the onslaught of apples – and more apples!Happy with my giant zucchini!Tons of tomatoesStill March – finding a bit of leisure timeApril – lovely beach weather
May – saucy vegetablesMay was also the start of more consistent fires at nightJune brought us the floods!Our usual local beaches strewn with debrisJune weather still managed to show us some beautyRain, hail and gloomy days – thats July!Time to focus on indoor hobbiesMy new shawl pattern – this was the first of about 8 that I made this year!The wood pile got a fair bit of action this winter!August – we start to see colour againWe also start getting back out into the garden againAs well as getting out for drives to enjoy ourselves in between the rain stormsOf course September was all about our lovely Ruby turning 100 years old and the amazing party!And the bonus to the big party was having all my family here at once! Lovely days!No rest for the wicked – October and we are in the muddy garden as much as possible trying to prepare it for the new season
Look how little everything is!! (er – and weedless)More rainbow apologies from the Tasmanian weatherNovember brings out more colourMore new growthAnd new seasons jam!December is all about raspberries isn’t it?Or is it all about the strawberries?See ya 2016 – its been grand!
Hello! Its been a while since I dabbled in Friday’s Footprints, so I thought I would take a break from vegetables and wander back to Japan. Right now my sister Rosemary and niece Emma are holidaying there so I am feeling a bit Japanese-Homesick.
Its been a couple of years now since Jeff and I were last in Japan – for those of you unaware, I have lived in Japan for around three years total (about 4 trips). Since Jeff arrived in Australia and married me, we have been back three times to tour about. I love the people, culture and food very much!
We did this fabulous little hike between two old post towns in the Nagano prefecture, Magome & Tsumago
Post towns were places that travellers in earlier days could rest and eat on their way, possibly as merchants heading to larger cities to sell their wares. These two towns are beautifully preserved in the Edo period style (1603-1867) Power cables and other such modern sights are mostly hidden from view, which gives a visitor a feeling of stepping back in time.
We started in Magome. A quick cup of tea with our lovely friends, Megumi and Yusuke who we had been staying with before setting on our nearly 8km hike down to Tsumago.
Good times with friendsFarewell!
The path was fairly easy and quite varied underfoot. Sometimes it followed the road and sometimes veered off into the forests
Being in Japan in autumn was beautiful and in November there was a lot of fabulous colours to admire
Every now and again the path would take you through a small village. We loved seeing the rural homes and gardens.
Many homes had persimmons strung out to dryOccasionally we stumbled across a bamboo forest
Every now and again we would find a sign updating us on how far we had to go
Other signs made us giggle
I presume this translates to “The vending machine is out of order”
On occasions we got to meet up with locals as we passed through the villages
Shrines, large and small were also a common sight along the way.
The path continued to twist and wind through the forests, out past rice fields and by farmhouses.
One of the cool things about the homes, was the decorating of their front doors or walls with all sorts of quirky items. Passers by could enjoy seeing what residents had created
Colourful chilliesFox Face – Solanum mammosum – however with a bit of googling I find that every other country calls it ‘Nipple Fruit’ !! This may be ruined for me now! haha
After a really wonderful hike through the forests we arrived at Tsumago, a beautiful post town, gorgeous streets and shops.
Funnily enough we ran into our friends again who should have gone home several hours before!! Apparently it was their first time to the area and loved it so much they spent the whole day!
Megumi & Yusuke – saying goodbye again!
We found our way to our fabulous little guest house and got sorted out by getting our beds out of the cupboard – haha – yes, futons.
Megumi and Yusuke had very very kindly dropped off our main bags earlier so we didn’t have to carry them on the hike.
EntryNurses make beds best so I let Jeff get on with it!Quaint decorations
Dinner was included with the price and offered a really interesting selection of foods, which were pretty much all delicious! And to be honest, the fried grasshoppers were awesome!!!
Not having walked around enough, I went for a night walk around the town, which had practically closed down with hardly a soul on the streets. It was very restful
It was such an enjoyable part of our trip around Japan – we totally recommend it! 🙂
Hope you enjoyed the tour
Hello! I ate a scandalous amount of raspberries today! But I still managed to bring a kilo up to the house (About two and a bit pounds) Takes a long time to pick, but very enjoyable job!
It was a weird muggy kind of day. The rain had let up which was nice. The garden, weeds and all seemed to have shot up about a foot!
I had to uncover the first corn patch as they had reached the top of the net. Hopefully no possums want to snack on them now.A couple of zucchini hopefulsHave noticed tiny tomatoes showing on some of these!!LadenBonus with two cucumbers
The most exciting thing about today was digging up a few garlic plants! Some of the bulbs were really big! Lots of good sized ones and a few tiddly ones. This is about a third of the patch. I think the others need a wee bit more time
I was so pleased… they had taken so long to form up I thought this year was going to be a garlic-failure!
This lot is upstairs starting the drying process. Vampire Free Zone. And I can smell them from downstairs!! 🙂
This was before I started raiding the garlicThings aren’t looking so titchy in here anymore either. Still debating about moving the self seeded tomatoes
Even though we have the bore, I still like my rain barrels. They all did a great job of being topped up in the last 24 hours. The big one at the front I put up yesterday evening, empty. By this morning it was over half full!
Pip really needed a run around outside today! He has been cooped up too long.
He chases me all over the yard which is kind of cute… except he head-butts the camera which makes getting the shot I actually wanted tricky.
Well… its been raining non-stop since last night and is it ever soggy out there!! The chickens are bedraggled but at least all the garden is getting a good soaking! Its not so cold though … bonus!
View practically blotted out todayHappy garden. These sweet peas may even bloom soon!!
Nothing to do particularly today – bit of a sleep in again. Funny thing was, Jeff got up earlier, fed the chooks some brekkie then came back to bed. Didn’t bother locking the door.
Quite the opposite from having someone sneak in and steal the telly – someone popped in and left turkey and ham in the fridge!!
haha – Thanx Margie! Boy did that turkey ever taste amazing at dinner tonight!
When my sniffles have ceased I will go down and wax lyrical to Ruby about how great her turkey tasted!
I did do a few useful things with the day. I ended up blanching and freezing the excess snow peas. I have never done this before, so if anyone has some tried and true tips – love to hear from you.
Anyway – this is what I did.
2 minutes in boiling waterInto an ice bath to stop the cooking processInto the freezer spread out on baking paper so they don’t all clump together. Will put into zip locks tomorrow
Jeff has gone back into work tonight, so its just Pip and myself again… or more likely just me as I suspect Pip has gone and buried himself back under the bedcovers. He spent all day sleeping in the bathroom cupboard. Not a fan of the continual noisy rain!
Another day of self imposed quarantine. Throat marginally better but still not worth going out and possibly sharing it around.
It turned nasty again – wind was battering everything and it turned a bit cold. Sigh. That 4 days of summer was so enjoyable!! 🙁
Did another raspberry pick. Quite a few never made it back to the house.
Scarce cherry plums
By now we should be thoroughly sick of dealing with cherry plums. We should be swimming in bucket loads. Weird season thats for sure!
Apart from the weeds, the main garden is going along ok. The runner beans are slowly climbing and showing flowers, the rhubarb is getting bigger and the spaced out beetroots are sitting up well. Need to harvest the garlic to make space for more beetroots!
Carrot seedsI spy the first of the outdoor tomatoes!Kind of sad… the two baby birds never survived. Not sure what happened to them. One lonely unhatched egg left. (well – for the best. The Blackbirds are a pest species here)
Dinner again was a lot of fresh salad, a potato salad and some sausages dug out of the freezer. Of course, lots of berries at dessert time too!
We put a fire on to take the chill off the house which was quite nice but mad considering we are at the end of the first month of summer!!
Hope everyone is enjoying a relaxing post-Christmas time!
Hello!
I read about a lot of people madly dashing off to join in Boxing Day Sales. I, on the other hand, stayed firmly at home and had the laziest day! Bliss.
I slept until the clock said pm, not am… ambled my way through coffee and toast before realising with a shriek that all the chooks were in the backyard on the house side of the fence!! Screecher was happily digging up my basil!!!!!
Cue undignified dash through the yard in my nightie, flapping my arms about and yelling at chickens!
Finally got them all on the right side of the fence and locked away.
Thinking there is a good reason I should get dressed straight away when waking up.
I had a lovely day eating raspberries, picking more strawberries and a swag of snow peas along with a bit of therapeutic hand watering.
I hope your day has been awesome
Gorgeous roses sent home with Jeff for me from one of his workmates!
Its a bit strange to hang out by yourself on Christmas Day – but I had quite a nice day really!
Jeff woke me when he got in from work and we exchanged presents –
A new hose and gardening knee pads for me (yay!!) and I gave Jeff a headlamp torch thingy. We plan to do a six day hike/camp adventure in a few months and figured it would come in useful! And is it ever bright!!! Its going to knock possums out of trees I reckon!!
Anyway, it was too early for me and my throat was pretty awful so I went back to bed!
I resurfaced at a more civilised hour and opened some presents my parents left for me while I was having my toast and coffee.
Mum made me this gorgeous scarf!
I also got these terrific flat pack boxes too! (Probably because Mum thinks I am untidy) 😀
Ok – I AM untidy, but I am very much looking forward to using these – I think all my wool and knitting stuff would be great in these!
It was a fabulously hot day today! (Thats 4 in a row!!) I had to give a few garden things a drink and then spent a very happy half an hour picking through the raspberry canes!
The chooks got some Christmas greens
There are scores of not yet ripe tomatoes in the hothouse. I should stop looking at them every five minutes to see if one is ripe yet!
There was also a ton of self seeded plants popping up everywhere and doing well… time to move them. (Isn’t that what you amuse yourself with on Christmas day??)
A couple of the main plants going mad
Here is a Hot Gardening Tip:
When you go ferreting about for pots to use, do so in a nice open space, so when a Huntsman tries to scramble up your leg, you don’t hurt yourself flinging your arms about doing the Spider Dance
Oh – and make sure the pot you select is not full of her spiderlings!!
I don’t know how well you can see them but there were HUNDREDS!!
Anyway – obstacles hurdled, I managed to dig up and pot a good number of tomato seedlings.
I can’t wait…
I also did some weeding and tidying and plant-training
Rock melon tied to frame. I want it to go up, not sprawl over the groundThe cucumbers have also been coaxed into climbing. Last season my one plant went crazy… will have to direct these three so I don’t end up with a jungleWhat is the collective noun for cucumbers? A collaborative? A cluster? A conglomerate? Hmmm According to Google its a Brace of Cucumbers! There you go!Dinner
Chillies starting to be a more impressive sizeMore chillies
Making my own rainbows (raspberries getting a soaking)I have eaten the odd one or two, but the cherry-plums are so behind this year! We should be collecting bucketfuls by now!
Some snap dragons have appeared in my new little flowerbed!
When Jeff got up, we ended up having leftovers for dinner (shock-horror) Although I did make a fresh salad.
AND I had made a choc-ripple cake for dessert – so it got a bit fancy at the end! 🙂
So – What happens on Christmas Eve around Norwich House?? To be honest, this year – not much! Nothing really Christmassy anyway. Watering, weeding, picking, eating 🙂
I have kind of let the side down in the way of sharing what happens in our neck of the woods over Christmas. I haven’t even decorated!! No-one was heading our way to celebrate, so Jeff took on some night shifts right over the Christmas period. Seemed silly to go to all the effort of finding a tree, and putting up decorations if no-one but myself was around. Figured I would be happier in the garden anyway!
No worries. I figured I would just gate-crash lunch at Ruby’s (naturally)
Best laid plans and all…
Guess who caught a cold??? ME!!
Sigh. Can’t go sharing my germs, so its just me & Pip tomorrow with a sleeping Jeff.
So – I dashed off to the supermarket to grab a few things since I would be making something for dinner tomorrow night for Jeff before he heads back to work.
In a pathetic effort to get into some kind of Christmas spirit, I dragged poor Pip upstairs to do a dodgy photo-shoot in his various festive costumes.
First we have Pip the Reindeer
Sometimes your model has to rest.
Clearly he is over the reindeer outfit – time to move on
An Elf… very fetching
The hat wasn’t doing it for him
Unfortunately all the elastic has gone doo-lally on the Santa outfit so it didn’t stay on very well… then my model fainted
I think by this point Pip was probably plotting to do away with me while I sleep tonight.
Whatever you are doing over the Festive Season, I hope you have a wonderful time!!
No doubt I will stroll back past my blog sometime Christmas Day since I seem to be at a loose end! 😀
Hello! How is everyone today? We had two summer days in a row!! Score!
So – while my newsfeed on facebook is full of people dashing about shops, Jeff and I thought our time better spent in the notorious Duck-Yard to sort out our weeds (again!)
(Seriously – this time of year I only venture into the shops if I am desperate! Even in a small country town the Christmas crowds can be a bit much!)
I started here…Jeff (complete with fly veil) started at the gatevast improvementUnder the netting between plotsGetting better
So pleased with these heirloom beefsteak tomato plants. My sister, Michelle, gave me the seeds. First time I have successfully raised tomatoes from seed!! I’ll call it a double success if I get tomatoes.
Tiny flowers starting to show
Jeff did a great job – the ground doesn’t get as much water here so the digging is harder going!Moving on to the back section
Better!Much betterJeff went up along side the fence too
Was a pretty huge day – my arms are feeling it a bit!
We still have a bit more to sort out, but we had to quit, as there was still the watering to do and some raspberries ready for picking – and we wanted dinner sometime before midnight!
Need to get back to the beach for more seaweed to slow weed regrowth!
Sooooo – into the raspberry patch I go
There is a lot of fruit ‘nearly’ readyActually I picked a small bowlful this evening – but these are a few of the nicer ones!
We also got our first cucumber! Salads are becoming more interesting!
We really enjoyed dinner tonight – Ok – we skipped lunch and worked up an appetite, but still… I did some teriyaki chicken, with steamed new potatoes and a lovely fresh salad – lettuce, snow peas, cucumber, basil & a bit of cheese.
Dessert? Home made strawberry ice cream topped with fresh raspberries.
We are totally living the Good Life
Hello!
Today was really a super day. Hardly any wind and clear blue skies! Felt like it might have actually been summer!!
Today I popped down to one of the local churches who are putting on a free Christmas dinner for about 70 people on Friday night. I made them some pavlovas last year and they asked if I would do it again. Sure.
Haven’t made a pav in a while, but they looked like they turned out ok!
(Photo from last Christmas) The uncooked pavlova(photo from last Christmas) Baked Pavlova(Photo from last Christmas) And the all important cream and fruit topping!
I still have another one to make so I can take it to Ruby’s for Christmas Lunch Dessert. Although it will probably be topped with strawberries this year since the raspberries are still twiddling their thumbs…
Back home it was beetroot relocation day. I really don’t have room!! The poor things all need thinning out badly. The garlic should have been harvested a couple of weeks ago – and freeing up a lot of garden space. But still waiting there
Too many
I dug and spaced out one row – I guess its a start. I used the spare space in the lettuce bed for now
Hopefully they will perk up and come good!Its all looking reasonably goodCarrot flowers and garlic after a good soaking
Jeff and I decided that it was time to get the kayaks out of hibernation.
High tide was late today – but we were keen to get out for a paddle
My other little camera (the one that fits in a ziplock and has less chance of being drowned and is also easily replaceable $$ wise) was out of battery charge completely! How annoying. So I can’t show you how lovely it was out on the water this evening!
Here is a reminder shot from earlier this year:
Paddling on the Inglis River
Looking forward to a lot more paddling over summer!
Hope everyone has had a lovely day!!
Cheers!
