Month: December 2018

So… is anyone else spending New Years Eve crocheting and completely sober?
Speaking of crochet – I didn’t share before as I wasn’t sure if my nephew was occasionally reading my blog, but I eventually finished Rileys Christmas present – and managed not to take a photo of the final product, but this is it nearly at completion point.

I hoped it wouldn’t be too daggy giving a Nanna-Knee-Rug to a 14 year old boy, but its in his favourite Aussie Rules Football team colours and his reaction on the phone seemed pretty happy, so all is good!!
I gave the other one I made earlier this year with the ruffles and purple colours to my niece Georgia.

I have just made a start on one for my Canadian Niece, Ella. In blues. I had to go back to Youtube to remember how to do all the little twiddly bits! I’ll have to start taking some snaps of it. I think its looking pretty already.
Thats REALLY getting a head start on Christmas next year!

Most excitingly – I think we’ll have cucumbers soon!
I spent some time today arranging my new soaker hoses so I don’t have to stand about hand watering so much. Don’t get me wrong… I love hand watering but wow… there is a lot of space here to water. It’s just going to help a bit with my non-existent time management.

The zucchinis are being nice and steady. So I made a zucchini slice yesterday. Goes nicely with all the salad we have at the moment.
I am also selling a few things to a local friend. She is happy to take my excess as their garden hasn’t happened as normal this season.

She bought some garlic and loved it, but mostly all I have on offer is snow peas and zucchini!!

This self seeded tomato is looking quite good so I have decided to leave it where it is in the hothouse, but try to really tame it into shape so I am not fighting it. I have enough of a fight on my hands with Tentacular!

Speaking of my stupidly big passionfruit vine, its still as happy as Larry and some of the fruit is quite big!
Others rather petite.

There are a few tomatoes here and there – nothing with colour as yet. Not a lot of fruit really compared to the size of the plants though!!
Still eagerly waiting.

I found a little self seeded basil pushing away the cucumber plants for a spot in the sun!! I have moved it to the basil patch so it has a better chance!
The eggplants are growing well too.

Today I think I was finally starting to feel more ‘me’ again since the B12 boost. Its been a bit of a struggle which has annoyed me. (Because I have so much patience with these things haha)
I actually got in and did some housework (overdue) got some laundry done, hung and dry. Not folded (no surprises there) I’ve done two more loads tonight which means its going to rain heavily all day tomorrow. 😀
I’ve washed a few dozen eggs and am thinking I should put the stall back out the front and see if I can offload some there as well as some rhubarb, maybe some raspberries if I pick in the morning and some jam… I still have a few weeks to go before I can start putting out a really interesting stall.

Is anyone doing resolutions or goals for 2019?
I don’t think my 2018=hermit year actually worked out for me.
I don’t have any intentions of making resolutions and my goals are ongoing so I am a bit boring in that respect. I really admire people who can sort out a list of things and work through them. I get about as far as point two then see something shiny and get totally off track.

However – a big THANK-YOU to you all for sticking with me for another year of stories from North West Tasmania, gardens, hiking, international guests, tree issues and so on and so forth! I’ve loved getting your messages and interacting with people from all over and I really appreciate your support, advice and just taking the time to see whats happening daily around here!
I hope your 2019 is completely wonderful!
All the best
xxx

Good Evening! So close to the end of the year!!
This afternoon we decided to buzz up to Stanley, have a look around and walk up The Nut.
Megumi is going to start viewing us with great suspicion every time I suggest a walk haha

The first zig-zag trek up is a leg killer. And it was a ‘bit’ windy up top!
But still gorgeous views were to be enjoyed all around.

We finally found a few Australian animals lurking about to show Megumi which was nice. The top of The Nut has never let me down yet for producing these little pademelons for visitors.

Jeff found a quaint, tiny nest on the ground. I wonder what babies were hatched in this?

Best hidey hole for animals and children!! There is quite a space under all that draping greenery.

It was a clear enough day to see right back to Table Cape (Just behind home really)

They’ve done a lot of work up here with the path and weed clearing. Still a way to go.

The seas were beautifully calm today.

Yes, thats where we were!! (legs wobble wobble – its almost as tough coming down as it is going up!!)

Hope your day was less taxing on your limbs!
Cheers!

Hello!
I have been struggling a bit… so Jeff made me an appointment with the doc to get a B12 boost. Not sure its entirely kicked in yet, but had to really get out and do something. Decided to take Megumi on her first decent hike.

We didn’t do the full loop – too hot to drag ourselves up the hills, so just went over to Anniversary Bay and back.

Such a gorgeous day – hot even!

I enticed Megumi in for a paddle but she was too much of a refined lady to go plunging in clothes and all like I did! haha

It felt so good and my clothes kept me nice and cool for the walk back up the hill!

Not a bad afternoon out!
Meanwhile Jeff had picked the raspberries for me!!
I think I might have some jam to make tomorrow!

Cheers!

Hello! I hope everyone is relaxed and happy after all the festivities!
Look at that luscious basil! First time to put some in the salad!!

I bravely took Megumi out to Spotlight today (yarn shop) as the Boxing Day sales were on – she wanted to get some yarn to make a rug (I think I mentioned I am teaching her crochet) and I wanted more to make a rug for my Canadian niece for her next years Christmas present (Nothing like getting pre prepared right?)

Then it was onto the garden

I think I could safely say my sweet peas were done. Time to clean up this whole garden.

Since its not a food garden its had to take a back seat. But really… it was getting pretty tragic looking

Jeff weeded this end for me. I dug up and transplanted some sunflowers and mulched it with what seaweed I had left. Hopefully they will perk up again after their move!

I also have a lot of marigolds all clustered together in the herb garden (where else?) so I did a lot of marigold moving

I also plan to put in a few snow peas at the back of this trellis. Not sure, it might be too late in the season, but I might as well try.

This garden has also produced a few self seeded tomatoes (of course) so letting them go to see what I get.

Here is a mystery. One of my zucchinis looks like its on its last legs!! The other three are doing just fine!! I wonder why?

I was rather excited to pick my first beetroot. I am really looking forward to having pickled beetroot again.

More fresh lettuce and more freshly dug potatoes for dinner.
I do like having my own produce shop down the back!!

Well.. its way past time for me to buzz off to bed. Spent an hour or so mucking about on the ‘help’ line for the phone/internet service because it was taking 20 minutes to upload an image. Not cool. And really NOT what I wanted to be doing with my evening. You all know how much I LOVE dealing with Telstra!! haha

Cheers!

Happy Christmas everyone!! I hope your day was/is very merry!!
I hope there was a lot of laughter, love and good food.
It was quiet at Norwich House. Jeff got in off a nightshift and stayed awake long enough to do the present thing.
Megumi was really chuffed there were presents there for her too!
We popped in on Ruby and Margie for a Christmas cuppa and spent some quality time in the raspberry patch!

I didn’t do any Christmas cooking, but figuring the home made strawberry ice cream kinda counted!! (oooooooh my, it was ahhh-mayzing haha)
And Megumi found a huge strawberry which she scoffed all in one go! 😀

I spent a good portion of the day on the phone to family catching up and hearing about their gatherings and presents – and food!!!!

Anyway, time for me to sneak into bed with a book and plan a guilt free sleep in tomorrow!

Love to you all!!

So… who is ready for Christmas?? (Those of you who celebrate it)
I finally got around to doing something about a tree – first time in two years!! I think Megumi was amused when I went out into the yard with a little saw and took the top off the young Macrocarpa.
We wanted to get rid of it anyway before it could grow bigger and fall on our new fence. But it grew too big to use all of it inside.

I chopped off the lower limbs and we popped it in a barrel of water for a couple of hours so it could soak for a while before coming inside.
I also pruned back a lot of the branches as they stuck out a long way.
It fails to achieve that nice pointy Christmas Tree shape, but its home grown so that’s got to count for something right??

Then of course comes the fun part.
First because most decorations in my boxes were completely neatly packed away and ordered and not tangled at all, we simply pulled out each item to start decorating.
OK… stop choking with disbelief Mother-Dearest. Of course my Christmas boxes were a hodge-podge of lights, tinsel and baubles.
Step one. Untangle and test lights.

Actually they weren’t too bad really. We just had fun making sure the lights covered most areas of the tree and hung the baubles and tinsel everywhere we could reach

I even found an angel to put at the ‘top’ (Which in our trees case, ‘top’ being in the middle sort of at the highest point-ish…?)

Finishing touches were made (putting the presents under the tree)

And I connected up the glowing angel for extra atmosphere – she changes colour constantly which is rather pretty.

So… job done!
Actually Jeff is scheduled to work Christmas Eve on a night shift so he will sleep away Christmas Day.
I plan to pack a picnic and hike to a beach to eat something with Megumi and enjoy the forecast sunny weather. (This could all change of course… being Tasmania)
Hope the lead up to your festive season has been relaxed and non-stressful!
What is everyone else doing? Big gatherings and dinner? Small and casual?
Would love to know what your own family traditions are!

Cheers!

Hello!! The day lilies have started to bloom. I really like orange flowers!

Yesterday I washed about 5 dozen eggs and sorted the ones we already had! Jeff hasn’t been a work for a couple of weeks so I’ve not offloaded them as quickly as usual. Happily, both Ruby and another friend, Shirley needed 2 dozen each. No probs.
I also grabbed them some rhubarb from the garden as well.

I had to give Tentacular another haircut. It was getting harder to get into the hothouse. Plus the extra bits I took off actually did help a little with the light!! I still can’t get over how mad this plant is!

I decided to get in and clear things out a bit – get rid of the table and put some more things in the dirt before the season disappeared on me.

I found some spare timber that I could line my basil strip with – I think it makes it look a bit neater.
Then I optimistically planted two rock melon plants and a watermelon in the corner.
Also popped in three more capsicums that were doing so well in their pots I thought they deserved to stretch their legs in real soil.
Its all I can sensibly fit in here this season. If the passionfruit do the right thing then it will be totally worth it!

Anyway, moving right along. Time to transform that second garlic patch into a tomato patch!

I had a number of potted tomatoes overdue for transplanting not to mention umpteen self seeded ones still needing a home.

I was a bit slack about the soil prep, but each plant got a generous amount of mushroom compost around its base

And to be honest… I have to now quit with the tomatoes. I think I have around 70 planted. Probably enough.

Despite the earlier sunshine, by this time I was getting steadily rained upon! But I was into it and wanted to finish the jobs that I had had on my mind. I put some snail bait down around the corn just to make life easy and got some netting up. I am really hoping that this patch won’t get ravaged by rabbits, possums or chooks! And argh on the chooks. The stupid broody one (Who I had locked out of the coop) got straight in here when I was on the other side as the wind blew the unlatched gate open (I was out for, you know, five minutes!!)
She. Does. Not. Herd.
I have never met a stupider chook. She proceeded to trample everything in her bid to avoid me and somehow avoid going in any direction that was even remotely close to the gate!! Even running towards me at times when I was being extremely clear about where I wanted her to go! In the end I tackled her after she flew into the fence in a bit of a panic. We were both rather unimpressed!
At least the corn shoots were safe from this Little Incident.

I am loving fresh food on the dinner plate every night! I pulled up a few more baby carrots, lettuce, snow peas and got pretty muddy in my search for some new potatoes!
It was all pretty good!

After a much needed shower I headed into town with Megumi to the supermarket. I had about $60 to spend from my rewards card and I wanted to do some frivolous shopping (like something that included Camembert cheese and whatnot)

It was pretty wild in the Wynyard supermarket! Pretty sure thats why I feel extra tired tonight!! 😀
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
Cheers

Before I even got in the front door at Ruby’s today I was dashing down into her paddock, camera in hand to snap a photo or two of her mad hydrangeas!! Its amazing!

We hadn’t really introduced Megumi to Ruby and Margie properly, apart from the fly by to raid the lemon tree last week!
It was nice to put the kettle on and sit and chat and catch up in a civilised and leisurely manner!

We even got a bit posh and brought out the tea trolley! Might have fallen down on the presentation of the milk though… 😀

Megumi was doing a fine job practicing her English and conversing with everyone.

She gave Ruby a beautiful Japanese scarf!
Margie was given a gorgeous Furoshiki cloth, but I failed to get a photo… will put that on my to-do list!

I also delivered a present to Ruby from Mavis over at 100 Dollars a Month!

(Sorry for the dodgy photo!!!) Mavis sent Ruby one of her beautiful ornaments – the gorgeous red and bold stripes are so much fun and Ruby was so thrilled! Fancy being sent something hand made all the way from the USA!

Ruby was quite tired today. She had ‘slightly’ over done it in the garden this morning – hurrying because of the rain. Then she had a few visitors!
Mind you, when I suggested I take Megumi around the garden there was no way Ruby was going to be left out of that picnic!!

Here I am hopping along trying to get my shoes on, while Ruby has gotten Megumi by the hand and got her half way up the garden!!! 

Its looking quite fabulous and very productive! Margie has spent a lot of time in it this season and its a credit to them!

Ruby had a lovely time pointing out this and that to Megumi (walking sticks are so handy for multiple reasons!!)

They have got a marvellous potato patch (or five) happening.

The zucchinis I put in for them are slow… but look healthy enough. Probably just waiting for a nice long stretch of summer days to really kick off.

Isn’t she just the Queen of the Hothouse? Proud as punch about her ripe tomatoes!! As she should be because its pretty hard to get them that far along before Christmas in Tassie!  I keep telling her I can’t talk to her about the tomatoes. (I am way too jealous)

Oh – and speaking of garden successes… here’s me thinking I am such a smarty-pants gardener with my garlic and Ruby is like “Oh here’s mine”

I simply can’t talk to her about that either!! Haha!!

I tell a lie. I did speak to her about them.
They grow crazy tall – then flower like this.
Its actually a very old variety because its what her mother used to grow!! She just kept up planting them or leaving them to self seed at will!!

I was lucky enough to be given some ‘pups’ as Margie calls them so I will put them in the ground and give them a go!!

Anyway, we had such a lovely afternoon. Wonderful to take time finally to catch up properly!

Have a great day!
Cheers

Hello!
Slowly moving towards the weekend and Christmas! Is everyone prepared?
I have full intentions of sorting out a tree this weekend! 😀 

Its been a tough few weeks at Norwich House… we ran out of tomato relish!! Unheard of!!
I dug out a frozen container of tomatoes and did an emergency batch. While we (Megumi and I) were at it, we also did a small batch of fresh raspberry jam from the berries we have picked in the last few days.

Once the cooking and cleaning was sorted, we donned the gardening clothes and headed out towards the garlic patch.

We had to put in a real lot of effort to get some of those bulbs up! The mud was a bit sticky!

I am so rapt with my garlic this year!!

Hopefully I will get around to hanging it with the purple garlic on the line in the garage sometime tomorrow. Right now its in a huge pile on the kindling box out the back!

The corn I just planted has popped up already! Fairly impressed about that!

I didn’t collect raspberries today but I did go in the patch to eat a few!

Not to mention admire the lovely tomato that is going great guns in the raspberry patch! Flowers and all!!

So, yesterdays wilted transplanted tomatoes came back to life splendidly today!!

The pumpkins have a flower! And even though its not quite out, I found the first tomato flower on the laterals that I planted a few weeks back!

Parsley is going to seed everywhere and there is a bean patch in the middle of everything as well

I am a bit dubious about the pollination of the tomato flowers in the hothouse – one plant had only 6 tomatoes that I can see starting and now the other huge plant – this one small tomato!
So I put some marigolds in nearby. Hopefully they will speed ahead in the sheltered area and produce some bee attracting flowers soon!

My potted basil finally looking great! Need to find some time to get them into the ground so they can really flourish.
Cucumbers are producing plenty of flowers too

Anyway, best be off… got to put some bread in to bake and hop into bed!!
Hope your day was lovely!
Cheers

Hello! 
Well, today started as forecast…wet and miserable!
I tried to get in touch with my Christmas cheer by wrapping a few presents. I’ve also been teaching Megumi how to crochet.
Early afternoon there was a break in the weather so I went out to see if I could do one or two useful things – and it cleared up and became quite hot!!!

Both corn patches are ‘patchy’ but they have been on my mental list to weed and mulch

Before I could get into it I had to dig up another spot to transplant some tomatoes that have taken up residence with the corn.

Ugh… the amount of ropey twitch that I dug from this small space tempts me to reneg on my mostly organic approach and do something terrible and chemical!! (Of course I won’t but I can’t help thinking of it…) 

I also dug up the spring onions that had disappeared with all the ruckus of the tree and clearing up. So I planted a few out along the edge of one of the new plots. I am under the impression that you can’t actually kill spring onions, so I am optimistic they will grow

I planted a few tomatoes that needed moving. Hilariously they have all fainted. Never mind. With a bit of watering I am sure they will bounce back.

I got to and weeded both corn patches, fed them some kelp juice and got them mulched. Fingers crossed.

Hopefully that will help.

Meanwhile, Jeff finished off my hedge trimming job that I started a couple of weeks back. He grumpily walked past with an armful of cuttings wanting to know if I saw a squirrel. (If you have watched ‘Up’ you’ll know what he meant haha)
To be honest it did look pretty silly where I quit and left it. Now it looks all nice and neat again.

Well, I bandicooted some potatoes for dinner (they were delightful)
And pulled some baby carrots for the salad

Picked a whole lot of lettuce and found a couple of zucchinis

Then Megumi and I spent some quality time picking (and eating) raspberries, snow peas and strawberries

But the most exciting bit today was pulling up a few bulbs of garlic to see how the last patch was getting on. Admittedly I chose what I thought were the best, but still… I’m pretty rapt with the size of these beauties!!
I reckon I can go ahead and harvest the whole plot.. not all will be as huge, but they do seem like a good size regardless.
Plus I’d like to use that spot to… oh I dunno… plant more tomatoes??

Anyway – I hope your day was filled with successes too!
Cheers!