weekly stills.....

weekly stills.......a bit of a colour hit for you this week.

1. My pile of washers grows, I'm loving all the Cascade cotton colours.

2+3. I cleaned up my sideboard yesterday, I got rid of all the papers and other crap that seems to get dumped on there, and now I can see all my cute things! Yay!

4. Making granny squares today for some Spring bunting for my stall in a couple of weeks, fun! 

5+6.  Spring garden lovelies. Tulips are flowering!  I have some beautiful colours growing this year, one of my favs are these gorgeous dark purple 'Queen of the Night', so lovely.  I have grown the parrot tulips for the first time this year and I am in love with their over the top frilly bits!   Definitely going on my list to plant again next year.

7. My veggie patch looks a bit jungle like at the moment, some serious attention needed in there if I am going to get the summer stuff planted.

8. Poppy love.  Another favourite flowering at the moment.

9. Loving all the colours in these tins and crochet stuff.  

What's happening in your world at the moment?

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weekly stills

1. Salad making from the garden, such easy things to grow and so rewarding!

2+3. Still working on this epic blanket, but the end is in sight, thank goodness!   Hope to post a final update for the CAL soon, and then move onto something new. Yay!

4+5+6+7. It's all about the flowers in my garden at the moment, the iris's are out and looking lovely, roses are in bloom and I have a patch of self sown sweet peas starting to flower too, can't wait to see what colours pop up, these dark ones seem plentiful at the moment, very dramatic.  

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It feels like I haven't been around my blog for ages, although it is just over a week and a half since my last post!   I haven't really had a lot to say or any interesting makes to show, ( I am working on that blanket and trying not to get distracted by other makes at the moment),  life has just been whizzing by, filled with every day things that sap all my time and don't leave me with much to blog about!  I am sure I will find my groove again soon and have something more interesting to say!  

Anyhoo, I'm joining in over at The Beetle Shack today to kick start my blogging mojo again, have a look at every one else's weekly stills too.

I got mail...

Hello!

I have been taking part in a washer swap organised by the lovely Jodie from Jellywares, and the other day I received my swap parcel in the mail.  I can't tell you how nice it was to get mail other than bills and bank statements! 

My lovely parcel was from Annie who has a lovely blog called Flower Garden,  look at the gorgeous flower photo cards she included, right up my alley!  A beautiful washcloth and parsley seeds were the other part of the present, and I love them both!  

Thanks so much Annie, I loved getting my swap parcel !

Swapping things is so much fun, and you always discover new interesting people out there in blogland!

I think it is a lovely way to connect with people, especially for someone like me who is not great at the whole commenting and interacting with readers thing.  

Have you been part of a swap before?

Have a great day! 

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October garden

So I thought I'd record a few bit of the garden for October, it is really all about the blossom at the moment, with all the apple trees and the cherry tree in full flower, it is pretty stunning.

......the front garden, with the standard flowering cherry, this one is just ornamental, but still so pretty.....

.......this is the  fruiting cherry tree blossom, I think this is the most laden with flowers this tree has ever been, so I have high hopes for a big cherry crop this year, I'll have to net the tree if we want any though......

...........gorgeous apple blossom....

....we still have lots of kale ready to eat in the vegie garden, I have been very slack this year, and we didn't have a lot growing over winter  (other than weeds!), but the kale has been great........

....and these lettuces have been really successful too, I just pick what we need for a meal and they keep on growing strong.......

........this is kind of what the rest of the garden is looking like at the moment, very wild and unruly!....there is a lot of colour though, as my focus on flowers earlier in the year has paid of and they are in bloom now, so nice to pick a bunch from the backyard..........

.....I have these poppies coming up all over the place, quite wildly, they are so pretty that it is hard to be ruthless and pull them out where they are in the way of other things, and the bees love them! ....So I guess they have enough redeeming qualities to earn a spot in the garden...

 ...and lastly the roses are starting to flower as well, and I can smell their gorgeous scent as I wander around the garden, just lovely.....

I am getting my act together for summer veg, I have sown seeds of lots of different tomatoes, I loved being able to make really colourful tomato salads last year and want to do it again, so red, orange, yellow, purple and green tomatoes have been sown, can't wait to see how they do this year.

Also put in zucchini, rattlesnake beans, spring onions, cucumbers, sunflowers, cantaloupes, lettuce, carrots, beetroot, pumpkins, potatoes and sweetcorn, so hope to have lots of home grown things to eat this season!

 I think I just have to put in herbs like basil and coriander and a few capsicums and I think we will have most of the things we eat for summer!

Now I just have to tame my wild garden and everything should be sweet! :)

How does your garden grow at the moment?

Do you grow some/any of your food?

Have a great day, talk soon! 

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Springiness

Well it certainly feels like Spring is on the way around here.  Today the wind is blowing a gale, even though the sky is blue and the sun is out, it is still chilly, but there is a definite touch of Spring.

I have been planting some colourful Primulas around the garden, as part of my effort to have a cutting garden this Spring/Summer. I really love all the lovely shades of pink they come in, and I think I should be able to make some cute posies including these.  I have also planted a big bed of Iceland Poppies, but they will take a bit longer to get to flowering size.  My ranunculus and freesia bed is growing nicely, so I am hoping for lots of flowers.

Other bits and pieces.......I love these mini daffodils, they have come up nice and thick this year, lots of gorgeous flowers......

.......the snowdrops are out under the flowering cherry, I think I might divide them this year and spread them around some other parts of the garden........

......and I have masses of different jonquils coming out all over the place, lovely!  I think I was a bit random in my planting of these over the years, I have them coming up in some very odd spots!....

It really makes me feel rich being able to go out to the garden and pick a big bunch of something for the house.  Simple pleasures like this really put a smile on my face......  

....and look what I dug up yesterday, 5kg of fresh Kipfler potatoes! Yum!  Even better because these were from potato plants that came up by themselves, left overs from last years crop.   These were growing in my raised apple crate garden boxes, and didn't get frosted off like the potatoes that tried to grow in the ground.  Something to remember for the future when I want to grow winter potatoes .

Life has been hectic recently, and I love to get out in the garden and see what has been growing even with very little attention from me!  I think it is time I put more effort into my 'simple living' goals, I do find a lot of satisfaction in growing and making things, I've just got to keep my goals in mind even when life is busy, busy, busy! 

 I am currently spending a lot of time on the computer trying to move my yarn store onto an Australian hosting site, so quite a steep learning curve for this non techy brain!  Luckily they have a very patient guy on the help desk who has been helping me out, I think I am nearly there!

Anyhoo, that's all I have for today, what have you been up to?

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5/52 Year of Happy

Four things that made me happy this week

1. Dahlias from the garden, can't get enough of that colour mix.

 (I think these deserve a whole post of their own! Tomorrow!)

2. Fresh green beans straight from the veggie patch, I love to munch on these raw.

3. Apricots! (going to try and make apricot jam tomorrow)

4. My zinnias are finally flowering. Yay!

What made you happy this week?

Slow Living October

Hello.

Another month has rolled around and it is time to reflect on my Slow Living goals and join in with Christine and the other lovelies for my Slow Living report for October.

There has been beautiful sunny skies and a much warmer feel

 to the days in October, summer is on the way!

Nourish - We have been eating our normal range of foods I think, with a greater emphasis on home grown vegetables as I was able to provide broccoli, spinach, snow peas , podding peas, lettuce, kale and celery from the garden this month.  We mostly ate these in raw form as the boys don't like cooked veggies, although I did steam the spinach, kale and broccoli, because that's how I like it!  The snowpeas have been a star performer, I have been weighing my harvest and in the last 2 weeks of October I picked 5.5kgs !! That's a lot of snow peas, and they are still going strong.  

The chooks are producing a steady supply of eggs, so I have been making quite a few meringues to use them up, and because the kids really like them.

Prepare - Haven't really prepared much this month, we tend to eat things fresh and give away any excess.  This is an area I should try and improve. 

Grow - Things have been busy in the garden, I have been cleaning out beds ready for spring/summer plantings. I planted potatoes, zucchini, climbing beans, and a bed of capsicums, and there are lots of seedlings in the hothouse ready to go into the garden - tomatoes, basil, perpetual spinach, cucubers, cantaloup, pumpkins, 3 types of beans, snow peas, kale and lettuces.  My first sowing of sweetcorn didn't work so I am going to have another go soon.  

Also planted sunflowers and zinnias which are all up. 

 The raspberries are covered with flowers and plenty of buzzing bees, Yay!

In the garden, it has been all about flowers, with the poppies, iris and roses all putting on lovely displays, not to mention the blossom on the fruit trees and ornamentals, just gorgeous!

Green - Um.... I've been picking my own bunches of flowers and using extra blankets instead of turning on heating for the few cooler evenings as winter leaves us, It does feel like warmer weather is on the way.  Also looked into window coverings for our back room to keep out the sun this summer and help keep the house cooler, we have no air conditioning so it can warm up quite quickly inside.

Create - Didn't get much interesting creating done in October. I am continuing on with my crochet along blanket, although I didn't make a lot of progress, and I have started a Christmas decoration for a swap I have joined.

Discover - In October I was reminded that it is important not to take people and relationships for granted, you just don't know how long any of us have on this earth, and things can change very quickly.

Enhance - I took part in Blogtoberfest as part of the blogging community, I don't do a lot to connect with other people on my blog, so I thought it would be a good way to try and rectify that, I had mixed results. I found it hard to fit in a post a day, without feeling like the posts were very boring! Must try and find more interesting things to post about! 

Enjoy - We had family gatherings, a birthday and I had a night out to a great concert in October.  Also enjoyed a bit of day dreaming about some new crocheting, hope to get onto that soon!

So that is my wrap up of October, overall the time flew by so quickly that I didn't really get to achieve a lot.  I am finding with more work days away from the house, I don't have the 'Slow' life I am aiming for.  I am certainly going to take steps to address this in 2013, I haven't really got a lot of joy out of the last few months, and I think it is just because I have been so busy.  I really don't think the extra bit of money is worth it, so am going to rebalance things in the new year.

Have a great day!

Slow Living Report - September

 Hello there!

  

Well, today I am doing my Slow Living Report for September before we get too far into October, I missed last months report because time just got away from me, so this will probably include stuff from August too if I think of anything.

 Here we go.....

Prepare and Nourish -  Well the usual baking and home cooking has been happening, but lots more of our own home grown vegies have been on the menu, if only in little piles of salad on the side of the plates.  Broccoli, kale, lettuce, silver beet and spring onions have been coming out of the garden, and it has been really satisfying!  There hasn't been much preserving of anything, we tend to like fresh things best, although I am using the last of the tomatoes I preserved last summer, so I  will be doing that again.

Grow - The garden has had a lot of attention this month, and it is looking good!

Besides all the things that we are picking at the moment, I have a big patch of peas and snow peas in flower, beetroots growing strongly, hearting lettuces getting fatter and heaps of perpetual spinach popping up all over the place. 

I have planted a heap of seed for summer things, tomatoes, zucchinis, cucumbers, beans, lettuce, kale, sweetcorn, basil, coriander and flowers - sunflowers, zinnia and hollyhocks.  Most things are up and looking good, so I hope it will be a very abundant summer.

I have also put a bed of capsicums in from large bought seedlings, I've found they take too long to grow from seed here, and don't have enough time to grow and produce fruit, so I always grow them from advanced seedlings now and they are far more successful.

I am going to do a gardening post later this week with more details of what I have planted, as I want a record to check later.

Reduce -  This month saw a heap of old paling fence come our way, mostly earmarked for kindling, but I did save some big pieces and my dad and I made 3 big planting boxes/crates out of them.  

They look a bit like the old apple crate garden beds you see around the place, 

nice and rustic and completely recycled and free!  

Also using a heap of old polystyrene boxes to grow lettuce in the hot house 

( fantastic results, really healthy growth with no slugs and snail damage, almost needs no washing!), and also to get my basil and tomatoes off to a head start as cold frames inside in front of a sunny window with a sheet of plastic on top, the seeds germinated really quickly.

Green -  Um...  I'm back to using the clothes line for the washing now the weathers fining up, no need to fire up the dryer anymore.

Create - Not a lot happening on the creative front at the moment, still chugging along on my big stripey blanket, and I made a bobble beret out of a new crochet book.

Discover - I have discovered that I don't think I'm cut out to be a teacher!  I have started a new job over the last few months as a cooking teacher at my son's primary school, as part of the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program, it has had a bit of a break at the school after being established about 6 years ago, and is now running again with funds being raised to employ a couple of staff ( me! and Brenda), and there has been a steep learning curve!   Quite different to cooking with my kids at home, I am slowly getting my head around things, but am still not sure if this is my cup of tea!

Enhance - helping out with the planning of a food festival at the school, it should be a fun afternoon!

I have also started a crochet along on my blog for people who want to make a mixed stripey blanket with me, so I guess that is connecting a bit more than usual with the lovely bloggy community.

Enjoy - September saw me gaining quite a lot of extra work, so my days off were really enjoyed and appreciated!  

The school holidays have been great, and we have had a few nice social occasions too, the weather has been improving and I have really been enjoying wandering around my garden gathering bunches of flowers to brighten up inside, simple pleasures.  

I've also decide life is too short not to use my 'good' things, so have been bringing out my nice crockery and bits and pieces and using them when I think of it, making a bit more effort is really upping the enjoyment factor of everyday life!

Ok, that is September done, a bit brief, but you get the idea.  Hoping October is a little more relaxed and there is a bit more crafty time.

Joining in over with Christine and the other slow living lovelies!