garlic, fruit & petals

I love surprises, especially garden related ones. A friend noticed gorgeous purple balls of flowers in our front garden - low and behold we have been growing wild garlic. I cooked with it last night and it's got a mild taste, more like an onion. I believe I can plant those small yellowish cloves around April next year and they will pop up again. Who'd have known!

For the first time since we moved here our apricot, plum and pear trees are riddled with plump fruits, so much that the branches are so heavy the tips touched the grounds and needed staking.  Last year we watched ripe fruits get finished off by lorikeets and rosellas and we are not willing to let them do it again. So we netted the tree last night in hope of saving some.

A walk around block =  me bringing home pretty "noxious weeds". Oh why does my park ranger boy have to spoil the occasion?!

♥♥♥♥

little veggie plot

Christmas is over for another year and I am amazed at how quickly the new year has arrived. The Boy and I hosted a delicious family Chrissy lunch for 8 with success (although I doubt I will ever get the timing right so vegies are served steaming HOT) and without frantic last minute cleaning or shopping. We cooked a plethora of delightful dishes ... roast pork with cinnamon apple sauce ... green beans with butter and wasabi ... honeyed carrots... garlic butter mushrooms ... asparagus ...split chicken.... and finished with two desserts, Summer berry trifle and passion fruit vanilla slice, one can never eat enough dessert I say! Yum.

The day after Boxing Day, after weeks of discussions and planning we got to work on our little veggie bed project. And now just days later - it's complete. My frontal lobe hurts from reading books, blogs and watching youtube clips about growing veggies, types of soil, which grow best in our temperate-Mediterranean Adelaide climate, to sow seeds or buy seedlings etc. I feel entirely motivated by the idea of growing and eating my own vegetables, that it's almost exhausting. I recall feeling the same way when I was learning how to crochet and knit.

 One empty boring side yard.

First layer of redgum sleepers bolted together.

Second layer and beds lined up.

The sandwich began with a layer of cardboard, which smothers and kills weeds and grass.

 Followed by a 10 cm layer of pea straw.

Lastly, filled with loam and organic compost.

I can't wait to share the progress of our our little plot and harvests (fingers crossed that my thumbs are green enough) over the coming months. If you have any suggestions for Summer sowing I would love to hear them.

♥♥♥♥

christmas branch at night

 Have a lovely christmas my dear family, friends and readers x

flea market finds

I'm a few days late but didn't anticipate playing this week, until I went to mum's oppie to work yesterday. I am 100% smitten with the coloured glass marbles in this lovely big jar.... so so pretty.. swoon...

... and couldn't say no to three Soda Stream retro glass bottles, which have already taken pride of place on the dining room window sill, alongside other glass lovelies. I shall have to be super patient and wait for my roses (which I beheaded incorrectly - oops!) to bloom again to use them as vases.

Thanks Sophie!

plastic fantastic

I found about 40 auderve forks in a jar this week at the oppie. I have fallen for the retro milky colours and smooth texture. Feeling bored of my framed pictures I decided the forks might look a bit flash glued in rows in a frame. I am so happy with the result - and all for 75 cents. Not bad ey!

creative space and bits

The urge to crochet struck mid last week. This little ami is to be gifted and still needs some facial details, but I really like it's floppy limbs. See more over at kotoyoo :)

Our jacaranda is in bloom, and dropping those gorgeous violet flowers much too quickly.

Yummy spinach picked fresh from a good friend's vegie garden. I adore butter and spinach together... mmm!

x