February plot

There's a lot of green in these photos, as the garden is growing so well and aside from the rainbow chard everything is exactly that - lovely lush green. Both types of beans have appeared just 3-4 days after their flowers opened up. Looking forward to fresh beans - the shop ones we've been buying only seem to last a crappy 3 days in our fridge these days.

The bok choy is floursishing, crispy and very tasty.

The lone tomato I posted last week has now got sisters and brothers. Surely we must be a few days away from being ripe?!

Ooooh YES, it's been a good few months since I have handmade anything so on a crafty note yesterday I finally bought a free-motion quilting foot!!!!!! I hope to start quilting my picnic (come queen size bed quilt top) blanket soon, which I haven't even glanced at since October... see here, here and here.

The last thing I had done was tie the quilt layers at intervals with embroidery floss, but I became worried that the ties are too far apart which will mean the batting will separate and eventually come adrift in the sandwich. An attempted to quilt the layers together on the machine rendered me feeling hopeless. I read that free-motion quilting is difficult so I'll be sure to do some test runs on pretend mini quilt sandwiches before getting stuck into the real thing.

♥♥♥♥

green

Our 50 year old pear tree is now brimming with gorgeous fat pears, and similar to last year the rainbow lorikeets and possums are getting to them before we can. We were hoping that placing them on the kitchen windowsill will ripen them up nicely, but we tried one yellowing one which smelt divinely pear-esque the other day and it was terribly bitter and had gross brown spots inside. Shame. Hopefully the rest are better.

Tasty spring onions, bok choy and rainbow chard have been harvested for our last two dinners.

We took a trip to Bunnings today and I spent a few happy hours gardening in the afternoon. I planted one too many leeks, in hope for some yummy potato and leek soup in the Winter (it appears that the tray for $2.99 contained 32 to be precise hehe). Friends and family, I hope you like leeks! Also put in some green dragon broccoli and one brussel sprout plant just for the fun of watching it grow - the little sprouts grow dotted all around the outside of one tall stem. Very random.

Hope your enjoying some lovely mid 20's weather as we are in Adelaide ♥♥♥♥

lounge room re*decorate

Adios dark brown leather sofas!!! After being unsure about purchasing a light coloured sofa - we decided just to jump in (all well and good while we don't have any children) and we are now completely in love  with our lounge room and new cushions ♥♥♥

The oatmeal coloured fabric is wonderfully light and has opened the space up and... us tallies can both lay down on the new modular without our legs hanging over the edge!

 The step ladder went up on the wall as a joke, then we decided it was sort of interesting and it has stayed put. I am thinking that the printers tray might look nice on that wall once I have finished cleaning it up.

See the blanket stand above? We seriously love blankets in this house. Are you eagerly awaiting the cooler months too?

little veggie plot

We tried our rainbow chard on Friday which are growing quickly, and now have thick brilliant yellow, orange and red stems, and those typical glossy bumpy leaves....

...and we're celebrating bees and their clever pollinating handiwork. This morning I counted about 20 yellow flowers. I can already taste tomato, basil and bocconcini salad....  mmmm!

first harvest, berries and pies

We picked our first veggies on the weekend. 5 extraordinarily peppery radishes! We tried one and couldn't handle the taste so gave them all to my mum and dad :) They seemed very grateful, but I haven't called them to ask their honest verdict. Although they grew so quickly and it was delightful to watch those red baubles appear at the soil surface we will never grow them again. 

On Sunday The Boy took us on a drive into the Adelaide Hills to pick blackberries. There is something so special about picking berries from the roadside. We did get ripped to shreds by nasty thorns (gloves helped somewhat) but after about 30 minutes of picking we came away with half a bucketful of plump glossy berries!

When we got home The Boy used our basil to make pesto and pine-nut pasta. It was incredibly tasty. Hoorah for freshly grown herbs! And for dessert .... I Googled blackberry pie recipes and made two large pies in cake tins (should buy a pie tin) with this recipe.  Very simple and yummy. A delicious weekend (sans radish).

♥♥♥♥

flea market finds

Last week I mentioned a special something that I had wished and dreamed of having in my possession, then found it at Limberlost. One beautiful (albeit dirty and cobweb ridden) printers tray!!

When I saw one shabby looking tray on the floor I asked without much hope if the owner had any more. He walked my friend and I down to his little workshed and there in front of me was what you see in the photo above. My jaw dropped (I recall my friend taking a photo of my face hehe) as I couldn't believe what I saw. So many trays all piled up on top of each other! I went through them all and chose the one on the top.

Here she is in her before state.

I hoped to have before and after photos by now, but it's still in it's before state as there is crispy grotty paper covering the back of each little space which needs to be removed. I attempted to clean it up then realised that  this job will be a more time consuming task. As I have mentioned previously, I do love a little project :)

So until then, do pop into Sophie's for other cleaner finds!
♥♥♥♥

January plot

It's all growing! Thanks to my crafty fellow's blue tarp shade structure($40 for everything!) most plants survived the 42 degree heatwave Adelaide experienced this week. Of the unlucky few were our poor passion fruit plants which crisped to smithereens :(

Bed 1. The basil is growing SO quickly and looking rather lush. Incredibly hardy herbs in this bed. No shade, all survived the heat. The bok choy is beginning to resemble store bought bok choy.This makes for happy gardeners at our house. We examined the rocket plants this evening, which are beginning to develop that thin frilly leaf... and already tastes peppery.

Bed 2. The radish plants have begun producing round scarlet bulbs just below the surface. We lost a few orange carrot seedlings, and I'm waiting for their greenery to pick up... or are carrots just slow growers? Our golden butter beans, which i sowed directly in the bed from seed, have grown taller than the green beans I sowed in seedling raiser trays - even though the butter beans weren't sown until about a week and a half after the green bean seedlings were transplanted. It appears that direct sowing leads to faster growth.

Bed 3. Rainbow chard is growing beautifully, as are the purple carrots.  It's difficult to see in the photo (click on it to see the full size, might be easier to spot) but the beetroot plants have thinned themselves in the scorching temps to the fittest (saved me from doing it!).

Bed 4. We just love tomatoes. It is one of those staple foods for us which we buy regularly, although they rarely taste spectacular. So we bought a $2.99 pack of 8 cherry tomato seedlings only 3 weeks ago in hope of getting a few fruits before the end of the Summer. Already the plants have quadrupled in size and  ... two have tiny yellow flowers. We couldn't believe it - flowers so soon. We might have our own tasty tomatoes  in the next few weeks. Yummo.

ps. We really need to invest in a digital watering timer to reduce garden related stupidity like forgetting the soaker hoses were on for oh, 9 whole hours!