Softly, Slowly, Gently

It's good to remind ourselves of the beautiful things around us, no matter how small and insignificant.  My cliveas are bursting into bloom, huge, happy orange flowers that last for weeks.  So vibrant and lovely.

 We are still abounding in citrus, this was my haul of lemons, limes and oranges the other day.  Leaving the oranges until they fall off the tree seems to be the trick here, they are so lovely and sweet now.

 I love this sight.  Steve is the bread maker of the household and when he makes rolls he lets them rise by the fire.  Which reminds me, looking at that photo, that glass needs a clean! :-)

 Walks along the beach, rugged up against the cold.  Cosy Corner is a beautiful place, and I love the sight of the line of wind turbines off in the distance.

 A wee rest on the steps before we walked back to the car.

 There are more and more bulging pouches, and the start of the tiny joey faces popping out.  This mum is Jane, so named because she has no markings and is plain as plain, but I am interested to see her joey has a nice big white mark on its forehead...makes it much easier to identify them later!

 This mum is Nibble, so named because her right ear has all these little bits missing on the edge, like it's been nibbled.  Her joey is a little overdue for becoming independent, look at this size of that pouch!

 And here is said joey, who popped out of the pouch a few minutes later, had a big scratch and then proceeded to wallop mother.  Feisty little one!  It's amazing something that size can fit into the pouch.

 This is Rabbit with her very first big pouch, Steve caught a glimpse of a tiny nose poking out yesterday, my ambition over the next week is to get a photo.  I am feeling very grandmotherly towards this joey.  Rabbit is Lucy's last joey and we have known Rabbit since she was a baby, so feel very close to her baby and looking forward to meeting it.

 And here's the dear old girl Lucy, up at the house for breakfast.  She is accompanied by Brows who is scouting around for any oats that Lucy might have missed.  Brows is the chick of Peg, a one footed female magpie that we've known for the whole 6 years we've been here.  Sadly Peg broke her other leg a couple of months ago and we were unable to catch her and she disappeared, presumably she has died.  Brows was still learning the ways of a magpie from her mum Peg and has sort of adopted us.  Her name is Brows at present because she has little white eyebrows in her juvenile feather colouring.  She is rather daring the way she wanders around under Lucy, who could squash her any time.

 Oh yes, I can finally show you my secret crochet project, now it has been delivered to its new owner.  I made dad a lap blanket for Fathers Day, it's called an Ellipse Blanket.  Just the right size for keeping legs warm when watching the tellie. 

 I went so far as to add Dad's initials on a little crocheted disc in the corner, the design taken from his wedding ring.  I'm so glad you like your blanket Dad, I enjoyed making it for you.  xx

Until next time... xx

Upside Down Pears

Well, I was slack last week (reading binge :-) Phillipa Gregory books ) and didn't blog, consequently I have a gazillion photos for you today! 

 

 It's that time of year, everything is growing and growing and growing, weeds included!  The fruit trees are netted to keep out the parrots.  We didn't bother netting the almond in the bottom left, we were too late, the little green feathered bastard got in there and left us with one, ONE almond!  And here is it, lonely larry almond.... ha ha, we shall call it Larry :-)

The citrus thankfully don't need netting.  They are growing really well now, with loads of small fruit developing.  We have so many limes we don't know what to do with them all! :-)

 

 Look at this!  These are teeny tiny Williams pears, aren't they cute, little upside down pears.  I never stopped to think that they grow upside down until their weight turns them downwards.  Apples grow the same but the pears are way cuter. 

 These are Sundowner apples.  We are growing five apple varieties, to give us apples over a longer time period, but they've gone bonkers this year with the weird weather, the Sundowner is supposed to be the latest fruiter, but no-one told this tree, this tree is going to be the first fruiter this season!

These are Angel peaches, the flat shaped ones with white flesh.  We had trouble with a bad dose of leaf curl on the tree this season (my fault for not spraying with copper before the leaves started growing) so there's not a huge amount of fruit, maybe a dozen or so.  But we will enjoy them, we got six last year and we still remember how delicious they were.

 I love the new foliage on apricot trees, so so pretty.  This tree has gone beserk with growth, only two apricots but lots of leaf and branch growth.  Next year we shall glut on apricots, I am confident.  :-)

 

  The Italian Sugar Plum has also gone crazy with tree growth, but it forgot to do its magic with fruit, there is one, just one.  But I look at it regularly, I am very fond of it, looking forward to tasting it.  Perhaps I should name this too?

 

Nectarines, these are the white fleshed one, called Gold something, Goldmine maybe.  Dumb name for a white fleshed nectarine methinks.  There are about thirty of these on the tree, I am guessing they will be ready in a few weeks.  The other nectarine is a yellow fleshed variety - Flavortop, that has more fruit on it.  Can't wait to start eating our own fruit! 

Michelle, look!  Feijoa flowers!  Hopefully we will get some fruit this year.

 Six months ago Steve planted then lovingly tended 100 garlic plants. Yesterday was harvest day.  It's always a bit tricky working out when to pull them, but a good indication is when the foliage starts browning off at the tops.

 

 Steve got the spade under each one and I pulled, they had an impressive root system.

 

 Look at the size of this monster!  It's done so much better this year, last year's garlic was puny, and not just ours, it seemed to be common all around Albany.

 

 100 healthy garlic globes drying on the racks, very satisfying.  We'll let them dry out for a few days then trim the roots and tidy them up.

Albany and Denmark do an annual Open Garden thingy, to raise money for the Albany Community Hospice.  This started up after the official state Open Garden program turned up its toes.  There are about 12 gardens open over a few weekends.  We decided to choof along and see a couple. 

 Wow, amazing!  We wandered around magnificent lawns meandering through lush garden beds.  This garden had a stunning big pond at the bottom, with a huge weeping willow overhanging it.  We already have a big hole dug ready for a pond, it has sat idle for about 18 months while we tackled higher priority things, but seeing this pond has got us thinking that we must get moving with ours.  

The garden below was like a pristine park, it was predominantly roses which are not really our thing, but we admired the fabulous way the beds were set out and the immaculate lawns.

 I am on a mission to find out what the lovely little plant is, it was in one of the open gardens.  It stands about waist high and looks a bit like an abelia, but not quite.  If anyone knows what it is, please can you tell me!  Meanwhile I shall toodle through Google and hopefully find it.  My garden needs one of these!

 

 I've been busy in the back garden this week.  I want to widen the second tier of garden beds, so I cut a meandering edge around the grass, then started digging.  I've replanted the grass runners in a bald area, now to think about what plants to put into the spaces.  I like having spaces, gives me food for thought for what might like to grow there. :-)

We've only got half a dozen strawberry plants this year, in my back garden beds.  It's a fight to get a strawberry actually, usually I find the strawberry has a little hole in the underside, and inside is a fat, well fed slug!  I've put them in an area that is too overgrown and the slugs know it!  Next year I shall move them, meanwhile I am sort of hitching the strawberries up and over the leaves of the plants, getting the berries up off the ground seems to fool the slugs.

 

 Mum, this photo is for you.  Remember when I took a few cuttings of your lovely begonia with the apricot flowers?  Well, they sat stubbornly in pots for a couple of months, died right back and I thought they had carked it.  But no, look what is emerging, it looks like they will survive, hooray!

 

 Isn't this a beautiful flower, it's a Buddleia, or Butterfly Bush.  This is the first flower out, with masses of buds so there will be many.  Then I hope to see them dripping with butterflies.

 

 The warm weather brings out the bugs in force.  The giant hornets are zooming around now, in their hunt for spiders.  This one caught herself a big fat spider, stung it to paralyse it, then dragged it away to her underground lair to lay an egg on it.  Gruesome.

 It's nice to see some kookaburras around, they have been rather scarce this year.

 The hens are going well, and have feathered up nicely.  This week we have had five eggs every single day!  They are very happy girls.  

Sadly we lost Bridget, one of the old girls.  She was poorly for a couple of days and I was sitting in their yard, nursing her in a towel when she did a couple of gasps, a bit of a quiver and then died in my arms!  I cried a little bit, she was a lovely hen, quiet and friendly.  I think Angie, the last remaining original, misses her.

Speaking of eggs, we are always thinking of ways to use them.  Steve's signature dish is a cheesy omelette.  OMG, the way he makes them, they are sooooo delicious.  He cooks the omelette until it is not quite set on top, then adds some grated mozarella, and in this case, chopped spinach too, then folds it up and plates it.  The mozarella gets all oozy and glorious, yum!

My clever husband has been busy on his Book Box.  Isn't it lovely, the grain in the she-oak is just gorgeous.  Now it looks like a book with a lock on it to keep it closed, yes?

Da-dum, it actually opens the other way round, with the lock actually being a hinge.  Good job my dear.

I will finish with these photos that Michelle took, of me and Neo.  I love this one, Neo looks utterly content, having a cuddle.

There is a time limit on cuddles however, then you get bashed in the nose.

He's a beautiful boy.

The Pink Game

Happy Fathers Day to all the dads out there for tomorrow.  My dad got his present early when I spent half a week in Perth recently helping out, mum now has a sparkly non-cataract eye and is doing well.  I hope you enjoy your DVDs dad xx.

This is what the kids gave Steve, a natty, easy to use coffee aero press.  It sits atop your mug, the bottom filled with ground coffee.  You fill it up with boiling water and push, and coffee appears in your cup.  He also has a nifty little milk frother and some bags of yummy Yahava coffee (Steve has declared Zumo to be his favourite one), he is one happy coffee drinker.  Thanks kids! xx

 

Me, I hate coffee, but I do like hot chocolate.  The milk frother comes in handy for making splendiferous hot chocolate. :-)

 

 As winter comes to an end, there has been quite a bit of harvest from the vegie patch as plants wind up their winter growth, ready to be pulled up and added to the compost heap.  We are very excited about these, being that we really enjoy growing our own potatoes.... it is something that we are truly self sufficient in.  This variety, that we grew for the first time, are Kipflers.  Smaller than other varieties, and distinctively long, skinny and knobbly, they taste delicious!

The English spinach has gone mental.  I've been picking leaves only, a big bucketful at a time, giving it a good rinse and briefly boiling it, then squishing the liquid out of it and freezing it in blocks for later on.  I also made a giant spinach and ricotta lasagne that was shared around the family and declared to be yummy, goodo.  :-)

The celery is ready too, I love growing celery, it does much better down here in the cooler air than Perth.  One of my favourite things to do with it is make gallons of Cream Of Celery soup, which I freeze.  It is delicious! 

How is this for a healthy lunch, homemade hummus and fresh veg.  We can't claim to have grown everything, the capsicum are store-bought..... it's something we struggle to grow - a challenge, once day we will succeed! 

The roos have been relishing the odd sunny day, taking the time to sun themselves for hours.  It's a hard life.  That's Lucy the old girl at the front, right outside the house.

They know how to make themselves comfortable.  That's Lucky spread out snoring under the lime tree.  He was Lucy's joey two years ago and is so named as he nearly got grabbed by a big wedgetailed eagle when he was a wee boy just out of Lucy's pouch.

May I introduce Chip and Jane.  Chip is one of the newer big males, he probably ranks second or third in the hierarchy.  He is named Chip as he has a very dark nose with lighter fur around his eyes and cheeks, and when he looks at you head-on, he looks a bit like a chipmunk.  Jane is named as Plain Jane, she has no distinguishing marks at all, which is how I know who she is, as all the others have something to identify them.  Her new joey's head is just visible between her legs.

 

I haven't told you about Neo's morning ritual, we have called it The Pink Game.  On the end of our bed is an ancient, holey, pink cardigan, and every morning without fail, when I get dressed, Neo burrows underneath it, waiting for The Pink Game.  He can see through it, and waits for hands to hover over him, and attacks!  He can get a little carried away, I have a few scars to show for this fun game, he is such a dag.  :-)

He has good fun playing it, and will stay under the cardigan for ages after I've got bored.

Even better when his best toy, a little koala that Stevie gave him, is involved.

 

BITS AND BOBS
Water status - both water tanks overflowing.  Total water storage 125000 litres
What we are eating from the garden - cabbage, broccolini, English spinach, celery, sugar snap peas,  King Edward, Dutch Cream, Kipfler, Norland and Almera potatoes, bell chillies, herbs, citrus (lime, lemon and orange) and passionfruit.
Egg status - a couple a week, we need more chooks!
What am I making - on a crochet binge at the moment, currently making a shopping bag.  Also having a go at knitting Stevie and Riley beanies with a hole in the top for ponytail to poke through, not sure what they will make of them! :-)