About Me

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Life on two acres of arid dirt, on the edge of the Australian outback.

Sunday, December 21, 2014

From Our House to Yours


 
May the light of love shine upon you, and may your life be filled with blessings in this Christmas season.

 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my blogging friends! 

Much Love,
Tania xx




Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Home

Home is where the heart is...

Home is where family gather

Home is  
simple morning sunshine

Home is where baking happens






Home is where the garden grows

 Home is where the rooster crows

 Home is where mum is

Home is where friends are welcome

Home is where we relax

and create

Home is my haven where I feel safe.
Home is where I feel content.
Home is my happy place.


 What does your home mean to you?







Tuesday, December 16, 2014

A Tragic Day for Australia

Australia is in mourning today.

Latest story here


Flowers for the two hostages that were sadly killed in the shootout this morning.


Our two heroes

 RIP Tori Johnson 
34 years old and the manager at the Lindt cafe in Martin Place Sydney. He died when he wrestled with the gunman so others could escape.


 RIP Katrina Dawson, 38 years old.
Mum of three young children eight, five and three. She died protecting her pregnant friend.


My thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of these two special souls.  





Thursday, December 11, 2014

A Veggie Post

My veggies are doing really well this year. I have put heaps of mulch and added extra shade to the beds and over head to help keep the moisture in.

 It looks like tent city, but hey it does the job J

They promised us rain yesterday and today, but all we received were black clouds, a lot of loud noise from the thunder and strong winds that brought a whole lot of dirt with it!

Hubby has promised to put a solid shade over the veggie garden after "his shed" is finish. That could be a while yet, so for now the "tents" will have to do.  He has hooked dripper hose up to the garden beds, but I haven't used them yet.

 
Now for a look at what is under all that shade.


Kale doing really well, this is great for our green juice. There are no aphids among them this year.  I read somewhere to lay onions in the bed to deter them.  This I have done and so far so good.

Sweet potatoes.

Beetroot

This bed contains a mixture of pumpkins, 
tomatoes and capsicums. The tomatoes and pumpkins came up themselves out of the compost that I mixed into the bed.

Cucumbers are a bit slow, but they have some little cukes on them now J

I have tomatoes, these came up themselves,
 


and are doing nicely.


More sweet potato in the tub.

Pumpkin. I think.  It came up on it's own.


Zucchini's. 
I am picking these daily.


I am picking plenty of tiny tomatoes.
 

These go well in salads.

The carrots are in there.

Rhubarb, celery and pumpkins in there.
The rhubarb has gotten huge since putting shade cloth over the top.  And so has the celery.

The celery has gone to seed and is trying to push through the shade cloth. I will be chopping it back in the next couple of days.

There is beetroot in this bed, and one potato plant so far.
 I have planted more potatoes, just waiting for them to appear.

Today's pickings.

The kale and celery will go to make Mean Green Juice.
The recipe being;
 a bunch of Kale, 4 stalks celery, 2 apples, 1 cucumber, thumb size piece of ginger, and 1/4 lemon.  Put through the juicer starting with the kale and celery, followed by the rest. Can be watered down if too strong.
Enjoy!

I planted two passion fruit vines earlier this week. The sun has scorched them a bit, but they are still doing okay. I did put shade over them but I think 41C (106F) was too much so soon after being planted. If only the rain had come!
I am hoping these will grow nice and tall to make shade for our outside entertainment area.

My next lot of compost is brewing in these barrels. We couldn't get hold of another compost bin, so we used a regular one with the bottom cut out.  I turn the compost every so often using the yellow handled stirrer thingy in the bucket.

How is your garden growing this summer?


Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Another Year Older

Another birthday has come and gone. 

 My old sunbeam mix master that I love using, but it has been over heating lately so hubby thought it was time for a new one. 
I just need to learn how to use this one now. This gadget is too big to fit in my kitchen cupboard, so it has found a home in my pantry.
The flowers were part of the gift J