this n that

Hello friends,

Its been a busy week and I thought I'd share some of it with you. As I write this post, there is thunder and lightening and rain outside. So good at last.

I decided to give these tired garden treasures a facelift. I still have to finish off the black cockatoo and chicken tyre.

Morning coffee spot.

I'm growing a passionfruit in a pot. It gets afternoon shade here in this spot. The other one I had planted in the ground along a hot fence and it didn't do too well, so hoping this way is successful. It will be able to meander all over the saltbushes on the other side of the fence. 

I had tiny tom seedlings given to me so have planted them all about here and there. These are suppose to be prolific producers.

This lawn has always been the bane of my existence haha! I hate watering it. If I'm going to use water, I would rather grow food.  So I have been making a plan and hopefully I will be soon growing food in this spot.

Tree down after gale force winds that came with tons of dirt.

I am growing gifted grapevines along the side of the veggie patch. They should provide shade and a  windbreak.

These propagated figs trees have gone to their new home.

Around the patch...

I am picking strawberries daily to have with our breakfast and dessert.

Fordhook silverbeet.

This is what happens when you put potato skins in your compost bed.

Salvia for the bees.

 Zucchini

Volunteer spring onions.

New zucchinis planted.

My first "curly" cucumber. I picked this today and enjoyed some with my lunch.

Rhubarb

Last seasons tomatoes hanging on.

Picking zucchinis every few days.

These two mysterious plants have popped up in my rhubarb.  I am not sure what they are. I presume they came up in the whofungdung mulch I put around them.

Flowering Thai basil.

Ever reliable geraniums for a bit of colour. 

This is a rose briar. The original rose bush died and after a while this grew.  I have left it there as it looks pretty all covered in pretty little roses.

These grow in the front garden. They are bulbs of some sort.

Spider lily.

Succulents grow steadily here.

I did some baking. Its been a while since I have made cake. This is my date loaf recipe but not with dates as I didn't have any, so I added raisins instead. I have made another one since using mixed fruit. They are just as delicious as the date loaf.

Late in the day.

Pickings...

We bartered eggs and honey for these fire-king dishes.

The jade bush is flowering and these little bugs love them. I am not sure if they are native bees or hover flies, and the bush was covered in them.

The Kurrajong tree is a favourite with our bees. Its all abuzz when we walk past.

Star jasmine.

Yesterday we went to an auction in Wilmington. My Dad had told me about it because he helped the real estate people prepare for it. There were a lot of goodies, but I had my eye on a tiny vintage mandolin and a banjo. I didn't end up getting the mandolin but I did get the banjo.

I also saw these old bowls I liked in a box, so Phil bid on them. Only thing was, they combined three boxes together, all up it cost $2.00 for all of these. The bowls were a bit grubby but a little soak and scrub and they came up alright.  The rest of the goodies are in pretty good nick.

Also with the bowls was this plastic one. It has no brand name and cleaned up okay too.

This Pyrex casserole was grubby, but a good soak overnight and it has come up like new. No chips and it has a lid. Bonus!

This large plate is flawless, retro and I love it!  Now I have another serving dish for Christmas.

I probably wont keep these retro trays, but we will see. All in great condition.

This combination was in one box.

As were these gorgeous dinner plates.

A glass saucepan that I will probably donate.

Two old Johnson pie dishes, and pretty side plates. Only one has a small chip. 

In another box...

This is an enamel serving tray It is a bit tattered but very pretty.

This is a really pretty bowl.

I love this and it is definitely made in Australia.

And this little piggy was sitting on the top.

My banjo. Now to learn to play it ~ smiles

And then there was this. An Omnichord. Now I didn't even know what this was, but I am going to find out how to play using youtube as a guide.  Apparently its an expensive instrument to buy, so I hope I can learn to play it well. Anyone have one of these, or know anything about them?  The music sounds lovely.

Picked fresh from the garden this morning.  Lots of green goodness. I will make a mean green juice using the silver-beet, cucumber, apples, celery, lemon, ginger.  A nice boost for my immune system. Yum!

The parsley is dried.

And the best news of the day/week. We had a huge thunderstorm go through earlier today. It dumped 8.5mm {34points} on us, but came with really strong wind, thunder, lightening and hail amongst it.  It is so good to see all the water, the plants will be refreshed once again.

This road goes past our place.

So that was my week. Please excuse all the photos, they do help tell a big part of the story.

How was your week? Did you get up to anything special?

See you all soon.

xTania 

weekend at dads

Hello everyone,

As mentioned in my last post, I spent the weekend over at Dad's. Mum's flowers are looking lovely in this Spring weather, we pick them occasionally and take to Mums grave.

My Dad is a tinkerer and this is what keeps him busy. He is always on the go which is good, and spends most of his days doing this or that in his shed. 

After some convincing, Dad has planted some veggies. He wasnt going to as he didnt see the point with just him there, but I said I would deal with any excess as he grows the best tomatoes! Mum usually makes tomato soup and relish with the excess.  Now it is my turn to do those things.

I will take you of a photographic tour...

These are the veggie beds, they are under shade to protect the plants from our hot summers. There is not as much growing this year, because Mum was the keen veggie gardener in this section.

Potato poking through.

Lebanese cucumbers in here.  Now the weather has warmed these will take off. Some of these popped up by themselves, but I also bought a punnet for Dad to put in.

The strawberry bed. Dad said something is eating the strawberries, he thinks it is rats as he has had a lot of trouble with them this year.  He has tried almost everything to control them, but they are shrewd little critters.

Next door to the veggie beds is the tomato patch.  Dad always took care of the tomatoes.  They seem to be doing well. The hose is what Dad laid there, it is connected to the shed roof. The slightest bit of rain or dampness will flow onto these tomatoes.

One of the climbing geraniums.

Mum sure knew how to grow mint. We are wondering what we are going to do with all this haha!

Raspberries starting to form...

A few years ago I stopped by a garden that were selling these Bearded Iris beauties. I got a heap of bulbs for Mum and they are so pretty when they flower. 

Mum was very much involved with the WAB {Women's Agricultural Bureau} and this rose is the official WAB white rose. It is heavy in flower this year...

Not the best photo of this pelargonium, the colour of this flower is almost black. The bush is covered in them. 

Some of Mum's many roses.

And the holly hocks. I bought these as very sad seedlings on special, and now they grow huge and flower beautifully.

Daisy bush...

Lab lab bean {seven year bean} flower.

One lonely flowering bulb.

Stunning pelargonium.

 

And this beautiful bloom on the hippy.  It got a bit wind bashed the other day. Mum also had an unusual green one of these flower this year, she never got to see it and I forgot to take a photo ~sigh.

This is the similar to the other flower Mum has planted. This is a google pic.

Quinces on the little tree again.

Apricots

Peaches.

Different variety of peach.

Nectarines

Dad thought the rhubarb had died last year, but it has appeared again this season.

Dad was working on this baler when I arrived. In the time I was there he got it up and running and baled his crop.

This is a mower he is building. He started this project last year but when Mum took sick in January it fell by the wayside. He hasn't got a lot more to do before he will have it working and hopefully cutting the grass around the place. I just noticed Dad lying under the tractor working on something in the back ground haha!

Dad decided to get Mums milk separators out and give them a clean. Mum milked a house cow for most of her life.

And so ends the tour of my parents property.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend also.

See you soon,

xTania