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