Around Here ~ weekly catchup

What a beautiful week of Spring weather we have just experienced.  The nights are cold but the days are just lovely. I spent a lot of time outside doing some jobs in the garden.

 I planted out the silver beet that my parents gave to me.

The plants are sulking a bit in this photo, but by tonight they were standing upright again.

I have had to put the shade over just until they are over the shock of being planted.

A few weeks ago I planted some cucumber seeds in one of the garden beds and finally two have popped up.

I was starting to think they were going to be a no show.

Last week I planted some of the same cucumber seeds in a punnet, placed them in a little hot house container and they have sprouted already.  I also planted some zucchini and basil seeds in the other punnets.

 Here is how my fig tree is progressing. 

I am very happy with the way it is growing.

I think this may be why they are doing so well.  I have covered them with plastic bags, they must really like the humidity.

 Here are the other sticks of fig tree I potted out. All but two have taken off, but they may still shoot out, only time will tell.

I found some potatoes while digging around in the garden.

I kept these to eat.

And put the rest in this large pot.

 Rocks in the bottom, then some dirt, potatoes, and topped with straw. As they grow I will layer more dirt and straw.

Today we added three more barrels to the garden.   It is a little disorganised out there at the moment as we try to remove old beds and add the new barrels.  Hopefully we will be going to the city to get some more barrels this coming week.

These three are ready to have plants put in.  

Maybe tomorrow we will get to set the baths up. It is time consuming to make the wicking beds so hopefully they are going to produce well.

Hubby made me an outdoor fruit/veg dryer.

I nagged asked and he produced.

I love how clever he can be.

No instructions to follow, just figured it out for himself.

I will post the process next week.

He used an old dog bed frame to sit them on, and I have put it on a table outside.

I have saved some cans to put on the legs to keep ants away from the fruit.  I will fill these with water if the ants venture too close.

This quandong was the largest one we picked this year!

Usually the seeds from the quandongs are thrown around our block and they come up by themselves everywhere. However this year we learned that the seeds are worth money to seed collectors. I was told that they pay $5.00 a kilo for these.  So next time I will keep them to sell.

I am trying this out for the dryer.  I mooshed up some cooked and sweetened native peaches (quandongs) to make fruit leather.  I hope this works J

And while hubby was in the mood for creating, I showed him a picture of one of these from the internet. Within half an hour I had one!

These are designed to wash veggies as you pick them.

My very own gathering basket,

I LOVE IT!!

 I am getting quite a collection of these jars. 

My mum has been saving them for me.

These are a great addition to my pantry.

I have cleared out the shelving in the pantry and placed them there.

And here in my tea station,

I have used some of the smaller jars and added home made labels.

To make more usable space in my pantry it was out with all these recipe books!

I have only kept the ones I use regularly.

I gave the pantry a good tidy up and had some cake mix and pie apple that were passed their best before dates, so I decided to make up a slice to use them up.

   

Apple and sour cream slice. 

Mmmm delicious!

If you use facebook the recipe can be found here.

After reading Phil's post, I decided to gather our vintage scales together for a photo.

These are the three we own. The blue one was given to us by friends when they moved.

I would like to get hold of the original bowls for the older ones.  Maybe one day I will find some in my travels.

I checked to see if they still weigh accurate, and they sure do!

This one I am going to start using.  

Most of my recipes use the old measurements so this should work well.

Bringing a little nature inside.

Pretty Geraldton Wax.

And to finish off with one of our lovely sunsets from earlier this week.

We are lucky to view a lot of stunning sunsets from our back door.

Well that sums my week up. 

What about you? Did you have a productive week?

Take care dear friends.