This Week at a Glance

Its been a busy week here on the home front. 

Spring has well and truly sprung.  The days have warmed up quite a bit, to the point that the air conditioner will need to be serviced for use shortly.  Nearly time to retire the fire and start spending more time outside. Temperatures are sitting in the low 30'sC (mid 80'sF) at the moment.

Around here I have been baking as usual. 

This was leftover chicken curry made into a pie.

Native peach (quandong) with sponge topping.  Yum, yum!

 

Mimi's best ever chocolate cake for my dad's birthday. Served with whipped cream and strawberries.

 

Spring cleaning has begun!

Out in the garden I have an infestation of aphids.  And on my garlic too, so whoever said garlic doesn't have enemies, was wrong!

Thank goodness for the internet, as a quick search for what treats aphids and how to make it was found...I am happy to report that it has been three days since I treated the garlic with white oil and the aphids are almost all gone J

The mandarins are about finished for this year.  There are just a few left and they are so high up we cant reach them.

I picked this basket full the other day and took them to the local Salvation Army to be handed out to the needy. This weighed 13.5kg! That takes the total to around 180kgs off this wonderful producing tree. And they are the sweetest tasting mandarin.

 The nectarine tree is in blossom.

 It is covered in pretty pink.

And the apricot tree is a mass of white blossoms.

I organised my compost bins this week.  

I needed to give them a stir and add straw, soil and manure to the mix.

 We are using the top half of a sulo bin (rubbish bins) for compost. The bottoms are being used in our veggie garden.

The compost is almost ready in this barrel.

 When I had finished I sat myself down on this bench for a little while and just listened to the birds in full song.  

It was so peaceful...

I couldn't resist buying this pretty little lavender plant that was on special.

I have changed my mind about using the guttering for now.  I decided to use some of these pots instead.  I have planted baby spinach and mixed lettuce.  

 

I purchased some more pots. These are sitting on an old bbq stand that hubby remodeled for me.  I still has the wheels on so It can move it around to suit the weather.

The strawberries are covered in flowers.

and strawberries.

Hubby has started making some more garden wicking beds.  These ones are in baths.

 He has spaced these ones out more as we had them a bit close together.  In the barrel at the back right is nettle tea soaking for fertiliser for the garden.

Pooh, this really smells!

 I have been sorting through my seeds and getting some ready to plant out.

My parents are visiting this weekend and they brought with them some tomato plants ready to go.

And a bunch of silver beet seedlings.

I made some more washing powder this week.

This time I decided to put it through a sieve to make a finer mix as seen here.

First I grated a yellow bar of laundry soap

Then added leftover soaps from here at home. 

These add a lovely aroma.

 We had a cheeky visitor pass through yesterday...

A Shingle-back sleepy lizard.

We have also sighted our first snake.  It was a deadly brown snake and about six foot long! Hubby spied him from the top of the shed, but by the time he got down the snake was gone... 

Its my dads 79th birthday today.  

My parents arrived here yesterday afternoon and our whole family but one, went out to tea/dinner last night.  What a fun time for all of us to get together.

I had to take a photo of this gift that Dad received.  It is a night light and oh so cute. 

I love Vee Dubs by the way J

All in all it has been a great week here.

I feel like I have achieved a lot. 

 I stayed away from the grocery shops! My freezers are full and so is my pantry.  Time to live out of these two for a while and see how much money I can save by doing so. 

The bright sunshine of Spring fills me with fresh energy that was lacking during the winter months.

What about you? Are you achieving a lot more now that Spring is here?