garden update.

We had an awesome thunder storm the other night, I had just gotten home from work when it started and I was a tad bummed as I work on the 8th floor at the hospital there would of been some awesome sights from up there!

The garden loved the big down pour... Im not so stoked tho... now I have to mow the lawns!!

Heres a few pics of the garden now, still not harvesting much from it, the chooks attacked the sliverbeet, the spinach, brocs and lettuces all bolted so I biffed them over to the chooks. At least now three out of four are laying so I guess its not all a waste.

The chooks went on a rampage when I was raising seedlings so I ended up planting unknown seedlings randomly in the garden a couple of them were sunflowers, this one has a massive head and is short.

This one has multiple heads sprouting off the stem! and doesnt seem to have a middle just lots of petals.

Everythings pretty crammed in there... at least theres no room for weeds (that I can see any way!) The cornflower has gone crazy and I cant for the life of me recall what its good for! Will have to google....

My spaghetti melons have gone on a rampage.... Its a point I dont know if I should cull it or leave it! I havent even tried it before so no idea if its worth eating or not.

My poor corn is fighting for a spot, and tomatoes... welll they might be in there somewhere... There was celery once upon a time...

It had even hooked itself on the neighbours garden trellis and had grown to their house *blush* so I yanked that off. Its growing towards the fence keeping the chooks in and to the other garden...

But it is fruiting 'ok' Ive harvested one (but not cooked it, will do that tonight, will need google for that too...) and theres three massive ones growing that I can see, chances are theres another one or two hiding.

I wish they were watermelons!!! Next year....

Strawberries are on their third round...

The plums are ready! I cant decide if I can be bothered making them in to jam or not tho??? Why is jamming season the hottest season when you dont want to be standing over a hot stove!

Sorry Little einsteins

But Jake cant help you on your mission this afternoon (for those who dont watch LE, they ask the child to help them solve the issue and go on a mission, Jake said No, I asked why not?) because hes....
"To big to fit in the TV" !!
Oh dear I said, Im sure you can squeeze you in if you wanted Jake?
"No its square, Im not."

Fair enough I guess.

Anyway today I was bored waiting for the porridge to cool down this morning so made a bag for Jakes inhaler. I used some monster fabric that was used to wrap a swap I recieved a while ago (... 2 yrs ago...) and always planned on making something out if it. See it pays to put things off and stock pile fabrics sometimes you do NEED it ;)

The inhaler goes in the pocket (still to be snapped) and spacer in the main body of the bag.

I even got out the hammer and put in a proper eyelet.

And for good measure, Jake with his inhaler, I covered it in stickers to make it more fun. But hes actually accepted it well and already asks for it when he gets wheezy (not bad for a few days of use!)

Then this morning we went Strawberry picking. Much easier then Blueberry picking... almost too easy... Didnt take long to fill four icecream containers at all.

Jake and Mum

Grans bum was in the way of some good ones... and yes she knocked him over when she stood up and yes I just stood there and took a picture and didnt give any form of warning about the child behind her...

M, L and Z, L was the master at picking the green ones... ;)

The loot. 3 icecream containters full. (M took one)

And Ive been Pav and meringue making! I wanted to do some meringues so Jake didnt miss out, as the pav is going to have cream on it. (Mean mummy will NOT have pav without cream!! ;) ) I put 100s n 1000s on them. Will take most of them to the bbq tonight at a friends. (odd looking because I dont have a piping bag, tried to make one but the bottom seam brust and I had mixture oozing ut of two places! so mish mash meringues it is!)

And my Pav... Its a pretty good looking pav too if I dont say so myself!

I think I may have found the secret to pav making..... At first when I started I thought I was a bit mad.... towards the end I decided that yes I was in fact a bit mad... but look at that pav! And what secret weapon am I talking about???.....

A hand held mixer! Haha, I have a normal big mixer but it is missing a beater... for the last three years! I dont think it will ever show up :( but Yes I did make both a pav and meringues with a $12 warehouse handheld mixer!! It got a bit hairy towards the end, when the handle even got too hot hold and the pav was cooking on the beaters, but Im sure that happens often?? I pushed forward and figured hey worse case I kill my cheap mixer, $12... I can spare it so long as the pav works! then it got a bit smokey smelling (well a LOT smokey smelling!) so I stopped... Decided it was beaten enough anyway. Wonder if it will work next time I try to use it!

Ive also finished off Jakes outfits and made a last minute crayon roll. Im suprised I got the clothes done! Just have to snap them tonight, Im wanting to use jean snaps but I cant find my tool for it!! Dam! Will have a proper hunt for them later, fingers crossed its somewhere simple!

'Tis the season...

For Blueberry picking!!
Jakes most loved berry (He begs me to buy them if hes spots them, at $6 a punnet eeeek!) So decided to go and pick them ourselves, which is more fun then supermarket shopping, and teaches Jake were food actually comes from (not a clear plastic container shock horror!)
I was hoping it would cheer him up a little too as hes unwell today so missed out on his last day of homebased care (But we popped in to say bye and deliever the lolly tree, so he was happy with that.)
The Berry company is just past Ohaupo and it costs $8.50 kg (and punnet is 250g!! MEGA savings!!)

Inspecting the berry...

CLose up of a wee bunch.

The car was down the end there.... somewhere... We went in deep in the row to get to where it hadnt been picked muched but....

There was still miles behind us untouched! And there where rows and rows and rows of this! Amazing, and both sides of the road. Great set up and the staff were lovely too. Plus it was a lovely sunny day.

Blueberry bush, I was hoping to show all the blue but couldnt get close enough, just believe me when I say there was alot of blueberries!

The smaller one of the three containers we filled. We ended up with 6kg! We though it was Much more, total cost was $50, which is brillant. We are going to freeze a lot for blueberry smoothies, blueberry icecream, mum brought me an icecream maker a few weeks back to make Jake dairy free icecream, I imagine homemade blueberry yoghurt icecream will be divine!! *droool* blueberry muffins, blueberry cheesecake......

They taste fab too, much nicer the store brought, theres no tarty bite to them. Next we are going strawberry picking, Jakes second fave, hoping for xmas eve day. I just have to hunt down a place that does it.

And then to finish off the day we ended up at accident and medical with Jake :S Will add pics later of his new toy! Hes all now good tho, him and his 11 items of medication!!! Thank god hes free to medicate! Again lovely staff and very quick process, we probably waited the same amount of time you would if you were at your normal GP with an appt. Just awesome, I dont know why more people dont use it instead of waiting up at the hospital or Accident and emergancy (and pay for children!) for hours.

Why I love my house

Even if it is a very dodgy area, it has so many benefits.

1st one being the massive plum tree right outside our lounge! (My landlord owns next door too which includes the vacant section he wants to sell off, so we have permission to help ourselves) If the pic was closer you would see the whole branch Jakes holding has plums all the way along it, hes so excited! The weight of the plums is making the bunches sag within reach so even better.


Rubbish picture, but its an apple tree covered in apples :) Theres two on the section, two different types too! Double bonus! Theres also a peach tree, Fejoa tree and Orange tree. Im in self seffcient heaven, soon our fruit bill will be zilch.

My garden that I installed. I need another as I run out of room. off the top of my head theres silverbeet, lettuces, toms, corn, cauli, brocs, brussel spourts (purple ones) onions, Marigolds and cornflowers, Chickpeas and spaghetti squash and more. (soon vegie bill... Zilch ;) )
Close up of one of the Spaghetti squashes, one vine is HUGE (mass of green growing upwards in the far left corner in the above pic) and is producing a lot of female flowers (as well as male) so looks like Ill be getting a good crop *touch wood* I've never grown it before so was going to be happy with just one squash as a tester.

My Chickpeas, spourted from dried peas out of my cupboard, I was not expecting much from them but they are starting to flower so they might be furtile after all! (they are ment to be heat treated and not spourtable! Ha!) Never grown them before so will be interesting, I cant wait to try fresh chickpeas, yum!

Strawberry patch!! Its doing so well I might have to expand it out next year to make room for the new growth. Theres also garlic growing. (Companion planting) Sadly none are ripe at the moment a couple more days and they will be. (Second round of fruiting) The round tub Jakes standing on and the far one has Rhubarb in it and Ive just planted Popcorn in one, I was hoping to have another raised bed ready by now for it but life has been in the way so we will see how it goes. Hopefully its not too close to the sweetcorn so we wont get cross pollination.

Plus I have four bedrooms, one of which is full of my sewing and craft stuff and a garage. I am happy to overlook the horrid street for a little bit longer, esp. while the sun is shining and making everything look so wonderful! :D