Scrapping the journey

In 2005 I joined weight watchers and lost 32kgs. I've now joined again and am hoping for the same success and to go even further. I'm trying to recreate that motivation I had by looking back at what I did. One of the things I really enjoyed doing was scrapbooking the journey and although the original album remains unfinished I am starting a new one for the new journey!! (I know that technically it's all one journey but I want a shiny new album!!)

Now as you have probably realised from my lack of posting, I haven't scrapbooked in a rediculously long time. So last night I sat down and created my cover page (below)!!

And this is the first page of my new album!!! Thanks Moira for your advice over the phone!!! You totally rock!

The plan is to take photos every 5 kg and at other special milestones. I already have two photos from the Community Garden, one before I started WW and the other was taken just after I cleared 5kg mark. At the moment I have only printed them on ordinary paper, but I will get proper prints so I can scrapbook them.

I'm really pleased with how it is all going. Although I've been home all week with a chest infection and laryngitis I've stuck to my points and on Monday we'll see how I went considering I did no exercise at all!! Let the shrinking commence!!

Emily xoxo





Progress on 'The Master Plan'

We are now nearly at the end of October and looking at what I wanted to achieve in the garden I'm not sure how I feel. My tomatoes that I started early using softdrink bottles to cover them from the frost, are looking amazing. I think they grow about 10cm a day, I feel like I have to tie them up every day. The potatoes have all reached the tops of their bags and so I'm ready to start planting the next lot of potatoes. Marko thinks I'm slightly insane with the potting mix bags lying around everywhere with potatoes growing out of them, but I'm sure he'll be supremely impressed when he eats my delicious crop. The snow peas yielded an incredibly bountiful crop and are now composting in my new composting bin. They have made way for 3 little cucumber vines.

After a big chat with Becc about the virtues of my shade house through summer, I've decided to focus on growing a ton of lettuce. I have the space and lettuce will grow better without being in the rediculous heat. They will go to seed quickly so the plan is to succession plant and not let them get too big before starting to harvest. Becc has a better bed for Carrots and has had amazing success so she'll keep growing carrots for us. My carrots haven't been so successful. Mine are in polystyrene boxes and they are also a different variety.

The beans I put in are starting to produce but I planted them too close to the beetroot so they may take a while to grow...but its all good!! I'm learning as I go.

Progress with the front garden has been dismal. I wanted railway sleepers and I didn't want to pay the earth for them. New sleepers are nearly $20 each and I needed so many. About 2 weeks ago Becc noticed the lady over the street and down a few houses had a pile of about 11 railway sleepers sitting on the footpath. Now Becc is a lot braver than me. I would have just sat and looked at them trying to wish them to my house. Becc on the other hand, went over and asked what she was planning on doing with them. She said a friend was supposed to have come and got them out of her backyard but she was sick of waiting for him and that if he didn't pick them up by last weekend we could have them...FOR FREE!!

Lucky for me the friend never collected them, so last Sunday morning Marko, Becc and I loaded all the sleepers into the back of Becc and Luke's ute and brought them over. I'm very excited but also know that there aren't nearly enough of them. I'm thinking I'll do the two gardens on either side of the path with them and then if I have to use the old timber or new sleepers for along the front of the house I will. I've been out there since about 6:30 pottering around the garden and decided to prepare one side for the sleepers. I finished at 8 and came inside hoping Marko would be awake (I can't lift the damn things on my own) but he is still asleep. So I have to be patient.

I will add photos soon!!

Happy Gardening!!

Emily xoxo

Waistline Wars

Over the past few years I have made several attempts to lose weight. Last year I was horrified to step on the scales and discover that I had reached an all time high of 139.9kgs. I was totally determined not to step over the 140 mark and was able to lose some weight on my own having read Women, Food & God. Although I would love to be able to say that reading that wonderful book changed me enough that I dropped it all, the problem was that if I wasn't reading it regularly I wasn't getting anywhere. I successfully lost 7 kgs but that wasn't enough.

Back in 2005/06 I lost 32kgs while attending weight watchers. There is something about paying to go each week and having to get on the scales each week that makes me more accountable. So 5 weeks ago, I rejoined weight watchers. So far I have lost 5.8kgs. Yay me! I'm more motivated than I have been since 05 and I'm enjoying my success. Marko wants me to figure out what I'm going to get for myself as my reward for each 5kg. I'm not sure yet but I'll figure something out. I'm thinking a pandora style bracelet and I can add a bead/charm for every 5kgs would work quite nicely.

So let the kgs melt away as I put less energy in than I expend in an effort to trim down!

Before:

After losing 5kgs!!

Pretty cool isn't it!!



Emily xoxo

DAW 2011

Last year a group of people concerned about people in our community with disabilities met and decided to form a branch of the Australian Association of Special Education out here in Roma. We formed because we felt that there was no effective way for all of the different services offered to people with disabilities and their families to communicate and share knowledge. After forming our South West Branch of AASE we decided we wanted to do something BIG for Disability Action Week and put a plan in place. We ran a week full of workshops and activities which led up to a wine and cheese evening where all of the artwork and photographs of activities were displayed.

It was so successful that we decided to run it again this year and last night was our Wine and Cheese Exhibition Evening. Let me just say that although I am incredibly exhausted from the week, it has been an amazingly rewarding week. I ran two workshops - scrapbooking and create a patchwork bag. Other workshops included bush photography, ceramics, totem pole grafitti, jewellery making, tapas cooking, woodwork, pottery, gardening, soccer for beginners, sports ability, lawn bowls, t-shirt painting, canvas art, hands on craft and creative photography. All week we were driving students to and from workshops and helping where needed. All of our students did us proud and were amazing in their attitudes and behaviour. I'm just so proud!

The exhibition was a real hit. Everyone is always so amazed at what our students and adults with disabilities are able to create and I just smile and say this is why we do this, to help people to see their ability not their disability.

I'm already starting to jot down ideas for workshops and who we can approach to run them for next year!!

Here are some pics of what we did. I don't have the rest, but I'll upload more soon.

Emily xoxo

'The master plan' so far....

For those who don't remember or didn't read about the 'Master Plan' it is all about my garden and how it is going to provide my husband and I with an abundance of fresh healthy produce throughout spring, summer and into autumn.

The plan went something a little like this!

August:

• Plant green manure crops into empty garden beds.NO SPACE FOR THIS...
• Plant out raspberries and new plants from garden show into large pots. CHECK
• Purchase small greenhouse. NOT YET - NOW A SEPTEMBER JOB
• Finish harvesting winter vegetables.ONGOING
• Plant out beetroot and lettuce seedlings.CHECK
• Plant another polystyrene box with carrot seeds. CHECK
• Plant the following seeds in seed raising mix in the greenhouse and keep protected until after the last frost: amaranth, artichoke, basil, beans , beetroot, burdock, capsicum , carrots, celeriac, celery , chilli, chives, coriander, cucumber, eggplant, fennel, kohlrabi, kale, lettuce, yam, potatoes, pumpkin, radish, rocket, rockmelon, rosella, shallots, silverbeet, spring onion, squash, sunflower, corn, tomato, watermelon (always wanted to try growing these babies) and zucchini. (According to the Gardening Australia vege guide, some of these can be planted out during August...so I'll see how I go). Planted tomato seeds and used half softdrink bottles as mini green houses...
• Deepen the front gardens gradually and add Magic Mix to plant vegetables in amoungst the flowers. Leave the gardens with the sweet peas as they are for the time being. STILL DECIDING HOW TO ACHIEVE THIS..

 

 

 

September:

 

• Dig green manure crop into garden beds
• Purchase small green house
• Buy seeds for all of the plants not underlined from August...didn't have seeds so couldn't plant them.
• After last frost, transfer seedlings to home garden beds or to gardens at the community garden.
• Set up compost bin.
• Organise a storage area for preserves and jams.
• Replant seeds a month after the ones planted in August to ensure continued produce.

 

Other jobs:

 

• Take regular photos
• blog about the progress and process
• keep track of produce and make sure to find recipes to use all fresh produce.
• take surplus which can't be preserved or dried to the Roma Farmer's and Artisans Market to swap at the Community Garden Stall.
• Summer: purchase stone fruits from Farmer's market and Sam the vegie man to preserve for throughout the year.

I'm very pleased with my progress so far!! It's all very exciting really!

Emily xoxo

Child of Nature - In progress

So I have made a decent start on my plan to finish all the half made smocking projects in my sewing room. I got the lovely Charlie to model for me!!!

All I have to do is put the buttons on and button holes in the straps, put the binding around the legs of the knickers, and elastic in the waistband and they will be finished!! Not bad for a days work!!

Unfinished smocking projects!

I'm following the lead of my friend Debra who has posted all of her UFO (un-fininished objects) onto her blog and is ticking them off as she goes, until I figure out how to do that I figured a post would probably do it just fine. I have divided the unfinished projects into 3 groups according to who owns the book it is out of...Serena, Lisa or me. Items from Serena and Lisa's books will have priority!

Serena's books:

Australian Smocking and embroidery issue

#56 - Morgan p. 44 - 3 pairs of frilly pants to finish, buttons and lace on dresses.

#54  - Bella p. 4 - pale green fabric

#59 - Beach Baby - only picture smocking done

#58 - Miss Daisy p. 18 - 2 one green gingham one blue gingham.

#53 - Child of Nature p. 20

#53 - Sunday Best p. 6

#59 - Coquette p. 36 - can't find the original pattern so will use this one to try and finish this dress.



Photocopy -

#59 - Sherbet Fizz



Lisa's Books:

Australian Smocking and embroidery issue:






My books:

#40 - The Birthday Girl p. 17
#70 - Birdsong - smocking and embroidery finished - needs to be sewn up

Can't find:
Cassie's dress or Angel...will have to keep looking!


So that is LOTS to finish in a short time!! Not any from Lisa's books like I thought though. So, now to prioritise and I have NO idea where to start...I may need some time to sort this out...


Ok update:

How stupid am I??? Well it took the gloriously intelligent Becc to point out that while I may not have enough ink in my printer/scanner to copy all the patterns, I could (AND WILL) scan them all to my computer so I can give all the books back!

Now this doesn't mean I don't want to finish some of these off, because now that I'm into it, I'm a bit excited to get them done. So today, still going to do some sewing, tomorrow I'll scan!!

Emily xoxo

The dreaded GASTRO

Yes, the dreaded Gastro struck my home, and more importantly me, on Sunday night. I have not been so sick in quite a long time and it has really knocked me about. Today is Thursday and I actually ate some breakfast this morning. I have been vomit free for over 36 hours and have not been living on the toilet for over 20 hours...progress. Thankfully the kind doctor took pity on me and gave me the whole week off in a doctor's certificate. Phew.. so today...well in the mail I received a note to inform me that the water would be off at my house from 9 - 3 for mains repairs (all I could think was thank goodness this didn't happen monday when I could have lived in the toilet instead of bed). So instead of another quiet recovery I got up ran a bathtub of water (for toilet flushing and the like), did two loads of washing, washed up from last night (too tired last night), made breakfast, hung out two loads of washing and am now exhausted....perhaps tomorrow I won't be up to working.

So today I am going to put on a movie and pull out some unfinished smocking projects. My two friends who lent me their pattern books want them all back, and while that is slightly tragic for me, it is a great reason to hurry up and finish some dresses!!

I will certainly be posting pics!

Emily xoxo

Planting Raspberry Canes

When I was at the Garden Expo in Nambour over the school holidays, Becc and I went halves in a pack of 4 Raspberry Canes. Becc (being mad keen as she is and also living in a house they own) has already planted hers weeks ago, however I have been weighing up the pros and cons of planting them in pots or in the ground at our rental property.

This morning I found this information from a quick google search. Basically it says that growing Raspberries in pots is possible, so I'm going to give it a whirl. I need a container that is 15cm in diametre and has a 5 gallon (18.95 Litre) capacity. I recently bought some of those colourful flexible containers to use as pots (here) but I don't think their capacity will be close enough to 18.95L AND I only have 1 left. I was in Crazy's the other day and they had the same flexible tubs in 24L - perhaps too big. But I am going outside shortly to investigate.

Once I have them planted I will need to create some kind of  trellis that can support the canes as they grow. I don't want them going crazy and spilling all over the place so that we get our clothes caught on them. I am thinking about placing the tubs along one of our fences so I can simply tie them to the fence.... will update with photos and decisions!!

Emily xoxo

Progress on 'The Master Plan'

In my last post I discussed my "Plan" for my garden and desire to produce heaps of home grown goodness for my hubbie and I. And here is how far I have progressed:

August:

•Plant green manure crops into empty garden beds.

•Plant out raspberries and new plants from garden show into large pots. Can't decide where to put them!!

•Purchase small greenhouse.

•Finish harvesting winter vegetables.ONGOING

•Plant out beetroot and lettuce seedlings.

•Plant another polystyrene box with carrot seeds. CHECK

•Plant the following seeds in seed raising mix in the greenhouse and keep protected until after the last frost: amaranth, artichoke, basil, beans, beetroot, burdock, capsicum, carrots, celeriac, celery, chilli, chives, coriander, cucumber, eggplant, fennel, kohlrabi, kale, lettuce, yam, potatoes, pumpkin, radish, rocket, rockmelon, rosella, shallots, silverbeet, spring onion, squash, sunflower, corn, tomato, watermelon (always wanted to try growing these babies) and zucchini. (According to the Gardening Australia vege guide, some of these can be planted out during August...so I'll see how I go). Planted tomato seeds and used half softdrink bottles as mini green houses...

•Deepen the front gardens gradually and add Magic Mix to plant vegetables in amoungst the flowers. Leave the gardens with the sweet peas as they are for the time being.
 
 
Hmmm....so I've started...not a great deal accomplished, but I'm on my way. This morning I got outside and planted up a polystyrene box with carrot seeds and planted six little asparagus seeds. This is a major long term project as it will be about 3 years before I can harvest asparagus spears, but I figure you have to start somewhere.
 
Becc and I have planted 1 year old crowns at the community garden and they are developing well. The thing is that you can't harvest spears for a couple of years, so my little seeds that I planted today should start producing a year after ours at the community garden. I'm planning ahead!!
 
I have also decided where I'm going to plant out my little beetroot seedlings and lettuce seedlings and have planted bean, sunflower, pea (I think - didn't label them) and some other surprises that I can't quite remember. I was also at the nursery through the week and they had some very sad looking seed potatoes which I got very cheaply, chopped them up and dried them so that I could plant them out and I planted them yesterday. I really hope they survive. The last batch of potatoes were going very well and I was extremely excited about the prospect of home grown potatoes..but then the frost hit...a heavy killing frost...and my potatoes were no more... I finally gave up on them reshooting this week and emptied out the bag they were growing in and found about 20 baby potatoes no bigger than a bantam egg. As disappointed as I am that the frost killed the plants, I'm thrilled that we will get to eat some lovely little potatoes tonight for dinner. I just hope this next lot of seed potatoes yeilds a bigger crop.
 

I am still planning on purchasing a small greenhouse from the local cheap shop, but will have to wait a pay or two. Once I have it I'll transfer newly germinated seeds into the greenhouse from the plastic boxes I have to use to keep the seeds safe from the mice until they have germinated.
 
So, let the master plan continue!!!
 

Emily xoxo

One month and counting........

............until SPRING! I'm so excited because.....this year I have a plan. A master plan. A plan to provide my husband and I with fresh healthy produce throughout spring and summer and also preserve enough so that we do not need to purchase as much tinned foods throughout winter next year. I have been mulling over my plan for some time and have a few steps already in place..

I have my garden beds in place. I am planting green manure crops into two of my garden beds in order to boost the organic content of the soil. I also have my eye on a compact small greenhouse to get a head start with my spring vegetables.

The Plan

To grow as much of my own produce as possible and preserve or dry it for the coming year. This has a dual purpose - firstly to save money and secondly to reduce the chemicals we are eating.

August:

• Plant green manure crops into empty garden beds.
• Plant out raspberries and new plants from garden show into large pots.
• Purchase small greenhouse.
• Finish harvesting winter vegetables.
• Plant out beetroot and lettuce seedlings.
• Plant another polystyrene box with carrot seeds.
• Plant the following seeds in seed raising mix in the greenhouse and keep protected until after the last frost: amaranth, artichoke, basil, beans, beetroot, burdock, capsicum, carrots, celeriac, celery, chilli, chives, coriander, cucumber, eggplant, fennel, kohlrabi, kale, lettuce, yam, potatoes, pumpkin, radish, rocket, rockmelon, rosella, shallots, silverbeet, spring onion, squash, sunflower, corn, tomato, watermelon (always wanted to try growing these babies) and zucchini. (According to the Gardening Australia vege guide, some of these can be planted out during August...so I'll see how I go).
• Deepen the front gardens gradually and add Magic Mix to plant vegetables in amoungst the flowers. Leave the gardens with the sweet peas as they are for the time being.

September:

• Dig green manure crop into garden beds
• After last frost, transfer seedlings to home garden beds or to gardens at the community garden.
• Set up compost bin.
• Organise a storage area for preserves and jams.
• Replant seeds a month after the ones planted in August to ensure continued produce.

Other jobs:

• Take regular photos
• blog about the progress and process
• keep track of produce and make sure to find recipes to use all fresh produce.
• take surplus which can't be preserved or dried to the Roma Farmer's and Artisans Market to swap at the Community Garden Stall.
• Summer: purchase stone fruits from Farmer's market and Sam the vegie man to preserve for throughout the year.

To be continued.....

Preserving - Valarie's Yummy Pasta Sauce

ing Australia Website (here). This website is well worth the look if you are at all in to growing your own food and storing it. Valarie provides a great wealth of information including books and kits for purchase. I recently purchased a preserving starter kit from her which included a jar lifter, magnetic lid lifter, preserving book and an assortment of new lids for jars I have collected. Green Living Australia also sells kits to make your own cheese (not brave enough for that one yet).

I bought a box of tomatoes from the vege man yesterday and am about to use this recipe a second time. I particularly like this recipe because it produces a rich red sauce. The recipe I used back in February from my Thrifty Cook Book is lovely but has a lot of butter in it and it is more of an orangey colour. This sauce is my favourite so far, however when unable to get capsicums I would use the previous recipe.


Valarie's Pasta Sauce

5kg tomatoes
5 medium onions
4 medium capsicums
1 tbs Basil
1 tbs salt
1 tbs oregano
4 tbs sugar

1. Chop tomatoes, onions, capsicums and place in a large pot.

2. Bring to the boil.

3. Reduce heat and simmer.

4. Add salt, basil and oregano.

5. Add sugar 1 tablespoon at a time, stir and wait 15 minutes.

6. Cook 2 - 3 hours.


When cooked pour into hot sterilised jars, put  lids on and preserve in a boiling water bath (in boiling water in a vacola unit) for 20 minutes. Allow jars to cool in the water, a vacuum will be created as the water and contents of the jars cool.

I will take some pics as I make it and load them later!!

Emily xoxo

News..

I have been on school holidays for nearly a week now and am enjoying the simple pleasures of being at home to get the normal jobs done. Jobs that often go un-done during term time. Yesterday I cleaned out the chicken coop and put down fresh straw and lifted the nesting box up off the ground so I don't need to kneel in chicken poop to collect the eggs.

 Amidst my enjoyment of the simple things I received some very sad news, an 8 year old darling that I taught 18 months ago and who I was looking forward to teaching again when she reached year 4, passed away. For those of you who don't know, I teach children with disabilities. This particular child was devine, there are no other words. She was deprived of oxygen at birth due to the umbilical cord being wrapped around her neck and was diagnosed with cerabal palsy. Her gorgeous family always ensured that she was included, loved and cherished by all those around her. In the last week of term she was rushed to hospital with a serious chest infection, but she fought hard and it seemed she was recovering well and we assumed she would be back at school next term. On Wednesday she took a turn for the worst and early yesterday this beautiful child lost her fight for survival. A thing such as this, a child passing away so young, rocked me to my core. My heart goes out to her family and friends and I feel spoilt by all the blessings in my life.

Yesterday the news of her passing marred the beauty of the day, the precious hours I spent with my dear friend and I lost the pleasure I'd found during the morning. Today it occurs to me that the celebration should be that she lived, that I had the opportunity to teach and learn from her and that I should be living each day to its fullest, not hiding away. Yes I can be sad for her family, sad that we won't see that lovely face at school, but I know that she is at peace and I can celebrate the impact she has had on me as a person and as a teacher.

Emily xoxo

My new cute ruffled apron!!

I'm so in love with my new ruffled apron! It was so worth the craziness of trying to make sure each strip was the right length and width. I almost don't want to get it dirty now!



Emily xoxo

A girl + inspiration + fabric = a cute ruffled apron!!

I bought this really cute material from a market stall run by my teacher aide and good friend, Colleen, with the idea of making an apron. Now I have never patchworked before in my life, but Colleen made it sound so simple.

A few months later, I found a cute pattern and was devastated to realise that I didn't have enough fabric to make it. So I started a long and harrowing search for an apron pattern that might work. Eventually I found this one and I decided with a little creativity it would work out.

Isn't it cute!! This great blog had a tutorial for how to make it, I just had to figure out how to piece together my material to make it work!

My Fabric!!

In order to create this gorgeous little apron out of my fabric I had to get creative. I cut up the smaller pictures and added patterned fabrics to create the right length strips.

Planning out what would go where...

All cut up and pinned up!

Then using my trusty Janome, I firstly zig zagged the edges, then stitched each piece into place.

 Zig zagging....

Straight stiching the pieces together....

A finished strip...then iron each seam open.

Next step:

Cut strips to correct length and add some extra fabric to the width of a couple of the strips so that all strips are an equal width and length.

Roll seams on all sides of the base piece of fabric and stitch down.

Roll seams on two short sides and one long side and stitch.

Gather the top of each strip and pull threads to gather to the length of the base fabric.

Start at the bottom, pin the top edge of the ruffle to the wrong side of the fabric about an inch from the bottom. Stitch gathers in place. 

Sew the next ruffle to the base about 4 1/2 inches above the top of the first ruffle, making sure the top ruffle overlaps the bottom ruffle by about an inch. Repeat with remaining ruffles.

Ace Drapers revisited!

Remember this post? I promised a photo of this amazing establishment and here is the only one I could manage...this is one of the inaccessable isles....

Incredible isn't it....

Emily xoxo



My new best friend!!

The last time we went to Charleville, we went shopping with Mum and Dad at the local Mitre 10 and I purchased a "Grandpa's Weeder" (pictured below).



It works like this! (Apologies for the blurry photo) You choose the plant you wish to remove from your lawn or garden. Carefully place the prongs around the base of the plant...



 Use your foot to push the weeder down into the ground,  

until your foot is on the ground and the weeder is as deep into the soil as you can get it. 

Use the piece of metal that is at a right angle to the handle, which you used to push it into the ground as a lever, this will cause the prongs at the end to close around the stem and roots of the plant and as you lean it back further on the lever the weed will be pulled out of the ground. All without bending over!

See my new best friend!!!

Emily xoxo

Catching up....

Wow what a crazy few weeks....has it been weeks or only a week since my last post...I don't know. Anyway it is that crazy time of year when I am struggling to get my reports done so that I can enjoy the last few weeks of term.

So lots has happened around home since I last blogged. The chooks have settled  in well and I have started collecting eggs!!!

First egg!!!

Becc and I had a sewing night and made kick ass gardening aprons with lots of useful pockets!! And we started a couple of other aprons at craft.

My new arpon!! So funky!!

First egg collected and put in the 'egg' pocket!

I found some wire to make a temporary run for the chooks for late in the arvo on the weekends. This way they can get into the dirt and scratch around - their normal cage has a cement floor but it is covered in a nice thick layer of hay. When they can find their way back to the roost, I will let them wander freely in our yard, but I'll lock Nugget (our staffy) in one of the other sheds. One step at a time... making sure they won't roost in a tree!

Former cat carrier, now nesting box! The preferred choice - over the mower catcher.

Having a dust bath!

Becc and I have also joined the Roma Community Garden and have already weeded our plot, helped weed three large raised garden beds, fixed leaking sprinkler system and harvested a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes!!!

Newly cleared raised garden beds! See all the weeds in the wheel barrow!!

Mmmm cherry tomatoes!

Salad made with cherry tomatoes from the Community Garden, lettuce from my garden...feels sooo good to be growing some of our own food!!!

I think one of the great things about my friendship with Becc is that we have a similar dream/plan for our families. We are both keen to grow as much of our own food as possible to lessen our food miles. We want to try to find organic foods, buy wholesale to save money and buy organic fed beef, lamb and chicken where possible. We have started gardens at home and joined the community garden to meet like minded people in our town. We love cooking for our family and providing them with healthy wholesome meals. How cool is that!! To find such a beautiful friend that I can share the excitement and disappointments that experimenting with gardening can bring! I consider myself extremely lucky to have such a friend in my life and in the same town!!! You can read about Becc's adventures in her garden here. She is a real inspiration!!

I have a few other cool things to blog about, but I will save them for another day!!

Emily xoxo

3 new additions to our family!

I'm so excited!!!

We have chooks! 3 of them. And they are just lovely. The very lovely Colleen and Grant gave us these chooks. They are 18mths old and are currently off the lay (or so Colleen and Grant thought). We decided to give them a go - if they don't lay, we've lost nothing. But after 2 days we got an egg!!! Very exciting!!

Weekend wrap up

I love the third weekend of the month, the weekend when the Roma Farmers & Artisans Market is on. Sometimes Marko and I go together, sometimes I go with Becc. This weekend I went with Becc and I left poor sick Marko on the couch at home. Before hitting the markets we went to Mitre 10 and ordered the sleepers for Becc's new garden, then we headed on down to the Big Rig where the markets take place.

This was the fourth market (I think), and this time there were heaps more stalls. The last couple of times it has been raining and so many stalls haven't bothered to set up. I think also they are gradually building the variety and number of stalls.

So this week there were two nursery stalls, Snake gully bananas (with a wide range of fruit and vege), the local Lavander farm, Desert Limes, Colleen's patchwork fabric, the community garden stall, a coffee stall, a couple selling garden mulch, and I'm sure there were a couple of others.

I bought a heap of fresh fruit and vege (below), some material for an apron (watch this space for the post on making the apron), some of Cecily's honey, a bag of mulch, a lemon grass plant and a punnet of leek seedlings.

After we had finished at the markets, we picked up my new chooks then Becc and Charlie came to my place and we set up my new chooks in their new home and also put together my new corrogated raised garden beds.

 

My ladies!

I also repotted my weeping mulberry,

and my native violet.



This morning (Sunday) I put all my fruit and vege into my trusty Tupperware Fridge Mates and re-organised the fridge. The chooks happily received the rotten zucchini's I'd forgotten were in the bottom draw and the rockmelon that had gone off on the bench....what a waste..but at least they didn't go in the bin, instead I'll get them back in eggs....I hope.

Also on my To Do list today was mounding up the soil around my potatoes (more info to follow), planting out the remaining sweet pea seedlings, splitting and repotting the lemon grass, repotting the rosemary and checking out what garden maintenance needed to be done. I got all of these jobs done, plus I made a big batch of curried pumpkin and lentil soup, made mini quiches with Becc and tonight baked banana and raspberry bread.

Phew what a crazy weekend!! But oh how satisfied I am with all that I accomplished.