Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Tuesday 9th October 2012

I have been absent lately from my blog as Ron and I took a few days off and went bush in the caravan.  He has been very stressed at work lately and needed a break, so we headed out to Emily's for a night before driving for what should have been only a few hours to arrive at our next destination.  Ron hates to stay on the more traveled (sealed) roads so we took a "short cut" (dirt road) of 40 kilometers off the beaten trap, but it really turned into a two hour trip as we got well and truly lost for over an hour.  Never mind, all in the spirit of adventure.  We did eventually at our destination of Leyburn and stayed for the night in a free camp!

The next morning we set off to meet some friends in northern New South Wales and spend a few days with them camping on a cane property.  Ticks can be a real problem on the east coast and even though I had bought our little dog a tick collar I discovered three ticks on her while we were away, so the only solution was to give her a haircut enabling me to check her more easily.  All we had on hand to trim her with was a pair of blunt scissors, but it was either her having a bad haircut or maybe getting sick.  The haircut won in the end and she didn't even mind.  I think she prefers having short hair in the summer so I am thinking I might keep it this way - but I will buy some clippers!

We came home on the Tuesday and I spent that afternoon and most of Wednesday washing, ironing and sorting.  We had plenty of it!  Wednesday was also Ron's birthday so we celebrated by having a lovely roast lamb dinner with Bec and Rana. 

Wednesday, however was a stressful day for Ron (work problems), so when I mentioned to him on Thursday that we should be up the beach fishing he made the decision to pack the van again and head back down to visit our friends - AGAIN!  We spent another three nights with them and arrived home again on Sunday.  This time we plan on being home a bit longer.  All in all it was good for Ron has he had a decent break and feels refreshed.

In between coming home and going again, I did manage to spend some time in the garden.  The seeds I had planted the week before had popped up!  This was thanks to the rain we had while away.

This is tiny rocket - the plants are more than twice this size now.



I have also had some plants come up where I have dug in some vegetable scraps.  I'm not entirely sure as to what these are, I am thinking pumpkin.

The weather has well and truly warmed up now so my English spinach is starting to go to seed.  I did pick some this morning and have plans of turning some of it into a pear and spinach salad for dinner tonight.

Spinach - the blue lines is string we have put up to keep our 16 year old dog off the garden.



Here is a colander full of spinach picked this morning along with a handful of strawberries and some tomatoes.

The Pakchoy is also going to seed so we will have to start eating that soon also.  I did take some to a friends yesterday for her family.

The tomato vine is STILL growing.  It must be getting close to 3 meters high now.  Some of the tomatoes have started to ripen so we have been enjoying the lovely summer flavour of those.  I love tomato that has ripened on the vine.  The shop bought tomatoes just don't have the same flavour.

The single chard plant that I have is still continuing to produce leaves.  I love this plant as it is so versatile.  You can have it cooked in a flan, like we did the other night, in salads, steamed, fried with some onion or even on a sandwich instead of lettuce.  I have planted some more seeds for chard but they are a long time growing so I might have to relent and buy some seedlings.

The flan we had was made with some yummy home made short pastry, then filled with the chard fried with some onion and then some sour cream and eggs poured over and then topped with some grated cheese.  I am having the last little piece for my lunch today along with some homemade yogurt and the handful of strawberries!  YUMMY!!!!!

The few flowers I have growing are all looking lovely too.  As a child I remember my mother having the entire end of a patio growing with sweat peas and I can always remember the smell of those, so this year I thought I would plant some myself.  I was hoping to share them with my mother as they are one of her favourite flowers, but she is away at the moment.  I was able to share some with a dear friend who was having a bad day yesterday.

I also have childhood memories of the paper daisies (everlasting daisy) that used to grow wild around our house so I bought some of those the same day I bought the sweet peas.  I must have been very nostalgic that day!

I love the bright sunny faces of these flowers!  And they dry really well so you can have them around for awhile.

Along with picking the spinach, tomatoes and strawberries this morning I picked some more of my beetroot.  There isn't too much of it left in the garden now so I think I will most likely pick the remainder in the next couple of weeks and make pickled baby beets.  I will also have to pickle the bunch I collected this morning.

It amazes me that even though our garden is teeny tiny I am still able to put some home grown produce on the table most nights.  As I have mentioned before there would be no way possible for us to be anywhere near self sufficient for vegetables but the thrill I get out of growing as much as I can overwhelms that disappointment.  Here's to more planting  ;-)

Take care
Andrea

Ramblings

Tuesday 28th August 2012

Well I have arrived home safe and sound from my trip to Darwin.  What an amazing place!  The weather was gorgeous and the city so clean.  I had a fabulous time with my Aunt and loved the warm temperature.
The sunsets in Darwin are amazing and each night it got better and better.

This was the first night and even though we were a little late there was still plenty of the red glow left.

The second night found us at the Mindil Markets, which are famous in Darwin for the food stalls and craft.  Nearly everyone at the markets made their way down to the beach for the sunset.

You can see the people sitting on the beach here.  As soon as the sun had set they all made their way back over the dunes to the markets.

The third evening we were at a restaurant have dinner and this was the view!  Why would you want to be anywhere else?

We did spend time exploring Darwin which involved going on a heritage walk around the city.



The old town hall that Cyclone Tracy blew down in 1974



Government house - stands on the top of a cliff and overlooking the harbour!

We also visited Crocosauras Cove to have a look at the crocodiles!  The photo below is some baby one.  They just floated on the surface of the water without any effort what-so-ever.  There was plenty of them also!

 The adult crocodiles were over 5m long and weighed over 700kg.  They laid so still it was had to believe they were alive.  They looked just like a giant plastic replica, but I wouldn't want to mess with one!

On the home front we are missing our little dog :(  She was taken ill on Sunday and I had to take her to the vet yesterday morning where they admitted her.  She has been vomiting for the past 3 days and we don't know what is wrong with her.  It is just like one of your children getting sick and not a happy time for us at the moment.  We aren't sure when she will be permitted to come home.

I have picked some more turnips from the garden and given some of them away along with some cabbages and snow peas.

I think we have probably harvested 3 kilos of snow peas off the 6 plants.  I get a decent handful most days and we certainly have more than we can use so I am happy to pass them on.

I have removed all of the cabbages and now have some cucumber, cherry tomato and beans to plant.  I have also bought a blueberry bush and will be planting it in the garden along the drive along with some pumpkin.  The citrus trees I planted earlier are flowering so hopefully this will mean some fruit for next year.  It is all so very exciting growing your own food and most nights we have something we have grown from the garden in our meal.

I love the change of season from winter to spring.  It is as though the plants are awake again.  My wisteria has just started flowering and the vine is covered with buds.  I love the look and fragrance of these blooms and each year I get excited to see how many flowers it produces.  It seems to be more and more each time.



I hope everyone else is enjoying the warmer weather and abundance of plants!

Take care

Andrea