The Food Garden

October 26, 2009

in Simple Living

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Now that the weather’s warmer more often than it’s cold, we’ve been tempted out to the food garden.  At the moment we’re not getting much in the way of food, although hopefully that will change in the next eight weeks or so.

We have been pinching some leaves off our little iceberg lettuces for salad.  I don’t think it affects the development of the big lettuce head later, although I wouldn’t mind so much.  I prefer the loose leaves to a whole lettuce anyway.

Most of the fruit trees are done with their blossoms.  The lovely blossoms up the top of the page are on our crab apple.  I never actually do anything with them, although the kids eat them straight off the tree.  I can’t; they make me go all squinty and shivery.  But I do like the blossoms.  Lots.

The bugs have already moved in to munch on our fruit.  We’re going to try nets this year to keep the birds away.  They eat more than the bugs.

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Peacherines

Fluffy peaches

Fluffy peaches

Blood plums

Blood plums

I’m not sure what’s with our plum tree.  In five years we’ve been lucky to get 10 plums a year off it.  What you see here is about the grand total for this summer.

The vegie patch will hopefully fare a bit better.  We’re trying strawberries in the patch rather than pots this year.  I always forget to water the pots and there go the strawberries.

Mmmm, strawberries

Mmmm, strawberries

We’ve put in carrot seedlings and seeds.  Fortunate, because The Engineer planted his beetroot right over the top of the carrot seeds.

Carrot seedlings

Carrot seedlings

The peas already have a few pods on them.  What do you do when you only have a dozen peas in total?  Not a dozen pods; a dozen little rolly-polly peas.  Can I just leave them on the bush till we have enough to eat?

I love the little tendril things on the peas.  Every time I see one I want to pull it and watch it spring back to its tight little curl.

Dwarf peas

Dwarf peas

What else?  Three tomato plants – one cherry, one larger and one yellow.  That should give us a good variety for salads, sandwiches and snacks.

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Cherry tomato

You might have realised by now that our food garden is based on a lot of hope and a tiny bit of know how.  We’re also restricted to watering twice a week unless we do the bucket in the shower thing.  I’m not keen on that though.  I don’t want soap and grotty bits (which don’t bear thinking about) on our vegies thank you very much.

So anything we actually get to eat is especially precious.

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Winter Grasses

October 23, 2009

in Travel & Photography

Winter GrassesSometimes in winter it’s tough for me to find things to photograph.  I get stuck in a rut, thinking that everything is dank and gloomy.  Especially around home, where I normally photography the gardens, animals, lovely sunrises and flowers.

Sometimes the interesting stuff isn’t necessarily the brightest or prettiest though.

These grasses shoot up each spring and summer around the wetlands near home.  In autumn they start to brown off.  Come winter, the seed heads are reaching for the grey sky.

While they aren’t attractive in a  flower garden sense, they have their own beauty.

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My boy was abducted by aliens

October 21, 2009
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Aliens.  It’s the only explanation.
Gone is the self-absorbed, grouchy boy.  The one who was only interested in watching TV, who left a trail of destruction and mess in his wake, who argued with everyone about everything.

In his place, we now have a beautiful helpful child.  He asks if there’s anything he can do to help [...]

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Good News Day

October 15, 2009
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Last visit to my haemo in September I wasn’t able to get any results.  It seems Medicare are tightening their belt and decided that they will only pay for the leukaemia marker test every three months.  I’d seen a different doctor the time before and he’d ordered the test a month early, so it wasn’t [...]

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The Big Banana

October 8, 2009
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Image by sixty4coupe
One of the attractions that was on our must do list on our recent holiday to the Coffs Coast was The Big Banana.  I can remember as a child listening with awe to stories of visits to this famous landmark. I tried to convince Mum and Dad on an annual basis for about [...]

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Road Trip Tips

October 7, 2009
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Our recent road trip up to the Coffs Coast involved nearly 3,000 km (about 1,860 miles) of driving.  That doesn’t include sightseeing once we got there.  All in all we spent a good 2 1/2 days in the car each way.  I knew the road trip would be tough on the kids.  We have a [...]

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