playing in mud puddles

Garden treasure!

Now this is really exciting! 

We decided to have a poke about the place today...

Lots and lots of leaves, but where do they lead?

Oh my goodness! 

Treasure!

Getting it out was a bit tricky... gentle pulls... clearing the earth... and...

Success! Woo hoo!

A friend just told me that you can chop up the leaves and cook them up in a stir fry, curry or soup! Yum and very nutritious.

Perfecto! And you know what else? It was so FUN and EXCITING getting them out - a real treasure hunt. Found gold (even if it's orange)!

Hope you find gold (however it may present itself) in your day today!

Fuzzy Footed Friend

Was given this lovely bit if sweetness the other day...

Have you ever tasted a home grown organic pineapple?

It has the most amazing flavour! So sweet, with a hint of coconut.

It lasted about 5 seconds in our house (there are some who are ALWAYS hungry, unless it involves dinner and vegetables).

All of those fuzzy feet are miny little tiny weeny pineapples just waiting to be placed in the ground!

It only -ahem- takes two years to grow a pineapple.

We savour the sweetness with great appreciation.

Coming Home

This is our driveway.

I think it's pretty special.

It's really long.

It meanders this way and that way... and keeps going...

You have to drive quite slow as you go along just in case there are new potholes from rain, water dragons, rosellas, cows out of paddocks, or kangaroos.

After awhile, you get to our gate. 

There's no number or name on it.

When giving directions, I tell people to look for the gate with the green vine on it.

Perhaps we'll put a bit of clarification up one day.

Perhaps not.

Then, up another driveway.

Sometimes, our horse is in this paddock on the right. 

Sometimes, she's out wandering around...munching upon grass or cooling off in the dam.

Then, around this little bend.

I love looking up at those two old posts at the top of the hill... sitting there, serving no other purpose than to bask in the weather.

Up our last little hill, past the other paddock on our left.... and then, finally, home.

It takes a little while to get up our driveway. But, I think we all love the slow steady calming journey.

I hope you liked it too.

Come over any time.

xx

eggplants anyone?

The zucchini and cucumbers have called it quits.

The eggplants are another story...

 

 

anyone have any good kid friendly eggplant recipes?

In the garden

 

I never understood why some cultures regard corn silk as sacred (for both it's healing properties as well as it's beauty) until I saw this ...

I am not the only one who appreciates corn though...

This is what most of our corn looks like after all some incredibly beautiful King Parrots had a feast. Totally enjoyed it all (perhaps they had a late New Year's Party in the corn?).

At least I was able to appreciate the silk - isn't it beautiful...

Mornings in the garden

I had a bit of a health crisis 6 months ago and as I lay in bed recovering from surgery I dreamt of sunflowers.

During my recovery I hobbled down to the garden one morning with determination and planted seeds - a whole packet full - 

I watered and willed and hoped beyond hope.

(as mentioned in past posts, I had never been successful with seeds before)

One day, they started to grow.

I held my breath (secretly hoping), not really trusting the possibility..

They kept growing. (I wouldn't allow myself to look)

They started to form flowers (I allowed a little bit of possibility of reality to enter my heart).

I hurt my back and had to stay away from the garden awhile.

Then today, I let myself really SEE and FEEL the JOY (of hope mixed with possibilities mixed with reality)

And I let out a giant exhale and breathed in (and out and in ...)

 

 

 

 

Simple 

Wishing your simple dreams coming true today....

We are not the only kale lovers in this family

Look who we keep finding in our kale...

The munching of the kale is happening nightly by the caterpillars (we all need our vitamins). 

And this little gorgeous friend keeps appearing. He obviously doesn't realize it's not the ideal camouflage for his colouring. 

Isn't he/she/it sweet....

Note the wet hand in top left corner. We were told once  that if you don't wet your hands before touching a frog, it will burn it's skin. Is this true?

Carrot Harvest

Harvested some carrots from our garden - we have been toiling over them day by day, watching their slow emergence... 

"Now, mummy?"

"Not just yet."

"Are they ready today mummy?" 

"Let's wait for their heads to peep up from the earth..."

"NOW?"

"A little bit longer..."

"NOW?!!?!"

"What do YOU reckon?"

"YES! NOW!!" 

Oh dear. These carrots were busy dancing a jig at a pub somewhere, I reckon!

And, so far, well, that's it.

That's life in the garden sometimes. All the hoping, toiling, talking to, caring for.. well sometimes it amounts to .. well, not much. That's how life goes.. sometimes.

But, we're sure having fun having a go. And those carrots must have had quite a night... don't you think?

Fridays in the garden

Oh! To have a garden - one of life's true attainable luxuries!

Things are starting to happen and I thought I'd share...

These foxgloves seemed to appear out of nowhere - they're so creamy in their whiteness.

..much like our mushrooms which appear regularly in the night... fairies...

I've never successfully grown cucumbers before. Their taste fresh-picked from the garden is like nothing I've imagined! They have so many more levels of flavour and who'd of thought cucumbers have prickles all over them!

Beautiful yellow flowers just as the white daisies have had enough - wonderful

Parsley is peeking up under the corn

It was so windy the other day that the corn was begging for mercy. How wonderful that plants have the amazing ability to BEND!

Our first BIG tomato!

And the lettuce basket continues to be easily filled daily. I've grown some more directly from seed. That worked well until I transplanted them to "thin" the seedlings out. Bad idea - almost all that I transplanted wilted up from the hot sun over the next couple days. Next time I think I'll just leave them there and see what happens.

Pretty flowers peeking up fighting for space between the grass that seems to grow centimetres over night.

And strawberries!!!! Hopefully we get to some of  them before the birds..

We've done some companion planting which seems to be working well. The basil is thriving with the tomatoes. My favourite idea is planting corn near the cucumbers to allow the cucumbers to grow up the corn! What a good idea!

How is your garden going? Have you got any tips for me? I'd love to hear them!

Sweet Monday in the garden

Evidentally, it was barefoot in the garden kind of weather this weekend

(though I reckon gardens are always better in muddy feet, don't you?)...

 

Things are progressing in a lovely manner and we are celebrating little gifts of new flowers, baby tomatoes, baby cucumbers, etc. every day. We found little baby corn starting to peek its head out today and some small wonderous eyes simply can't believe it.... "Will the corn ACTUALLY get TALLER than YOU, mummy?!"

My lovely friend, Sophie, gave me this wonderful bag. I would often look at it sitting lonely in the closet, and think, "I really should use this more". Here and there around town just wasn't cutting it for me.

There it was recently , when I needed to collect some lettuce, and well, you can see the results. 

This lovely little bag has become our treasured garden treats basket. It is filled daily with lettuce, mint, rocket, kale, spinach, basil - so lush, I feel like a queen having so much to eat every day from the garden!

The other wonderful treat is that in using this bag every day I get to think of my lovely friend whom I don't see often enough, but hold in my heart. 

These are simple sweet things that bring me such joy.

Wishing you equal joy on this lovely day xx