Sneaky Chicken

Gumboot weather

2009-04-27T11:22:00.005+10:00

I went outside to do some digging in the veg patch yesterday morning, and came in half an hour later with muddy socks (from leaky shoes). Solution was a pair of gummies..... I don't think I have had a pair of gumboots since I was in my teens. I found these at the local big W, source of many bits and pieces that have come in handy lately, as well as a few packets of bulbs hiding at the bottom of my fridge (oops, hubby hasn't seen those yet!). Luckily there were two pairs left in this design (the least offensive of the lot - and one I quite like), and both were in my size (highly unusual)...... needless to say they went straight to the checkout with me and were outside in the mud within the hour.

They have since been tested out again this morning while I was outside hosing the outside windows down so that I could get rid of some of the grot that has built up in the last several months. I was doing really well up until I got to our bedroom window, then for some reason water starts cascading into the bedroom...... NOOOOOOOOOOO!!

So I had to clean that up, luckily the water landed mainly on the sill with minimal splashing on the carpet..... and yes all windows were closed before I started, and yes I have done this before with no water leakage, I'm a bit worried that the seals have gone and that when there is a high wind and lots of rain (in the middle of the night of course) we will get up to a puddle where the carpet used to be.

Anyway that's enough doom and gloom...... moving on..... where have I been in the last month?

Well, nowhere really, although it seems like just when you get life and housework and children organised a spanner gets thrown in the works, and it takes forever to get back to how you would like things to be. Easter holidays for hubby and children meant lots more stuff going on around here and minimal access to the computer. Then there were chest colds for children which meant another week of two children at home and miserable and fighting, and the onset of the rain and cold weather has meant that getting my washing dry is a constant shuffle from the washing machine to the line to the dryer for a quick warm up before it's folded and put away.

Oh and I have started knitting again daily, something new for me (although it's not like I don't have enough things half done) and some projects that need to be finished before the children get too big for them..... oh and something for mum that I have been working on for an embarrassing amount of time that I am trying to get done for mother's day next month (lace pattern wasn't working and it was driving me nuts, it'll only be a couple of years late, whoops!).

Looks like the washing outside is ready to get in, and the pile of sheets that is sitting on the armchair in front of the couch waiting to be folded is starting to annoy me.

Quilt progress

2009-03-23T09:03:00.006+11:00

I have been working on this quilt for a while...... alright ages really.... I had some machine quilting issues with it and gave up in disgust. Yesterday with rain outside and feeling the need to finish some projects I rummaged around on my sewing table and thought that I should try and move this on to the next stage before my daughter grows up and moves out of home. Funnily enough I didn't realise quite how crazy busy the top looked before I took this photo, my daughter loves bright colours and lots of pattern, and I wanted to create a flower garden with lots of butterflies and faries for her.

The back is a LOT quieter with just a simple stripe down the middle (more to do with making the material wide enough without lots of mucking about than for any other reason). I've quilted down the centre of each strip, and got the idea for this style of quilt from the blog Wise Craft mid last year, although I looked at her finished single wedding ring quilt earlier today while blog surfing and I think that I will have to put it on my list of 'things to make and do'. Maybe I should finish some projects first.

I have also done a top and back for my son's quilt, but have not yet sandwiched and quilted. I still need to rummage through the fabric stash to sort out bindings for edges, although I think that I will wait till the two quilts are at the same stage because goodness knows there will be complaints if one is ready before the other!

My son's quilt top is nowhere near as bright, with lots of blues and greens in it (his favourites), but I have done the back with a similar blue (material hanging around from a project that I changed my mind about), and a dolphin print stripe.

(I just realised how dark the photos look..... another wet and dreary day today..... not happy! my tomatoes are not ripe yet.... I need summer to be about a month longer.... I don't know what I am going to do with green tomatoes :( )

Family holiday

2009-03-16T11:29:00.003+11:00

I know I'm not the most prolific and reliable of blog-posters, but at least I have an excuse for the last gaping hole between posts.

The four of us went away for the week for a family holiday, a bit of an escape from the everyday grind (me), and work stress (hubby).

We spent lots of time at the hotel pool, making sure that the children got lots of use out of their floaties, and went on a drive to look at Marakoopa Cave at Mole Creek. There was lots of torch use by the littlies, and some mad counting of glow worms on the ceiling by my daughter...... her new favourite number is 57..... the number of glow worms counted while the guide had the lights turned off.

A quick visit with the inlaws over the weekend and then a long car trip with two small children home.... and then lots of unpacking, piles of dirty washing and settling back into home last night and I am feeling a bit unsettled at the moment. It's been a busy morning, and after a week of sleeping late returning to routine is a bit odd.

Unfortunately we had a bit of an accident with a broken olive oil bottle and some library books.... Luckily the rubber floor mat protected the car, but two cloth bags and a whole pile of other stuff was not so lucky..... so this morning I had to return the damaged books to the library and apologise profusely...... and to add insult to injury, the ones that were spoilt were the ones I hadn't read yet. So I am now waiting for a phone call to tell me how much in fines/replacement costs I'm going to have to pay.

The first thing we did last night after unpacking the car and saying 'isn't it nice to be home?' was to check out the garden and to see whether my tomatoes had ripened..... there has been a quite a bit of rain in the last few days, so some of them had gone a bit too far and disintegrated on the bushes (all the nice big fat ones that I had been eyeing off to make sauce with). So after some heavy culling we were left with a large bowlful of various types of tomatoes - beefsteak to cherry and pea, and a huge handful of large purple podded beans, luckily our neighbour had some broccoli going wild so we did a bit of a swap. I see roast chicken and lots of homegrown veggies in my future.

I keep hoping that my pumpkins will fatten up and ripen soon, and that the corn fills out nicely in the next week or two.... I can just see my children eating a large cob apiece (they LOVE corn) as often as I can find some that is ready.

Bottling

2009-02-26T09:01:00.003+11:00

So this is what I have been doing for the last couple of weeks on and off......

The apricots are from my grandmother's tree, our tree and from a friend of the family's tree. Amazingly they are completly different flavour and texture-wise, those from our tree were rich orange coloured with such flavour and scent that I could have eaten them all day (and very nearly did!).

I think the tree is definitely happy where we planted it, which I was a bit concerned about, because the clay layer is very close to the surface in our garden and I had heard that they preferred sandy soil (which ours is definitely not).

Oh and my apples are fattening up nicely.... I had a quick look at them this morning and I think they will be large and sweet and juicy this year, as opposed to the smallish and a bit tart ones that we got last year..... there are a LOT more too! My daughter has asked me if she could have her own apple tree.... my immediate thought was that it would be a better idea than getting a pet at this stage, less responsibility, and she gets the enjoyment of growing her own food. She has plans for flowers somewhere in my garden too.... I don't know where they are going to go..... I have been so disorganised this summer that my weeds have weeds growing in them. I thought that if I got her a ballerina apple tree that it could go in a pot and live on the tiles near their sand pit and play house.

I need to go and sort out my kitchen again, my son has high hopes for cake (I made one last week in a fit of enthusiasm and I was told 'mummy you can make another cake when we run out of bits from this one'), I just want to get my benches clean and tidy and have them stay that way for more than five minutes. (I know, wishful thinking).

What to say?

2009-02-13T11:51:00.005+11:00

I've been watching the news late at night for the last week, some of the stories of hundreds of people and thousands of homes lost to the fires in Victoria are too much for small children to hear and see. My heart breaks for those who have lost so much.

Bounty

2009-01-29T14:42:00.002+11:00

Finally!

I have managed to grow beetroot successfully! The last couple of times I tried they never filled up and rounded out..... I can't work out what it was that I did wrong, but they weren't happy. Now everything else in the garden is coming ready too, and I have a bit more enthusiasm for getting out in the garden and doing something about it.

Last night is the first night in a long while that I have grown all the veggies that we ate. Sugar snap peas (probably the last picking), beetroot, yellow and green french beans, and pinkeye potatoes. I probably could have done something with the zucchini that are starting to clutter my kitchen bench but I couldn't handle any more complaints from the children about all the foods that they are having to re-learn the flavours of (I have been trying to buy and cook as seasonally as possible, and grow as much as I can in the half of the back garden that I am 'allowed' to dig up and grow stuff in).

It seems that every night one of the two little ones are complaining (loudly) about something on their plate..... my daughter started this and now my son has picked it up from her..... I insist on one bite to have a taste and if they don't like it they can leave it (in the vague hope that they will have the 20+ tastes of each food they need to become used to it), as long as they know that there won't be any sort of dessert (chocolate, icecream or frozen yoghurt) if they don't finish.

My daughter owned up to hiding her beetroot under her mashed potato (at about the same time my patience ran out) last night, so I gave up and they went to bed asap.

I need to go find my bottling jars in a minute, I have a couple of bags of apricots from my grandma who has decided that she doesn't need all of them (and knows that I appreciate the fruit). My tree is loaded with fruit, but it's a week or so from being ripe enough to eat or cook with, I can't wait, because they are so beautifully apricotty and sweet and juicy. Hmmmmmm I might go check them again.

Hot and bothered

2009-01-14T15:20:00.005+11:00

As if it's not enough that the temperature outside during the last couple of days has been HOT compared to the 16-18 degree last few weeks (see bottom of little blue bar in pic), I have a sore throat......

Not just any sore throat though..... a keep-you-up-in-the-night-and-not-let-you-swallow-sore-throat, so tired and getting grumpy me trotted off to the doc this morning, sweltering along the way.

Now happily and lazily ensconced on the couch in the cool I have to admit my day is getting better..... world peace cookies from Dorie Greenspan's Baking from my home to yours went a long way to improving my mood..... baked in my still clean kitchen.

I have been busy having a bit of a clean out in the kitchen and living room this last week or two, removing and cleaning everything, as well as recycling and repositioning things..... Sort of a mid-summer clean (or maybe a spring clean that is dragging on a bit).

There's also been doona washing going on.... drying quickly in this hot weather, very satisfying to tick that one off the list.

Might have to have a bit of a go slow for the next few days while I throw off this bug..... I'm looking forward to a museum visit with my daughter early next week so I want to be feeling better before then (there's nothing worse than wandering around amidst lots of people feeling like you want to be home lolling on the couch).

Ok, more washing to hang out...... and blog surfing to do :D

Has christmas finished already?

2008-12-26T17:28:00.007+11:00

Wow, I could say that I don't know where the last couple of weeks have gone, but that would be a lie..... I have spent hours cleaning and cooking and shopping and going to school and other functions, and most of that was done with an awful cold.

I spent most of yesterday in and out of the kitchen,with cooking and last minute cleaning. Christmas was at our house for the first time this year and the prospect of assorted family members visiting the bomb site that our house had become was a bit scary...... I don't mind a messy house, and my close family don't care anyway, but I couldn't face a houseful of people politely stepping over piles of toys and assorted scraps of paper (what is it about paper that causes it to distribute itself around the floor in random sized scraps?).

So, the food was good, family were all well and happy, and it was nice to catch up with those people we don't see very often..... I would post a pic of the lemon meringue pie that I made for dessert (standing order at any family function)..... but it was all gone within an hour of being served (don't fall over on the way to the table at our house, there will be nothing left).

My inlaws are coming to stay for a few days, and are arriving tomorrow so I am in cleanup-from-party mode today, made easier by bopping along with my christmas present from hubby (sneaky man bought me an Ipod nano)...... need to get back to it really..... Happy new year (I probably won't get back here before then).

Nine years

2008-12-11T09:13:00.003+11:00

I could tell you about my week of washing, the harvest of giant broad beans (the ones that I just didn't get around to picking at a reasonable size), putting up our christmas tree and my daughter's school play tonight..... but I'm not.....

I'm sending my hubby some flowers because it's our anniversary this week and we're doing anniversary prezzies under $10...... I got him some chockies and a card as well, this is just a bonus! (and Forget-me-nots stand for true love in the language of flowers )

I was thinking about it last week and suggested that seeing as we really didn't NEED anything in particular, and seeing as christmas is coming up faster than ever before, excessive spending for the sake of it seems a bit crazy in light of recent financial meltdowns around the world.... besides, who could go wrong with a favourite box of chocolates?

I went into town this morning to get some christmas pressies, a couple of last minute ones that I haven't been able to find closer to home...... next year I'm starting my christmas shopping in August, because I can't bear to be doing this again next year. The shop I went to (specifically planned to go to one shop only and reduce the agony) was full of people, my son was wandering off every five minutes, and the things that I was looking at to buy had no price tags!

I haven't worked out whether it is a ploy to make people buy stuff regardless of price because they are so exhausted/annoyed/desperate, or just that they don't care that a large percentage of their stock is not priced.... and of course the one thing that I did get (that had a tag) was incorrectly priced and took a good five minutes of 'mummy I have to go to the toilet NOW' time to get sorted..... (me with mental fingers crossed that he could hold on till we got to the closest toilet)

So we're back home and vegging out..... while I knit a test swatch with some of the bamboo/cotton yarn that I acquired at the shop (on considerable discount otherwise I wouldn't have bothered), and the tired little boy on the couch next to me rests and regains his equilibrium for tonight's school play outing.

Ok now I need to finish this swatch and go get my christmas beetle from school, feed her and get her back to school for a 7pm start......

Sssssshhhhh.......

2008-12-04T13:39:00.002+11:00

Be very very quiet...... I'm hunting raspberries (and if anyone finds out they'll all want some!)

I've been too busy with going away over the weekend and catching up on house work this week to do anything much in the garden..... although while I was hanging out the washing I thought that I would check on the progress of the raspberries....

we put the nets on last week, when we first noticed that they were reddening. I think that the cold weather and all that rain that we have had over the last couple of weeks has made them a bit later coming on than last year, and some are more watery than I would like.

At least they are going to be in time for christmas (yay!) and maybe there will be enough to share with hubby and son today.....

Now, I have to go and find my leather gloves so that I can rummage through the canes properly......

Happy Birthday Honey

2008-11-24T10:43:00.005+11:00

Well..... it has been a while since I last posted here..... it seems like the last two weeks have been one thing after another, and I needed to just do the essentials.

It's my husband's birthday today..... although it has been celebrated since friday night when I took him out to see the new Bond movie, yesterday afternoon tea with a few family and friends, and tonight just the four of us at home together for tea.

We have been together for 10 years now, and it constantly amazes me that it has been so long..... it feels like yesterday that we were in the same maths class at uni (where we met), and even stranger that we now have school age children, and have been living in our own home for three and a half years...... did I blink and miss something?

I don't think anyone else could have put up with me for that long, least of all still be supportive and loving, because goodness knows I am not the easiest person to live with.....

So before I spill the beans about tonight's surprise (because hubby is my most loyal reader) I'd better go and bake a cake and some bikkies to drop into his work for afternoon tea.

Busy weekend

2008-11-03T11:37:00.005+11:00

We went to visit my inlaws' this weekend...... my husband took the pic of 'the sunbonnet and grandad'. Both children had a ball racing about in the paddoc with the cows, and doing all sorts of different things like riding tractors and playing golf on the lawn.

I have about a million and one things to do......

loads and loads of washing
finish curtain for little boy's room (that I started last night)
unpack and put away
tidy house (messy from last minute packing job friday)
plant rest of tomatoes and pull out broccoli, caulis and garlic before it flowers
hill up potatoes and plant corn, pumpkins and melons
baking (bread and banana cake to use the bananas that didn't get eaten because we were away)
make marmalade (oranges have been sitting around for far too long, don't want them to go green and squishy)
I'm sure I promised my hubby home made icecream (although I think it's just as much for me as for him)
um...... more washing?

Even with all those things to do (and probably more that I have forgotten about) it's still nice to be home...... there's nothing like flopping on your own couch and doing nothing after four hours' driving yesterday, and a weekend of visiting.

What day is it?

2008-10-27T11:33:00.006+11:00

Wow, I can't remember a more muddled week......

School swimming carnival on tuesday, much excitement and anticipation...... picture little girl rummaging through cupboards for bathers and trying on every pair she can find..... then sitting on the chair in goggles, bathers and cap at 5pm the night before 'mummy can we go swimming?'.

Needless to say she wasn't impressed with the fact that she had to wait. I think it was worth it though, she had the best time in the kickboard, wade, noodle and swim races....... wasn't bothered by what place she came and was so proud of herself for just finishing.

I have to say that I was really proud of her, and so impressed that she was trying hard and having so much fun. I think it was harder for us as parents to watch her and let her go and try for herself, and knowing that all we could do was cheer her on and congratulate her on her efforts.

Thursday and friday were strange too.... thursday was a public holiday, so hubby had friday off as well, to make a long long weekend...... so he and littlies spent two days lolling about couch potatoing while I weeded, dug and planted in the garden, and did lots of washing......

This is the pile of folding facing me at the moment (shudder), I don't want to think about it, I am pretending it's not there ...... I like to fold washing in the evenings while I watch my favourite telly shows, that way I feel like I am getting something done without having to miss dialogue...... and I can do more interesting things like plant seeds.......

These are some that I planted last week, charentais, amish and delice de table melons in the vague hope that they will actually produce something (I am ahead already, they have germinated this year)..... turkish turban and australian oil seed pumpkins, and the butternuts at the front (which I cheated and bought because I couldn't find any seed), and corn which I am looking forward to feeding to children who LOVE corn now that they have gotten over the weirdness of eating it off the cob.

Hmmm so where was I? oh yes, so friday felt like sunday, and I couldn't tell you what day saturday felt like, because I just don't know..... and yesterday I kept forgetting things, at the shop TWICE, and where the swimming gear was (not my fault, moved by children), so after stopping off at three shops, and going home to get the floaties and goggles we got a swim at our local pool..... leaving us all tired and needing an early night.

So monday morning rolls around again, and there are the same battles to get children dressed and organised and fed before leaving, and the joy of a house that has been thoroughly lived in for the past four days, as well as the mammoth task of getting myself back into the habit of Shopping With Children, which can be guaranteed to last at least three times as long as you would like.

I'm not even going to think about it, I'm going to think happy thoughts involving my raspberry canes which are looking particularly healthy at the moment..... and the second expedition of the day to the fabric shop, on a sanctioned buying trip..... what's not to be happy about?

Life the universe and everything or thank goodness the party's over

2008-10-20T10:26:00.004+11:00

I didn't realise how stressful having a group of ten children at our house racing around screaming, jumping on the trampoline and hanging out for a visit from a fairy could be.

I needed pain relief for a massive headache when everyone left, and I have vacuumed the house for the third time in two days (a record). Luckily it only took about an hour to deconstruct the fairy ring and decorations that we organised, and to clean up crumbs of chips, cake and fairy bread. Undoing child proof packaging took considerably longer, and stuffing the remains into the garbage and recycle bins took longer still.

So I have my house back and all is quiet..... well considerably quieter than yesterday, so it's back into the routine and washing sheets...... did I mention that my washing machine is great now?

Nature

2008-10-17T10:25:00.005+11:00

It's no wonder my climbing beans are being eaten off at ground level, this is what my son and I found under some pots in next to the shed..... 'they not being very sensible' apparently, one fell off just after I took the photo.

The snails were then put into a bucket for him to cart round and keep them out of my veggies, the last I saw of them he was 'feeding' them dirt, and bringing them into the house in a jar to climb all over everything..... my 'WHO BROUGHT THE SNAILS INSIDE?' was met with a giggle and a 'that was ME!'..... boys.......

I've spent the last few days catching up on my washing, as the motor of my washing machine was replaced monday afternoon (insert happy dance here), the luxury of not having to drive several K's to mum's to wash several times a week is amazing, and I am sure that I heard her washing machine heave a big sigh of relief - we are not a low washing household.

This week is also busy because it's my daugher's birthday, and of course there is plenty of last minute party shopping, and present wrapping. She piped up last night and said 'so where are you hiding my presents?' .....denial of all knowledge resulted in a present hunt all over the house and huge entertainment value for myself and hubby.

These ladybird muffins went to school this week, the result of a late night baking and decorating session. I used my quick mix chocolate cake that never fails, I think I got it from agt magazine years ago. It is great for all sizes of muffins and cakes, children will eat it happily, and with a bit of icing it is not too sweet. My lovely husband squashed jaffas into the icing, put on a mini m'n'm head and gave the ladybirds individual spots with decorating gel (just because he could).

I will be surprised if any of these make it home (probably a good thing, I managed to eat the other half of the packet of jaffas just to make sure they were still as good as I remember - they were, and this is the reason that I don't buy lollies on a regular basis).

We have eight little people coming to our house for a fairy party this weekend, thank goodness birthdays only come round once a year.......

The other side of the mountain

2008-10-06T09:26:00.003+11:00

It's been an odd week..... my washing machine died last monday night so I have been waiting with baited breath for a repairman to come and look at it. Turns out that six years of serious amounts of washing, the side effects of having two small children have taken their toll and the motor has gone.

NOOOOOOOO..... well actually it's not that bad..... we got extended warranty when we bought it and luckily we have a couple of months still left on it, although I really don't want to jinx it so we'll wait the week for parts to come and then for the guy to fit it, and then we'll cheer and go put a load of washing on (then call mum and thank her profusely for the use of her washing machine).

So after ferrying washing to and fro all week I really didn't feel like being home doing house work all weekend, and with the children getting restless we decided to go for a walk on 'the mountain' aka Mt Wellington. We did the obligatory drive to the top and froze ourselves in the icy wind and rain (it's not always that bad, but the weather came in pretty fast), then went down and around the side of the mountain (which led to some loud backseat singing of 'the other side of the mountain') to the pipeline track at ferntree.... fairly flat and easy walking for little legs.

They loved it..... 'mummy can we keep on walking?' I think we walked for nearly two hours including 'snack stops', and playground stops, and waterfall stops and 'oooh look at that soft moss' stops. Poor daddy got stuck carrying the bag of goodies and the boy whose legs were tired but who could sprint the last five hundred metres to the car and back to mum and dad.

Happy Birthday Mum

2008-09-29T08:51:00.008+10:00

I know it doesn't look like much, but it tastes good.

We ate Angie's lemon cake from Stephanie Alexander's cook's companion, specially requested by mum, and cannelloni (because everyone likes it and it is easy to make enough to feed ten).

I spent most of last week cleaning house and catching up with gardening, my inlaws came to stay with us for the weekend too, so it had to be a priority. I don't mind living with a bit of a mess, but I feel a certain obligation to clean up when I know I have lots of people coming round to visit.

(this is where I remind myself that I really should KEEP the place tidy since I put in all that effort, but sometimes life intrudes)

My mother in law asked if my mum thought she'd been sufficiently 'birthdayed' I replied that I hoped she did, but that if she didn't it wasn't my fault (love you mum! (feeling tired and grouchy at this point- no one noticed did they?)).

So in the interests of PROVING that I do from time to time manage to get the place tidy I tried to take some photos this morning after hubby and daughter left to catch the bus.......

My son decided that it was time to take pics of him instead...... so I gave up in the interests of actually posting more than once this week.

I have plans today to get my housework done in half an hour today...... wishful thinking probably, but I thought that this would be my best chance because most of the work is already done. All I need to do is change bedding, whizz through with the vacuum cleaner and wash up a couple of things..... and maybe I should hang the washing out too..... everyone needs a goal to work towards don't they?

Where did my weekend go?

2008-09-23T13:26:00.003+10:00

This is the story of my life at the moment...... rain, wind, more rain and more wind..... oh, and lots of washing to fold and put away.....

I managed to get an hour of sunshine this morning to put in some carrot seed and potatoes, I still have the beetroot seeds soaking, so hopefully I will get a bit more time later today to put them in too.

The garden beds are starting to look fuller, but I still have a lot to do digging and sowing seed in time to get plants in at the right time. That reminds me, I need to go and water my tomato seedlings...... and fold some washing.

Raspberries

2008-09-17T08:48:00.004+10:00

The last few days have been strange......

The weather has alternated between sun, wild winds and rain, making it difficult to get outside and do anything much.

I finally decided that the raspberries needed pruning and tying up more than I needed to be inside out of the wind, they are starting to sprout, and the thought of trying to pick raspberries through twice as many canes as normal spurred me on.

These are not your average thorned raspberries, they could give loganberries a run for their money, I have resorted to picking in cotton gloves on occasion, and I don't do any sort of pruning or moving of canes without leather gloves.

The canes came from family friends, who had been given some prize-winning canes from an old lady when she sold her house years ago. So when our friends down-sized we were lucky enough to be given some of the canes that they were digging up. For around six months they sat dormant in 5L icecream containers along the driveway of our rental house, and when we moved into our first home (aka the bank's and our home), the raspberries were among the first things we planted (priorities). The raspberries themselves are beautiful things, you have to wait till they are almost purple for the full flavour and sweetness to be present, because if you pick them when dark red like most other types they will be bland and sour.

The canes run along the north facing side of the house, so they get a lot of summer sun, and the brick behind them means that they often fruit in autumn as well as summer. The leaves rarely fall till June, leaving me only a couple of months to get organised and tidy them up before they start to leaf again, obviously I am behind schedule this year.

Last year I trimmed the canes to the height of the top supporting wire and tied them on with jute string, unfortunately that didn't work too well in the exposed conditions, and the old canes were all leaning over and tangled with the new, and quite a few of them were a couple of metres long. I read somewere a while ago that twisting the canes along the wire was a good option for keeping the canes neat, and considering how long it took, and how scratched I got tying them with the ill fated string I figured that this could be a better idea.

So after spending a couple of hours here and there between the wind and rain they are done, and looking pretty nice too (although the light hasn't been cooperative the last couple of days so I don't think the picture does them justice), almost like a woven wicker basket. I can't wait to see them with more leaves (and of course fruit).

My grandmother called just after I had finished the last few canes, and on hearing that I have raspberries, has placed an order with me for some around christmas time. Let's just hope that noone else hears about them being nice, purple, rich raspberry tasty things because then they'll all want some.....

A trip to the beach

2008-09-11T16:34:00.011+10:00

It was such a lovely day today that my mum and children and I went to the beach for a walk along the rocks..... well the drier parts anyway.....

We went out to the point and back, stopping often to look at rock pools 'wow look at that rock pool', and to investigate interesting shells.....

My poor tired boy needed carrying back to the car, and has since fallen asleep on the couch, I think rock hopping must be much harder with short legs, but lots of fun too....

Now that the weather is getting warmer we will be at the beach more often, something the children are very pleased about.....

This is my daughter's smiley face, she made it with the bucketful of shells and seaweed she collected. I explained to her that while it was fun to find lots of beautiful shells and velvety seaweed (uncannily like wet bottle green thick spaghetti), we really shouldn't take them home with us (and I certainly don't need any more clutter in the house). She was happy with that, and even happier that I took this photo for her (bonus points mummy!).

Eclairs

2008-09-09T08:11:00.006+10:00

I have a problem......

...... every now and then I do or make something..... and it takes about three times as long as it should.

Sunday morning I started making eclairs, thinking that it would be quick to get the shells done before having to take my daughter to a birthday party, the whole saga started with me breaking the ziploc baggie that I was using to pipe the pastry.... managed to transfer to another bag and everything was going well until it came to taking the eclairs out of the oven..... the temperature of my oven is obviously not as accurate as Pierre Herme's - result: eggy pancakes...... not happy....

Send lovely (some would say long-suffering) husband to birthday party with daughter in the hope that I can get the eclair shells right the second time, wash up pots, pans and mixer bowl, realise that since the first batch didn't work I now need more eggs, pack son into car for dash to supermarket..... proceed to mix another batch of pastry, new piping bag breaks, give up in disgust and shape remainder of pastry by hand and bake..... nearly had pancakes again, except this time I shoved them straight back into the oven as they started to deflate, and lo and behold they puffed back up and stayed there! whew.... turn oven off and hope that sitting there for a while will keep them puffy until they are sufficiently dried, next step.... chocolate pastry cream, sauce, and glaze.....

I managed to get the pastry cream made without any trouble, it's made similarly to the lemon meringue pie filling that I use, heat, mix, cook, mix, cool etc.

Make the chocolate sauce, realise that it's ok and it's not going to take too much longer and I'll be done (famous last words).

Heat cream for glaze, mix in chocolate, reach for cubes of butter and SPLAT!..... resist the urge to scream and throw things knowing that it's just going to make more of a mess for me to clean up...... wipe up star shaped puddle of chocolate and cream on the kitchen floor.... wash pots..... start again, more chocolate and cream, mix in butter and the chocolate sauce...... success!

Take a deep breath, pull eclairs out of oven..... still puffy (yay!)..... slice and start filling with chocolate pastry cream, glaze, sandwich gently and place in shallow plastic container to transport....

Give husband first taste test.... gone in two bites, am told that 'they are not worth taking anywhere, lets just eat them here', ask how they compare to his grandmother's cream puffs (raised to legend status) 'they're right up there, I think I might need to taste some more to be sure'..... hmmmm (not buying that)..... pack husband and children off to parent's house.... eclairs last less than half an hour after arriving.

Tell lovely husband that the next time I suggest making something so involved on the day they're needed that he should tell me to stop being stupid and go make something nice and easy.

Happy father's day

2008-09-07T07:15:00.004+10:00

There's a reason this photo looks like it was taken in the dead of night...... I woke up this morning and realised that in my efforts to make my dad the type of meringues he likes (crispy) I had managed to leave them in the oven, with it on, all night (that's what happens when you fall asleep on the couch and forget all about them).

So at 6.30 this morning in my rush to make sure they hadn't turned into charcoal I pulled them out of the oven and onto a cooling rack with no regard for cooling slowly...... of course the chef needs to test the finished product, so I am happy to be able to say that your meringues still taste fine dad (and they're not bad warm either).

After realising that even though there was a lot of crashing and banging going on in the kitchen everyone else was asleep I thought I should take the opportunity to catch up on my blog reading and look up that yummy chocolate eclair recipe at tartelette so I can make some for my husband (and for afternoon tea with my parents - assuming he doesn't eat them all).

so, father's day pressies delivered by offspring - check
baked goods - in progress
breakfast in bed..... hmmm better get going on this one or he'll sleep all morning, because his new 'do not disturb the king' door hanger is working far too well

Spring

2008-09-04T08:36:00.004+10:00

Ok..... I know it's now officially the fourth day of spring here..... but I will claim lack of sleep and sick children for not getting out and about to see what my fruit trees and the rest of the garden are doing.

I remember thinking about a week ago that it wouldn't be long before the buds burst on my peach but I was surprised a couple of days ago to notice that the apricot was already flowering and I had missed it (blush).

When we bought our house the first thing we did outside was to plant the quince (smyrna), peach (anzac), pears (triple grafted something-or-other and a red williams ), apricot (moorpark), damson plum and cox's orange pippin apple...... the idea being that I would at least get a decent crop off them by the time I was ready to deal with them (having delivered our son four days after settling on the house)..... that and I am not good with delayed gratification.

Three summers has resulted in three quinces, six or seven cox's, a handful of peaches and a tree full of apricots, and a couple of mini pears (which really don't count). We have since planted a bramley's seedling apple, a granny smith apple, and last winter we added a cherry along the side fence.

Hmmmm just counted the number of fruit trees in this garden..... (bit deceptive really because some are in the front yard and others are espaliered so it looks like there are less) .....ten's not excessive is it?

(my husband need not respond to this question on the grounds that he might not get anymore crumble, jam, apple pie or anything remotely yummy ;))

Asparagus!

2008-09-02T08:33:00.007+10:00

Yay! asparagus for me! well in a couple of years anyway.....
I put these crowns in about a month and a half ago, at the bottom of the garden in a little spot that doesn't quite fit into my crop rotation scheme. The area is not quite in the brassica or onion beds, it is too small for anything tree sized, and is far enough from the lawn that it will be undisturbed by children (crossing fingers).
I was stepping around on my pavers/bed dividers yesterday, trying to figure out which seedlings were onions, which were leeks and which were a dead loss (must get new, better labelling tags), when I noticed bits of green sticking out of the nicely weed free 'asparagus bed' (note: although it sounds good, the asparagus bed consists of eight crowns) .
I nearly fell over when I realised that they WERE asparagus. So I dash inside, grab my new camera and spend the next half an hour (allocated for transplanting before getting oldest child from school) playing about/taking photos of my 10cm tall asparagus spears. So much for getting jobs done.....

Birthday presents

2008-09-01T09:05:00.000+10:00

Question: who buys their wife a camera, designs her a blog and then presents them to her for her 30th birthday?
Answer: Apparently MY HUSBAND

so..... for my first trick..... working out how to drive this runaway train.....

something I have been working on this week since a package arrived from my inlaws (I need to make sure I don't give too much away, it's a christmas surprise for someone special). The patch is called fox and geese and it came in a flip book with 101 other patterns from here (and my mother in law who knows I enjoy these sort of things). I have plans to use eleven other blocks for a small project, this block is 4'' when finished and is seriously fiddly to sew, hold together and adjudicate children's arguments at the same time, I think I have that sorted though. I have gained some mummy time by scheduling a favourite television show for about 4pm, so I get half an hour to get something creative done before the rush to get children showered, fed, homeworked and put to bed before they get too tired and grumpy.
So now that I have figured out how to get my pics on here, I need to get going on the housework that has been a bit neglected over the weekend (I do have an excuse.... more birthday surprises from my lovely husband..... I know I'm spoilt :D).

Sneaky Chicken Official opening .....

2008-08-29T15:18:00.000+10:00

Inaugral post of a new blog which will be a place to express ideas about Cooking, Gardening, and Handicrafts like patchwork, and knitting