Feijoas Galore

My parents' feijoa tree seems to have a bumper crop this year. The fruit set also seems a lot better than in previous years (it has trouble with fruit not being pollinated because it flowers so much earlier than other local trees). I've been picking up feijoas by the bucketfull and bringing them home. Last week I decided it was time to get some into the freezer, so we have some fruit for crumble and winter porridge. There were so many on the ground, you would probably not have even realised I'd been there! Which means I'd better go back again this week! Feijoas are great in that you know they are ripe when they fall to the ground. This does mean, however, that the fruit will rot in damp weather if you don't get to it quickly. Yummy. I do so love feijoas!

What are your favourite uses for feijoa?

Amy

Monday, 2nd May, 2011

Flowers

Our summer flower garden is long gone. Our grocery budget is stretched as far as it can go, so I have had to forego flowers for some weeks. Boyo did buy me a beautiful sunflower, which lasted for ages, but we finally had to concluded that it had done its dash when it was completely wilted and curled up. I thought that might have to be the end of weekly flower displays for several months, but headed out into the yard just in case I could find some greenery or something with which to brighten up the house. I was pleasantly surprised. Sometimes you just have to look at the world with eyes that are focused, in order to find what you are looking for. Isn't that so often the case. We plough on through life, thinking we are seeing, thinking we are looking, but in reality we are just so busy that we miss much of what our eyes take in. Then when we stop, and take a moment to really concentrate on what we are seeing, so many details appear that were previously hidden to us.

This is what happened to me. Walking around with my sizzors I suddenly found quite a few options to use when I had previously thought there wasn't really much out there. I managed to do a little arrangement for the bathroom, and then one for the dining table too! Sadly, as is the case with all cut flowers, they haven't lasted very long. As it is now pouring with rain I won't be replacing them today at least. I do wonder what I will find out there next time though?

Amy

Monday, 2nd April, 2011

We Have a View!

Our unit is surrounded by views - of the hills, the estuary, trees and houses. I tend to forget though, as many of them you can't actually see from inside the house itself. Our back yard is framed by mature camellia trees almost all the way around, which makes for a lovely secluded backyard, and splashes of colour throughout winter. But it does mean you forget how high we are here, perched just down the side of the ridge of a hill.

We recently had a tree break in the back yard. It's a rather lovely little tree, so I'm quite gutted. It just seems to have grown more than it can hold upright - I'd thought for awhile that it seemed to be getting lower (I'd bang my head on branches and find myself wondering if they had always been that low). Then one day I was out talking to the neighbour and she asked what was wrong with our tree - pointing to a branch that was very definitely on a lean. Yup, sure enough, it had split...the next morning another larger branch was also split, and there were branches over the fence, the shed, and the route to the compost bin. We had to call in the landlord with a chainsaw. He left as much of the tree as he could, but I fear we are now on borrowed time. This is the only tree in the yard that gives daytime shade during summer, so I am lamenting its demise for more than just sympathetic reasons. I am hoping it will suprise us all and live for many more years yet!

The upside is that we have discovered a view that we didn't realise we had. It is quite hard to see in the photos (I'm blaming trouble with lighting on that), but we can now see all the way out across to the next ridgeline, including a nice upright poplar tree. We are still getting used to our tree being missing, but are definitely enjoying the view when we walk into the bedroom. Views, I have realised, are quite important to me. I like to look at something restful. I enjoy sitting in our lounge so much here because my chair faces out through the big window, out across our fence with its banksia rose, across to a higher ridgeline with a group of norfolk pines.

Amy

Monday, 2nd May, 2011

Compost

I have been wanting to move the compost bin for about 6 months. It came with the house. Or would it be better to say that it was in the yard when we arrived? Either way, it was stashed up behind the garden shed, in a lovely warm, sheltered spot. The issue was that it is a narrow walkway up there, and nowhere near the backdoor. Grin. I like to make recycling and living more 'green' as easy as possible so have been cherishing ideas of moving the bin over next to my worm farm. That way, I don't have to decide who to feed today until I actually get out there - the worms can have a bit, and the compost bin a bit, all at the same time. I am hoping it will still stay warm enough where it is now located to keep composting away just fine. So I didn't start out planning to move the compost bin last week. It kind of just happened. I think I started off wanting to move the strawberries. But they needed better soil in their new bed, and the compost bin had some beautiful stuff. And everything just happened from there. Munchkin had a delightfully long sleep which helped, and Boyo was home from Polytech so could listen out for the baby while I was outside. I did have rather sore arm and upper leg muscles the following day. Blame that on not currently owning a garden spade. I had to use the hand trowel and rubber gloves to shovel the compost into a bucket, then from their into the wheelbarrow (which also came with the house - very, very glad to have had it available!).

I have always known there are a LOT of worms in this compost bin! I have never seen one quite like it. I used it to help populate my worm farm, and you certainly wouldn't know 6 months down the track that there were any worms missing (I just love how they will populate to meet the food availability!). The compost was writhing! This did prolong the 'moving house' business somewhat. I know that compost worms can't live in regular garden soil. They need a lot more organic matter than that. So of course I felt really mean leaving a single worm in the compost when dumping it into the garden, knowing it meant certain death. I had to go through and pick out every worm I could find first! I guess I feel a little responsible for them. I mean, I feed them, and I was the one who decided they had to move house...probably much to their disgust! I finished under the light of Boyo's torch and am pleased to say that the worms seem to be fairly unconcerned about their house move. Photos follow of the top partly composed, wormy stuff, the good compost (got about 30cm out of the bottom of the bin), and the newly positioned bin.

Amy

Monday, 2nd May, 2011

Being Prepared

I have learnt (the hard way) the benefit of being prepared when going out with a baby. I am usually one of those 'plan for every possible event' kind of people, but having a young son has taxed my ability to think coherently to the breaking point. A few times recently we've been out, and I've discovered that I need to give Munchy something to eat, but of course don't have the required implements to do so. Hands do need washing after squishing banana all through them. Faces do too! So I now have my 'be prepared' kit stashed in my handbag! It contains: a small plastic ziplock bag, a teaspoon, and a cloth. I invariably have a water bottle on me to wet the cloth, and a banana or cracker to give Munchkin to eat, so these are the bare essentials for those trips where I think we won't really need anything. It should really also contain a nappy and a bib. I might add at least the bib later today. The nappy is a little too baulky for my handbag I feel! For longer trips out we usually take his nappy bag, but this kit at least means I have something on me for shorter trips where I don't want the bulkiness of an entire nappy bag in tow.






Amy

Monday, 2nd May, 2011

Washing

Munchkin loves helping me do the washing! He is incredibly fascinated with the washing machine, and has been for months. I can fill the machine, put it on, and potter around doing other things while he either sits or stands, mesmerised by the round and round action of the barrel, and all the shiny lights! I was a bit surprised by this. It makes complete sense, of course, as he just loves things that move and roll, but I hadn't connected with the fact that this is what the washing machine does!

Do/did your kids find anything really fascinating that surprised you?

Amy

Monday, 2nd May, 2011

A Productive Weekend

I got three squares knitted this weekend!! The reason? We were away at a family event. Which meant that there were grandparents, Boyo, and a few other people looking after Munchkin as well as me. Plus I didn't do any study in the evenings, so I got to knit instead. Here's the result:

Plus a few more photographed earlier in the week:

I'm putting rows together at the moment, so that I don't have a huge pile of crochet work to do at the end. Here's a row laid out and photographed, just in case the pile of squares gets mussed up before I finish crocheting them all together!

Amy

Monday, 2nd May, 2011