Winter garden

Hello everyone, how are you?  The winter garden is really quite dismal at the moment with only a few pops of colour here and there.  However there is some which is lovely.  I planted Primula seedlings in March so they would be flowering by June.  Please ignore the weeds, it's on my to do list.

The Hellebores are flowering although their heads are very droopy from all the rain.

The Daphne is giving off the most beautiful perfume and I have placed sprigs of it throughout the house.

Some bug seems to like the leaves.

I found this Azalea hiding amongst some Pelargoniums.  I nice little splash of colour if I look hard.

These Jonquils were planted about 14 years ago and every year the grubs have eaten the flowers.  Not this year though.  It's very exciting to see some bright yellow in the garden.

This Chinese Lantern (Abutilon) flowers for most of the year.  I'm loathe to prune it back as sometimes it is the only thing flowering in the garden and the Wattle Birds love it.  Hubby pruned the side of it as it grows out into the driveway.  I've left the top branches so I can see these flowers everyday.

This Pandorea an Australian native climber, needs some serious attention.  I hoping to have lovely flowers come spring.  The sky looks lovely in this photo but it was oh so cold today.

When we have huge amounts of rain like we have this winter, the Land Crayfish also known as Land Crabs (although they are not a crab but a relative of the yabby) come up to the surface in our lawn (weeds) and make these mounds.  You can read all about them by going to the link above.

They don't do any harm, although we have to be careful not to slip on their muddy mounds.  If a yabby should venture from it's home in day light hours, our chook will gobble it up very quickly.

I was inspired by  Gillian of Eclectic Me to make some wash/face cloths.  Here is my first attempt which   turned out much smaller than I expected so I'll be adding some more stitches to the foundation chain when I make the next one.  It's very wonky around the edges and there are a few threads where they ought not to be.  I used Bamboozle yarn from Lincraft and found it very slippery to use.  I've since found a yarn supplier in the U.K. who who will ship internationally.  They have the most gorgeous cotton yarn in pretty colours just perfect for making up some more of these for the bathroom and the kitchen.

I must apologise again for the poor quality of my photos.  The good camera has gone to the camera hospital and I'm using the little digital we first had.

I hope you are all well and happy and that those living in the U.K. are having some summer weather.  It didn't look to wonderful in Paris on Bastille Day as shown on the t.v. news.  People were dressed in coats.  Brrrr.

Well it is time to make dinner.  On the menu tonight is beef rissoles (patties), Moroccan seasoned potato wedges and a mixed salad.  Menu planning is going well.

 Thank you for taking the time to stop by.

Anne  xx

No bake slice

Good morning.   Today is beautiful as the sun is shining, the temperature has dropped to something more bearable than 38C and there is a refreshing breeze blowing through the house.  We had 8mm of lovely rain overnight which has freshened the garden up beautifully.  We are fortunate to have our own rain water tanks so I can water the garden when I need to but there is something about water from the sky that is so much nicer to the garden than out of a tank.

Do you ever have that sinking feeling when you discover there is nothing in the bicky tin?  I did last night and it was up to me to make something even though it was boiling hot.  I was desperate not to add to the heat by turning on the oven, so I did a Google search (oh how I love thee Google) and found a recipe for these.

No-Bake Weet-Bix Slice
Ingredients
1/2 x 410g can sweetened condensed milk
10 Weet-bix crushed (gives the fingers a good work out)
125g butter
1/2 cup coconut
1 tablespoon cocoa
1 cup mixed dried fruit and nuts (I used 1/2 cup slivered almonds and 1/2 cup of craisins)
Icing
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon cocoa
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 -2 teaspoons boiling water

Method

1.  Melt butter and add the condensed milk, stir to combine.
2.  In a bowl mix the Weet-Bix, coconut, cocoa, dried fruit and nuts.
3.  Pour over the butter mixture and stir to combine.
4.  Press the mixture into a slice tin (I used a lamington tin), lined with baking paper.
5.  Combine all the icing ingredients together and spread over the top of the slice.
6.  chill and store in the refrigerator.
7.  Cut into squares to serve.

Recipe from www.bestrecipes.com.au


I didn't bother with the icing as I think the slice is sweet enough.  But if you are craving a sugar hit, go for it. 

I hope you have a great day whatever you are doing.  I have a pile of washing to fold, a huge pile of ironing to do including slip covers for sofas (won't that be fun) and other general housework that doesn't get done when it's hot.  But I am going to make time for some fun things involving yarn.

Anne  xx

Early winter

With an early winter setting in, I'm very glad I made another neck warmer.  The colour is a deep chocolate brown and not at all the colour the photo portrays.

 

Don't you think the back gate post makes a stunning model? :)  

A couple of weeks ago I lifted the strawberries out of the ground and planted them in an old aluminium cauldron.  Mum use to make jam in the cauldron but as we don't use aluminium for cooking anymore, she very kindly donated it to me.  Hubby drilled some holes in the bottom for drainage and put it on bricks so the strawberries will be off the ground.  

 

The garden is very wet underfoot with all the rain we have had this past week.  Yesterday and last night we had thunderstorms and hail with more rain this morning.  My roses are looking very bedraggled and will be sitting as is until they get a prune in late July, early August.

There aren't too many flowers out in the garden now.  However when I was raking leaves in the front yard last week, I noticed the snowdrop bulb leaves already coming up.  They shouldn't be doing that yet, so I have no idea what is going on with the weather.

Have a lovely week everyone.

Anne  xx

Back from Western Australia

Hello everyone, I'm back from Western Australia where I visited my Dad, Mum and brother on the farm where I grew up.  I had a wonderful time visiting my birthplace and embracing all the things that made living on a farm so enjoyable.  I have many things to share with you and I hardly know where to start.  Perhaps the best place would be the weather.

One of the first things I notice when I go back to Western Australia is the light.  It is so bright in comparison to where I live in Victoria where I'm surrounded by trees and live on the south side of a hill obscuring a lot of light.  Another difference between where I grew up and where I live now is the view.  On the farm I can see a 360 degree horizon, in Victoria I'm surrounded by tall trees.

Here is a photo of the horizon on the farm.

This was taken about 6.30 in the evening.  The light is bright and golden, just beautiful for taking photos.  In contrast, this photo was taken in the morning, about 10.30.

The only way I could get a photo of my brother's sheep dog Jessie (she's hyper), was by having her run behind the ute.

Another beautiful day with sheep grazing in the paddock.

In complete contrast, the day this photo was taken it was hot and muggy with a dust storm blowing up in the afternoon.

I'll leave you with this photo of a pink and grey galah feeding it's baby.  The galahs are in the centre of the photo.  Just click on the photo to enlarge.

I'll be back soon with more photos from my trip.  Have a great day everyone.

Anne  xx

Summer and our raspberries

It's a very nice 29C here this evening at 7.00pm.  Not too hot, great weather for wearing no sleeves and thongs,(that's flip flops just so you're not shocked).  We haven't started to have a proper summer until now so I'm enjoying hanging the clothes on the line and having them dry, having all the windows open to let fresh air in and hearing the water feature bubbling and gurgling.

Another thing I'm enjoying are these.

It may not look much but to us it is bounty.  A couple of years ago, hubbie decided to try growing raspberries and I'm sure glad he did.  I picked these 10 minutes ago and would have eaten as many yesterday in between hanging washing out and watering the garden.  We are very proud of this little harvest.  We've tried growing nectarines and peaches, no luck.  We have two apple trees but they never seem to fruit much and then the parrots bite them off.  We do have two lemon trees and they do produce, but raspberries, you can't get anything better except perhaps a home grown tomato.

I think we might just sample these raspberries with some strawberries and ice cream after the eating the yummy beef curry I've made for dinner tonight.  There might be a glass of wine to be sampled  too.  Summer is - bliss.

Have a great evening or day,

Anne  xx

Mixed bag

Hubbie made rather a disappointing discovery on Saturday.  The solar dragonfly lights Miss C. bought me for my birthday have started to rust so we've had to take them down.  They've only been out in the elements for a couple of weeks and when you read on the box that something is for outside use only, you don't expect it to rust.  I've got quite use to having little solar lights hanging in my garden room that I just couldn't do without some. 

Can you see those bright and colourful Chinese lanterns?  They are solar powered, are nylon and plastic so they'd better not rust!!!!  They look so cheerful out there swaying in the breeze.  We are in for another spring storm this afternoon, so it will be interesting to see how they stand up to the elements.

In our front yard we have the most glorious rhododendron tree that has just started flowering.

It was so windy while I was taking this photo I had to hold onto a leaf.

Stripey puss decided to join me in the front yard.

He likes to play a game with me where I pluck a lawn daisy, throw it up in the air and he tries to catch it and he usually succeeds too.

Here is our front yard view with two sycamore trees, bluebells and a camellia in the background with two flowers still in bloom.  You have to look hard.

Finally, my flower mosaic oil painting update.

Yesterday I worked on blocking in the lower right hand section and the started work on refining the flowers in the top left hand section.  I'm still trying to convince my teacher that I want this to be a loose painting.  I don't think she understands because I've always painted highly detailed images.  Next week perhaps.

Hope you are all having a great Tuesday.

Anne

The garden room

I love gardening and as I started this blog in winter I've mostly posted about ungardened moments.  However, spring is upon us in the southern hemisphere so it's time to start thinking about what awaits outside.  We live on a block of land that is roughly 1/4 of an acre in size which gives me lots of room to play with plants and garden decoration.

For some time I have yearned for a garden room.  Not a closed in room with brick walls and windows but an illusion of a room in the garden.  When hubby asked me last year what I would like for my birthday, I said a garden room, so he made me one.  It is still evolving into what I would like it to be, but I'm enjoying the process.

Here are some images of what took place in the process of making this lovely space just for me.  First we had to sand down the garage wall and repaint.  Facia and guttering have since been replaced.  As the land is slightly sloping, hubby had to dig out soil and level the ground.  This was a lot of hard work for him.  A layer of sand went down and then pavers arranged and cut to size.

I put some chairs and a table on the unfinished paved area so I could imagine what it would be like.

Next holes were dug for posts.

Poles are now in the ground and the top beams in place.  Between the stages of the photo above and below, hubby had a trip to the local hospital emergency room with a cut to the top of his head after something rather sharp and heavy fell on his head.  There was a lot of blood as with all head wounds and three stitches were required.  I'm pleased to report no lasting damage occurred .

Top bracing beams on, facia and guttering replaced.

At this stage I'm starting to get very excited and can't stop myself from putting plants and decorations in already.

I've planted Australian native climbers near the posts and hubby has installed a bamboo screen roof sun shelter.

Lattice added to one side of the room to give the illusion of privacy.  :-)

Voila. Structure complete.  Decorations and plantings ongoing.

Since the above photo was taken last year, the climbers have climbed, more decorations have been added and the bamboo roof shelter needs replacing thanks to a brutal hail storm earlier this year.  Have a look at these hail stones.

We had some damage with a broken bedroom window, smashed laserlite roofing over the pergola and hubby's car was unfortunately written off it was dented so badly.  The broken window was fixed the same night as the storm and the car has since been replaced.  We are just waiting for some fine weather to replace the bamboo roof on the garden room and laserlite on the pergola.  However the pergola is going to be totally remodeled to provide more shelter in winter so we would have needed more laserlite roofing for the new plan.  Thank goodness for insurance!  I'll post an updated photo of the garden room when it's looking it's best. 

Thank you to my lovely hubby for making me such a wonderful space to sit in summer to have a cuppa, read or just enjoy the sunshine and garden.

Anne  xx