Young and Old

I'm pleased to report that our citrus trees are thriving.

Our little lemon and lime trees are growing well. The Bearrs lime is concentrating on producing branches and leaves (as it ought to be) whilst the Meyer lemon has produced two ripening fruit. I ought to remove the fruit so the tree can focus on growing big and strong but I don't have the heart to do it.

The grapefruit tree is looking older still and more branches are dying off. But the harvest looks promising and I'm looking forward to grapefruit for breakfast in mid-winter.

Hen's Teeth

Our chickens are still giving us grief. They still insist on roosting in the bush and escaped from the coop when I shut them in it in an attempt to persuade them to use it at night.

On the plus side, at least one of them has started laying eggs again. Just like that.

I've been keeping a tally of the eggs that we've been getting since earlier this year - 55 eggs since the end of January. Those eggs are worth about $36 which is roughly the amount that we've spent on layer feed in the same period. We're just about breaking even. It's lucky that they're fully free-ranged otherwise they'd be eating many more pellets and we'd be out of pocket. Lucky for them, anyway.

Midwinter Christmas 2

Here are the mini bead wreaths that I mentioned in yesterday's post.

I'm a dreadful hoarder. Actually, I'm a really good hoarder. Great at storing things up and admiring them from time to time. I'm just useless at using the things that I hoard. So I took out some of my favourite beads and some old earrings which I no longer wear but couldn't bear to part with and turned them into these crafty Christmas decorations.

I've no idea how they'll look on the Christmas tree but I'm hoping for a homemade, found-objects kind of look. More of a faded pioneer Christmas than a modern, glossy Christmas. I think I just need one more collection of baubles to balance the look - probably some pine cones or seashells if I have any left over from the larger wreath that I'm planning...

Midwinter Christmas 1

As winter approaches, I'm feeling festive. I don't think we'll bother to hold a mid-winter Christmas celebration as some kiwis do. Instead I have been busy making Christmas decorations.

Our local community has recently set up a swap system whereby things that would otherwise be thrown away are offered up to neighbours who might find a new use for someone's unwanted goods. When someone mentioned that they had a box of textile swatches, I thought this was a good way to start a fabric stash. A bag of pinecones for firelighting was deemed to be a good trade and so I picked up the box of scraps and started sorting.

I've found lots of pieces suitable for making rag rugs and some lovely bits which will make baby clothes. I wanted instant gratification though and set about making some mini rag wreaths for our Christmas tree.

Bold red, gold and green or icy silver colour schemes seem strange for a summertime Christmas so I'm planning a a more natural, sun-bleached Christmas display.

I've been busy making bead wreaths in co-ordinating colours too - check back tomorrow for a sneak preview of those - and I'm planning on a seashell wreath for the front door and some bunting for the deck. Watch this space!

Golden Brown

Morning Prayer

Nectar of the gods

Tim-berrrrrrr!!!

About a week ago, there was thunder and lightning on and off all night. Just before dawn there was a particularly loud thunder clap. Or so I thought. When I got up the next day, I noticed that one of the coral trees was lying across the hill.

Remarkably the tree had split in half - one of the trunks heading into the bush and the other sprawling across the grass.

 

When we peered into the resulting chasm, we could see the tree's root system. 

At least it'll give us plenty of firewood.

Something nice in the woodshed

After getting our stove going, we thought we'd better stock up on firewood so we headed to a local sawmill to buy a cubic metre of green pine. I was surprised by how picturesque the sawmill yard was - it even featured some lovely trees which had escaped the chop!

After loading and unloading the wood from the truck, J stacked it to dry in the barn with the precision of a dry stone waller...

First Fire

 

Oddly we had to wait for a warm and sunny day to light our new woodburner for the first time so that we could open all the windows whilst the metal in the stove cured and any fumes burned off from the paint. 

After a few experiments we've discovered that a large dry pinecone or two makes an excellent firestarter and we've had some roaring blazes to warm us up since we overheated the living room with the first fire. 

Now we just need to work out how to keep the fire lit overnight so that we can stoke it up again on a cold morning.

A splash of colour

One of my birthday presents was these gorgeous green planters plus some garden centre vouchers (thank you A&K!). Once the builders had retreated, I went on a shopping spree and purchased some plants that I knew would add a splash of colour to the front of the house, some of which I knew I could transplant into a border when they grew too big and/or I fancied a change.

After doing three circuits of the garden centre, I picked out a poppy, some bedding plants and two fast-growing perennials - bidens ferulifolia and sanvitalia procumbens. Hopefully the last two will provide good groundcover ultimately and overcome the evil kikuyu grass which swamps our borders.

Darling Buds of May

 

A camellia bud, ready for spring

Autumn Leaves

Deadhead

Low Sun

Beginner Baking 17

After last week's extravagantly fudgy chocolate brownies, I thought I'd knock up a batch of almost-healthy flapjack. But then I read this article which suggested that tiffin was way cooler so I changed course.

I tried out this BBC Food recipe for tiffin but changed the hazlenuts for pecans and walnuts and swapped cranberries and raisins for the dried figs which gave a more varied taste. I was pleased with the result - and with the energy boost!

Beginner Baking 16

My year of baking will soon be drawing to a close so I thought it was about time that I tackled two demons - the food processor and chocolate brownies.

Whilst the chocolate brownies had been haunting me because of a fear of failure, I consider food processors to be cheating. My granny didn't learn to bake using a food processor.

However, Hugh made it quite clear in this recipe for River Cottage chocolate brownies that I was not likely to succeed if I didn't take the mixing very seriously indeed. So out came Pamela's Kenwood mixer.

Somehow my sleep-deprived brain managed to put the mixer together and turn it on. I added the eggs and sugar and it whirred away until the two ingredients were well and truly blended and fluffed up.

Thankfully, my first attempts at using the mixer and making brownies were both successful. The brownies weren't the most attractive offering but they certainly tasted good - lovely and fudgy. Mmm...

I only just managed to get a quick snap of the last brownie before it was gobbled down (by me). Here it is on one of my latest garage sale finds - a plate from a mustard yellow-patterned Kelston Ceramics dinner service.

As happy as a pig in mud

We may not have progressed to pigs on our block yet but I was thrilled to receive an update from Kiva to say that the Sari Mertha group in Indonesia has had a great season with their beasts after receiving microfinance from me and 52 other lenders.

"Ni Luh, the group head, purchased piglets with her loan and raised them over several months, during which they became large and healthy. At the end of the loan period, Ni Luh sold her four pigs for Rp.1.100.000 each, yielding a respectable profit. With her profits, and with the help of a new loan from MUK, she plans to purchase additional pigs. With the overall increase in household income, she has supported the daily needs of her family and saving for suddenly needs." 

 

If you want to get satisfaction from someone else's farming ventures, why not pop over to Kiva's website, take your pick from the agriculture groups and make a loan today.

Mystery Plant

Any ideas what this fruiting weed might be? I suspect it's a physalis or Cape Gooseberry.

Unfortunately, as observant readers will have noticed, it's a bit late for identification. The plant was already in the skip by the time I realised that there was fruit on it. I found it in the front border, growing underneath an aloe. I'm not sure how it got there - maybe one of the builders had an exotic taste in snacks...

Making a beeline...

I've had a tip-off from a member of our gardening club about a beekeeper who's looking for a lifestyle block on which he can install some hives. I'm eager to learn how to care for bees and would love to have some resident pollinators. Keep your fingers crossed he's keen on our block when I contact him...

Tip of the Day

...courtesy of the Auckland Botanic Gardens.

Wetter Weta

When I planted my latest bromeliads, I found a weta in the plant's reservoir. Unfortunately it was face down and so I suspect it had drowned. I wonder if the plant will derive any nutrition from it. Is this one of the 0.1% of bromeliads which are carniverous?

Bromeliads

You've heard of the Slow Food movement, right? Well, I'm starting the Slow Gardening movement. A year after I started my bromeliad bed with a couple of contributions from Aloe Aloe Gardens in Kaitaia, I've added to it with two plants from the Leigh School Festival. I cleared the weeds from a couple of sunny spots, planted the bromeliads and bedded them in with some sheep pellets. I added a ring of pebbles to keep the chickens at bay then stood back and admired my handiwork.

I wonder how long it will be before I add some more plants...

Edible Garden

These shots were taken in a walled garden at the Botanic Gardens in South Auckland. I was interested to see how different plants had been selected for each wall, depending on the direction that it faced and how much sun or shade each plant required.

It's unlikely that we'll be able to build a walled garden but I'll need to think about how to arrange my plants so that the shade-loving edibles are behind the sun-loving ones.

Seed Head