Lately we have been enjoying some beans from the garden and some fresh salads - we have, rocket, mizuna, mustard and some other salad varieties. A lot of things are getting eaten by the possums, the spinach is especially popular! Just when I think it's almost time for spinach pie it gets whisked away! Never-the-less we do get to eat some things. We also have corn and tomatoes on the way.
The carnations were a gift from one of the kids grandmothers "Marnie".
For my daughters second birthday we had a Mad Hatter's Tea Party. The kid loves hats so it just came to me one day, we should have a Mad Hatter's Tea Party!
Mum and I made a bunny cake (complete with coconut fur). We borrowed extra kids chairs from our neighbours, so we had lots of mismatched chairs. The kids decorated their own party hats with stickers.
This water dragon hangs out in our garden sometimes. I like to think of our garden as a haven for native animals. Here it is hanging out on the veranda of the cubby house.
Since these photos were taken the lettuce and parsley have been eaten by the local possums. They are just resprouting now.
Currently in our winter garden we have:
strawberry plants
oregano
sage
lemongrass
mint
parsley
perpetual lettuce
mizuna greens
garlic chives
onion
A sprouting store bought onion which I planted in a pot to see what it would do.
I have never used sage in cooking before so I'm looking forward to trying this.
This is the bedroom for our firstborn which we decorated this year. It will always be a work in progress as he grows up, but for now it is mostly finished. Blue paint colour is from Nippon paint, Cloud decals from
($7),
painted by me,
made by me, striped cushion cover made by my Mum, floor cushion from Freedom furniture, Trofast storage from Ikea, Miffy toy bought by Steve in Japan, Bunny was a gift from my sister, bed is a cutdown cot - Steve made the side rail.
Recently I have been reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and watching "Gardening Australia" and "the Edible Garden". I have been inspired to grow our own fruit, herbs and vegetables and have so far started planting a small amount of herbs and salad greens. We have been happy with the results, enjoying salad from our own garden most days. It tastes so much better when it hasn't been sitting in storage for awhile, and it saves us buying a massive lettuce or bunch of herbs and wasting what we don't need.
Above is the Mizuna which is a Japanese lettuce with yellow flowers which you can also eat. We also have mustard greens, perpetual lettuce and sweet rocket (which is a delicious spicy flavour). In the herbs we have rosemary (established), lemongrass, oregano, continental parsley, mint, lemon thyme and garlic chives.
I have two types of strawberries, one type has white flowers and they were a gift from a friend, the other has pink flowers and has green fruit now. My white flowering strawberry plants have produced two ripe strawberries so far, but they where nabbed by birds before I could get to them. I might have to put netting over them so I get to try one this season!
I'm all bump.
I'm making a flock of birds right now. The tulips were from my Mr, aren't they perdy? That bird feels right at home.
We have gotten over our winter colds and have a bit more to organise before the new baby arrives.
My thrifted pinch teapot and African violets.
In the garden with the little man.
The japanese maple losing it's leaves.
These native violets I planted in the front yard when we moved in, they are flowering like crazy now. I'm hoping that soon we will have carpets of these between the other plants. I think I will move the ones in the pot to the back garden and plant my strawberries in the pot. These plants love a bit of precipitation, they go a bit nuts after the rain, but they also do ok when it is dry. I love them.