Back in the garden again

The Autumn colours in the vege garden are beautiful. My warm evening weeding inspired me to get the camera out, though my hand wasn't quite steady enough for the low light, the colours came out well.

I've had this goal to be self sufficient in fruit and veges. It is easy to achieve it during summer but for the winter garden my timing is still off. These beautiful coloured cauliflowers I planted in late January while we were all still on holiday. I staggered the plantings by two weeks and composted them well. Until recently the parasitic wasps kept the white cabbage caterpillars in check but then the population exploded so I used an application of derris dust to get them under control. The problem is that they are all coming ready at once despite the staggered planting. It's also a little earlier than I had hoped, with a few summer veges still to be found in the garden and glasshouse. The challenge for me is to be self sufficient in July and August as stores run low and frost stops the growth of everything. The gap in gardening last month isn't going to help the situation.

Another bit of bad timing is the peas which are just starting to flower, it's going to frost here within the next month so I doubt very much that I"ll get to harvest many of them. The plan had been to have them just sit through winter and then flower in very early spring like they did last year.
I'm not completely behind, this is just the first few pumpkins. "Austrian oil seed" and "jack be little" for stuffing and seed for baking. Their vines had died off in the frost before Easter.

I'm working on clearing up areas where corn and pumpkins have been in preparation for cover crops, composting and garlic beds, which I prepare with lime then a rest for a few weeks add blood and bone, then pot ash throughout winter until I plant. I try to leave it three years before I plant garlic in the same spot but as I grow such a large area of garlic I can't always manage it.

Leeks, celery, radishes, silver beet, parsnip and lettuces are all growing well at the moment, I even have two fairly promising looking beds of carrots in. There's only 3/4 of a row of potatoes left while the yams aren't looking very prolific this year. The kumara were doing well but the frost killed their vines. I dug one plant up and only got four fairly average looking kumara from it but they do look better than the spindly looking ones I got a few years ago. I think I composted this lot better and I'm determined to keep trying with these.

Nasturtiums and pumpkins still going strong in a warmer patch of the garden, I like the way they smother everything in their path.

Fibre finds and a giveaway

We had a lovely day at the Easter Fair yesterday. It may have been a bit hot for people to think about buying my winter woollies but they were very kind and complimentary about them which always makes my day. All the sewing I did in the lead up to the fair was worthwhile though.

The highlight of my day though was the few careful purchases and trades that I did. Delicious alpaca/silk blend from Rotocard who have moved their business into our area recently after being in Blenheim. I'm going to spin it as fine as I can so I can make a lacy scarf.

A lovely merino top for the red head from pipimoomoo.

I also did a trade with my friend Melissa because PJ fell for one of her lovely Easter bunnies. I would have shared a photo of it but PJ has whisked it away for a night with Granny.

Now I've got one more show and tell and a wee giveaway:

I'm in love with possum merino wool in yummy colours made right here in New Zealand. (They don't have a website but email me if you'd like contact details)

My favorite brooch from the last series or 1 ball of wool is the giveaway. It always makes me feel great to give away something that I really like, it has happy energy attatched to it.
All you have to do is say hi and let me know which you'd prefer to win.

Easter Weekend

No baking or decorating eggs here for Easter.

Last minute preparations are under way for the giant Mapua Easter Fair. Printing labels, sewing new table covers and wishing I'd sewn and knitted a lot more items. The weather is looking promising so stop and say hi if you can find myself and Melissa amongst the hundreds of stalls.

Autumn 09

This has been a beautiful Autumn here. I've missed a whole month in the garden, but it carries on finding its own balance in the warm but wetter weather, with lots of seedlings coming up and brassicas plumping up nicely. I harvested masses of black boy peaches which I sold at the gate and dehydrated for the kids lunches over the next few months. Only I turned round one day and saw that skatey boy had found them, and in just three days had munched his way through 3/4 of an Agee jar of them, probably equivalent to about 25 peaches! I have hidden the other 2 jars so we have some winter snacks.

Our beautiful green grape is ready now, people always ask for cuttings of this one, I don't know what it's called but it's sweet and almost seedless and grows perfectly organically. It doesn't get any food or water but I give it a good prune in winter. It's a real asset in the garden because people are happy to barter for it. See below I've had tons of tomatoes from Dad and walnuts from my Aunt, while not pictured my neighbour has also been supplying me with hazelnuts.

A friend put the word around that I hadn't been well, so I've been spoiled this week with home cooked meals and baking. It is so healing to know that people care. All of them with busy lives themselves. Without the chore of cooking dinner I've made soup, sauce and paste from the tomatoes. While in the still room I've been brewing up some cider (a first for me) and drying lemon verbina, and tansy which are also romping away in the garden.

Tomato Paste is easy, here it is:

10 lbs (5kg) ripe tomatoes

1 Tablespoon salt,

white pepper to taste,

olive oil

Chop tomatoes and cook in a large pan for about half an hour or till very soft. Stir as necessary.

Remove from heat and mouli or puree in food processor. Return to pan, bring to boil then reduce heat and simmer until reduced by half.

Preheat oven to a very slow 120 degrees Celsius. Transfer puree to a greased baking dish and bake 4-5 hours till very thick and concentrated. Add salt and pepper and spoon into sterilised jars, cover with a thin layer of olive oil and seal.

Keeps for about a year.

If you don't want to bottle it, freeze it in kids ice block moulds, they are a good size to whip out and add to a meal.

Never a dull moment

Oh you'd think a quiet life in the country with a garden, a few kids, pets and no bad habits would be a pretty quiet one, but something always pops up to keep me on my toes. Friday night the teen and his lovely but becoming delinquent friend conned me into taking them to a party. I was the reluctant parent wishing I'd raised a goody goody Mama's boy who just wanted to stay home and study. No such luck, he wants to party, with girls and alcohol and other kids who's habits I don't fully trust. Anyway while I was still working on the "in the car lecture" in my head, the house carried on around me. Skatey had a friend over, they were jumping their unicycles. No worries. L was home from work and surveying the concrete floor of the shed. No worries. Teenage boys doing their hair. No worries.? PJ and Red balancing on the timber, no worries right? Well no. PJ allegedly pushed Red who landed on a bar with his arm under him and PJ landed on top just for fun! RIGHT! Now I'm frazzled. Crying, Yelling, nagging and indecision ensued. L"s fatherly instinct said "he's alright, take teen to the party". My motherly instinct knew that the cry when the arm moved meant it was likely broken even if he could move his fingers. L, disinterested in doing the party run went outside to talk to the neighbour!!!! I did the party run and the lecture, oh and did I forget to mention that I rang the party hosts parents to make sure the supervision was going to be up to scratch. Apparently this is the highest form of uncoolness I could have possibly displayed. Go me, uncool rulz! So to cut another long yarn short, I got home issued bedtime orders and drove 50kms to A and E where red and I cuddled for 3 hours waiting for our turn. 1 fractured arm x ray ed and in plaster later, I got home just after 1am. A catch up on sleep weekend followed. The teen appeared to make it though the party without any damage except for his reputation which I damaged but ringing the folks. he he he.

We had a mini Earth hour. I hired "an inconvenient truth" in anticipation of lots of moaning from the biggest member of the family and we lit our candles and watched it. Hopefully I sowed a seed. Skatey and Red enjoyed the candles. PJ spent the rest of the weekend with the neighbour which was probably just as well because my temper may have been a little short for a pushy little miss.

PS, a friend mentioned trouble when posting comments to my blog. Is anyone else having trouble? Got time to email and let me know?

8.30-9.30 Saturday 28

Last night Skatey boy asked me "what are we doing for Earth hour?" embarrassingly I hadn't given it much thought. I did think about it today though and it's a great opportunity to do family stuff. Stories and games by candlelight is our plan. I wish I had a wood coal range to cook dinner on as well, but instead I'm going to let the kids come up with some other earth friendly family activities to do throughout the weekend. What inspiring activities do you have planned?

A little progress and thanks

I wish I could say I feel 100% better, what I can say is I think I'm getting there slowly. I have no faith in conventional Dr's who only seem to say "virus" when they don't know and "don't worry, take it easy' when blood test results don't show up anything. I have neither the money or the energy to try all the alternative therapies there are available. So in the interest of helping myself get better I'm off caffeine, alcohol, and crap food, trying to rest, trying not to stress and drinking alot of water. I'm so grateful to the friends who have called in to see how I am, to blogging friends who've said a few kind wishes or checked in, to my brother for delivering dry firewood, the community who have had kids after school and to Mum for cooking some meals and and giving the kids a bit of TLC.

L has been home and demolished our adorable old shed which I use to fret was going to blow down in strong winds. I dreamed of building a little road side garden studio on the site but he has won out and is going to build a bigger shed. Hopefully I'll be allowed a little space for a rumpus room for the teenagers to hang out in, since I had to give up a big bit of garden for it and transplant three established fruit trees. He better hurry up and get it built though, because if I start to feel better soon I might be tempted to plant there. Skatey boy has already started to build a stunt track for his unicycle.

Comfort.

Dizzy spells, headaches, queasy feelings, funny vision, and panicky attacks are how I spent most of the week. Thank goodness for a friend who rang me every day to comfort me, even offering to drive 60kms to help out. I find it quite scary being ill when I'm solo, especially when it's not symptoms that I recognise as typical.

At least today I felt well enough to make myself some comfort food:

Comfort dinner: Fish Pie with garden veges

Hard boil some eggs, collect potatoes from the garden, cook and mash them.Collect say 3 or 4 leeks and a bit of celery straight from the garden as well. Cook them in about 25gms of butter with a little water to barely cover them for five minutes or until soft but not soggy. Strain off the liquid for making the sauce. Put the soft leeks and celery into an oven dish with flaked smoked fish, I used 2 smoked fillets from Mapua smokehouse weighing about 450gms, and the quartered boiled eggs. In the leek pot add some more butter probably another 25gms, some curry powder 1/2 -1 tsp depending on what you like, then add a bit of flour 1Tbsp and let it bubble. Add milk to the reserved liquid making it up to just over 1 1/2 cups, add it about a 1/4 at at time to make a nice smooth sauce, bring to bubble between additions. Pour the sauce over the fish etc, then top with mashed potatoes. (I mashed mine with Kefir and butter) Grated some Parmesan and a pinch of paprika on top. Cook at 180 for half an hour.

Now I'm looking for a recipe for salmon, as skatey boy went over to Golden Bay for a spot of fishing at the Salmon farm with friends today, bringing home some beautiful fillets which will be dinner tomorrow night.

He wants to build a smoker for it, though I don't know if I'm quite up to that. I'm imagining sushi. He's planning another trip for his birthday.

Saving tomato seed

A beautiful Autumn weekend here, good for getting lots of washing dry, eating fresh peaches straight from the tree and doing a little seed saving.

I'm an amateur seed saver with only about 6 or 7 seasons practice. So far I've only done easy vegetables that don't cross pollinate easily such as peas, tomatoes, beans, parsnips and beneficial plants like buckwheat and phacelia. I've also had success with silver beet and beetroot by not having them flowering at the same time. If you want a comprehensive guide this book is great, I think the author is American so some of the information doesn't apply to NZ gardeners but the techniques described are great. Even better for Kiwi Gardeners is this one. I've borrowed it a couple of times from friends but they're understandably not keen to part with it for long as it is a great year round gardening reference.

So anyway here's how I save tomato seed. Pick a nice ripe tomato from a bush that displayed all the characteristics you like. For example: flavour, big fruit, disease resistant, early cropper, etc. You won't be able to save from F1 Hybrid tomatoes because they won't be true to seed. Instead choose good old heirlooms, they have more flavour anyway. My best performer this year has been "purple Cherokee"

Cut in half and squeeze out the pulp into a container, add water and swish it around. I have a feeling that if some float those ones will not be viable. I don't let the seed sit in the water as some books describe.
Then just strain them out picking out any pulp,

Then spread them on kitchen paper to dry out. You can pick them off the paper once dry and save in an envelope

but I just save them and plant them paper and all in spring. Save more than you need just in case you get a bad strike rate, then if you do get a great strike rate you can share or swap the seedlings in spring. Oh and don't forget to label and date them.

Autumn hat

A few autumn rainy days have got me thinking the kids need some new warm clothes. The red head didn't really need another hat but I couldn't resist doing a train drivers hat with this wide brown cord. I found an ugly coloured one at the hospice shop and dissected it for a pattern. They've actually got some quite nice ones there at the moment too. Rainy days appear to be very popular op shopping days for all the seasonal workers we have in town at the moment. I talked to an apple picker from Vanuatu today while in the craft co-op, they're enjoying the cooler weather and apple picking work here in NZ. It's lovely to have their happy faces and language throughout town.

My giant cactus acts as a good model. I've been coveting a wooden hat block at the antique shop for ages but they are way out of my price range. While the one I spotted at the Salvation Army is not for sale. I may have to paper mache myself one.

Blackcurrant syrup, vitamin C

The children have had a little change of season sniffles and I am starting volunteer work in our local craft co-op this week so I made some blackcurrant syrup to dose them up so they're not sick on my first day, fingers crossed.

My black currants didn't yield much this year but this is what I do with the frozen stores. You can dilute and drink the concentrate hot or cold.

Here's the recipe and the changes I made to it if you want a natural dose of vitamin C that the kids will drink:

Cover 3lb of black currants with water, bring to the boil and then simmer for about 20 minutes til soft. Strain through a muslin cloth squeezing out all the goodness. ( Feed the solids leftover to the worm farm)

Put back into the pot and add:

1 cup of raw sugar and 1 cup of my brother's lovely native bush honey.

1 1/2 cups local organic cider vinegar. (The vinegar and sugar act as the preservers I understand)

Boil for 10 mins, then bottle into sterilised jars.

I keep the jars in the cupboard and once opened in the fridge, be sensible and check the seals are good and with no evidence of spoilage before we use.

Before use dilute to taste.

So obviously you guys don't have access to my local ( very cleaver and sustainable) brother's lovely honey and you may be use to modern sweetened drinks. The original recipe said 8 cups of SUGAR! No way do I give that to my kids so the one I do is quite vinegary. They still drink it happily, though the red head age 3 1/2 says "this tastes like dish water"
Teen, Skatey and Pj drink it happily.

Give it go, I'll publish some other syrups I use as well. Click comments to let me know how you get on.

garden notes

While it was raining an army of stink bugs amassed in my garden. They are absolutely everywhere, sucking the life out of everything. I squashed alot while I picked some things for tea, but as many as I squashed the same amount dropped onto the ground. They do that when they smell their mates "stink", then I can't find them. A friend suggested Neem oil for next season after I moaned that the catch crops, squashing and garlic and rhubarb sprays were just not doing the trick. Most of the outdoor tomatoes will be a write off I think, luckily I have quite a few going strong in the glasshouse. The rain has also made the blackberries go mouldy, while the immature peaches have got a bit of brown rot showing up.




The corn and basil are tops at the moment. I'll have plenty of corn for the freezer and am whizzing up a batch of basil pesto as I write.My "golden midget" watermelon, next to one of my Dads. The great organic verses inorganic competition is heating up. He won on melons but I'm winning hands down on corn and cucumbers and am way out front on flavour!

Finished pesto, this lot is being frozen for winter.

Cloth doll for PJ

Last night PJ had to go to the Dr and get stitches in her chin after trying to ride skatey boy's unicycle. L took her cos I really hate after hours Dr's visits. I stayed at home and sewed the doll I was working on for her before Christmas. I didn't finish it until now as I was struggling with how to do the hair. The ghastly yellow fine merino jersey from the red cross was perfect. She was thrilled with it because I made it look like her and used her favorite colour brown. She wants me to make one now that looks like her best friend. The brown merino I was wearing today will probably become the hair, I looked down and thought that while I was helping L split our winter firewood. Quite timely with a cold change upon us.

Foraging

When L and I met we lived in a house bus for several years so didn't have a garden of our own. I grew herbs in planter boxes of course but we over came the lack of a garden by doing alot of foraging for food and firewood. There are still several spots I visit where I know good fruit and nut trees are growing wild. I usually say to L at this time of year "better go and check if my peach tree is ripe" and he knows exactly where I mean. I also have several walnuts to call on, along with mushroom circles, rose hip bushes, elderberries, wilding plums, apples and pears as well. A couple of years ago I found, with a little help of a friend where some hazel nuts are. The jewel in the crown though is the pine nut tree I think. My brother and I visited there last week filling our pockets with the little treasures.The kids will have to do some cracking for me so I can make a fresh batch of pesto with local ingredients. Both my brother and I have saved some seed to try and germinate as well. Our property is not big enough for one of these massive trees but I've had plenty of people offer to let me plant them on their land. I looked to see if the seeds need any kind of stratification but haven't found anything to suggest they do. Has anyone got any tips? I seem to have trouble raising trees from seed in pots but get plenty of walnuts, peaches and apricots coming up if I just throw the stones in the garden and ignore them til the following spring. I'd love it if people would come and dig them out of my garden and give them new homes, I have even thought I should go on a fruit tree planting mission in public places so others may benefit from the fruit.
If you like the idea of foraging, Johanna over at star-cooked has some good posts about it. The native flax seeds are one I'm keen to try.

Thinking of

My thoughts are with the people in Australia who are dealing with the massive bush fires.
I was born there, I have family and friends there - they are all safe, though I know many people are grieving. I hope all the people I have met through blogging are safe and sound.
X

Harvesting and planning

As the school term gets going I've enjoyed catching up and hearing what every one's been doing during the summer holidays. It' seems 3 out of 4 people I talk to have been camping, enjoying the top of the South Island's beautiful sites; Golden Bay, Marlborough Sounds, Nelson/Tasman and the West Coast. I sort of envy the "idea" of camping but actually hate packing up, getting bitten, sunburned, and doing all the Mum stuff away from the conveniences of home. Also 3 years living in a house bus and hand washing nappies, I think has put me off entirely. Admittedly I'm becoming a bit of a Nana in my middle age. It sounds like my friends all enjoyed their adventures even the hiccups. Lucky for L and I we have a "village" to raise our children so they haven't missed out on adventures, they've been away with good friends and family. We must be doing something right cos they get invited to go back again and again.

Back here in the garden, locals and blog readers have asked about the cannelini beans. They have been a super crop here, the first lot I harvested early as I grew them in the glasshouse but it seems there was no need because the outdoor ones which I planted around the fence lines have produced beautifully with no extra water after they got established. The little bit of rain we got a few days ago wasn't even enough to wet the soil underneath the corn and pumpkins. So to answer about the cannelinis; I leave them to dry off on the vine then once picked leave them in their shells for several weeks longer to dry right out. I learnt this is the hard way after harvesting some dryish pea pods and shelling them straight away, popping them into a paper bag only to find some of them went mouldy. Plants going to seed all over the garden make it look pretty messy and disorganised but I reckon it's a sign of a good productive garden. Mine is looking pretty wild but I know where to find the tomatoes, spring onions, lettuce, pumpkins, melons and beans. The kumara are putting on alot of top growth so I'm hoping too that there is something going on beneath the soil. They say when you're planning your garden to check out what's growing well in other local gardens, so I have to share that the Nashi pear is my best productive tree aside from my citrus. It's laden with fruit, grows beautifully organically and is just about ready! Highly recommended.

The glasshouse is producing really well though an aphid infestation will probably get the better of it soon. I'm watering, feeding and using pyrethrum to try and stay on top of it.
I haven't quite kept up with sowing all my own seed, recently I've sowed lettuces, leeks, brassicas, peas, coriander and parsley in my messy little nursery/shady spot. I've also bought extra brassicas from a good little plant stall in town.

The brassica's I've put in where the garlic came out. I've mulched them heavily and hope my little paper wasps can keep up with all the caterpillars. I sprinkled round a bit of blood and bone too as the soil was looking a bit depleted.Finally somewhere in the middle ground of this picture is a patch of horrible seedy paspalum grass overtaking the onions. I weeded it out twice but it got away on me over Christmas so my poor onions look like pickling onions! I must get onto pulling it all out before the seeds spread everywhere. "1 year seeding 7 years weeding" So that is how I'll spend New Zealand's national day "Waitangi Day" before I head over to the airport to see my bro.

Garden notes Jan

The last week of our kids summer holidays has flown by, we all slept in till around 9am this morning so I'm totally dreading getting up early tomorrow and having to be organised to be places! L is still on annual leave as well, so it's still going to feel like holiday mode to everyone especially with my brother and his family arriving from Adelaide this Friday. I can't wait for that, it will be the first time I've met my two nephews.

Since picking up L, skatey and PJ from the airport last Friday I've packed in a bit of desperate last minute holiday activities all of which I forgot to pack the camera for. Hence the good old garden pics. (Busy bumble bee amongst the teasels and corn silk.)
We finally caught up with a friend who's garden I'd been looking forward to seeing since spring, they live by the Motueka river so we took a nice walk along the river while the biggest boys were swimming. The teen enjoyed it so much we went back to the river a few days later with the other kids. While the whole district suffered in the sweltering summer heat we just might have had the best spot to be at, shade for me, cold shallow water for the littlies, a massive rope swing for the teen and only one other small family group there to share it with.
I also made an effort to meet up with some Playcentre friends to collect natural collage materials from the beach, coincidentally discovering possibly the best lot of seaweed washed up since midwinter last year. I filled two sacks for the garden and went back for more the next day with helpers in tow. The garden is so weedy I need it everywhere but of course I never have as much as I need so stuck it round some celery and beans which were yet to be overtaken by weeds and cleared out the glasshouse using the rest as mulch under the tomatoes, which are producing well unlike the outdoor ones which haven't ripened yet and are already getting stinkbug sucked. The Cleome is doing a good job of attracting stinkbugs but they are still attracted to the beans and tomatoes as much as before. I've happily harvested quite a few of the cannelini beans that I planted early spring and we've munched our way through the first block of corn. Corn is the only vege that the red head will eat at present.
The chooks recently took a wee break to sit on eggs while several others made escapes into the garden each day for me to chase on the regular stink bug squashing missions. I still haven't found where the chooks were getting out but have caught the escapees and put them in the small house for a bit. The sitters didn't get the job finished, hopping off their eggs a few days early. I suspect it was mites and heat that drove them off so have cleaned and disinfected the chookhouse and given them fresh bedding. Skatey requested the rotten eggs and lead us down to the neighbourhood stream last night for a bit of eel watching, good old kiwi entertainment bringing back lots of childhood memories for me. With the eggs thrown into the river it took only about 5 minutes for the eels to start showing up attracted by the smell. The kids really enjoyed the eels but weren't happy to see someone else had set a hinaki net in the stream to try and catch them. I recall having smoked eel as a kid but I don't think my lot would be willing to try it, all are keen however to go and throw eggs to the eels again.
They are also all enjoying not having Mum glued to her sewing machine, so as usual at this time of year I'm feeling like I want to spend more time with them and less time trying to make money. We'll see how that goes, for now I'm not going to try busting my gut making and selling things and I'm not going to study full time yet either.

Now I'm off to make some things for the lunch boxes.

Painting update 3

Well first and foremost the painting is mostly finished, a vast improvement on the chipped and mouldy mess I had before, now I can lie in the bath and look at a ceiling not full of mould during my only quiet, unhassled minutes (half hour) of the day. I'm dying to accessorise now but don't want to spend a fortune so will have to be patient as usually exactly what I need turns up at a garage sale or in a box from a "fabulous Aunt". I did splash out on a new shower curtain today and the room is taking on a distinct black and white theme. I need to do something with the floor as well. The black and white checkered lino of my youth is occupying my thoughts at the moment.

I read back on some of my recent posts thinking some of them sound a little vague or random but actually that is quite what I'm like. Sometimes I have something quite interesting to share and other times it's a real waffle. Anyway I'm very unsettled without all the kids and my good friend and fellow mischief maker is also away so I'm all out of whack. I tried to sew tonight too but that felt all unco. (a word my brother's used to describe me as a child, short for unco-ordinated and generally hilarious) as well, I think there are too many things that I need/want to do that I don't know where to start. Procrastinating always works well on these occasions so I made sushi for tea and then later scoffed strawberries and cream, boiled up some bread and butter pickles and a batch of tomato soup in between reading my favorite bloggers most recent posts thinking "my goodness"! if the northerners are ordering seeds for spring I better be preserving more and gathering firewood.



To clarify about the teen and co. "The big bang theory" is an American show on TV about these nerdy guys who kind of talk computers while being very awkward about girls and like star wars and computer games. On Wednesday nights when it comes on we get yelled at "shut up, this is my programme". I think the character most like my teen is called Sheldon. So the teen and co. sound like that when they bike to our place with lap tops on backs, hook them up with their Ethernet cables and then talk "forward slash semi colon?" sentences followed by "Unreal tournament, Halo and Ghost recon" whatever that means. Oh and "did you see Get Smart?" They didn't even know it was a TV show when I was growing up.



Back to me, all dazed and confused,trying to decide what to do to feel like I'm living life to the fullest. For the last 15 years I've had a baby every third or 4th year so as my wee red goes on three and a half I think I'm experiencing a bit of, for want of a better cliche "mid life crisis". I've been asked by a shop in Wellington to supply some kids clothes, tossed around the idea of studying full or part time, flipping from herbal studies, Early childhood to Visual Arts degree, or staying home to be the sacrificial stay at home Mum. I'm not good at decisions and none of my ideas are screaming THIS IS IT so I may be set to be blogging about teens and skateys, thrifting and bags for another year, I don't know. A very laborious decision maker am I! My apologies for my atrocious punctuation maybe I better start with form 2 English before I do anything. As I prepare to post this I wait for "Nightline" to tell me the traits of people born in this the Chinese year of the OX, perhaps it will enlighten me as to why I'm a procrastinating, waffly, flip floppy, sewer, gardener, mother, wifey, sister, daughter, teacher, friend, blogger.





So apparently we're Strong leaders, Hard workers and demanding. Yep that fits me quite well sometimes too.

Seed saving

I ended up with a house full of teenage boys today, I decided to look busy so I could keep an eye on them. Though I don't know what I was worried about, have you seen "the big bang theory"? Well it's like that here except 15 year olds.

It was a flaming hot day so the superhero and I collected some seeds while trying to ignore how many STINK BUGS are ravaging my garden.

The red couldn't keep his fingers out so instead of fight it I embraced it. We counted pea seeds and described what they felt like, discussed bigger and smaller and then put them all into packets.

The rest of the time he drove the big boys nuts. I cannot imagine what life will be like when he is 15, I wonder if I'll still feel like having house fulls of noisy teens!

The other day I found some old video of when the teen was 4, we had a georgous new baby in the house ( Cluck, cluck) and for teen life revolved around a Thomas the tank Engine train set while the only technology in the house was a TV for which we had to pay a licence fee for and an old ATARI game. How quickly times change! And I only looked 21 or so, My God!

Teen

Actually I don't give the teen enough credit, he's brilliant at doing the dishes, even gives his Granny a hard time that she doesn't do them properly. We joke that he'll be the one when he goes flatting that makes the dish washing roster, getting on every body's case when the job isn't done properly. When we ask what he wants for birthday/Christmas he says "dishwasher" seriously!

Kitchen is on the painting list for next year.