Cold wet garden

July in our cold, wet, frosty garden is not yielding much to eat. A lot of the brassicas I planted are getting frosted, which means I should concentrate on getting a bit more shelter established. If I forage around I can find: coriander, calendula, leeks, lettuce, brussel sprouts, spring onions, mizuna, mustard, fennel seeds, silver beet, beetroot, celery, corn salad, nettle, pumpkins and carrots. Though many of the greens have been nibbled by a chook or burnt by the frost . Lucky the bach has a good mandarin tree and I have some good stores saved.

After months of little enthusiasm I got motivated to plant more garlic and shallots this week. I also felt sorry for the roosters I am fattening, because the weather is so cold I've given them the glasshouse to scratch around in. They will fertilise and clear it for me since I didn't manage to get a crop in there. I'm spoilt to also have the small tunnel house which has mesculen mix, peas and brassicas growing slowly but surely for spring. Not sure why I'm getting a ground moss in there this year though.

It's too wet for pruning, and too cold for planting seeds here at the moment. The snow is down quite low on the mountain, we've got the fire roaring but I think we should take up the Government's offer of subsidising some under floor insulation.

4

The child named after an angel turned 4 today. He's the one God gave me because he knows better than me, the one that defied man made contraceptives and herbal Emmenagogues to come into our family.
I read so many eloquent blogs and wish I could describe how blessed I feel to have the four beautiful children God gave me. However he did not give me the gift to put my thoughts into words. Simply they make each day worth getting up for, they make me proud though I don't deserve it, they make me feel loved unconditionally, they make me consider my every action, smile for the simple things and want to grow old for.

Just a little knitting

This basket of wool illustrates how easily I can be distracted from things I should be doing. I sorted out my stash trying to find something suitable to knit skatey boy a hoodie from the Son of stitch n bitch book. I did not find any yarn in my suitcases for the project. I found lots of small bits leftover from other projects which I sorted to give away. Then I found this pattern

and couldn't resist giving it a go. I'd like to knit enough of them as party favours for the red head's 4th birthday coming up. He's never had a party of his own with his friends before, so far we've only had family celebrations because I'm very turned off by the idea of a junk fuelled plastic party which alot of kids expect to have. I was very inspired by images of celebrations at small wonders, involving earthy crafts and gifts and am thinking along those lines for the red head.

Next Saturday the 4th of July a friend of mine has organised an indoor market, a first for our town to be held in the War Memorial hall. I hope the community turn out in force to support local crafts people and community in a nice warm atmosphere. I think there may still be room for stall holders so get in quick if you have some goods to offer.

Midwinter- make wheat bags

We can't find the wheat bag that skatey boy created at school, when he bought it home though everybody wanted it for warming up their feet and achy bones. I found some dried herbs I saved last summer and raided the chooks wheat to make some more.

Since they all wanted one then and there we didn't muck around with creative shapes just some nice soft micro fleece squares.

A few words of warning: The chook wheat was quite dusty and needed winnowing so it didn't aggravate the asthma. I'd buy food grade in future for asthmatics or dried corn sounds like a good alternative too.

We heat them in the microwave for two minutes and always with a glass of water to keep the grains moist. I'm not to sure how long they will last but if you are going to add herbs like I did just keep an eye out that they don't create a fire hazard. I did a wee bit of searching for advice, the message seems to be don't overheat, always add the glass of water.

There are reports of wheat bags catching fire so be responsible.

The solstice passed me by this year without much notice. The midwinter lack of energy and sick family making it too much effort to celebrate. The kids all perked up just enough to spend a few hours in good company in the winter sunshine on Saturday afternoon.

I'm not sure if I'll manage to get up early this week to see Matariki rise either.

The "red head" is very slowly recovering, I must say in my almost 16 years of being a Mum I don't think I've had a child so sick for so long before. My Mum came and gave me a little bit of time out because you wouldn't believe how much a week of whinging can bring you down.

I tried alot of creative ideas to make him happy. We raided the art cupboard for stickers, stamps, paper, glue, paint etc. None of that worked, neither did books cuddles or DVDs. He was off his food in a big way and has lost quite a bit of weight, the teen also lost 5kg and even once he got well enough for school he came home every day and slept.

Finally I happened on an idea for "red" that sustained his interest enough to forget about his aches and pains:

A squirty bottle with water!

He did a great job "cleaning" all the windows in the play space even if he did get the carpet and sofa a bit wet. It was worth it to have some peace.

Cough

Thanks for all those warm wishes on my last post. My sympathy to everyone else dealing with kid's winter ills, Briar mentioned being at the faintly hysterical stage, I can so relate to that! We sat at the emergency Dr's yesterday for hours because the red head's cough was developing into asthma which I find very scary to deal with in the middle of the night. A thorough search at home did not turn up the spacer the Dr gave us last winter to administer Ventolin, (totally beyond natural healing at this point) so there we were in in a cold waiting room full of people who would rather have been home by the fire I suspect, as the poor Dr struggled on his own to keep up. The red head impatiently wailed and whinged as each person went in before us until a nice man taking pity on me (or fed up with the persistent grizzling) let us go before him. The doc told me he'd done 3 swabs for swine flu that day, Y U C K! I was glad to get out of there with the spacer and some panadol ( I admit defeat) and home to the warm fire. I didn't get much more sleep than the previous few nights but the "red" was a little more cheerful today and so was I. The sun shone so I got three loads of washing almost dry. You have to count your small blessings don't you?

Midwinter at our place

The sound of winter coughs has been echoing around and around our house all week. The teen, who loves school has had to take a week off and the red head is miserable but won't take anything that's offered to make him feel better. I wake up in the night to the noise of sleepless coughing or am kicked in the back by a wee boy needing comfort and a tepid flannel to cool him down.
Exhausting being a Mum sometimes, not having any time to my own thoughts is tiring too.

I looked back at last years garden pics and was a bit depressed at how much better the garden was progressing this time last year. I let too many weeds go to seed in late summer and Autumn this year. On the plus side alot of red mustard, silver beet and lettuces went to seed so there are alot of fresh greens.

To coincide with the week of coughing, we've had some pretty heavy rain which has stimulated a bit of growth, (I'm glad I got that garlic in) and look what I noticed on my nursery table:

BABY PINE NUTS! Collected back in February . Looks like I'm going to get a fairly good strike, it will probably take three years to get them to a size to give away and likely 15 -25 years before they produce but here they are beginning life in 2009.

Garden notes June

I was shuffling through the photos looking for a good one to illustrate my lovely new cottons, but instead all I could see in the photos were the garden jobs I need to get onto.

Fabric drying in the sun, but lurking behind is the glasshouse which needs the tomato plants and weeds cleared out. The chookhouse and run which need their straw changed while the big boysenberry against the shed needs to be tackled. The rabbit run which I'm standing on needs cleaning out and a few repairs made and down in the next photo the esplaired fruit trees need a bit of pruning to neaten them up.
I did make a half hearted start with the garlic today. I separated out the cloves and planted a block of about 150. When I later went to feed the chooks I saw the young roosters had been having a lovely scratch around where I had planted it but hopefully they should be in deep enough not to have been disturbed. It did however motivate me to cage the roosters to fatten them up for the pot. Don't tell skatey, he's not at all impressed with that concept.

For Nelson Fabricaholics

If I was a twitterer I would tweet that Spotlight in Nelson is having a crazy $1 per metre stock take sale. My good friend text me yesterday to let me know and I overheard the lady say it might go on all weekend. It is definitely on today as I rang to ask, look for fabric marked with an orange sticker, including good quality quilting cottons. Happy Fabric Love!!

Laundry

I've really appreciated the comments latley, especially one I got from Briar today about enjoying me keeping it real. I like to think that I'm like that.
On my blog I have always tried to find a balance between "keeping it real" and "airing my dirty laundry" of which there is quite a pile! So THANKS you just made my day.

To all who are waiting for the possum gloves pattern I have most of it typed up. I actually didn't realise how tricky it would be because I don't want to get anything wrong. I can see why people have pattern testers now. It is my goal this week to get it finished, that is if that jolly dirty laundry doesn't get on top of me.

Here is another super dooper keeping it real blog.

Lovely Links

I haven't really got time to be cruising around the blog sphere on dial -up entering giveaways, but I'm glad I did because I found these beautiful individual stamps. I'd love to buy myself one right now, but I'm living frugally for winter so I'll put it on my wish list. I thought I'd share it with you though cos I think they are adorable.

If you have an hour or so to discover a whole lot of new craft blogs I suggest you pop over to sew mama sew for all the giveaways. Be in quick though they close on the 31st May.

I'm hoping for a weekend of sewing. I deserve to relax a bit, it's been a full on week. I worked in the craft co-op this morning, it was my turn to do the window display. I'd been stressing about it because I wouldn't say arranging things is one of my strengths but I think it turned out alright. I'd show you but I am still camera-less and missing it very much.
This week I've also run into town for sport and dancing three times, and twice to organise the hiring of a suit for the teen's high school ball next weekend. A word of warning... save up for a couple of months before the ball because it's painfully expensive!!
I cleaned the bach for guests from Australia, cleaned the kids bedrooms because they were disgusting and cleaned up piles of seed I hadn't got around to sorting and storing. The red head has a fascination with opening dried pea and bean pods, so he actually did most of the work.
I did a great job at being a good Mum this week too, we had TV off alot and played connect 4, Mancala, go fish and read stories, it was lovely. I asked the kids what they wanted to do this weekend, Skatey said "go catching salmon". I wish I was SUPERMUM.

Digging up for dinner:

Potatoes

Kumara (sweet potatoes)

The vegetation has mainly frosted off in the garden, I can see dried up stalks of where tubers were planted when I go out to see what I can find in the garden for tea at about 4pm in the afternoon as I'm feeding the the chooks and getting the washing off the line. I had forgotten about the purple Maori potatoes I'd planted, accidentally unearthing them the other day. They and the other potatoes that I still have in the ground are cooking up beautifully boiled or baked. I've been making potato bakes with lots of veges, bacon and cheese sauce because the red head who is a terribly fussy eater actually seems to enjoy them.

The kumara did alot better than I expected, I love sweet winter veges and am so glad to have succeeded this year with these. In my colander is the yield from one plant. I didn't plant enough because I had trouble getting hold of the shoots to plant last spring so I will save the best of these to try and sprout my own for next spring. I find them a wee bit tricky to grow, but they are so worth the effort. They seemed to like the seaweed mound I grew them in but I think need a more sheltered warm spot for next year. One of the fabulous Aunts gave me advice on cultivating them: Point their roots in the direction that the sun rises, and instead of having the roots point deep down, have the ends of them going back up towards the surface (so they are planted in kind of a U shape) This advice was given to her by an old gardener when she was living in Tolaga Bay.

Away without a camera

Having a few days away from home.
Forgot the camera!
Walks on the beach in the cold winter air, the sound of the sea at night and 5 Tui feasting on nectar in the garden.

Frosty gardening

We got the frost to end the growing season last night. It's good to remember to protect plants around full moon as it often frosts hardest then. Here it's too late to try and keep things protected, winter has stamped it's mark.

It's not all bad though, brussel sprouts, parsnip, swede, etc all have their flavour improved after a few good frosts.

I went out at 9am to feed the chooks and to have a look at how the frost has affected the altered area of the section near where the big shed is built. The shed is a bit of an eyesore, it's not as cute as the old one and it's not the studio I had wanted but it does have one redeeming feature; a tank to collect rain water from the roof. One little step towards sustainability and L's answer to spending the country out of a recession. There is a soak hose coming off it which I'll run around the vege garden once the wood piles are sorted out. I had hoped it might be a little bit more frost protected with the shed there now but it doesn't seem to be much of an improvement.

Then I glanced over to the neighbours place and thought to myself "thou shalt NOT covert thy neighbours passion fruit vine"!!

She has used a little trick that we did when we lived in another cold area. If you have a fire with an external chimney plant those frost tender vines or tree tomatoes near it under the eves of the house. It provides just that extra bit of heat needed on frosty nights. We have a inside chimney here so it doesn't work for us, I've tried about 5 times and it dies every winter. Hopefully my lime tree thrives and then I may have something to barter with.

Otherwise in the garden I'm still just composting, clearing and preparing to plant garlic. I'm harvesting, kumara, potatoes, brassicas, leeks, spring onions, winter lettuce, the odd straggly tomato, peppers in the glasshouse, parsnips, pumpkins and yams which are a bit pitiful this year. The chooks have also finished laying so we'll miss our fresh eggs until after the shortest day now.

Knitting possum

Dusting, window cleaning, lighting fires, vacuuming, knitting and costume sewing featured quite heavily this week. My neighbour caught me in the middle of a cleaning spree doing a very loud Bohemian Rhapsody rendition and invited me to watch the school kids rehearsing their performance for an upcoming event. I don't need asking twice to abandon housework.

I've been helping sew the costumes for the performance, so the lounge has been covered with black and sparkly fabric for the "Kiss" themed costumes.

I've been staying up way past my bedtime knitting too, lots of possum/merino gloves are coming off the needles for the craft co-op and here

Drop me a line if you'd like the pattern. It may be similar to others available but I made it up because the others I've tried don't fit as snugly as I like. Maybe it's the character of the double knit possum wool , I don't know. I should try it with some other yarn as well but I love this possum.

Golden sand

Freezing cold nights needing hot water bottles and extra woollen blankets are heralding gorgeous late autumn days, perfect for playing at our region's beautiful beaches. (Who wants to stay home and do housework anyway?)
So on the weekend we packed a picnic and some beach toys and headed off to Kaiteriteri, which during the summer months turns into a township of tourists. The locals make themselves scarce

preferring the quieter spots, with the exception of the teenagers who enjoy the beach scene. I love it in it's winter glory, pretty shells, golden sand, subtle colours and not too many footprints.

Skatey boy, always in search of adventure rode his unicycle to the top of the lookout, did a few "watch me" stunts and raced back to join the littlies making castles and channels.

I enjoyed the tranquility. I loved watching this young black shag dip and dive then warm up under the skull rock. I stretched out and soaked up the rays too after I did a few rows of knitting of course.

After school holidays

Winners announced below.

I breathed a big sigh of relief sending the children back to school yesterday. We all really enjoyed the break but everybody was getting to the stage where we were seriously getting on each others nerves! My kids have 3 or 4 years between them, which was brilliant when they were little because I only had one in nappies at a time, but now they are finding it hard to get on. I wish I could say the older ones were lovely caring examples for their younger siblings, but that would be a bold faced lie. The teen is a grump to me and all who are younger, but is perfectly behaved when he wants something! I could go on all day about the sibling rivalry and where I went wrong, but what's the point?
Freya the old black cat and I are home alone, blissfully un- hassled, she sleeping and I sewing. It's rainy and warm, the house smells like tomato sauce which is bubbling on the stove. I'm happy, with my fabric stash all over the lounge, inspired by another new bag. I nearly made my perfect bag a few months ago, but with a few improvements I 'm getting even closer this week.

A bright tote is perfect when I'm going to a meeting or to the market but when I'm hopping in and out the car with a few kids to get in and out, maybe carrying groceries or library books too, then I need a bag diagonally across my shoulder so it doesn't slip off. The pocket on the front is working well for slipping my keys in and finding them again quickly and the size is just right.

I'm putting this delicious brown one in the shop.

I have drawn out names for my wee giveaway, a ball of wool for Michelle (choose a colour) and a brooch for Heart in the country .Thanks to everyone who took the time to enter, nice to meet you all.

Giving back

One of my fabulous Aunts has worked for most of the school holidays helping PJ with her reading. I feel very guilty that PJ doesn't find reading easy like the big boys did. I know that the effect of me working night shift when she was small is showing now, she simply didn't get enough storey telling as I rushed off to work at 7 o'clock every second night and then slept late each day. The red head who was a surprise baby, was such a blessing as I gave up my night shift of course and got the family back into a better routine. I feel such guilt though when I she her old Playcentre friends enjoying reading so much. I am not sure if PJ has something going on that makes it difficult to read but the school don't seem to think so. We're all reading alot more these days to try and support PJ.
To thank "Aunt" I made a few cloth shopping bags, she has commented on mine several times when I've been getting extra strawberries at the family farm.

I should also thank Mum as she drove PJ to Aunt's house every day before she went to work. Mum is harder to make things for though so I shall have to think on it a little longer.

My other fabulous Aunt was the classic 50's farmers wife. Excellent cook, mother and make do-er. She told me that she use to bottle her grapes with peaches for a yummy winter fruit salad. My peaches are all finished but I gave the grapes a go yesterday.

I had very good intentions of making strawberry jam for all the people who made meals for me recently, but I jolly well burnt it! Not too badly but it's not perfect enough to give away. I shall have to think of something more fabulous for my friends.

If anyone else wants to enter for some lovely possum wool or a "gillybean" brooch let me know before I do the draw. I love to do giveaways as I "meet" a whole lot of new people, so say Hi.

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.