Gumboot weather

I went outside to do some digging in the veg patch yesterday morning, and came in half an hour later with muddy socks (from leaky shoes). Solution was a pair of gummies..... I don't think I have had a pair of gumboots since I was in my teens. I found these at the local big W, source of many bits and pieces that have come in handy lately, as well as a few packets of bulbs hiding at the bottom of my fridge (oops, hubby hasn't seen those yet!). Luckily there were two pairs left in this design (the least offensive of the lot - and one I quite like), and both were in my size (highly unusual)...... needless to say they went straight to the checkout with me and were outside in the mud within the hour.

They have since been tested out again this morning while I was outside hosing the outside windows down so that I could get rid of some of the grot that has built up in the last several months. I was doing really well up until I got to our bedroom window, then for some reason water starts cascading into the bedroom...... NOOOOOOOOOOO!!

So I had to clean that up, luckily the water landed mainly on the sill with minimal splashing on the carpet..... and yes all windows were closed before I started, and yes I have done this before with no water leakage, I'm a bit worried that the seals have gone and that when there is a high wind and lots of rain (in the middle of the night of course) we will get up to a puddle where the carpet used to be.

Anyway that's enough doom and gloom...... moving on..... where have I been in the last month?

Well, nowhere really, although it seems like just when you get life and housework and children organised a spanner gets thrown in the works, and it takes forever to get back to how you would like things to be. Easter holidays for hubby and children meant lots more stuff going on around here and minimal access to the computer. Then there were chest colds for children which meant another week of two children at home and miserable and fighting, and the onset of the rain and cold weather has meant that getting my washing dry is a constant shuffle from the washing machine to the line to the dryer for a quick warm up before it's folded and put away.

Oh and I have started knitting again daily, something new for me (although it's not like I don't have enough things half done) and some projects that need to be finished before the children get too big for them..... oh and something for mum that I have been working on for an embarrassing amount of time that I am trying to get done for mother's day next month (lace pattern wasn't working and it was driving me nuts, it'll only be a couple of years late, whoops!).

Looks like the washing outside is ready to get in, and the pile of sheets that is sitting on the armchair in front of the couch waiting to be folded is starting to annoy me.

Quilt progress

I have been working on this quilt for a while...... alright ages really.... I had some machine quilting issues with it and gave up in disgust. Yesterday with rain outside and feeling the need to finish some projects I rummaged around on my sewing table and thought that I should try and move this on to the next stage before my daughter grows up and moves out of home. Funnily enough I didn't realise quite how crazy busy the top looked before I took this photo, my daughter loves bright colours and lots of pattern, and I wanted to create a flower garden with lots of butterflies and faries for her.

The back is a LOT quieter with just a simple stripe down the middle (more to do with making the material wide enough without lots of mucking about than for any other reason). I've quilted down the centre of each strip, and got the idea for this style of quilt from the blog Wise Craft mid last year, although I looked at her finished single wedding ring quilt earlier today while blog surfing and I think that I will have to put it on my list of 'things to make and do'. Maybe I should finish some projects first.



I have also done a top and back for my son's quilt, but have not yet sandwiched and quilted. I still need to rummage through the fabric stash to sort out bindings for edges, although I think that I will wait till the two quilts are at the same stage because goodness knows there will be complaints if one is ready before the other!

My son's quilt top is nowhere near as bright, with lots of blues and greens in it (his favourites), but I have done the back with a similar blue (material hanging around from a project that I changed my mind about), and a dolphin print stripe.

(I just realised how dark the photos look..... another wet and dreary day today..... not happy! my tomatoes are not ripe yet.... I need summer to be about a month longer.... I don't know what I am going to do with green tomatoes :( )

Family holiday

I know I'm not the most prolific and reliable of blog-posters, but at least I have an excuse for the last gaping hole between posts.

The four of us went away for the week for a family holiday, a bit of an escape from the everyday grind (me), and work stress (hubby).

We spent lots of time at the hotel pool, making sure that the children got lots of use out of their floaties, and went on a drive to look at Marakoopa Cave at Mole Creek. There was lots of torch use by the littlies, and some mad counting of glow worms on the ceiling by my daughter...... her new favourite number is 57..... the number of glow worms counted while the guide had the lights turned off.

A quick visit with the inlaws over the weekend and then a long car trip with two small children home.... and then lots of unpacking, piles of dirty washing and settling back into home last night and I am feeling a bit unsettled at the moment. It's been a busy morning, and after a week of sleeping late returning to routine is a bit odd.

Unfortunately we had a bit of an accident with a broken olive oil bottle and some library books.... Luckily the rubber floor mat protected the car, but two cloth bags and a whole pile of other stuff was not so lucky..... so this morning I had to return the damaged books to the library and apologise profusely...... and to add insult to injury, the ones that were spoilt were the ones I hadn't read yet. So I am now waiting for a phone call to tell me how much in fines/replacement costs I'm going to have to pay.

The first thing we did last night after unpacking the car and saying 'isn't it nice to be home?' was to check out the garden and to see whether my tomatoes had ripened..... there has been a quite a bit of rain in the last few days, so some of them had gone a bit too far and disintegrated on the bushes (all the nice big fat ones that I had been eyeing off to make sauce with). So after some heavy culling we were left with a large bowlful of various types of tomatoes - beefsteak to cherry and pea, and a huge handful of large purple podded beans, luckily our neighbour had some broccoli going wild so we did a bit of a swap. I see roast chicken and lots of homegrown veggies in my future.

I keep hoping that my pumpkins will fatten up and ripen soon, and that the corn fills out nicely in the next week or two.... I can just see my children eating a large cob apiece (they LOVE corn) as often as I can find some that is ready.

Bottling

So this is what I have been doing for the last couple of weeks on and off......

The apricots are from my grandmother's tree, our tree and from a friend of the family's tree. Amazingly they are completly different flavour and texture-wise, those from our tree were rich orange coloured with such flavour and scent that I could have eaten them all day (and very nearly did!).

I think the tree is definitely happy where we planted it, which I was a bit concerned about, because the clay layer is very close to the surface in our garden and I had heard that they preferred sandy soil (which ours is definitely not).

Oh and my apples are fattening up nicely.... I had a quick look at them this morning and I think they will be large and sweet and juicy this year, as opposed to the smallish and a bit tart ones that we got last year..... there are a LOT more too! My daughter has asked me if she could have her own apple tree.... my immediate thought was that it would be a better idea than getting a pet at this stage, less responsibility, and she gets the enjoyment of growing her own food. She has plans for flowers somewhere in my garden too.... I don't know where they are going to go..... I have been so disorganised this summer that my weeds have weeds growing in them. I thought that if I got her a ballerina apple tree that it could go in a pot and live on the tiles near their sand pit and play house.

I need to go and sort out my kitchen again, my son has high hopes for cake (I made one last week in a fit of enthusiasm and I was told 'mummy you can make another cake when we run out of bits from this one'), I just want to get my benches clean and tidy and have them stay that way for more than five minutes. (I know, wishful thinking).

What to say?

I've been watching the news late at night for the last week, some of the stories of hundreds of people and thousands of homes lost to the fires in Victoria are too much for small children to hear and see. My heart breaks for those who have lost so much.

Bounty

Finally!

I have managed to grow beetroot successfully! The last couple of times I tried they never filled up and rounded out..... I can't work out what it was that I did wrong, but they weren't happy. Now everything else in the garden is coming ready too, and I have a bit more enthusiasm for getting out in the garden and doing something about it.

Last night is the first night in a long while that I have grown all the veggies that we ate. Sugar snap peas (probably the last picking), beetroot, yellow and green french beans, and pinkeye potatoes. I probably could have done something with the zucchini that are starting to clutter my kitchen bench but I couldn't handle any more complaints from the children about all the foods that they are having to re-learn the flavours of (I have been trying to buy and cook as seasonally as possible, and grow as much as I can in the half of the back garden that I am 'allowed' to dig up and grow stuff in).

It seems that every night one of the two little ones are complaining (loudly) about something on their plate..... my daughter started this and now my son has picked it up from her..... I insist on one bite to have a taste and if they don't like it they can leave it (in the vague hope that they will have the 20+ tastes of each food they need to become used to it), as long as they know that there won't be any sort of dessert (chocolate, icecream or frozen yoghurt) if they don't finish.

My daughter owned up to hiding her beetroot under her mashed potato (at about the same time my patience ran out) last night, so I gave up and they went to bed asap.

I need to go find my bottling jars in a minute, I have a couple of bags of apricots from my grandma who has decided that she doesn't need all of them (and knows that I appreciate the fruit). My tree is loaded with fruit, but it's a week or so from being ripe enough to eat or cook with, I can't wait, because they are so beautifully apricotty and sweet and juicy. Hmmmmmm I might go check them again.

Hot and bothered

As if it's not enough that the temperature outside during the last couple of days has been HOT compared to the 16-18 degree last few weeks (see bottom of little blue bar in pic), I have a sore throat......

Not just any sore throat though..... a keep-you-up-in-the-night-and-not-let-you-swallow-sore-throat, so tired and getting grumpy me trotted off to the doc this morning, sweltering along the way.

Now happily and lazily ensconced on the couch in the cool I have to admit my day is getting better..... world peace cookies from Dorie Greenspan's Baking from my home to yours went a long way to improving my mood..... baked in my still clean kitchen.

I have been busy having a bit of a clean out in the kitchen and living room this last week or two, removing and cleaning everything, as well as recycling and repositioning things..... Sort of a mid-summer clean (or maybe a spring clean that is dragging on a bit).

There's also been doona washing going on.... drying quickly in this hot weather, very satisfying to tick that one off the list.

Might have to have a bit of a go slow for the next few days while I throw off this bug..... I'm looking forward to a museum visit with my daughter early next week so I want to be feeling better before then (there's nothing worse than wandering around amidst lots of people feeling like you want to be home lolling on the couch).

Ok, more washing to hang out...... and blog surfing to do :D