harvesting awesome salads from the garden these sunny days... lettuce, rocket, radishes, spring onions, herbs galore, snow peas, broad beans. yum yum!
potatoes are looking marvelous, should be ready to harvest the early ones in a few weeks. my aztec triangle is taking shape, though for some reason my climbing beans split their stalks before they managed to push a leaf out. odd.
life revolves around the garden at the moment, it's so lush and full of life and the veges look as beautiful as the roses do.
x

the spring garden is coming to life!
radishes and rocket and carrots are poking their first leaves up, plenty of weeds too (pesky calendula mostly) but they're all too small to really say what's what.
five out of seven potatoes have appeared also, 3 lisetta 2 red rascals and still waiting on the 2 agria.
peas are due to sprout any day, they've taken ages, but steve had a dig around and reckons they're about to do their thing.. hooray!
garden beds are looking good, and by the end of the weekend my new oval brick-walled bed will be well on the way.
loving having steve here, my live-in gardener. a man of action!

x

EARTHQUAKE CiTY

after a long day of gardening, much is accomplished!
the most recent 'aftershock', about an hour ago, was a mere minute or two from my house. that is far too close for comfort!
at least if the house falls down, we will be able to eat radishes in about 3 weeks. phew. that's disaster-planning. :-)

i've just been invited to join the online roimata community group. nice! i wonder how active it is. there are groups such as "garden enthusiasts" and "craft".. but not many people posting on them. hopefully this means there is lots of real-life interaction.

watching the rain bouncing off the road, and feeling content to be inside my lovely solid house.
24 jars of feijoa chutney made yesterday add to the feeling of domestic bliss! i need to get more preserves shelves happening, must be time to [finally] sort out the laundry.
in other news, big sis painted me a beautiful piece for above my fireplace (will post pic at some point!) and new flattie is framing bits and pieces.. yay! he also makes an amazing cheese scone. oh, and fixed my record player!
now, time go go and put more photos in frames for my slowly-getting-there picture wall.
i also need to figure out to do with 4kgs each of tomatoes and apples. probably more chutney. suggestions welcomed of course!
x ero

the new occupant of woolston wonderland seems alright so far.
big tick, he can cook and he fixed the tap and the garage door and put a new bag in the vacuum cleaner.
excellent.
x

i must re-train myself to wear gloves while gardening!
my hands have issues enough as it is, without the added shredding due to much weed pulling. i've been getting into these weeding frenzies, usually on sundays before the green bin goes out... very satisfying, but never enough space in my bin.
i am beginning to think that i could quite plausibly turn the whole back of my section into an orchard / vege garden. i don't need very much lawn.
i am also craving colour, and flowers. i bought some wild flower seeds, but they really shouldn't be planted till spring. aah well, patience is a virtue as they say.
in indoor news, i think i'll paint a wall or two. probably the one directly inside my entrance way, i think blue. soft blue, and then i'll put up lots of mismatched frames of strange pictures.
speaking of strange pictures, i got 3 paintings framed by the lovely chap across the road from work. he did a great job, and charged me mates rates. big tick to matt! they look lovely, i am a little hesitant to put them up though as i am super critical of my work, and don't know if i can handle seeing it every day!
x

house life is the good life.
i have nothing much to add to that...

what a beautiful day~
a perfect day for a morning at home, the first in quite a while!
i've planted some herbs into my coal shute thingy by the back door: garlic chives, basil, marjoram, sage. i think i'll plant a hangy downy rosemary in the other one, but had better do some mosaicing first.
i'm quickly coming to the painful realisation that i'm going to need to do something about the shower FAST. it's awful, i don't get it! when i first moved in it was fine, not awesome pressure but no worse than many. but now it is hardly more than a dribble of hot water. very very frustrating, especially as the 'summer' weather really isn't warm enough for luke warm showers.
so, i need to find a friendly [cheap] plumber. sigh. oh well, everything else about the house continues to be awesome. i have many windows open today, and plan on getting lots of tidying done before work. and hooray, a weekend off... with no plans of going anywhere!
xx happy day to you

[sitting here looking at the blank box]
so it's hard to write about a house you don't get to spend nearly enough time in! i am still having issues with the fact that i have to go to work. why can't i just hang out at home and get stuff done?! :-)
i have managed to plant a few more bits and pieces, and today helen and i managed a batch of apricot jam. mostly helen, with supervision.
i was pleasantly surprised just now to see that i have about $400 more in my account than expected. this is a very good thing. realistically, i need to pay most of that onto my tab at work.. food adds up very quickly! but at least i'm debt free then. (well, not exactly debt free, there is still the small matter of the mortgage)
i need to get some pictures on the walls. and make some sense of the numerous cords running across the living room floor (i want wireless everything. sigh.)

a perfect day for gardening, overcast but mild. hooray for it being a day off!
i've planted about 30 leeks (tip: plant them deep, you get more white bit at harvesting time), a handful or two of onions, and re-potted a few sage plants. anyone want one?
now i should really be making sense of some of the mess around the house, but instead i'm going to go into town and listen to some sweet sounds and eat some foreign stuff. :-)
xx

lawns are freshly mown (that's not a word, is it), broccoli seedlings planted, as are the strawberries and borage. oh and the hollyhocks, though i have no idea of what conditions they require so i just hope they do something!
being back at work this week is hard! yes, i love my job. i'd just like to be spending the time pottering around at home!
next mission is to drag my desk inside, then the crafting can begin in earnest.

it's official, my house is warmed.
it was a sweet event, lots of lovely friends came to visit and although i feel that i barely had a chance to talk to most of them, i was glad to have them! i really should have issued self-guided tour sheets on arrival. next time.
as an added bonus, i was given plants my many! yippee! hollyhocks (thanks jeff's ma) and native tree seedlings (propagated by the multitalented marian) and herbs and vege seedlings, and a beautiful red rose bush (thanks tineke).
it turns out that i can fit quite a few people into this small living room, good thing too as the weather wasn't exactly conducive to outdoor partying. though there was blue sky at one point, and sunlight dappling the asbestos roof of my garage. very exciting, i took a photo.
oh, and ma brought along lacrosse stick things. and then played an impromptu game with pat. delightful! oh the joys of having enough lawn to play daft ball games.
today i may mow, and i may even time myself. i may also persuade jeff down the hill for one more coffee before he flies. i shall miss him immensely.
x e

edit: well it rained again, so the mowing will have to wait. and jeff was easily persuaded.

if it ever stopped being grey and rainy, i might be inspired to do some work around the garden. or the house for that matter. but instead, i have been whiling away my days drinking coffee and generally spending time with my dear friend jeff. it's not a bad way to use a week off work! in fact it's damned near perfect. lucky me!
tomorrow i need to do some serious tidying, as it's housewarming party day. boxes need to be hidden, as do the many cables that seem to be taking over my living room. maybe i'll even succeed in my mission of acquiring rubbish and compost bins. i know it needn't really be as hard as it is turning out to be, but i flat out refuse to spend huge sums of money on rubbish receptacles!

a new house, a new blog.
i anticipate this will be a mostly-house-related blog, with a particular leaning towards the goings on in my garden.
i have a large backyard, comprising of a vege garden (raised beds) and a big lawn. i intend to grow many a vege, and generally teach myself about the wonders of successfully growing stuff.
i may need advice and guidance, and if anyone reads this perhaps they'd like to join my team of teachers and muses. the pay is crap but the gratitude is immense.

x e