Christmas kisses

Well, it is nearly November.

So I'm having to get my act together and start to do some Christmas crafting. I have barely touched a needle and thread for the last month or so, so it has been great fun to get back into some creative activities and I was thrilled to finish this project today. (My house is just a sad trail of started projects .......)

The above "kissing ball" is a Buttonberry pattern from Homespun No. 62.

Apart from that I've been having fun in the garden. I still need to do a lot of planting in the vegie garden but am excited about some squash and cabbages that are coming to fruition.

The birds have been pretty excited about Spring too. The little fairy wren below has taken to spending his days tapping on my kitchen window - he must be able to see his reflection in it.

Meanwhile, his bride has been building a tiny nest in my overgrown jasmine. She's been spending some time trying it out for size but hasn't laid any eggs yet., and I'm so looking forward to that.

Cucumber Update

Don't they look happy!

Cucumbers coming to life

Cucumbers are my favourite vegetable to grow from seeds. They are so quick to grow - you can normally see them sprouting in 2 - 3 days and by 4 days they look the above picture. Some are still struggling to break through the soil, some are already up and waving in the air. It's amazing watching them come to life so quickly. This lot are inside, by a sunny window and I'll plant them in the vegie patch when they're bigger and stronger.

Helpful Pups in the Weedy Garden

The pups have been helping me weed one of our vegie patches.



Unfortunately their technique of lying on the weeds in a brave attempt to smother them, isn't really that effective.



Nor was nibbling at some errant grass. The idea had merit, it was just a little slow in the execution.



In the end, we decided weeding in the hot sun wasn't it all it was cracked up to be, and to retire until later when it's cooler.

Spring's Sprung

Spring has sprung in Sydney and today is a really warm, sunny day. All of the flowers are in full bloom and look and smell lovely. My vegie patch is sadly neglected and over-run with weeds though, so I think I'll be spending today getting it ready for some spring planting.

Yesterday, I made another bag from the pattern my birthday fairy sent me. This one is plainer, but has a cute little pocket at the front.

And from now on in, I guess a lot of my crafts will be devoted to some of the Christmas swaps coming up so I'll have to restrain myself from posting photos so I don't ruin the surprise. Or get a little creative and take some teaser shots, like the one below.

In the garden this morning

Here are some pillowslips I made yesterday. They are a little crumpled cos I used them last night. It was lovely to sleep on crisp, clean new pillowslips.

This morning I did some weeding in the vegetable gardens. I've been avoiding it because with the weird weather - hot and wet - we've been having, the weeds have just taken over so quickly, it would be impossible to pull them out without pulling out real plants as well. So I wanted to wait until the plants were ready to come out too.

I harvested some little onions and am soaking them to pickle. I also harvested some kipfler and Dutch cream potatoes - the kiplfer are on top in this bucket:

And got the last cucumbers off my dying vines:

I'm a bit worn out and sore now, so I'll be having lunch then a rest I think.

Weird Plant in my garden

I have no idea what this weird plant is - I call it an octopus plant, because its long green legs come climbing over the fence from my neighbour's place. It is some type of cactus I imagine, as it has little spikes on it and rubbery green skin. But at this time of year it also grows these weird long hairy things then all of a sudden these amazing flowers burst out of the end of them.

The octopus plant lives amongst my passionfruit vine which has flowered for the first time this year. It is covered in fruit and I can't wait for them to ripen!

So today I have been working on Christmas presents. Firstly, these two little bags (pattern in the latest Homespun):

I love the effect of the shabby roses on them. And then this little Christmas decoration:

Sunny Sunday

I haven't been doing much sewing the last week or so. I'm still getting over the flu and trying to cope with a much increased workload at work (as if it wasn't enough already!), so have been pretty tired. I've been slowly getting through a cross stitch while watching a bit of TV over the last couple of weekends but still have lots more to do before it's finished. Sorry for the blurry pic.

It's officially Spring but has still been a bit chilly and has been pouring rain all week. It's an exciting time in the garden though - I have these snow peas (above) as well as parsnips, carrots, spinach, silverbeet, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower all flourishing. I've potted some spring onion, leek, capsicum and tomato seeds and they're keeping warm in the house on a sunny windowsill. Hopefully by the time they sprout it will be warm enough to plant them outside.

Peaceful Tuesday

I spent today weeding and mulching the vegie garden before I lost sight of my poor vegies altogether under the encroaching weeds. I find winter gardening a bit disheartening. In Spring and Summer, it is so exciting - I can go out to check on my plants a couple of times a day and every time something different is happening. In Winter, I can look once a week and can't see any changes. So I tend to get disheartened and neglect the garden, which is probably why my Winter vegies never flourish.

So now I've given them a bit of attention, hopefully they will do better this year. I have broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, snow peas, parsnips and carrots in at the moment. I planted them a month or two ago. As well as all the herbs and spinach and silverbeet, which are pretty constant. I ordered some seed potatoes the other day so I need to prepare some garden for them too. I've never grown potatoes before, so that will be fun.

I also made some washing liquid, following the instructions on the Down To Earth blog. I was pretty amazed. It took less than 10 minutes and it has the same look, smell and texture as commercial liquids - I just need to try it out, but I am sure it will work just as well. I also bought some caustic soda the other day so am just trying to work up the courage to make some soap. I need to get a candy thermometer first though.

At it again

I cleared out my vegie garden today - it had become so feral I couldn't even get in there to find any vegetables! It was like a jungle! I ripped heaps of things out but saved the last of the vegies, so I am back to pickle making again today. Sigh, I thought that was over for another year. So I'm making bread and butter cucumbers, green tomato pickle and zucchini pickles. Here are some of the vegies degorging.

I haven't done much sewing this week. I was back at work after a few days off with very nasty virus, and just found it exhausting. I just wanted to sleep when I came home. In fact, I just wanted to sleep while I was at work too! But I did start quilting Lyle's Asian quilt. I am just quilting in the ditch and will probably stipple the wide border. An all over design would have looked better, but at this stage I just want to get it finished, it has been sitting around for so long. Lyle wants it finished too - this was supposed to be his birthday present not from last year, but the year before!

Today's Harvest

In the vegie patch today

The garden has gone feral with all the rain we have been having. My tomato plants are about 10 feet tall - but since the stakes don't go that high, the ones that aren't against the wall are all flopped over. But they're still cropping. The eggplant and capsicum are still producing regularly and a patch where I ripped out lots of old rocket has self-seeded so I have lots of tender young rocket now. (In fact, somehow it seeded itself into the lawn too so I have a lawn of rocket!)