Our First Ever Apricot Harvest!

Hooray! Hooray!
The apricots are ready.
We traipsed over to our "allotment" (Pendlebury Hill) yesterday to work on the rose garden and
we were pleasantly surprised to see little orange dots all over the apricot tree.

Below is the tree last year - overgrown with grass and weeds.
Lots of newspaper and lots of pea straw and this year we have around 15 kg of fruit!

Apricot grading has commenced,
to be followed by jam making, cake-baking and preserves.

Recipes to follow over here
Cooking with Freefalling.


Photos:
first 2 - iphone - 28 Dec, 2011
no. 3 - Nov, 2010
no. 4 - 29 Dec, 2011

Onions

Well, the onions have been in for 6 months and are ready to come up.
The smelly ones were ready first.

The non-smelly ones were a bit slower and some developed bull necks.
Have since read this (by Peter Cundall - he always has the best tips) and understand the reason.
Note to self - read article again next year before planting.
Now to cure them and store them away.

I know everyone says how much tastier home-grown vegies are,
but Vince and I were both surprised by the "high degree of niceness" of home-grown onions compared to the store bought ones.
Kinda crisper and fresher.

I Can Feel the Vitamins Exploding in my Brain!

So excited to make dinner tonight from fresh produce straight from our vegie patch!

The last of the Broad Beans.
The first lot of the onions.
My purple potatoes.
And a big handful of flat-leaf parsley.

I fried them all up in some extra virgin olive oil, some chopped bacon and some freshly ground pepper and salt.
We are both full as fat little ticks!

Photos: 17th December, 2011 - Home, Ararat

Now and Then

2011

 2008

Innit pretty now?
It's my favourite place at the moment to sit in the garden and hang out with my peeps
(note tennis ball under table).
And I love that most of it is second-hand!
Our $2 bbq table from the tip.
A transplanted rose from the previous owners.
A white nectarine tree struck for us by Uncle Tony or Uncle Pino (they both struck one for me and I can't remember who did this one).
My old deckchairs from Mum & Dad from 1996.
My chandelier from the reclaim shop (can you see it hanging in there?)
The geraniums are struck from cuttings from the house we stay in at Port Fairy.
Vince grew our beautiful lawn from runners he collected from overgrown footpaths.
I dunno if you can see it in there Natalie, but behind one of those chairs is the white daisy which you struck for me.
My chair covers - half-price on sale!
My blue and white pot from the Reject Shop.
It's so satisfying to bodge something up from stuff you can find and free stuff you are given.

I love too - that now, this one little corner is so productive.
We chopped out those awful Pittosporum trees and now we have
4 fruit trees (peach, loquat, white nectarine, mulberry)
herbs - rosemary, thyme, parsley, oregano, sage, mint.
And there are roses for picking - azaleas, daisies, geranium, statice, gazanias and nasturtiums.
It's amazing how much you can shove into a couple of square metres!


Photos: This morning - 7/12/11
and
2008

Strawberries

In the strawberry patch with those that the Blackbirds DIDN'T steal!
I mooshed those little suckers up (NOT the Blackbirds) and made them into ice-cream.
Recipe over at Cooking with Freefalling if you're interested.


Photos: November, 2011

Round the Garden Today

Lots of lovely colour.



Photo: 7th November, 2011

Have I Mentioned....

......I love irises?
Oh. I have.
Well, just in case you didn't quite catch it the first several times,
I love irises.
Here's my pink one
(from the Bunninyong markets)

Photos: 19th October, 2011

Another Bearded Iris

I DO so love them.

Photo: 31st October, 2011

Baby Fruit Parade

When that world food shortage kicks in,
we'll be right for fruit.
We can probably feed the rest of Ararat, too.
And neighbouring towns.
And neighbouring small countries.

Oh, and we have a Loquat tree and a Pomegranate tree too.
But they haven't made any babies yet.





Photos:26 Oct, 2011 - Home & Pendlebury Hill, Ararat

This Morning

Russet Bearded Iris.
And it's only the first one!!
Lots more buds to open.

Look at the shimmer on that petal!


Photos: 18th Oct, 2011

In the Garden Today

The first Iris of 2011!
And the first David Austin - William Shakespeare Rose.



Photo: 15 Oct, 2011