Fabulous February ...... !!

As always time gets away from me and now before I know it February is here !!  ..... Have spent a bit of time over the last two weeks getting out and about .... there are so many great places to visit in and around Gippsland..... A big favourite is the small township of Loch .....  what a gorgeous place it is ... wouldn't be a visit without a trip to my favourite cafe for a cup of tea !!

OLIVE at LOCH .... a lovely cafe

A fabulous quirky cup of Green tea.

The Baw Baw Sustainability network held their Creative Garden 2019 exhibition and I popped in to fellow blogger Around the Mulberry Tree, whose permaculture garden was among the many that were on display ..... included along with local artists creating their craft in the gardens..... Maree has a great productive garden and now runs sourdough making classes..... got to sample her bread and it was really good.

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The Mulburry tree after which she has named her blog.

Lots of nice things in her garden..

Sculptures look great....

 We also took a trip to Cape Patterson to walk the fur babies.....unfortunately it was non dog-walking season for the beach....who knew (probably everybody else except me !!).... thought if they were on a lead it was okay....so we travelled along to Inverloch and found a sneaky spot where we could walk them.....found these amazing shells on the beach ....the sea snail shells are so beautiful and had an iridescent mother of pearl glimmer...I've always loved shells,  they are works of art I think.

Shells picked up from the beach near Inverloch.

 My daughter and G-boy stayed over last Sunday and she decided to paint mandalas on a couple of the small rocks from my garden....I love these .... I had some wall paint sample pots for a small project I was working on....she did a beautiful job....very crafty

A pleasant way to spend an hour painting these..

 Today took a little trip to Jindivick to attend the market....it's small and not too busy.....Jindivick is lovely...unfortunately the smoke from a small bushfire in Noojee was thick....and the smell of burning vegetation was everywhere....it's a nervous time for those living in rural bush land.

The lovely town of Jindivick.

Finally as my 60th birthday draws ever nearer I will leave with this message..  :-)

Jumping Into January...........Slowly !!

It's my first post for 2019.....it's been a slow start to the year...after all the excitement of weddings and baby announcements...followed by Christmas...the New Year went of with a tiny little POP.....no Big Bang ...... and started with just a slow trickle, which isn't really a bad thing.  I've been trying to spend some time in the vegie garden....but this last week has been so Hot !!!....then we had very strong winds which knocked the fruit trees around... lost most of the apples and pears on our trees and also the poor old tomato plants took a beating....It should be a much cooler day tomorrow so I will try to repair the damage.......!!

I spend most days at the desk in my office and my window looked out onto a pretty barren courtyard which is alongside the house.....I recently gave it a spruce up with some plants and a little tweak .... set under the kiwi fruit vines (which unfortunately had lots of blossom but no fruit developed!!).  .... I'm a lot happier daydreaming out the office window now.

The New View.

The year has clearly started off pretty slowly for Daisy as well..... this is one of her favourite sleeping positions ....she loves to sun-bake along the back of the couch.....this picture was last week , not this week , as the blinds have been closed and sun-blinds down keeping windows shaded for most of the time......it's been way too hot for me.

Daisy taking it easy.

 My new years resolution to walk the dogs more often got off to a very slow start.....I'm not that good in the heat....I have managed a couple of walks to the lake and loved this annual sunflower display.... (which grow wild along a vacant block opposite the lake).....they were all turning their fabulous yellow heads skyward....there is just something so joyous about sunflowers. 

I might have to try growing some of these in my garden

On another note...I have a big milestone coming up in February......

I will be turning 60.... It's quite a significant number I think...

and while it does seem a little daunting I am reminded of two beautiful

woman who I sadly lost in their 40's, both to cancer....

 and I am simply grateful to be here.

The Good....the Bad....& the Sad...!

 We had a lovely Easter....home made hot cross buns on Good Friday..... a lovely sleep in on Saturday...then an Easter egg hunt in the back garden with the Gboy on Sunday morning, followed by Brunch.....and a visit to our parents in the afternoon....My man having 4 days off in a row....perfect.

All ready for the oven......very wonky but who doesn't love imperfection !!

All brushed with sugar syrup and ready to eat..

This week I got around to making tomato relish from some of the last of the crop......followed the recipe I found on the internet and I did think 1/2 cup of salt into the chopped onion and tomatoes seemed quite a lot.....2 cups of malt vinegar also.... and it took forever to reduce.... upon tasting it is very very salty....I checked the comments on the recipe and they all said way too much salt.....I bottled it up anyway and will see how it tastes in a couple of weeks time...such a nuisance using a recipe that I wasn't too sure of.....would love to hear from anyone who has a great tomato relish recipe!


after a quick dip in boiling water the skins come off nice and easy.

Red and a couple of yellow heritage tomatoes, onions.......and loads of salt !



Will see how it goes, but I think it is going to be a bit nasty ...!

 And sadly the little chicken who hasn't been well for quite a while died yesterday......when I went out in the morning to let all the girls out she was just standing there not moving and let me pick her up.....she was so thin......I placed her in a small cage and put her on the porch in the warm sunshine...she laid with her eyes closed all day only waking occasionally.. and the fluffy girls and I sat with her in the sun for ages....she seemed quite peaceful but I wondered if it would have been more kind to put her down....It is such a dilemma but I let nature take it's course..... she had been eating and running around the day before.......hopefully her last day she was peaceful away from the others who were starting to peck at her....I buried her in the backyard under the lemon tree.

Daisy and Daphne sat with me keeping their eye on the poor thing...she was very weak and listless.

Up Close and Personal....

Quite the experience yesterday....before getting my own hive I booked in to get up close and personal and see exactly what happens when you open up a hive...this one only had about 10,000 bees....it's a relatively new hive...and I have to say I was amazed at how little the bees mind when you open it up and start digging around in there....they are Italian honey bees ...the mood of the hive is dependant on the queen and apparently people specifically breed the queens  to be laid back.....

After smoking the hive lightly.....Bec opened it up.

 Even after Bec pulls out the frames they are still not attacking us...they start to make a louder buzzing the longer you muck around with them....but I was not remotely intimidated or harassed by angry bees trying to sting the bejesus out of me...which is what I thought would happen by the way.

Close up look at the bees ...the filled in bits are capped larvae waiting to turn into bees...this is from the main brood section.

 You need to inspect hives weekly in Spring for lots of reasons but the main thing is to ensure the queen is ok...when Bec opened up this box she found a queen cell ..which is a cell that contains a queen larvae...you need to destroy these if you already have a queen laying eggs otherwise when the new queen hatches the old queen nicks off taking half of the bees with her causing a swarm...it really is fascinating how the colony works.  I am keen now to get my own hive even though my man is not remotely interested...the world needs bees !!

Whitish stuff outside edge is capped honey...Bec is scraping off a queen bee cell....you don't want those if you have a queen.

On another note it's Halloween tonight which doesn't have much meaning for lots of Aussies....but most kids seem to be into anything that gets them a big bag of lollies...we had quite a few knocking on the door and collecting their treats.....my fluffy girls thought they would get into the action..!!!

These two are all set for Halloween.......actually we all had  spaghetti bol  for dinner ....they love it

Happy Halloween if you are a devotee....but if like us you think it is just another excuse for people to fall into the trap of unwanted consumerism....it doesn't hurt to  dish out treats to entertain kids. !!

Farewell to Autumn......

It's wet, bleak and miserable in the hills today......Autumn is certainly on the way out as Winter lets us all know she is just around the corner....no complaints, we've had loads of beautiful sunny days and mild temperatures this Autumn....I've planted out plenty of seedlings and am currently looking around for a greenhouse....nothing to  big, just enough to propagate my own seeds...hopefully save money by not buying costly seedlings to feed to the snails !!....Growing  vegies certainly makes you very aware of the change in seasons....The chickens also react to the seasonal changes....yes they were moulting...lots of lovely new feathers now...but not many eggs....its gone from feast to famine...only one or two a day...makes them all the more precious don't you think.

The beautiful birdlife around here ..... they love the bird feeder in my garden

Autumn's carpet....I love it .. unfortunately my husband doesn't and they eventually succumb to the leaf blower....

The neighbouring Golden Beech sheds into our yard....it's so beautiful, wish it was on our side.

Precious goodies from the girls....the fewer fresh eggs it seems, the greater the enjoyment...go figure

Next week we welcome winter .... the season of lazy days in front of the log fire....loads of pumpkin soup and freshly baked bread.....knitting ...umbrellas .....new gumboots...big puddles... and loads of warm cuddles.....

Size Does Matter ?............

An interesting visit to the hen house this morning...one of the girls has laid an enormous egg!!  not sure how she got that one out......doesn't fit in the egg cup....laying has slowed down over the last week or so....the girls are over two years old now and production is on the downturn....may need to get a few younger birds in and give some of the old girls away.

Ouch....one of the feathered girls is laying ostrich eggs !!

 Managed to finish off one of the projects for the month....some of the baby capsicums have ripened so I made these....was a bit fiddly but they turned out great....have a  mix of unused feta and cream cheese ...need to come up with a way to use the leftovers now....any suggestions?

Cored and boiled in sugar and vinegar......then into the fridge for 48 hours to pickle !!

Rinsed then piped with feta and cream cheese mix....home grown causes size inconsistencies !!

 

Into freshly boiled jars and covered with oil.....should last in the fridge for a couple of months

Still working on a couple of April projects...hope to have them finished before May !!.....Hope April has been good to you too.

A Beautiful Autumn Break......

We took a quick overnight  break down to our holiday place on the weekend and went with a group of friends to a local winery for lunch....Waratah Hill (near Fish Creek)...can't believe we have never discovered this little gem in the 6 years we have been holidaying only 10 minutes away....the sky was overcast but every now and then the sun made a quick appearance before slipping away again.....the scenery was spectacular....South Gippsland's rolling hills, already green and lush after the scorch of summer.....it was Autumn at its best.

The beautiful rolling hills are an amazing backdrop for this boutique winery....

Shared Mezzo platters and.local wines..,the sparkling was my favourite...not much of a wine connoisseur I'm afraid.

Daisy taking a sunny nap on the back of the couch....I felt I could use one of these after lunch !!

It was so nice to get away ...even if it was just overnight .......with all of the fighting and troubles  overseas.....it makes you appreciate how lucky we are to live here...we should all take every opportunity to enjoy life....the simpler the better....good friends, good food....good times.

The changing seasons........

 Growing your own food makes you appreciate the change of season and eating seasonal, local and organic food......from my own garden today I have picked the tomatoes......all small now and not many left as the arrival of autumn is causing the tomato plants to die ....making way for the next planting......corn is great....also the eggplants are ripening up......soon all of the seasonal produce will be finished......bring on the next lot......hopefully will be as successful as the previous season was.........!!

I buy organic fruit and veggies from the Kallista organic store.......great way to buy what's seasonal and usually locally sourced......obviously that pineapple didn't grow in the Dandenongs........it's a lovely scenic drive to the store....no traffic.....no lights......just a 15min country trip......I love it up here !!