Qld trip April 2012

End of term one NSW school holidays I headed north for a week. The focus of this trip was the friends catch ups that were sadly missed at Xmas due to illness. Unfortunately Wisowaty's were crook this time, so will have do with images and chat over the Interwebs for now.

The cheeky Miss Paige and I

Happy and huge (tall!) Dante

You're a strange one Sarah!

Entire Matthews clan

I still had some good quality time with my family. For something a bit different I stayed a few nights with Joel and Bree. They are also into 'home harvesting' but have taken it to another level then me with a huge, drip irrigated, netted, staked, with worm hotels, raised garden bed in the front yard.

Joel and I sharing a bevvy on the verandah

One of the reasons the garden bed in the front yard.
Joel and Bree's 'puppy' Kiddo

Watched Jake play a game of soccer

and hung out on the sideline with Sammy.

Alex, Neets and Scott were there too but I didn't get photo of them. Alex is tall! Well over me now - taking after his Dad and Uncle Matt.

Sarah's craft 2012 so far

This winter has been COLD. I (we) love our house but a large old house after a modern one bedroom unit above a restaurant kitchen has been a huge adjustment that I especially haven't coped very well with. Most of winter I have spent sick and/or curled up on the couch under my electric throw rug crocheting, knitting and crafting my little heart out. Here are a few of my creations (with cute models):

Sammy's slippers and bunting

Jambin's elf hat

Darcy's monster hat

Isaac's monster hat

Jacob's comic book birthday card

Some stuff for me/us!
Reusing jars around the house - here in the bathroom for hand soap, moisturiser and plants.

In the shower. We can buy in bulk then pour out as needed. The beautiful bottles were milk containers from a local food coop.

Dishcloth from kitchen cotton. When its gets dirty - chuck it in the wash! I have made three different styles so far. Still deciding which is the favourite.

Plarn (plastic bag yarn) work-in-progress basket. 

I have not bought a single pattern and a lot what I have made uses repurposed materials. Most of my inspirations have come from Pinterest.com - an online and 'social-media' pinboard. If you like craft (or fashion / food / photography / other) it's great, but addictive - I have heaps more things 'pinned' ready to tackle as I can find the time.

Smokey update - snug as Smokey in a rug

Poor Smokey, usually he HATES being confined in anyway but lately it has been so cold we have found him like this on more than one occasion.

Long time, no bloggin'

Hi y'all! Long time no bloggin'... a quick explanation:

Short - not much massively interesting happening!

Long - Last Christmas, Matt bought me an Android tablet, an Asus Slider to be exact. I love this thing! It means I can sit on the coach, half watch television, crochet, browse and be social. Right now as I'm typing this... a bowl of half finished soup and Matt and Smokey sitting next me.

The only downside was that the standard browser didn't cope well with pop ups, so trying to use Blogger (and Pinterest) was near impossible. But... I have Chrome on my tablet now, yay! So excited! Stay tuned for a bunch of updates...

DIY self watering pots

In the garden I try to DIY as much as possible. For both environmental and financial reasons. When I first started out, quite a few sites on the interwebs had instructions for cutting a milk or soft bottle in half and inverting the top half to make a self watering pot. Recently I have been taking it a step further and turning the handle into a spout. It has been working so well that I thought I would document and share.

 Empty milk bottle, that would otherwise go in the trash

Cut ~2 cm below the handle

Cut off the handle

 Poke holes around the opening - for water to seep into the soil. Perhaps not necessary but I have found it works better if I do this.

Feed the handle back through the hole left where it was cut off. Can duct tape it into place, but I have since found its ok without the duct tape - as long as you hold the handle/spout in place while filling the pot with soil.

Place the top, with the spout, upside down in the bottom half of the container.

Optional extra - as I had some old hand towels I was cutting up for other purposes I added a wick - through the 2nd hole left by where the handle was cut away. Usually I don't bother. 

 Tada! Add soil to the top and pour water down the spout and you have a home made self-watering pot.
I have been using these in my greenhouse to raise larger seedlings.

Previously I added an overflow hole on the side - about half way up, but I don't bother anymore. As the container is see-through I can see how much water is in it. It is covered (in the greenhouse) so there is no chance of rainfall flooding the plant. Minimising access to the stagnant water will hopefully prevent mozzies breeding in there - I am very wary of creating too many mozzie breeding grounds in my garden.

Boxing Day - Happy Feet Two

Going thru a bit of a backlog of photos at the moment and I have found some I forgot from summer holidays in Qld. On Boxing Day, Happy Feet 2 opened so the Aurisch/Bell/McMillan clan went to see it at a local cinema (and cheered loudly when we saw Uncle Matt's name in the credits).

April in the kitchen garden

So, I seem to have missed March in the garden, oops, oh well, here's April:

   Currently growing L-R: Smokey's pot (Bottlebrush & Cat Grass); Tomato, Marigold, Sunflowers (behind the Marigold - can't see them yet here); Corn, Climbing Beans; Zuchini, Carrots & Lettuce box, Herbs, Lucerne, and Strawberry

 Harvest! We have been adding quite a few bits and bobs to meals recently from the garden.[

 I harvested the sweet potato today - they worked! (sort of). Given it was 2x false starts and therefore very late in season they got under way I am pretty happy with this lot. Lessons learnt for next year :)

  

Winter seedlings - Broccoli, Cauliflower, Dill, Celery, Celeriac, Carrots (an experiment that I will tell you about if it works), Chilli, Onions, Alpine Strawberry

A couple of weekends ago I made an old Styrofoam box into a self-watering planter for Carrots and Lettuce. Both (according to the Internet) can be grown year-round in our climate and are good companion plants as carrots have a deep root while lettuce is shallow root. Unfortunately despite being behind the herbs, Mr Smokey has found them and lying in this box is his new favourite spot - hence few seedlings. I planted more seeds both directly in the box and in pots in the green house this weekend. I think I will put netting over it too.

Ladybugs! My poor Zuchini has suffered badly from powdery mildew due to the mild and humid summer. I nearly pulled it today but a whole colony of ladybugs (good bugs - they eat the mildew) have moved in and it is looking a bit better. Maybe I'll get another fruit or two from it (we have had a couple) and I quite enjoy looking at the bugs. The funny grey things below are the ladybug larvae.

A rewarding day in the garden can only finish with Smokey on my lap wanting a head rub.