Egg and Lettuce...

The girls from the bottom of the garden and certainly doing their thing at the moment.  After weeks of no eggs they are giving us plenty of eggy goodness.

 

Lettuce from the Potager....

Eggs from the girls at the bottom of the garden.....

Curry and mayo......

 

 



 

Curried Egg and Lettuce sandwiches for lunch - yum!

Oranges and Lemons

I harvested our citrus crop on Saturday. Seven oranges and five lemons!

 

The oranges yielded a similar amount to last year - the lemons were just disappointing - about fifty lemons short on last years total!

 

I thought I should put them to use.

 

 

 

A batch of Marmalade.

 

And

 

A batch of lemon butter.

 

 

 

I used the recipe from A Year in a Bottle by Sally Wise for the Marmalade.

 

And

 

The Lemon Butter was made using our tried and tested family recipe.

 

 

 

 The eggs for this beautiful Lemon Butter also came from the girls who live at the bottom of the garden.

 

I used the larger grater attachment in the food processor to chop the oranges - it's not terribly neat or even, but it certainly does the job in no time flat!

 

 

 

I made some little pastry shells to have with the Lemon Butter - I really shouldn't have - it is just too wonderful to leave at one.

Lemon Meringue Pie...........

Life is just so busy right now and has been for a long time.  I guess we all are.  The weekends are mostly a blur of cleaning and washing and food for me and I guess most families.  I just want some time to be me.

So today after all the beds had been stripped and all the towels changed and the clothes line full to the brim with probably another full line tomorrow and the bathrooms were cleaned and the house vacumed.........

I made a pie.  A lemon meringue pie with eggs and lemons from my garden.  It was delicious.

This followed some beautiful steak which Mitchell had marinated this afternoon and then cooked on the barbeque.  What a delicious meal to end the day with.



This week Masterchef winner Julie Goodwin came to our town.  Cameron was there to film the story for the news and got to meet her.  Cameron bought her newest cookbook and had it signed for me.  It is a really lovely book.  Cameron was very impressed with what a lovely lady Julie is. 

Thank you to my two lovely boys for a couple of bright spots this week.

Another weekend...........

Another weekend has disappeared.  Not fair.  I would like it to go for at least another two days I think.

It's Eistedfodd time of year, which adds more to an already busy life.  It is lovely though to see the children perform.  Another night to go tomorrow night. 

In between kids and washing and groceries and food I had a busy time in the garden this weekend.

10 punnets of foxgloves together with some other assorted lovelies and 320 bulbs were planted.  Oh my aching back!  But, so worth it for the beautiful Spring garden I will have.  A couple more weeks and we will plant up some pots. 

The vege patch is quite lovely at the moment with cabbage, beetroot, broccli, cauliflower, lettuce, spring onions, assorted herbs, spinach and some late tomatoes (which are very slow in ripening).

I really enjoyed preparing some yummy food today, quiche for lunch made with eggs, spring onion, parsely and tomatoes all from our own garden! 

Pizza for tea - I love making yeast raised pizza dough - it was delicious too. 

I can't believe it is Sunday night already - that weekend passed all too quickly.

Oh to have some more time to potter in my garden.

Gardens of Warwick..........

I had been planning for a month to go to see the Open Gardens in Warwick this weekend.  As the week went by it seemed uncertain.  And still so yesterday morning.  That was until I heard on the radio just how wonderful they were.  I had to go!

First on the list was the lovely 'Haddington'.  A lovely old property with a beautiful sprawling garden.  We were also invited to walk along the verandah and peek into the rooms!  The garden was lovely and obviously still a work in progress.

Next on the list was 'Merrilees'.  Another magnificent old home with the most beautiful iron work on the verandah.  This garden too was lovely.  This home featured the most beautifully wide verandah I have ever been on! 

Up the stairs and on the verandah was a lovely lady selling her wares.  Susan Volz of Our Kitchen Garden was up from Brisbane.  Her story is one that I could relate to.  Unable to find the things of her dreams that she had seen in magazines for years, she and her family set to and now makes them!  Just beautiful.  Kicking myself that I didn't make a purchase or two - why do I always to that!!  Oh well an excuse to visit Brisbane I guess!!

This little view at the rear of the garage - stunning!

'The Laurels' was my favourite I think.  This garden is owned by landscaper Clint Kenny.  It is perfection from front to back - so many ideas. 

I loved the set up of the vege patch - very much my style!  This picture is a little ordinary, but the rain had started and I was juggling camera and umbrella!

Be still my beating heart - A wash basin in the vege patch - I have the basin in my garage and I just need to get it organised in my own vege patch. 

This garden is all relatively new, except of course for the magnificent original trees.  Oh to have some big trees.

The Woodland Walk along the western boundary of the home is stunning, lined with Tropical Birch trees.

The little dam is at the back of the property. 
What a lovely spot this must be to sit awhile!

And this, is where the chickens live - Buff Orpingtons and the most beautiful Wyandott's I have ever seen!



The Garden Tool Shop is also part of Clint's business - once again - beautiful tools and garden bits and pieces. 

I really could have gone again today, I enjoyed it all so much.  I hope they are open again some time.  It was just a lovely day out.  Time to forget about my everyday ordinary life and enjoy the beautiful Southern Downs area.  I just love it down that way. 

It was so lovely to be inspired by these gardens and by the people who obviously love their garden they way I love mine! 

Down In The Garden........

Come down the back steps with me this morning........

I'd like to show you what's going on in the back garden at the moment.

Through the gate......

Scoot, Trixie and the Henny Pennies (minus one) are enjoying the company of a few new friends. At the moment they remain nameless. These feathered friends of mine are being very naughty at the moment and eating their eggs. Any suggestions? I hope they stop it soon - I so miss my lovely eggs from down in the garden.


The vegetable patch is looking beautiful at the moment. The rain and mist last weekend really made everything come to life.

We recently lifted all the rocks in the pathways and put weed mat down and then shovelled them all back into place. We were having terrible trouble with huge weeds coming up in the paths. The mat has worked beautifully.

My lime tree is doing really well too. I have one little lime on it. Hopefully next season will be better.

At the moment we have all sorts of bits and pieces growing.

Peas, Snow Peas, Tomatoes, Corn, Spring Onions, Strawberries, Basil, Parsley, Thyme, Mint, Rosemary. The lemon tree is loaded with about 30 beautiful big lemons. I think they will be almost ready to pick.

The passionfruit is still going beautifully - Passionfruit and Lemon Butter I think will be on the menu, maybe followed by Lemon Delicious pudding and then I think some pancakes sprinkled with sugar and drizzled in lemon juice and cream - so those girls in the backyard had better get busy 'cause I need eggs!

The original Lavendar hedge that was planted bordering the vege patch did not fair very well over summer at all. The runoff from the drive down the side of the house runs directly into the vege patch - I think they got very wet toes and didn't like it. We have replaced it with a Murraya Hedge, so far it is doing really well.

Unfortunately, I hear the Laundry calling my name!! I have a basket of ironing that I really wouldn't be able to jump over!! I am going to do one hour and then I have some new projects waiting for me in the "Studio".

The weather here today is a perfect Autumn day, so hopefully the weekend remains just as beautiful. The children are back to school next week - so back into routine for us.

A happy weekend to all who happen across this little blog today!

Bits and Pieces.......

An adventurous few days for me. We had a most enjoyable time away, just the two of us! We had won a prize package to stay at the Casino at the Gold Coast - not something we would have ever chosen for ourselves! It was certainly a different weekend than we've ever had before. The room and the food was wonderful. The show was not quite my taste in music, but not unbearable! The casino - an eye opener!!!! :-)

It made be feel quite sad that from very young people to quite old ladies were at 11 p.m. on a Saturday night in a place like that with obviously nothing else to do with their time or money!! Oh well, each to their own I guess.

We stopped at Ikea on the way through Brisbane. Just loved all the bits and pieces there. I hope to go back and get a couple of pieces of furniture soon. BJ thought we had finished on the top floor but I gently explained to him that the things to buy were on the next floor down!!! I made sure he was fed between floors!!!

I enjoyed some time shopping on Sunday before we came home and thankfully, I finally bought some new shoes for winter - I can tell you, it was becoming quite embarrassing to go out!

Charcoal Flannel with Black Patent Trim!

Just Black!

The last couple of weeks I have been able to get small snippets of time in the garden. I got all the bulbs planted and found a couple of jonquils popping their little heads through this morning. I have done quite a few pots and baskets up with pansies and other bits and pieces.

I found this wagon in one of my favourite places and got BJ to drill some holes in the bottom so I could plant it up too!!

I was a very lucky girl a couple of weeks ago when Leanne was having a giveaway of her new pattern "Two Brown Chickens". Thank you Leanne - I hope I get to stitch it soon! It's just like my Scoot and Trixie at the bottom of my garden!!

New shoes, a new pattern and flowers in my garden - what more could a girl want - well, maybe just some time to stitch and then life would be just about perfect!!!!

One Egg, Two Lemons......

We have an egg!!!! The girls from the bottom of the garden are maybe going to earn their keep! One of them finally laid an egg - mind you a small one at that!

Our tiny lemon tree has had two lemons ripening now since we planted. We were advised to cut them off when it was planted but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

Mmmmm, one egg, two lemons. Maybe Lemon Delicious Pudding might be on the menu!

In the Garden

I love it so much in my garden. Our garden is only 8 months old. Creating a new garden in the worst drought in history is certainly interesting to say the least. With only the water from our tanks we have done quite well I think.
The "Girls from the bottom of the garden" are getting a little run attached to their house.

I hope they like it!!

I love pansies and have some planted in a cute planter which was a house warming gift from a special friend. I hope you enjoy a couple of pics of my garden so far. I am just itching to start the next thing on my list.