Day 30 - A Rob day

When Rob is at home with the girls their day is completely different to the one we share when I'm at home alone with them.

They clean the house. Bottle beer. He lets them get wet in the dog water bucket.

They pick flowers for me.


They read different books.

They play in the garden and get dirty and have muddy faces and hands.

When I got out of the car, two little girls walked around the corner of the hut with big muddy grins and we had a big hug together. He told me Elisabeth said "Mama" all day long.
A cliche I know, but it is a wonderful thing to love and to be loved in return.

Day 3 - Flower garden

Thank you for your supportive comments yesterday, I'm glad that I'm not alone in the feelings I expressed. The girls ended up sleeping for 1.5 hours, which was enough of a recharge for all of us to enjoy our afternoon together. I even got to prepare dinner without girls underfoot.


I took a quick walk around the flower garden this morning. Reliving my past Friday flowers posts. Despite not receiving as much attention as it needs, the garden is rewarding us with spring blooms. The daffodils and snowbells are over, the tulips are at their peak and the ranunculus is just starting to get going. The new flush of growth on the box hedge is ridiculously green.


Queen of the Nights in the garden.

Ad Rem tulips.

Golden Parade and Golden Apeldorn tulips.

Happy weekend!

Day 1 - Queen of the Night

Well so far so good. Today I start Blogtober Fest.

We planted tulips in the flower garden over two years, but we didn't lift the bulbs the second year. The varieties have responded to our treatment quite variably, but the tulip that has thrived is the evocatively named Queen of the Night. It has tripled in number and this is excellent as it is our favourite. The deep black/purple blooms look striking in the garden. When Sunday was going to be unseasonably warm and windy I rushed out and picked a bunch for our table. We have been enjoying them ever since, their upright form gradually bending as they continue to elongate in the vase to a more casual arrangement.

Friday Flowers

Tasmanian spring weather - I don't know how we forget it from year to year. Yesterday was warm (well for Tasmania) but the wind picked up early. I found out via the ABC news website that power went out at the hut at about 10am. Luckily we'd already been invited to my parents for dinner- as a hut without power wasn't that appealing!
The wind hadn't died down much during the day, when we drove home at 8pm we came across the electric company work team dealing with a tree and power lines just down the road from us. The hut was in darkness. After Rob rescued the Weber bbq (it had travelled around the side of the shed on it's trolley!) and some seedlings growing in trays we lit some candles and headed to bed.
This morning we were able to survey the damage. One tray of seedlings (quite sadly some Tangerine fluff poppies I'd won from Phoebe) had flown off in the wind, a few of our eucalypts had been damaged on the fenceline, and most distressing was our big eucalypt we'd been growing near the dam for the last 5 years has lost a significant amount of the main leader trunk (it had already suffered in the terrible wind a few weeks ago, but it's height has been reduced by half now!) The broad beans and peas look a bit worse for wear too, but hopefully they perk back up.
Somehow my tulips survived. Which is something, as a few warm days had brought on the flowering. Thankfully Rob took these photos last week in some morning sunlight.

The vegetable garden is looking so promising, everything is so green.

With any luck the weekend will at least be less windy, and best of all daylight savings starts this weekend!

Snap it {three}

Just quickly, three daffodils.

Oh Spring.


Playing along here.

Snap it {colourful}

I'm saving most of my flower photos for Friday (finally have some flowers to share!)

But in looking for something to share in today's snap it theme, colourful, I couldn't go past my anemones. We have pink, blue and white.

Taken with my iPhone, without a filter, the pink of these is so intense.

I'll be back on Friday with some more garden photos.


Playing along with Sarah at Faith Hope & a whole lotta love.

Friday Flowers

We had a quick visit to the Botanical Gardens today. Rob needed to pick up some seed for a prac class next week. While I waited I wandered into the Conservatory. It was full of orchids. I used to visit the Orchid flower show, and buy a few plants each year. But I treat them terribly, and they haven't flowered in years. I'm scared of repotting them.
Anyway I enjoyed the ones today.
Happy weekend to you.

Winter garden {broad beans and shallots}

I could get used to a 4 day week I think!
Just quickly a garden update more for my own benefit, perhaps, than yours.

Despite the cold weather, the optimistic plantings in mid April are growing.

We have a promising crop of golden shallots.


The broad beans are looking happy too.


We have been eating rocket salads for about two weeks now, it's so nice to be able to do that.
The cabbages and broccoli are growing ok, the carrots and parsnips are a little slower though.

We have plans for moving some rhubarb crowns and a fig tree to somewhere which will make them a bit happier, planting out the poor long suffering grape vines, establishing a raspberry patch and when the asparagus crowns arrive, creating an asparagus bed.
We're on the search for some artichoke crowns too, do any locals know of a good source?

In the flower garden the leaves of the ranunculus and anemones are poking through the soil, I've been informed that the roses are on their way from Geelong, and we repotted the gerberas (although one got a bit munched the other night as we had left them up against the hut).

Happy weekend to you.

Growing and planning

A cool wet week at the hut.
The little seedlings are growing well in the vegetable garden, broad beans and peas, the lettuce has slowed down, but we thought we might harvest some mini rocket for a little salad with dinner tonight. I'm not usually into the micro-herbs thing. We bought a Bruny Island cheese yesterday, a 1792, and it is beyond ripe, it was so smelly we put it in two plastic containers, which may now need to be thrown away! But I'm sure it will taste fine. Friday cheese night is back!


I couldn't resist a little more garden retail therapy this week, and justified it by purchasing vegetables and flowers, it's so not frivolous that way.
So I ordered some (ahem 48) Mary Washington asparagus crowns, some red Ad Rem tulips, Golden Parade tulips, red ranunculus, and Gerbera Garvinea plants in red, pink, yellow and white. Apparently they are cold hardy. I haven't seen any leaves pop up yet from the other bulbs we planted, but I guess I'm being impatient.


All images courtesy of Garden Express and Tesselaar.
It's a big weekend coming up, tomorrow is my niece's 1st birthday party! I can't believe it's a year since I went to visit my sister in hospital and got to hold her tiny baby, less than a day old. She and I are making a Giggle and Hoot birthday cake, tonight we're decorating the top of it. I hope it works out ok.
I might drop by here over the weekend, the weather is shaping up for an inside kind of weekend.

Snap it {yellow}

Looking back in my albums I found a little bit of yellow. I need to see these photos, it's a grey old day here in Tasmania. Unsurprisingly all were photos of flowers!

Playing along over here today.

Garden planning {bulbs and roses}

I am so ready for this weekend. This week has been all over the place for me. Work is busy, and I had a few days that were tough to get through. I try not to let work stress me out too much, but this week it did. But by the end of the week I've found some perspective, so it will be ok.

During the week to keep my spirits up, I indulged in some online retail therapy.
My flower garden looks fantastic, but apart from my lilies it's rather empty. So firstly I ordered 250 tulips, 300 anemones and 240 ranunculus bulbs from Tesselaar.

All of these images are from the Tesselaar website.

Next were my roses. Now Rob and I don't see eye to eye on roses. He loathes them with a passion. I however, would love to be able to pick roses for the hut and for friends and family. This partly led to the separation of the two gardens, so that Rob would not have to go near the roses! They are in the u shaped bed that surround the quadrant beds, so even I won't catch myself on a thorn whilst gardening around them. For the last 5 years I have sent away for the Treloar catalogue, which is in colour and mulled over the roses writing lists of my favourites. But eventually I narrowed it down to 40. Ten each of red, pink, yellow and white. They are all hybrid teas, which I know not everybody appreciates, but at the moment that's what I'd like. We certainly have room later to expand!

All of these images are from the Treloar website.

Last Saturday we had another load of soil delivered and Rob finished his vegetable beds. Although not the best time for planting we couldn't resist, so we planted some self-seeded Speckles lettuce and coriander. On Sunday we visited the Tas Farmgate market and picked up some chinese celery, dill and broccoli seedlings from Paulette at Provenance Growers. We also sowed carrot, parsnip, silverbeet, spinach, broad bean, rocket and savoy cabbage seed.

Watering in the speckles lettuce.

Lastly I just thought I'd share a little diagram I drew of our dream harvest year. I've joined in Chantelle's  April Photo-a-day challenge. Today's photo was something I drew. Believe me I don't draw very often. But this was fun. Not so sure about the likelihood of growing tangelos and mandarins in Tasmania, but the rest should be doable.

Happy weekend, I hope to drop by your blogs over the next few days, sorry I've been a bit slack at commenting this week. Well it must be almost beer o'clock! Yippee.

Snap it {up close}

This weeks theme is up close. Being a botanist and married to another, we tend to look at plants up close. That's how we can tell them apart, and whilst I can appreciate a whole forest, or a particularly majestic or gnarled tree, I think the true beauty of plants is most appreciated up close.

I can take no credit for the following images. Rob loves to take macro photos of Tasmanian natives, and has an eye for finding something a little unusual up close. The following are just a selected few (from the 90 images he forwarded to me) and of the several thousand he has.

All images Rob Wiltshire

Friday Flowers

So I got back home to the hut yesterday. Whilst I was in Brisbane Rob was leading a week long field trip at Mt Field in Tasmania. He had pretty perfect weather. The dogs were pretty happy to see me but knew that our little "pack" wasn't quite right until he returned. I took Nigella to the dog groomer today. I felt like such a traitor leaving her there to get clipped short. But her coat was out of control and she was so hot.
I was certain she'd be mortified, but she was quite proud! Particularly of the pink bandana the lovely ladies gave her. They said she was very well behaved, which didn't surprise me, she's just a big teddy bear. Claudia wasn't sure it was her, and sniffed her all over!
We picked up Rob from work, the dogs jumped all over him in the car park, quite the reunion. Then we headed home together, I'd made some pizza dough this morning so we're just about to enjoy tomato, pumpkin, olive and anchovy pizza. Happy weekend!
A frangipani flower from my walk in a park earlier this week.

Friday Flowers, a little late

Sorry last night I meant to post a photo of my Christmas lilies. But on the way to the garden I got distracted by our new hammock. Well it's not really new, a friend gave it to us a year ago, but Rob put the hooks up last night. So I jumped in and promptly fell asleep!
I have to say I think the Christmas lilies are my favourites. I must have 100, and I'm not exaggerating. Their creamy trumpets are a little more elegant than the garish colours of the asiatic and oriental lilies. Lightly fragranced, they are a delight.
We've decided to stay at the hut as much as we can this weekend, we didn't even head to the gym this morning. I did pop down the road quickly for some bread from Red Velvet Lounge and some vegetables. But I'm back in the hammock, and don't plan on moving very far! Hope you enjoy the last weekend of January.

Our Sunday:

I’d been planning this adventure for awhile. It was funny to go on a Sunday drive though; surely we’re not at that stage of our lives yet? Anyway, first stop was the Huon Grower and Makers market at Franklin, after their 3 month break. We picked up some free range eggs, it looked like it was a bit early for garden produce. Then we took a meandering drive via the Cygnet Coast road to the Coads Daffodil Farm. I’ve wanted to go since I saw it on Michelle’s blog last year. It was a bit blustery, so a bit tiresome for photos. Like children in a lolly shop we were a little overwhelmed at first but we narrowed it down to our top 8 favourites and ordered 10 of each for next March.

By this stage Nigella was getting a little grumpy in the back, so the next stop was just for her. I’d read about Drip Beach somewhere, and thought if we were ever in the area we should pay it a visit. Nigella loves beaches so was out of the car in a flash running along the sand, jumping over logs and splashing around in the shallow bay, her first swim for the season. It was a beautiful spot, and quaint to be on a beach and still look across to a paddock of cows!By now we were starting to feel a little peckish, so needed to collect some supplies before heading to the block. Almost as if I’d planned it we were in the vicinity of Red Velvet Lounge so dropped in for some jam doughnuts (we just had to try one of each sort, apricot and raspberry) and a loaf of Steve’s sourdough (worth the trip on its own).

I did have to smile at ourselves though, we waltzed in and the place was buzzing (which was great to see) but I realised that some of the customers were looking at us a little funnily. I looked at our attire a little more critically, in our defence we were at least clean, but I guess I was wearing blunnies and trackpants, and Rob, well, he had his block clothes on, T-shirt, his favourite old shorts (thanks goodness he’s not into stubbies!), well used blunnies and boot protectors. Sorry Steve, hope we didn’t lower the dress standards too much for RVL- but we were never intending to eat in yesterday!

So feeling quite smug that our hunting and gathering had been successful we headed to the block. There was one last final item I was hoping for, as we rushed by the Nicholls Rivulet Organic Farm I saw it- fresh Rhubarb. I am afraid that I literally squealed with excitement, “turn around!” A quick u-turn and we had 3 bunches of the reddest Rhubarb you can imagine.

Finally the block, to find the first step towards the hut; during the week the builder had set out the markings for the excavator to do the footings. A small step I know but exciting none the less. We set out our picnic of leftover egg and bacon pie (Rob made the day before), boiled the kettle (we have to use the power board in some way!) and followed the pie with a cup of tea and an apricot jam doughnut. Heaven.

At the end of the day we both felt quite content as we sat in front of the TV eating Rhubarb and Orange (our first harvest of oranges) crumble, sorry no picture, we couldn’t wait to eat it.

Into the light

Rob and I had a bit of a play with the camera on the weekend- the sunlight was coming through from another room.

My cute mini-daffodils have just started, and a recent find at the Antiques warehouse, my first proper tea cup.