Blossom

I was surprised to find the first blossom of the season the other day in the middle July. It's from our lonely surviving Almond tree of a group of nine we planted in winter 2008. Honestly I'm not normally such a bad tree murderer. But that was the summer I was very pregnant with Tess and carrying buckets of water up the hill in that condition in the heat really wasn't going to happen. Not to mention the fact that sheep were in the paddock before I realized that they thought the trees were very good scratching posts. I have learnt from that and if anymore fruit trees are to be planted in that paddock they need protection, when I dare try again, hehe.



In the last week or so it has been soup weather, really it's soup season so have a go they really are quite easy. For the above luscious tomato soup I used the recipe from Tiny Happy which she posted this week and served it with some yummy feta spread on a toasted roll. A very simple but a effective recipe which makes it easy to whip up quickly for an easy lunch.



And this soup I made on a whim just adding different seasoning as I went. I started with most of a pumpkin cut up into small pieces for faster cooking, chicken stock and onions, then I added cumin, thyme, and curry powder to taste (which sweetens it up quite nicely). When the pumpkin was soft I whizzed the soup to a smooth constancy with the stick whizz. And added some frozen spinach, and let this heat though and finally added some sour cream just before serving. You could use yogurt or cream instead, a friend suggested lemon juice which would also give it a lovely zing.

Autumn Gold

Well I was looking a few photos on my camera and I thought I would brighten a dreary day and post a few from autumn in the garden. The above is a shot of the nz native hibiscus (the proper name eludes me at the moment). It's quite a subtle pale yellow bloom which only last for a day and the plant is frost tender, but it seems to keep going in our garden every season as it self sows really nicely.


Above is a sweet little nasturtium which you will probably recognize the shape. But this once is a love red orange cultivar which I bought in a mixed punnet a few years ago. Like the hibiscus above it's managed to survive in my garden as it's also a great self seeder.


I just love her gorgeous semi golden curly locks, don't you.


And Tansy above is a great companion plant for stone fruit trees. I have it planted around an early heritage peach called 'Orion' which fruits in early December, which is a lovely start to summer.

And finally this gorgeous golden miniature sunflower is such good value for an annual as is keeps blooming for a long time. Helped along by the sweet Tessa and her deadheading (bringing mummy pretty flowers). Hope you have a lovely weekend filled with a little golden happiness.

At the beach

Wow we have had some scorcher days lately, getting up to 40 degrees. The best place to be is down at the beach. Everyone else around the country has been suffering too, what do you do to escape the heat?

Tessa just loved the beach checking out shells and bits of seaweed as we walked along down to the rocks. But the rock pools were even better, we found the smallest Hermit crabs and collected a few mussels. I wonder if Tess is a little unusual in that she love mussels at her age. Starting them young on different flavours and textures must be the way to go.


I can't believe this is my first post of the year, but then again it is summer holidays and everything grounds down to a halt here.


This week school went back, which wouldn't normally affect us. But this time I took Tess down to the local preschool for the first time and boy did she love it. From paint to playdough and the biggest sandpit out, she was in heaven. It made feel like I had been neglecting that stuff a little bit, but I guess she was ready to play with lots of kids her age more often. It's two mornings a week which suits a really well and only five minutes down the road. Normally we had to travel into town which is only 30mins, but does get a little too much more than a couple of days a week.

Summer Pants

I have been busy sewing some cute summer pants lately. With upcycled linen and cute cotton prints. The sweet smurf pants Tessa finally fit just in time for summer, I can't take credit for. I bought them from the lovely Hanna of CraftyKin from her felt shop a few months ago.

These cute Owl and Tree fern pants were made for one of Tessa's little friends at Kindermusik, they are in size 18months and were inspired by Anna Maria Horner's Quick Change Pants from her gorgeous new book Handmade Beginnings.

a spot of fishing

A couple weekends ago we had our first BBQ down at the Bach for the summer, it was lovely. A very hot day and I really savoured a beer it was really good.

Anyway while we were waiting for the others to get back from kayak fishing, hubby decided to do a bit of fishing of his own. Poor thing got a bit wet and didn't have much luck, he really needed some decent bait.

But Tessa and I enjoyed watching and really appreciated the seabreeze

Summer

We have had some lovely hot days this week it already feels like summer. To escape the heat Tessa and I spent the afternoon under our trio of big shady trees. A crabapple, flowering cherry and michalia.



Tessa really enjoyed playing with crunchy leaves, the texture as they crumpled feels wonderful, especially in the mouth (woops).

Some lovely cheeky smiles. She is wearing a sweet little op-shop top and a smart little cotton rainbow crochet sunhat.

What big teeth you have my darling and the third one cut through yesterday.

Love the detailing on this sweet top and such a light fabric perfect for toasty hot summer days.

Ruby Red

How can anyone resist the lucious fragrant ruby red rose 'Ingrid Bergman'. I was in the supermarket last week and it just begged to come home with me.


Not that I need anymore roses. But this rose has long stems and large scented blooms of the gorgeous dark ruby red colour that I was looking for, and its disease resistant too which is a an added bonus.

Now to figure where I can plant (squeeze) it in the garden.

More spring highlights

There is some gorgeous spring flowers in the garden at the moment. Here a few of my favourites.
The lovely soldier poppy or flanders poppy is another for it I think. It now self sows every autumn and flowers with brilliant red flowers in spring.

One of our favourite roses of which I am not sure of its name. We four plants in a raised bed next to the courtyard. They finally got pruned late this winter and are looking so much heathier this season.

And these lovely bulbs are in the same garden, I'm not sure what they are called. I think its Peruvian lily, if you have any ideas what it might be called please leave a comment.

spring garden highlights

Some lovely snaps from around our garden. Amazing colour coming out at the moment, even with just the nz native plantings.

This is my favourite flowering manuka, it is called Leptospernum 'Crimson Glory', grows 1 -2m tall and flowers for a long time in spring with gorgeous double red flowers.

Another favourite is the Renga Renga lily or Arthropodium cirratum 'Matapouri Bay'. It grows around 60cm tall and is excellent for dry shade.

Quite a rare plant in shops now a days is the variegated Karo, Pittosporum crassifolium 'Variegata'. It grows to around 2.5m a lot smaller that the standard Karo. It's lovely white varigation is perfect for lifting a shady corner and it grows reasonably slow so can be planted easily in a small garden.

This is an area of garden that was totally cleared out and replanted two summers ago. It had too many roses planted in poor clay soil that looked quite old, it was in need of a restoration. The plants have established well and look quite good. The white mass of flowers are Hebe 'Wiri Mist' 50cm which is one of the better lasting hebes it keeps it shape well and is less inclined to go leggy. Behind the hebes is Muelenbeckia astonii another of my favourites, it is a very hardy divaricating plant which handles dry summers very well ( I while post a close up soon). To improve the clay soil I spread Gypsum and blood and bone around to help break up the soil and improve drainage. The blood and bone attracts worms which are essential to soil health.

Spring Bonus

I love spring especially in the garden. There is many lovely things about spring the blossoms the new life all around. You can feel everything waking up and warming up.



This one of first irises of the season, very pretty. I love the spring bulbs they give a lot of colour and beauty without much effort.

Even more of bonus is our first home grown asparagus. This was lovely and fresh for dinner and worth the two year wait after planting the crowns. It will be exciting when my other aspargus (of which some are purple) that I grew from seed start producing next year. This the best my vege garden has to offer at the moment sadly I can't wait to get into it soon.

spring has risen

Yay we have risen from the depths of winter to the beautiful arrival of spring. All the amazing blossom has burst with promose of delicious fruit in summer. Everything is growing before our eyes I'm sure I can actually see the grass growing. This is nice and a relief as the farm has been getting quite short on grass. I am quite aware that time is running out for pruning the roses, hence I was even more upset when the steers kept breaking into the garden and demolishing (pruning so kindly, yeah right) everything in sight that they didn't prune my roses.

Many things are happening around here I am thinking of giving Tessa her first taste of solids soon which is exciting and sad at the same time she will be leaving the gorgeous milk baby stage and starting the cute big girl solids stage. She is getting quite close to rolling over, nearly there three quarters over but not knowing what to do with her arm.

On a sadder note our eldest cat poor mr kitty has broken his front right leg. We have no idea how this happened but he is now stuck inside for 8 weeks so he can't get his cast wet. Poor thing has to drag is cast around and you can hear coming from across the room. He stands next to the door and meows for us to let him out, it breaks my heart.

Must go miss tiny lovely is in need of my attention.