Spiders.

I was on my knees vacuuming the mat yesterday morning, humming away and minding my own business...go to put my hand down so I can move over and do another patch and...

It was more scarey in real life, but that could be because it was big and I thought it was a Huntsman.   I don't like Huntsmans.  I was going to suck it up with the vacuum cleaner but thought that wasn't very nice so
I called Hubby in to do the man thing.  He got it into a container and had a look, said it wasn't a Huntsman. So what is it?.  Maybe a Wolf spider?  It was quite big, easily 2 inches all up.  It has been taken out he back and released.

Passionfruit Spread.

Hubby came in with another bag of of Passionfruit so I had 2 big bowls sitting on the counter.  What to do what to do...
I was having a visitor for morning tea so decided to serve pikelets and passionfruit spread.
Hmmm, how do you make passionfruit spread?  Dunno but probably like lemon spread...
So I checked out how I made that and had a thought and came up with this.
Morning tea was postponed but 2 came for lunch and this was still served and proclaimed a keeper.

It only took a couple of minutes in the microwave.  The most time was spent scooping out the pulp.

Passionfruit Spread.
125ml Passionfruit pulp.
1/2cup sugar.
2Dsp cornflour.
1cup water.
Mix together in glass bowl.  Nuke for a bit maybe 1and1/2 min, stir, nuke again 1min, stir.  Again maybe...Watch it as it boils up, you don't want it going over the top.  A few minutes all up is all it needs.  Be careful when you taste it as it is hot!  Could be done on stovetop.

This didn't make too much, a couple of small jars and a small dish but is easy and quick enough for me to make as needed.

April, 2011.

April has come and gone so I thought I'd do a bit of a writeup about how the gardens were.
What was growing, what we ate, what I planted...

I was thinking that the gardens are empty and that last year they were looking so much better but on going back and reading I think the main difference is Eggplants.  I haven't any in this year but they did fill a few spots last year that are now empty.  And this time last year we still had melons and corn growing.

Growing out there now, ready to pick and eat, I have chillies, capsicum, silverbeet,  pumpkin, beetroot, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, chokos.  A bit of celery.  I could get a couple of meals from the spinach if I needed to.
I still have garlic and onions from last season out in the shed and pumpkins from this year.
Peas, carrots and corn in the freezer.

We are picking and eating passionfruit and green (Granny Smith?) apples, a few strawberries...Have apricots and bananas in the freezer.  I have had a couple of Indian guavas and some strawberry guavas as well but the chooks get most of those.
Had a couple of fresh tiny bananas a few days ago.
Ate our Pineapple.

We are also eating eggs, chicken (rooster), pork, fish...all supplied by us.   Could eat marron if we wanted to but haven't this month.
Oh, the son brought out a box of cooked prawns just before Easter so there are quite a few meals of them in the freezer even if we didn't grow them ourselves.

We are not going hungry and looks like we are going to do OK for May as well.

This month I have planted or shifted a few things but need to do more over the next few weeks.

I bought Beetroot seeds and planted them.  I soak the seeds for a bit in warm water then roll them in small bits of paper.  Before I started doing this I was always *losing* the seeds in the dirt.  This way I know where they are and once they are in place I can just poke them in the ground.

I bought punnets of Cauliflower and Broccoli and have put some out in the big tank garden and some in the smaller tank gardens.  I have seen White Cabbage Butterfly around the place though so I covered one lot with a net to try and protect them.  I will make some more little moth shapes to hang above them and put eggshells around as well but these things come by the dozen and it is a neverending battle between me and them..  I will get the baddy racquet's out and put them somewhere handy as well.

I have planted peas, a Dwarf Sugarsnap, seeds, that are starting to come up. 
A punnet of Capsicum are in.
Seeds of normal peas are in.
The English Spinach is growing and I have already had a few leaves from them.
A patch of Garlic has come up in one of the drums so that has been thinned out and I now have it it 2 of the drums along the driveway.  This must be from a clove missed last year. 
Still have a heap of cloves to plant.
I have transplanted a seedling fruit tree from the front garden.  This was quite big about 2 and 1/2 foot high so I don't know if it will make it.  It is a Peach.  Or Apricot.  Something anyway.
Two Capsicum plants need to be removed from where the fence was and a new spot found for them.Four new Pineapple tops were planted.
Half a dozen rooted Pepino plants have been put in the back garden.

Still lots to do but that's the thing with backyards and gardens isn't it.  There is always something that needs doing, be it planting, picking, mowing, mulching, watering, eating...

I'm not home, I'm here.

I am babysitting last night/this morning...
So had a sleepover in a big flash house, overlooking the river....Very nice.  Even had tea cooked for me.

But I am still inside on the computer instead of out there enjoying the view and serenity.
I will have breakfast out there though, that will be nice.

No idea when the people will be back but that doesn't matter.  My chooks are big enough to wait for their breakfast and the dog will sleep until I get home.

I am using their computer and the keyboard is much smaller than mine so I keep making mistakes.  But being on here up here I will have no reason to get on when I get home so will be able to get straight into things outside.  Yes indeedy, that is what will happen...

It's nearly half past 7 and I'm surprised the boys aren't up yet.  I thought they were early risers...My mistake.  Will give them another half an hour.  One is being picked up this morning but as I have no idea what time I need to get him fed and ready, in case it's earlier than later.

Well best be off, will go out and play with the dogs for a bit.

Passionfruit .

It's that time of the year when the area outside the backdoor is covered in fallen Passionfruit.
We have a wonderful vine out there, the best producer of  the 5 vines we have.  Though the fruit are smaller than the vine over the pigpen we get more of them.

I think the flowers are so pretty.

Grandaughter was out here a couple of days ago and she helped pick up a couple of bags worth.   They are nice fresh but there is only so many we can eat plain.  The son sometimes has a few but never enough.  I do freeze them and give some away but still have heaps.

I am going to make up some cordial but we don't drink a lot of cordial here.
I'm a water drinker and Hubby drinks Coke.  

I have been experimenting with making a pudding out of them.  I am onto my third try and it is good.  Hubby thinks it could be a bit sweeter but he's a Coke drinker so what would he know.      
He could be right though, I usually add way less sugar than recipes call for and think the stuff still tastes OK.

I have modified my chocolate pudding recipe which was modified from a Yogo recipe from the SimpleSavings site.

This time I used 200ml of Passionfruit pulp, 2Tbs cornfour, 3Tbs sugar, just under 1/2cup skim milk powder, and 300ml.of water   
Heat in micowave, stir, heat etc until it starts to thicken.. 
It gets a bit thicker as it cools.  Cool then gobble.
Use more or less pulp depending on the intensity of flavour you like.  I like it strong.  As in everything I cook/make it is all experimenting, no set recipes.




I serve mine in a cup, that holds 3/4 cup but if you had big Passionfruit you could use the shell of them.





 I liked it.  DD said it tasted too much like Passionfuit but kept eating it out of the bowl.  Grandaughter wanted more then more again.

April Flowers.

The chooks dug up all the Nasturtiums a few weeks ago when they all kept escaping (the chooks kept escaping, not the Nasturtiums.Silly!)  and though there are some more coming up the colour from the Nast flowers is sorely missed.  I was wandering around out there and whinging thinking that I had no flowers but Hubby said I had heaps, I just wasn't looking right.

Hmmmm, we'll see.

Yesterday I took the camera out and had another look.  Not a lot but I found some.

I have a few Marigolds out in the big tank garden.  Most of the flowers are dying off now though they still make a nice display.  But when they are finished there is nothing to replace them.  I do have heaps of seeds so will sprinkle some around the place and see what happens.

 

I like these Daisy things and have a half dozen or so around the place.  I should get more growing as they are pretty easy.

You can sometimes see the Peanut flowers but I don't count them as they are only around for a little while then they go underground.


 

The Passionfruit flowers *might* be counted as I do like them 

and they are around long enough to appreciate.

What else is there...Not a lot.  There is a purple daisy type thing that I keep pulling up and it keeps coming back but that is being pulled up again this week so though it's pretty I don't want it in the yard.  I have planted some out the front and will put these ones out there to.  If they survive they'll get to stay out there.

This is the one and only flower left on this plant and it's half dead so it definitely doesn't count.  I call it a Geranium but it could be a Pelargonian.  Doesn't matter much, I like them when it is in full bloom so will take cuttings and  get more growing.  I have 2 of these at the moment but I chopped the bigger one , that had heaps of flowers!!, down a couple of weeks ago.

I think I am missing the colour from the Bougainvilleas.  They could be seen from any area of the yard and I really liked them.  Now they are gone everything looks dull. 

Hubby is not keen on growing anything that he can't eat but as I am the planter and plant lookerafterer I will get some more colour out there.  

We need to feed our body but I need to feed my soul as well.

ByeBye Bougainvillea

I have/had 2 Bougainvillea, planted as cuttings a few years ago but expected to die.  

They didn't, they grew and flowered and were beautiful

 

I really liked them but Hubby...not so much.  Mainly because of the spines on them I think.  And that in itself might not have been a problem if I didn't leave bits on the ground where he could tread on them.  But anyway, I loved them, he didn't, they were kinda getting out of hand and were too close to the door of the chookhouse.   And they had broken the fence that they were up against and the chooks were getting out and digging up my gardens.
So, great idea, cut them back and fix the fence, maybe in a few weeks when it is cooler I could dig them up and shift them to the front fence, out of the way.

You can see where they have broken the fence.

So last Monday I started.  What a bleedin' job.  I cut and pruned and ditched half of these plants and was working on getting the fence tied back together.   I was  ready to finish the job on Friday and Hubby offered to help.  Good, at least the job would get finished.

But, Change Of Plan!    We decided to get rid of the fence altogether, dig up all the ratty plants I had out there and open up the area in front of the house...which means that if I wanted to keep these 2 plants then now was the time to dig them up and transplant them.   I have done 1 and the other will be done tomorrow.

They may survive, I hope they do.  They added some much needed colour to the place.

I Bought Potatoes. And Carrots...

How sad...But because I don't eat many Potatoes I haven't really been too fussed about getting any this year and though I can usually find some if I go out and have a dig around I caved and bought  a bag for Hubby.
I wasn't going to, I didn't want to...but he likes spuds and had been asking about some so I did.
Aren't I a nice little wifey.
The carrots were bought because I had none and they were there, close to the spuds...

They are the only vegetable bought this year so still not doing too bad. There is always something out in the gardens to eat but sometimes you want something that is easy to find and you can't get much easier than a bag of bought stuff in the cupboard or fridge.

The gardens are nowhere near as productive as last year, I think I am not as focused on them this year but a look around the shops the other day has made me have a good think and if I don't want to go back to relying on shop stuff then I really need to put in the effort to get my backyard back the way it was when I had challenged myself to not buy anything.

I think once the challenge was over and I knew that I could grow everything we ate then I kinda lost the spirit of things.  I am starting to get that back though and that is a good thing.

I could happily live without Potatoes and they are cheap enough to buy but I will still try and get back to what I had growing last year.  The trouble has been that I have dug them up but not replaced them with a new lot to grow.  Time to work on that.  I have the space, I need to get it filled.

And the carrots?  I have not been able to grow enough and the ones I did were not the best, buying some was the easy way out.  I will keep trying to grow them but won't cry too much if I have to buy another bag. 

More On Pineapples.

Well we have finished eating our one and only Pineapple and it was good.  Not too sweet and though it smelled really pineappleally it wasn't too strong a flavour.  I'm not sure what *picked fresh from the plant* Pineapple are supposed to taste like but we really enjoyed ours.  In a few years time we might get some more.  We now have 7 tops or pups in the ground so here's hoping anyway.

But wait, there's more...
I month or so ago I asked the son if he could get me some Pineapple tops from his work.  He says no as they buy them in without the tops on them. ???  Why would anyone buy a Pineapple without the top?  OK, I know not everyone plants the tops and getting them without would take up less room and not be as prickly.  But still.

However not long after I asked he did say that he had saved a few whole pineapple from the rubbish for me and they had the tops on them still. 
Cool, so where are they Boy?

It has been ages since he said he had them and though I keep asking he kept forgetting to bring them out for me and I never thought to go into his place and get them myself.  Sad, I know.

But after some loving nagging from his mummy he brought them out.  Four of them,  in a box, full of ants and the fruit was maggoty.  But the tops are OK and I have it on my list to get them planted this week. 
That will give us 11 Pineapple plants. 

I think that's pretty cool.

Snakes.

Summer is finished for another year but we are still getting some nice days. 
Today was cooler though. 
And Hubby has found a young Dugite in his shed.  About 14in long. 
I have a lot of *stuff* in there that I intend going through next week so I hope there are no more but it's a timely reminder that we need to be aware of these things all the time not just Summertime.