Knotty Knickers

Flower and Rain Art Combo

There is a patch of flowers by the raised bed I have my herbs in.  I'm not sure which of the previous tenants put these flowers there.  We had purple irises earlier in the season.  After they died away I thought nothing more would appear.  And then these orange beauties came out in full force. 

One day, after a rain obviously, while I was scampering back and forth collecting a proper selection and amount of fresh herbs for our dinner's seasoning I had enough sense to grab the camera and take a photo.  Shared here, at least a week later, wit you to enjoy.

Yellow really gets my groove going lately, what about you?

Belated Mabon Blessings

I looked out the bedroom window today and knew I needed to capture for you the yellow of the tree, the blue of the sky, and in some small way the magic of Mabon, the Autumn Equinox, just passed.  (Which was Ostara, the Spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere and my dear furry baby, Anthemis Nobilis' birthday!)

Below left is my healthy tansy plant, a cheery sight indeed.  And to the right, more golden tree, this time with a hint of the waxing moon - how I love to see mia madre la luna during the day!

Still, I wish there was a big ol' sugar pumpkin patch to go muck about in...

Summer Doings

Before we left for our holiday I pulled out the end of the lettuces.  I left the several spinach and rainbow chards in which I'd put in a couple weeks previous and were decent sized, crossed my fingers that they'd survive without attention, and off we went.

I came back to see very little progress with either the spinach or chard.  

I came back to find that I was basically just growing nasturtiums.  (And some healthy beets at the back right and nice parsley in the front left.)  Oddly, though the seed packet said it was a multi colour pack of nasturtiums, I had all red, save a single orange one.  Weird, right?  

In order to get the packets of seeds I was given at the holidays (I don't like Christmas, as such, but I do quite love presents!) into the earth I had to clear out the flowers.  

Behold, the culled patch:

With all that actual earth showing through, I watered it all and liberally put in seeds the next day.  More beets at back (from my microgreen pack) and a mix of lettuces and radishes through the rest.  Fingers crossed they didn't get washed away in our torrential rain a couple days ago.  

Less finger crossing for them to get the essential solar ingredient and grow and more just realizing the reality that it is summer here and sunny most of the time so likely to happen.  

It's so sunny here that I made a happy little Knitsch sock yarn sun to commemorate the season.  Colour is Kowhai.  Isn't it sweet?

Lettuce Lover

For the first time in my life I have a proper, if wee, little garden plot of my own.  As you can see, the bulk of my space has been given over to supporting my salad habit.  

Below left is some chervil, which I settled for when I found no tarragon to purchase.  I had two plants and believe that this one in the plot has done better than the potted one so I intend to move the other soon.  None of my herbs have taken off very well but as I'm a new gardener I am taking the disappointment in stride.  You can see we've used a bit of this plant already, and it was quite good.  I'm very loose when it comes to choosing herbs to cook with, but I believe that this one went into a garlic butter (garlic bread is a joint love for me and Big Spoon) and also onto a chicken dish, though I can't remember at all what it was, just that I sprinkled it on top and it was nice and subtle.

Below right is a small success for the women of my family: nasturtiums!  These have been the nemesis of my mother as long as I can recall, so I am growing them in her honour which makes their appearance from seed all the more victorious.

Say Hello to Spring

When I arrived home there were small vases of freesia all about the house.  I admired them all day and only just found out while chatting about doing a little garden of my own that they are from the back yard!  Just lovely...

As a child I used to pick the camellia blossoms from the bushes in front of my Granma's apartment and attempt to make perfume by mashing the petals with a rock on the cement steps.  It's funny that I've grown up to find mortar and pestle preparation of anything to be more pain than they are worth; I think it goes back to my ineffectual fragrance career back then, as that's essentially what I was doing.  I just didn't realize that not all flowers make perfume (I believed it was inside these pink flowers and that's why the blossoms didn't give off any scent, somewhat similar to my beliefs about rain and blue skies and pegasus...) and that I was mutilating a relative of tea.  Ah well, I'm wiser now, and have an Aromatherapy diploma under my belt.  Who knows, maybe if I get my herb garden going really well I'll try a small distiller someday and make my own essential oils!?

One of the things I love about New Zealand is the citrus fruit.  I was stunned on a trip to Santa Barbara at the daily luck of the woman we stayed with: she made freshly squeezed orange juice from the few trees in her backyard.  Though I've never wanted to move anywhere in the US that would allow for citrus trees, I did think about a small green house or something.  Now I've got the best of things by living in a country I love, in an area I adore, and having a short, fat, heavily fruited lemon tree in the front yard.  Interestingly, while Meyer lemons are hard and expensive to come by in the States, here they are very common and either mutant large or some hybrid that has the soft rind of a Meyer with the thick, sweet pulp of a normal lemon and a juice that strikes the perfect balance between pleasingly sour and deathly acidic.

Autumn Art

Herb Nerd

Big Spoon and I went to the Saturday Market yesterday.  Had several things to do there but as we got into town later than expected and went straight away to brekkie...so we didn't do all that was on our list.  Did swing past the herb lady and managed to purchase just seven plants.  Greek and Hot 'n' Spicy oregano, marjoram, Thai basil, cilantro (don't even think of calling it coriander in my presence), lemon thyme (!!!!!), and mint.

Will pick up another basil next week, a Red Opal - cause how can I pass up a plant with that name? - and some chives.  I love chives.  When we lived in Georgetown (neighbourhood in Seattle, not the East Coast) I used to go sit in the glass house my dad made for herbs and nosh on handfuls of chives and parsley.  

Also going to be getting some rosemary and lemon balm from Sophie.  Maybe I will ask her for some chamomile too...it'd be nice to have some of that at hand to soothe my head and heart when needed.

Today we ran into Bunnings and I got potting soil especially for herbs.  Sat out under the very hot sun and transferred my wee herbal babes into colourful new pots.  Big Spoon is interested in fine tuning his use of herbs in cooking and most intrigued by fresh ones, so we'll have some fun culinary experiences coming up for sure.  I'm most excited to have some bits of green to love and attend to.  I quite liked helping Mummy a bit when I was staying with her and working with the dirt has made me think back onto my flower plot with a happy heart.  Having an herb garden is on my Live It Out List after all.

 


And yes, I totally put the latin names on the pots!  I may yet put their plant family on it too...    
   

Courgettes & Cats

This in one of my loaner flat cats. The other one is quite a cranky lady - very amusing and intriguing. She brings out my 6 year old self - though I've managed better than I used to and am without battle scars so far. I'll try to get her photo sometime soon. Pretty much this is the good one and I'm actually going to ask Sam and Sophie if she's been renamed that. And no, my kitten mittens are apparently not moping about missing me. Mr. Moo is sleeping on the hot air vents (self medication for his runny nose perhaps?) and Thai is doing whatever it is that he does - 6 years on in our relationship and I still haven't sorted what that is actually. But, lest they think that other cats posted on the blog should mean they've been booted from my heart, take this as fact: I'm sleeping with my Buck neck pillow in my arms because it's the closest thing to Mr. Moo in heft I've got with me. When it's not in my arms I place it near my body on the bed and it simulates Thai's heavy white bod. Note too that my mind is preoccupied with trying to figure out how I might best knit a cat to stuff with woolly fleece and snooze with. Yes. I miss my cats.

Oh - and the courgette blossom? Apparently sprang to overnight after my spoken disappointment with the others being dead by the time I thought to go round with the camera. Sophie alerted me to it this morning before I headed out to the Buddhist Centre. (I'll tell you all about that next week after my retreat there.) Lovely flower isn't it? 100% New Zealand made!

Healing Bloom

From Sophie's garden. I was sadly too late on the squash (courgette) blossom photo shoot.

Season Ends

That is a photo of the last, perfect raspberry on our bushes. Gorgeous to look at. I took the photo to delay the eating of the little heavenly gift. It was truly a supreme berry. I'm sad to see the season end.

However, tomato season is beginning here and I will be quickly pleased by that harvest.