summer days

A new sewing pattern mag-in english, what a treat! Very inspiring and easy!

my tomato jungle is producing: this was my harvest after two days camping! Today I have the dehydrator going to make semi dried tomatoes in oil. anyone have any recipes?

camping in Ruby Bay, only ten minutes away. While there we heard tales of shark attacks (stingray), and our baby, 9 months took his first hundred or so steps in groups of about five at a time... girls handled bushwalk very well, and we had an amazing time looking and discovering in the rock pools at low tide.

things I'm learning

A long weekend in the garden and other gardens, drinking coffee, sewing etc. Lovely! Things going well in the garden at the moment: Strawberries still producing; looks like birds have finally cottoned on! Scarlet and blue runner beans having another burst. Tomatoes ripening, more every day, but must remember to space them better next time. Same for corn, although we have had four feeds of corn so far. Even baby loves them! Brocoli starting to form heads. thornless blackberries ripening. Yellow zucchini marrows popping up when I'm not watching and picking.
Flop crops: Cucumbers- need more space and lots of sun. don't plant too early, then don't really get going at all. same with borlotti beans and cannelini beans.
Must sow some winter plants and keep on top of salad greens. have none at moment and buying lettuce!
Garden has really appreciated comfrey liquid feeds.

in other news: love sewing things for family; pyjama pants, blouses, pants for new kindy year etc. Back to tiki tees next week!

Favourite spots

A few of my favourite spots today....

Blowsy Sunflowers

A rogue runaway self-seeded pumpkin climbing the already overgrown fence.

Roses blooming again after a liquid feed with comfrey, against a wall, where i'm dreaming about a whole new garden. Flowers maybe (although I'm sure that I will cram in some sort of food producing plant or ten, because I'm always running out of room!)

A Tiki close up. They are all different!

Whanau group of tikis before they are sent in various directions.

My shelf with some special things. I had to reorganise the sewing cum playroom before I could settle down to serious sewing. I wish I had more shelves but one was hard enough for struan to hang, not because of his DIY skills but the hardboard the wall is made with.

Some calendula oil. My good friend Gillybean had a tutorial a few years ago, on how to make ointments from herbs and flowers, and after reading about how to calm and soothe sandfly bites I decided I should really make some calendula ointment from the abundant flowers in my garden. Gilly's method involved putting the oils in a dark place for 4 to 6 weeks, but mine seem to work better on a sunny shelf. I've read that the oil harnesses some of the sun's energy that way?

Lord of the flies.

I hate flies! Summer arrives and is all 'I am really hot and what are you going to do about it?' Which is cool, but the flies.
My hatred for flies has lifted slightly due to recent events.
Popcorn was made for afternoon tea the other day, and I had to show the kids my tricks. One such trick involves the said popcorn tumbling through the air, and landing gracefully in said mouth.
Kids were IMPRESSED! So being the show pony, I kept going until realising that a smart little fly was chasing my delicious morsel, everytime I chucked it up. Now my trick had increased in its coolness tenfold!
Ideas of setting up a fly circus and travelling the world soon went up in a puff of smoke when the fly was hit tragically by a falling piece of popcorn.
Oh, what could have been.
Struan aka Lord of the Flies

thursday, sewing day....

My stock at Delume in Nelson has been sellling! Its so exciting, but it means I have to motivate myself to sew again. And of course instead of knuckling down I had to make Tobin some new jeans(cut down from a pair of mine), in a size he can hopefully wear all winter. Then I made three tiki tees, but the overlocker ran away on me so Maaike got ea new tshirt!

I decided to stimulate creative juices by making Anoushka a dress, using an old sheet from the opshop, and making up my own pattern, inspired by some pics in the aussie mag "MY CHILD". I need to do a pattern making course!!!! It ended up fitting me as a top... so next time I could cut out some width in the middle I think.....

So not a very succesful sewing for the shop day unfortunately, only two tees ready to go. I did plant two feijoa trees, a rosemary plant and a grape in my "orchard". The local garden centre is closing down, and the plants look so sad.... I call the side and front of our small section my orchard as I have and am working on underplanting our baby fruit trees with herbs, comfrey, garlic and other beneficial and beautiful plants to repel pests and condition the earth. so far so good, although perhaps a tad shambolic for others who do not see the wilderness I am trying to create for what it is: Healthy food for family and goodness for earth.

lake rotoiti or ode to sandflies

We've been on a small family holiday at the beautiful Nelson Lakes- Lake Rotoiti. We stayed at the DOC Campsite in West Bay. We had a lovely time although it was marred by the beasties- the sandflies. Now we knew that they existed, the supermarket checkout lady asked if we were prepared the day before we went... we had no idea just how bad they would be! We actually left camp two days early because of them. Poor Tobin, my youngest babe, 9 months old now, was completely helpless, and covered and miserable. In the end we decided to leave because he didn't ask to be tortured. Here is a poem I wrote while mulling over what to do...

THE SANDFLIES
They are everywhere
sucking my blood,
my baby's blood
vicious, marauding creatures
ruining this beautiful outlook
this carefree way of being.

How long do we inflict this
form of torture
onto our innocents;
bravely enduring
barely complaining?

I do not rest easily-
sitting by my sleeping babe's head
squashing invaders
protecting his sleeping pace.
But soon I too must sleep
and then who will watch over us?
While sandflies feast.

So, locals, or people who visit there ofte, how do you cope? We would love to know, I feeel like we didn't see half of what we could have. We spent most of the time inside the tent! Which was great. We bought it recently, it was a pretty big outlay for us and we had it on layby for ages. We used some money from my grandmother and the money i made selling my wares at the local market to buy it. (wares now available at Delume in Nelson, Nile st west. )


We had a lot of good times too. My book list : Dumbing us down, by John Taylor Gatto; The unschooling Handbook, by Mary Griffith; Koanga Garden Guide, By Kay Baxter; Instead of EDucation, by John HOlt; Animal, Vegetable, Mineral,By Barbara Kingsolver. I didn't get through them all, but we had some interesting discussions; Anouhka's 5th birthday is in October and I guess we need to make some decisions about SCHOOL . Struan (hubby) and I are both state teacher trained, he in primary, me in Early childhood, and although my philosphies sit quite nicely with Te Whariki ( early childhood curriculum), its not so for primary. At the moment our options are, one of local state schools, Steiner school, or home.

We also walked a bit, around the lake, the girls astounding us with their ability to walk (after getting through the complaing carzies while they got the hang of it!)we had a lot of up close and personal encounters with birdlife, birds we had never seen, before. At one point staning on the track and being serenaded by three birds on either side of the track, feathers puffed, and singing; they flew away when i very quietly got my camera out...! Anoushka learnt lots of the symbols on DOC signs and would run ahead to find them and tell us what they meant, Maaike's versions were creative..... Tobin loved the back pack and would gurgle happily, including mamamama (finally its not just papapa!) before falling asleep. So where to next for camping? And does anyone ahve a bch we could rent at ROtoiti, we would love some added protection for next time!

sunday morning...

A sunny sunday morning... planted red bunching onions, watered garden, husband painting house, children found each special puzzle they've ever been given and made them up, baby slept for nearly two hours. Now off to the local market for basil and coriander, tomatoes and other summer lunch supplies. Oldest child, Anoushka, 4 and a quarter, holding our second mini harvest of our ripe tomatoes, yellow! Still waiting for others in the cocktail mix of seeds to ripen.