Garden of St.Erth

Today I took some time off work, after many phone calls to clients to let them know I wasn't working and took my youngest two children to the Garden of St.Erth.

My eldest would not come with me, I realised I have now partially lost him to these sort of family events, so it was a bittersweet day really.

This is homestead that is part of the Diggers gardens, it has the most magnificent garden surroundings and I am blessed to know one of the horticulturalists that work there.

Grrr, sorry about the blurred photos must be part of the case on the iPad is over the lense!  

Occasionally you can find a Hellebore that isn't facing downwards.

Or two if you are really lucky.

The boys

I love the drystone walls around the place.

And the beautiful sculptures.

Lovely pond.

I wasn't actually waving, there was a branch in my face.

They grow veggies here too.

Wish I had some of these covers.

An old piece of equipment that I will find the name of.

Best gate ever!

Finished at the cafe....of course!  Look it up if you've not been, it's on Blackwood and part of the diggers club gardens but you don't have to be a member, only $10 to get in and kids free, I cannot wait to return in Spring as I saw many bulbs shooting up.

On the way home we stopped for a lovely bushwalk, I noticed many alarming similarities in my youngest child to my middle one.  I realised I have noticed this before, other family members have told me and I have stuck my head in the sand.  I've been sidetracked with work and my own priorities, I need to fight now and get his assessed and helped or at least start giving this child more of my time.  I won't be posting so much anymore, I need to step back now and try and do something right.

Democracy

Today we visited M.A.D.E I believe that stands for museum of Australia democracy at Eureka according my 9 year old visited this place this year and has been keen to show me since he went, and as we live about 800 metres from the place we thought on this rainy day perfect time to visit!

We saw the southern cross flag, very exciting - it's very old! 

For those that do not know the story google - Eureka rebellion Ballarat.  It's about the miners rights, the crooked Government rules, the death of men who stood up for their rights and probably the very beginnings on the union movements.

There was a bit about the suffragette woman - fairly sure I had female relatives in that in England.

There was fun stuff to do for the kids, we all got involved and made fortune cups.

Master 12 mused on what to call his.

While he loom band addict had no problems.

So far the fortune cup has been really accurate!

This week at my place

This week after deciding to lose weight and get fit just after Easter I jumped on the scales and did my measurements to be surprised with a 3.6 kg loss I think I took the measurements about 6 weeks back.  I've also lost 19 cm from chest/waist/hips with a good 9 cm from waist so very happy with that!  I cut back portion sizes, tried to get on my road bike to do 30-50 km a week just doing chores so bit of shopping, picking up medications, posting letters that sort of thing and the odd ride with my middle son.  I did not give up any of my daily chocolate addiction.

I also took up another days swimming so now swim 150-160 laps a week at the indoor pool, sometimes I have to go super early and walk the dog before light to fit it all in but worth it to feel fitter.

I think next I will try a Yoga challenge as there is a special deal at my local studio 2 weeks unlimited yoga for set price and I think I will try and do 5 classes a week, it won't be easy as my work is very busy too right now, to the point I've just worked 6 days straight.  I am not full time but 3 hours of remedial massage work in a really hot room so the clients comfy really does make you sweat and it's like a workout so possibly that's contributed too weight loss to I think it's certainly makes me tired at the end of the day anyway! I space my clients through out the day so it's not back to back either which helps me manage energy wise. Plus some days there is no time to eat lunch or snacks anymore.

I did manage to make this though from our school cook book

Delicious chicken curry.

I whipped this up between clients for one of my sons school class - he wasn't getting a party this year so I thought he should get sung too by group and so a cake was required. He doesn't love me coming into class, I can be embarrassing but he coped with that for the cake.

Last week when I went in to help with school gardening group one of the other helping mums gave me these which was a lovely suprise.   They were so well arranged and really beautiful design.  I was touched!

Today I brought this, a bit of a finishing touch to my dry garden bed area, a fire pit, which might turn into a pond in Summer.  I hope it doesn't rust as I am sure my male dogs have already peed on it!!

Around the Winter Garden

I have finally had a good long weekend out in the garden, with good weather and just about finished planting the veggie beds.  There is a still much colour to be had around my garden to the point people walking past stop and talk about the flowers, see my massage sign and end up texting me for an appointment! Win/win really! :)

This is the latest bed to be planted, I upcycled and old fence with wire we had lying around which will be used for the Snow peas just planted, I've put Coriander at the front and Bok Choy and Beetroot to either side.  This bed will eventually be used in Summer for my Strawberries.

This bed has Silverbeet self seeded from last year, and eldest child's Lettuce, he has done well as I've never had luck growing Lettuce from seed, we have Spinach seed sown at the end and some Mizuna - an Oriental salad veggie.

The third bed has some seedling brought Lettuce in the middle and Red Onions either side, I usually do well growing onions each year.

The final fourth bed has Rocket growing either end, Red Onions in the middle and a space for the Pak Choy I have in the green house that I am growing from seed.

My little Pak Choy seedlings are doing well, still away from being ready for the bed, but grown on seed tape and germinated well.

My seed grown Pansies came up well and I have been able to transplant to 4 long pots at the front of my clinic for some Winter colour.

Eldest child's bed is doing well and full of colour.

This is the other bed he made planted out with the bulbs all starting to pop up!

These bulbs are such a mix and planted out the front in an area where I didn't actually think they would thrive so well, even the Ranancula's look really healthy so far, can't wait for the colour!

My seed grown Calendula's are doing nicely and I have planted all along the front fence for some orange colour at the end of Winter.

This is my tree Dahlia give to me by my friend at Annies flower-garden blog, I wish I could link her blog, but I am not that clever, if you google that and Ballarat it will come up, lovely flower shots over there and very crafty too!  This literally stops people in the street and my kids have heard people talking about it!

Look at this happy Tree Dahlia flower!

Beautiful - Just Joey Rose.

I feel this Fucshia has gotten confused with the few days of sunshine we had!

Gorgeous Plectranthus on my back verandah.

Fruit tree order for Ballarat area

Just a really quick post, each year I purchase a few fruit trees from the Caledonian Primary School fundraising fruit tree drive and I have to say they are the best little trees, value for money and excellent producers of fruit.  Anyone around the area take a drive past the Black Hill Primary School and check out the Orchard next to the oval and you will find the trees there only 2 years old and massive for their age!

I brought a Peach tree only last year from the school drive and it gave me 20 massive yellow Peaches with the best flavour and taste ever!  So here is the link for those local to Ballarat - go into the document and you can print of your order and take into the school for some lovely trees delivered in July.

http://www.caledonianps.vic.edu.au/tree-orders.html

This is not my children's school however they have an excellent garden and fruit tree set up and I think they have done a wonderful job and deserve a plug as I always buy a few trees each year I hope they always have this promotion as its EXCELLENT value for money.

Oh as a final note orders must be received by June 13, so just one week to order folks but well worth it!

Home made laundry detergent

This week I ventured into the art of making home made laundry detergent I felt I needed to find to save in the home and that this would be a good start.  I have calculated it will be about a $300 saving per year for my home made detergent compared to the shop brought stuff and this is the process.

The recipe calls for;

1 cup of soap - I just grated 1 bar

1/2 cup of borax - I did not add this it's no good for grey water systems and reusing on the garden.

1/2 cup of washing soda 

Both the soap and the washing soda were easily located in the laudry isle at Coles.  I found the soap grated easily I thought it may have been tricky but it grates well.

I started on the large grate bit but changed to the smaller one as it will dissolve easier.

Basically the soap is added to 1.5 litres of water and you keep stiring until soap is dissolved, then add the washing soda.  Stir until thickened then pop in a bucket and fill with warm water to combine all ingredients.  I did add about 15 drops of Lemon Eucalyptus essential oil as I wanted a very subtle scent.

The end result was around 7 litres of washing detergent.  Total cost for making this $2 and 15 minutes of time.  Bliss!!  I keep a coffee cup in the laundry and use a medium cupful of the detergent per load, you must shake the bottle first but it's washing the clothes really well.   There are no suds, but we always used the Earths Choice detergent and there are no suds in that either which. Is certainly preferable when your using it on your garden.  I do about 17-19 large loads per week - 3 sons and a massage business generating tons of towels! 

Dry garden bed project

Over the past few weeks I have been slowly building a new garden bed area in an area that used to have a massive gum tree over it - we had to cut that down a few weeks back and all the mulch from the tree is now the base of the garden.  You can see in some pictures all the branches and truck has become future firewood.  This area has to be moveable as it's our only access to the paddock so a car needs to be able to get past.

This is a shot from my bedroom window, it doesn't look like much but in the past the entire area never seemed able to grow grass so it was all weeds and everything remained dead over Summer so I am super happy with the end result.

My youngests old bike, just about everything had broken on this bike and it was unfixable so I spraypainted it. Lucky he has a birthday coming up as he no longer has a bike!

I also spraypainted the tree which sounds odd, but sadly it died last year so I spruced that up too, and added 200 fairy lights and it looks fantastic at night now too! Why waste a perfectly good sculpture!

I chose this plant to match the colour of the spraypainted dead tree.

There is one live tree that has been planted and it was transplanted, I did not supervise the digging of it up and left that to hubby.  It came over with no soil and little roots!! Poor Maple could end up spraypainted too. I pruned back and shall hope for the best.

Some water for the birds, although my dog keeps drinking it all!

Another fence ornament ripe for a spray paint.

This is a before of a bit of a sad birdbath...

Given new life with some pebbles and a lovely plant I received for Mother's Day.

This was my helper and supervisor for the weekend, he actually is very good at carrying small tools around.

This was my other helper, busy catching all the mice we seem to have right now!

Hope you all got some quality time in the garden!