Moving on.

I wish all my fellow bloggers and blog followers a very happy and productive new year and year ahead 😄.
I had a most horrendous end to 2014 with a horrible excuse for a human swerving to run over and then taking my poor little cat Molly on the night before New Year’s Eve! Jason and I cried for days afterwards. We know they swerved to hit her as we found a pool of blood and her fur on the end of our driveway but no sign of Molly’s body anywhere and believe me, we searched high and low, in bins, under bushes, in sheds. She snuck out of the house when we bought our birds inside and never is allowed out at night or during the day except if we are home. As soon as we realised that she wasn’t inside we raced out calling for her. Our other cat Bubbles came inside then and was mewing at us really loudly as if she was trying to tell us something. Molly never came when she was called which was highly unusual for her. We searched with torches up and down the three house street we live on but found nothing. I got up three times during the night and went outside calling her. Nothing. The next day I came back from an early morning coffee with friends and just happened to look down at the road when I pulled into the driveway and that is where I saw what was left of Molly. A small amount of her fur and a large amount of her blood. It’s going to take me a long, long time to get over losing her. What makes it all the worse is that she was never allowed out without us and one little mistake by us and a horrendously morally challenged individual has taken her from us. We’re slowly moving on but gosh it hurts so bad.

Looking forward to a much nicer and happier 2015.
On a brighter note, my fruit trees are being very productive and the fruit fly has been pretty silent or vanquished! I got a nice little crop of Santa Rosa plums and have turned them into a yummy plum compote jammy mix. It goes very well on toast and swirled into ice cream and cheesecakes and with custard 😍. My apricots are also looking fabulous and are starting to blush with that ripening apricot colour and the Satsuma plum is ripening too but I have to contend with the naughty parrots who delight in dropping the fruit before it is ripe!
I wish you all the very best and I’ll be back soon with some more gluten free recipes and non GF recipes too as I like a balance 😉.

Gardening joys.

I have been a little bit occupied over the last couple of weeks and haven’t had much time to sit down and write a blog post. I still don’t have much time as i’m off to work soon at 730am but want to give you all a glimpse into what I’ve had going on recently.

We’ve been waiting since June for the man to come and gyprock/plasterboard a few of our back rooms, the hallway and the entrance to our home. He decided to come the day before our youngest daughter arrived for a much awaited visit!!!!!! We managed to get him to just do the room she would be staying in and he did but will be coming back this week now that she has left to finish the job.

Talk about timing. He is a very busy man but I hate feeling like we’re in the wrong when we phone him to ask when he’s coming. Gotta man up and be more forceful. 😀

We have finally had a few nice days in a row and have been able to get some soil/mulch/manure mix delivered for our fruit trees and potted plants and have been shoveling and distributing it like madmen.

We had it tipped from the truck onto the tarpaulin from where we shoveled it into our little wheelbarrow. You can see the outline of the “tipping” and we have a couple of barrow loads left wrapped in the tarpaulin above for my tomato bed. It is such a joy to see how happy and healthy the garden and plants look with a bit of good soil applied. Here are a few more shots of my flowering dwarf Granny Smith apple, Santa Rosa plums and Sweet Williams which grow all year round it seems. Such a cheerful little plant and one of my favorite border plants.

I also took the time to replenish my fruit fly baits as the little beggars are already eyeing my tiny fruits off. I also made my own batch of baits out of a jar, apple cider vinegar and plastic bag with hole in top.

Next weekend I’m thinking I’ll need to start netting my fruit trees to protect them from the parrots I can hear chattering away in the gum trees.

I have 3 weeks of full time work ahead of me so am seriously going to be looking forward to some days off as I have become accustomed to my week on, week off regime now 😀

I hope you all have a lovely Autumn/Spring wherever you may be and are looking forward to the fruits of your labors at the end of it all.

Is that Spring I see on the Horizon?

This is the first blossom out on my Satsuma Plum tree. It is so amazing the joy I feel when I see these blossoms. I hope this poor old darling of a tree has a better year than it did last year. It was decimated first by aphids, then by a brown rotting mould that atacked all my stone fruits last year. I must get onto spraying an anti fungal/mould spray this week. It has been pouring with rain and very cold all this week and the ground is very damp and wet.

I am most disturbed by this fungus growing on a dead bit of my old apricot tree. All its fruit was damaged by fruit fly/brown rot last year and I have serious concerns about it now i’ve noticed this growing on it. Time to get me another apricot as a back up. I might get another year or two out of this one but I believe it’s on it’s way out. I wonder if the fungus is edible? Anybody know?

This is a delightful creeper that I was given a few years back for helping out with art classes at my daughters primary school. I think it is called Pandora but as I am only vaguely horticultural, I am happy to be told otherwise.

Here it is shown climbing all over a brick post next to it and what you cant see are the triffid like tendrils heading off towards the roadway. Looking for a lift elsewhere perhaps?

This is a native pea bush growing in the bush bordering our block. Very delicate little purple and white flowers, no scent but the bees love it.

This is called the Sydney Wattle and even though it is a pretty bush, it is classed as a weed bush here in Western Australia and we pull it out as it outgrows all our native species here and runs rampant.

Here is a photo of my first blueberry flowers. I love these little sweet fruits and enjoy picking them off the bush and popping them straight into my mouth whilst watering them.

I’m hoping my blue iris comes out in flower soon. I’ll post some photos of it when it does. Spring is on the horizon. I look forward to sharing it with you all.

😀