Sunday garden

Mid summer garden - the tomatoes are ripening, the parsley has gone to seed and at last a foxglove has bloomed.  Last year I planted white foxgloves and they didn't flower at all.  I planted multi colour ones this year down the side garden with the herbs.   The yellow rose is not a favourite.  May rework that for next year.  We'll see.

Bed head and skirt for me

Last December I made myself a bedhead.  Nothing too fancy - just a rectangle of timber recycled from an old desk we had, some foam, wadding and some fabric.  No photos to share but the process is the same as the one we made awhile ago for Sofie.

Last weekend I made a matching bed skirt.  To minimise seams, I bought enough length to cut each side in  one piece and a smaller piece for the end.  So one 2.2 metre length I cut 2 x 40cm x 220cm  and 1 x 40 x 160cm.  The fabric was cut lengthwise rather than crosswise - railroaded.  I cut the depth  deep enough so that it came up over the base to ensure no peeking of the base fabric.  After sewing the end to the sides I pinned the corner to shape before sewing the mitre in place.

I used some old unused upholstery fabric for the top end and also for the base cover to attach the skirt.  Pins worked ok but I found when I took it to the machine it didn't sit in place properly and I had to take it back to the bed.  More pins would work better but as I didn't have any more I used some hemming web and stuck parts of it together before sewing.  I simply sewing the skirt onto the base fabric.

I also made the the blue and cream floral quilt cover and matching Euro pillowcases.  Not sure if they are December 2012 or Jan 2013.  Either way, very recent.  I think the look is very boutique and Prinny certainly approves!

Another day an a few more weeds hit the dust.

Today I finished my sister's gift.  Unfortunately can't show it yet in case she sees it. Hopefully I will be able to catch up with her on the weekend.

I also pulled some more weeds and noticed my poor lemon tree now only has one little green lemon.  Where did the other go?  Do possums like lemons?  I bet they don't eat Paul Bangay's lemons (the photo above is just part of Paul's veggie patch.  Yes I am jealous.)

Edited to apologize to all possums out there - the missing lemon was taken by miss Sofie who thought it was a lime and decided to make a drink with it.

Making art

Tomorrow is my sister's birthday and I am making a surprise for her.  I hope it works out.  Prinny the cat has been helping.  What is it with cats and wanting to be a nuisance?

And yes, I did spend 15 minutes pulling weeds. Still plenty left!

And great excitement, I got a call from the furniture delivery guy and my new mirrored furniture is coming Monday - yeah!

Tidying up the garden

This a photo I took of a Jacaranda tree not far from my place.  This photo was taken a few years ago but it is currently in full bloom just like this.  I detour just so I can drive or walk past it. Beautiful.

Tonight after work I spent some time tidying up my side "garden".  This is where I have my veggies,  herbs, lemon tree and some other plants.  It is a narrow strip down the side of the house with a retaining wall put there by the builders when they excavated to build our house.  As I mentioned yesterday, the neighbour on that side did some work on his driveway and in the process there was collateral damage on my patch.

My poor lemon tree that I planted about a year ago was almost uprooted.  I put the dirt (and the neighbours gravel) back into the hole and cleared up around it.  I also have a yellow banksia rose growing in that corner which I also gave a trim.

Before:

Close up of damage:

After:

I gave it a good drink of Seasol.  It needs some more compost and a layer of mulch.  Hope it survives.

To have that beautiful garden I long for, I need to spend time maintaining it.  So starting today if I just give it 15 minutes a day attention, in no time at all it should be looking much better.

Moroccan slow cooker lamb casserole with mashed sweet potato

Tonight I made the yummiest sweet potato mash to go with our slow cooker lamb casserole.  Unfortunately I didn't take a photo (not sure how that happened as I take a lot of photos of the food I make).  I think we were hungry and just dug in.

I generally don't follow recipes, and promptly forget what I make and how I made it.  So the successful meals I plan to record here.

First the casserole - sautéed half an onion, celery stick, clove of garlic and a carrot in ghee.  I have a slow cooker that you can put on stove top to sauté.  Then added a heaped tablespoon of Moroccan spices (make sure your spices are all spices and not filled with salt, onion or garlic powder) and about 1kg of diced lamb.  Once all browned added chicken stock to barely cover, a quarter of a preserved lemon and put into slow cooker on medium for about 5 hours.  It could have done with less time as it was well cooked.  I sprinkled it with chopped fresh coriander to serve.  Any veggies can be added.  More onion and garlic would be good if you can tolerate it. Too much gives me a stomach ache.

Sweet potato mash - chopped some ginger and a large clove of garlic in some coconut oil.  Added about 4 small sweet potatoes.  Added some chicken stock to cook.  Not too much as don't want it too watery.  Once cooked mashed with some coconut milk to get nice consistency.  Yummy!

We also had sauteed silverbeet straight out of the garden.  Our neighbour decided to dig up his driveway which is the other side of the fence from our veggie patch.  Not happy!  I had to harvest the full silverbeet plants due to their disturbance (see poor plant in photo above).  The lemon tree is not looking happy either!

Doona cover for Sofie.

Way back in September 2011 Sofie and I made a bedhead for her bed.  This was to be the first part of the decoration to be soon followed by a doona cover and other soft furnishings.  I can now say more than a year later the task has been completed!  Where does time go?

We made the cover out of vintage sheets I had inherited when my mother in law died back in 2000.  We used an embroidered double sheet on one side and other the other side we joined single sheets with a strip of headboard fabric at the join.

Back when we purchased the fabric (quilting cottons) we purchase coordinating pinks and greens.  Sofie is now a bit less keen on the pink and green so we concentrated on the green with white.  We used a coordinating green and white piece for a runner on her dressers.

I feel better now!