Productivity Plus

It was a bitterly cold day (for Brisbane) when standing in the wind at soccer - but once I was out of the wind and in the sun back at home, it was just perfect for gardening.
Which was a good thing because I really needed to get some planting done.
The strawberry hanging garden & strawberries arrived in the post a couple of days ago.  They recommend planting straight away, but I had to get some potting mix first.  So, as per the instructions, the strawberries were watered and put in the fridge.  Today I planted them & hung the garden up.  This is what it looks like.

It contains ten Cambridge Rival strawberry plants and one Temptation in the top, which has been slightly neglected so may not survive.

I also got busy and planted all the rest of the fruit trees - six plants.

News from the Farm

Just thought I'd give you a quick update - no pictures though - sorry!

The chickens, Blacky & Elsa, and Fasty the guinea fowl, are looking really healthy now.  I really think the Organic Yoghurt has done the trick.  I'm continuing this, but 2nd daily now, to maintain their weight gain.  I'll probably reduce to twice a week sometime next month - just for maintenance.

I've planted some of the fruit trees - the Lemon, Orange & Mandarin along the side fence in the front yard, and the raspberry & blackberry in pots behind the safety fence - which will become their trellis.  I think I'll probably put the Tahitian Lime in a pot as well.

I need to move my greenhouse to somewhere with a little more sun - the seedlings are struggling.  I thought they would have been ready for transplanting by now.

Had a nice long weekend.  Spent Saturday at the Textile Art Festival at the Convention Centre.  Sunday we had a lazy day inside (it was cold and grey) and I actually read 2 books.  And a third on Monday night!  The kids were brilliant!
Monday was GOMA and then over to a friend's house for the kids to get together - and me to borrow her dress form for photos of the vintage clothing I hope to put up on Etsy soon.  This made me feel as if I achieved something over the weekend!  Assuaging the guilt of just being.

I'll let you know when I get myself organised re the Etsy stuff.

Ravs

Bye Bye Octopi

On Friday a good friend, who also happens to be a talented artist and J4's kindy teacher (and previously L6's) had her last day of work - she's off to enter the land of parenthood herself.
The kindy had a lovely morning tea send-off for her, with pink balloons, all the kids together (of course, the only way all the staff could be there too), and a few parents, like myself, who could make it.
As she is such a special person I had wanted to make something special for her, and as her favourite animal is the Octopus, and her class are also called the Octopuses (all the rooms are named after sea creatures), I decided an Octopus for the baby would be appropriate.



Made with fabrics from my stash.  All the body fabrics have fish on them.



Vale Velda

SMD & I had a lovely child free weekend away, while J4 & L6 stayed with Mr & Mrs Skivvy.
But it ended sadly.
Velda had not quite seemed herself when we left on Friday morning, and by the time we got back, forewarned by our neighbour, she was in the corner of the coop, leaning up against the wire.  She could walk, but only a couple of steps, and she would perk up and look around, but again only for a minute or so.
I took her to the vet within an hour of getting home, but really there wasn't anything they could do for her except speed her gently on her way.
I have never had to make this decision before, we only had a few budgies, a couple of mice and some fish growing up.  I am still dwelling on it a bit, and missing her, wondering if I should have brought her home and nursed her 'til she passed away naturally, but everyone tells me she would have suffered.
Now I am worrying about the other birds.  They don't show illness until it is almost too late.  And I have to recognise that Blacky is looking very skinny, nothing like the beautiful bird in the picture.  The vet told me that Velda had lost a lot of weight, and had probably been going down hill for some time, certainly the illness started well before Friday.  And she did have some bad bacteria in her droppings.
So today I bought some organic natural yoghurt and fed that to Blacky, Elsa & Fasty Africa.  It was something mentioned on one of the websites I visited, and I figured it was worth a try, after all we eat live yoghurt when we want to balance our internal flora.  The girls loved it!  I'm going to feed them some every day until this tub is finished and, if it makes a difference, I will continue a couple of times a week as a preventative measure.
I also bought them, from the cheap table at the greengrocers, a whole lettuce of their own.  We actually don't have a lot of kitchen waste, not as much as I would like to add to their diet, so I am going to supplement their greens as well (despite them being free range).  Fingers crossed.

I'll miss you Velda.
Ravs

A Nation of Wimps

Thought I'd start doing a few book reviews now that the intensity of work in the garden has died down.

I have just finished reading "A Nation of Wimps - The high cost of invasive parenting" by Hara Estroff Marano.

This book has the potential to turn you into a much more relaxed parent, and save the sanity of yourself and your kids.
The crux of the argument, and it is well researched and documented, is that to grow into successful, independant & happy adults, children actually need to separate from their parents, they need to be allowed to take risks and to fail as this is the most effective way to learn, they need to face challenges, not have them removed, and they need to be allowed to discover their own passions.

New Life

Due to J6's soccer carnival being rained out today, and SMD deciding to take the boys to see 'Hoodwinked' at the movies, I got some unexpected time to garden today.

I needed to do a bit of weeding as some of the lucerne hay has sprouted over the last few weeks.  But luckily this has happened just around the edges of the beds as some of the veges are already starting to sprout too!

Sex Without Strings!

Aren't there some super plant names?!  This time it is a bean plant.

After all the work I have finally started planting my veges.  So far I have sown the following in punnets to transplant later:

Silverbeet 5 colour mix

Garlic Chives, Sage, Thyme, Parsley Continental, Lettuce Royal Oakleaf, Mignonette and Flame, Silverbeet 5 Colour Mix, Chilli Tobago, Capsicum 7 Colour Mix,

And 7 colours of capsicum!

Capsicum Mini Sweet, Cabbage Red Drumhead, Broccoli Di Cicco and Romanesco, Tomato Currant Mix, Wapsipinicon Peach (what a mouthful!) and 3 Colour Zebra, and some cherry tomato & basil.