field journal

Entry Three:  Flowers in our garden

.................................................................

.................................................................

Ari collected these beautiful flowers from around the 

garden earlier today and arranged them to photograph.

There is such a wonderful parade of colourful blooms

outside his window, just now.  It's truly a lovely sight. 

You can view other journal entries here and, as always,

feel free to create your own and link it in the comments.

xoxox

field journal

Entry Two:  Edibles in our garden

.................................................................

...........................................................

Ari and I have started keeping a weekly field journal.

A photographic record of all the wonderful natural things we 

find in our garden and on trips around the countryside, into

town, to the seaside, the woodlands, the mountains and so on.

Feel free to create your own and link to it in the comments. 

You can view all our entries here.

field journal

Entry One:  Springtime in our garden

.................................................................

...........................................................

Ari and I have decided to start keeping a field journal.

A photographic record of all the wonderful natural things we 

find in our garden and on trips around the countryside, into

town, to the seaside, the woodlands, the mountains and so on.

We'll try to make this a weekly feature.... please join us.

We'd love to see glimpses of nature from around the globe,

flora and natural objects that you (and perhaps your little ones)

might find in your garden or when you're out walking. 

No rules, just be as creative as you like. Each time we

post one of our field journal entries here, feel free to create 

your own and link to it in the comments section below. 

If you don't have a blog, you could set up a flickr account for 

this activity and link to that.  I'd be happy to tell you how. 

We look forward to sharing your discoveries!

xoxox

in the garden

The weather's still a bit chilly, but we've been getting

stuck into the vegie garden none the less.  Last week we 

planted out onions (red and gold), leeks, carrots, beets,

spring onions, tomatoes, more salad varieties and beans. 

We collected and stored beans from last Summers crop and I'm 

planting some new varieties too this year, including soy beans 

(we are big fans of edamame round here).  I think the scarlet 

runners are my favourite though. The flowers are very pretty (in 

amongst all that green) the dried beans are a lovely shade of 

blush pink, and fresh from the garden, they taste divine!

I've planted out some radishes, rainbow chard, and early Spring 

varieties of cauliflower, brocolli and cabbage too. I'm hoping 

we'll get a late crop of brassicas before Summer hits us.

And, this year it looks like we'll have apricots as well as plums!

The apple tree is in full blossom, but coddling moth destroyed

last year's crop, so I'm not sure we'll have apples. The raspberries 

and strawberries are thriving in their new patches though (we 

transplanted them this year) and we planted blueberries and 

non-suckering blackberries, though they won't fruit yet.

Our herb garden is well stocked and also coming along nicely.

Ah, it's all so exciting!  It's our 2nd year with a big garden, after 

years of inner-city living. I am loving teaching Ari how to grow 

his own food and learning more about the art myself. 

If you live in Australia and you're keen to get a garden going this 

Spring, I'd recommend this book. And if you live in Melbourne, a trip 

to CERES is definitely in order!  We get most of our seedlings there

and our seeds from Greenpatch, Eden Seeds or The Diggers Club.

perfect pancakes

In most of Australia, the Spring school holidays begin today. Yay!

And what a beautiful Spring day it is... the sun is shining, the birds

are singing and we are busily spring cleaning the house and studio.

We started our first day of holidays with a pancake breakfast.

This recipe makes delicious, fluffy, golden pancakes.

And it never fails me...

The best pancake recipe ever!

1 cup plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

3 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

3 tbsp butter

1 cup milk

2 eggs, beaten

Place the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a bowl.

Mix well. Melt the butter in the frypan you're going to use.

Pour melted butter over other ingredients, add milk and eggs.

Using a whisk, beat well. Add a little more butter to frypan

and place on medium heat. Wait until the frypan is warm then

using a small ladle, ladle 2 spoons of mixture into the middle

of the pan and tip to spread the mixture into a bigger a circle.

Cook over medium heat till bubbles form on the surface of the 

pancake and then, using a spatula, flip the pancake and cook 

until underside is golden brown. Serve with lemon and sugar.

And ENJOY xoxox

spring flowers

Just a peek at what's on my work table. 

These pretty little flower heads are sitting there, 

each awaiting their turn to be stitched up!

I've been quite busy in my studio this week and I've 

been listening to a lot of Tom Waits whilst I work.

I never tire of listening to his sweet music.

It has been so very, very cold and grey here lately.

One would scarcely believe that nice weather is on

it's way, and yet today, the blossom trees are in full 

bloom and the bulbs are already beginning to flower 

...I guess, as Tom says (courtesy of Garth)

 you can never hold back Spring.

I've been pinning lots of lovely new things too.

The nights have been too cold to do much other 

than sit by the fire and read, stitch or pin things! 

Why don't you take a looksy... xox