Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat...

Summer Garden the fox gloves are finishing, Calfornian Poppies are looking great with the white daisies.  The holly hock is flowering again, but everything will need a drink tonight when it cools off.  I have mulched most beds and that has been a huge help with moisture retaining, I succombed and used sugar cane mulch.

 There is something wonderful about getting my camera back.  I feel a greater sense of being able to truly share what is happening in my world.

Garlic is harvested and some is plaited, others still require drying. Some was at risk of going mouldy so has been separated into cloves and will be put into olive oil and also I think I will try my hand at pickled garlic.  It would be such a waste to loose any.

I have harvested 173 bulbs of garlic whole, and 10 or more that I have had to separate into cloves to be used now and to go into oil and or pickled garlic. This is 100% return on the single cloves I planted way back in March. Perhaps a bit too early.  The mounding of them helped immensely, especially with all the winter rain and more recent rain we have had.  I am thrilled with the success of my garlic!

I made strawberry jam yesterday.  Sadly not from my own strawberries.  I was fortunate to buy 2kg for $5 so purchased 4kg.  So strawberry jam that can be made into chili and strawberry, strawberry sauce. I love it!

When you look at the amazing colour of the strawberry jam,(which I had to take a photo in the sunlight to show its beautiful colour). I am a strange kind of a woman, as I prefer these to Rubies..I told you it was strange..lol
 


The following are photos of my vegie patch where I have put my terracotta pots with lids as watering devices.  They seem to be working really well.  The lettuces have thrived near one.  Tomatoes are doing well.  It is quite strange I grew some of them from seeds and succumbed to buying a couple of seedlings from Diggers heritage Seed company at the local hardware shop nursery.  They were more established than my seedlings.  Interestingly enough one of my seeds has caught up.  The others are doing okay.  The pot in the foreground is meant to have some dill in it but looks like the birds or slugs have devoured them.  Oh and can anyone tell me how you can have a potato grow in a space where you have not had potatoes for three/four years, and suddenly you have some?  That is the large plant in the background.

My beans in the garden are hanging on so far with the really bizzare temperature extremes we have been experiencing.  Last Wednesday it was 36C than Thursday was 11C, with a forecast of snow on the highlands for Friday..  Ahhh Tasmania. 

The chooks are growing and looking so beautiful, three of them are developing their combs, one is obviously younger she still is just getting her  comb.

Two of the girls have wattles starting and going red.  In these photos you can see how beautiful their markings are becoming.


Toby is a bit too much for the girls, he works them, trying to round them up.  Some of them ignore him eventually but one and I think it is the younger one is harassed and flies and flurries about.  So Toby chases her.

  My DH believes we will not get any eggs.   sigh.  He is being kept out of the hens run as much as we can.  He does worry about the girls if he does not see them. 
The others do not seem to be perturbed most of the time, just scratch and lie in the sunshine.  How I love seeing them with their wings up getting sun under them.  I am falling for my chooky girls.  They are delightful to watch and listen too.


I have been perusing many of my northern blogs friends blogs.  My breath has been taken away with the lovely snow scapes that they have. (not so keen on the driving conditions) and who knows we in the south of Tasmania may still have some snow for Christmas.  Not normal though, so I always feel kind of strange singing Christmas Carols about snow and cold etc.  I am including here the words of a wonderful Australian Christmas Carol that I love to hear and sing.

Six White Boomers   (a boomer is a Kangaroo)

By Rolf Harris & John D. Brown 

(Introduction)
Early on one Christmas Day, a Joey Kanga-roo,
Was far from home and lost in a great big zoo.
Mummy, where's my mummy, they've taken her a-way,
We'll help you find your mummy son, hop on the sleigh.

Chorus:
Six white boomers, snow white boomers,
Racing Santa Claus through the blazing sun.
Six white boomers, snow white boomers,
.. On his Aus-tra-lian run.

Verse: Up beside the bag of toys, little Joey hopped ,
But they had'nt gone far when Santa stopped.
Un-harnessed all the reindeer and Joey wondered why,
Then he heard a far off booming in the sky.

Chorus: Six white boomers ...

Pretty soon old Santa began to feel the heat,
Took his fur-lined boots off to cool his feet.
Into one popped Joey, feeling quite OK,
While those old man kangaroos kept pulling on the sleigh.

Chorus: Six white boomers ...

Joey said to Santa, Santa, what about the toys,
Aren't you giving some to these girls and boys.
They've all got their presents son, we were here last night,
This trip is an extra trip, Joey's special flight.

Chorus: Six white boomers ...

Soon the sleigh was flashing past, right over Marble Bar,
Slow down there, cried Santa, it can't be far.
Come up on my lap son, and have a look around,
There she is, that's mummy, bounding up and down.

Chorus: Six white boomers ...

Well that's the bestest Christmas treat that Joey ever had,
Curled up in mother's pouch all snug and glad.
The last they saw was Santa headed northward from the sun,
The only year the boomers worked a double run.

Chorus: Six white boomers ...

A Joey is a baby Kangaroo
Marble Bar is one of the hottest and most isolated towns in Australia

Our neighbours had a road Christmas BBQ yesterday, and what a wonderful afternoon evening it was.  We ate chatted, drank, the weather was warm and skies blue, a cardigan or sloppy jo was necessary as the sun set, but we adjourned inside and watched the native animals come and eat the grass, bettongs, wallabies, bandicoots, and paddymelons.  Just outside where we were sitting with the doors open.  Our neighbour hood which is about 8homes all up over 1.5km distance is a lovely caring and sharing community.  It is one of the great joys of living in a rural setting for me.  So warm and helpful.  I ask someone do they know someone who is electrician or plumber, and usually someone comes up trumps for me.