The Afternoon Tea.

On Saturday we had Marks Afternoon Tea and Jazz Birthday party at our place. I had been cooking and preparing for it for a week, cooking late at night as it was too hot to cook during the day. My first ever attempt at nori rolls was successful. It is a shame the same can not be said for the Vietnamese rolls bought out late in afternoon but eaten. they just would not roll properly for me. The garden is so dry and we are low on water, but we had it all looking nice on the deck. Thanks to Mark and my dads hard work. We were lent a beautiful tarp, and this is where the band played. How fantastic were they. We had two friends from NSW and my Dads partner staying with us and what treasures they were, doing fairy bread, and great sandwiches. There was great joviality and raucousness from the production line out on the deck on the Saturday morning. As one of our friends said, the preparation is part of the fun. You know what it was. We had about 35 people come, and enjoy our afternoon tea. The great thing was there was very little left over. (well 3 cakes that I did not put out, and 3 dips I forgot). I was very happy, very tired and had a very delighted Mark. It was great to have so many family and friends share with us. I prepared 95% of the food and we had serve yourself coffee, and tea making facilities with an urn my work had lent us. We had straw bales to sit on out side near the music and under the shade of the wattles, there was the deck where people sat, chatted and listened to the music. We also had the lounge area of the house so those that wanted a little less noise and more comfort could sit and chat. Strangely the alcoholic punch went down very well, and people seemed to enjoy the non alcoholic punch, just not as much! When I bought home the bottles of Green Ginger wine, Mark was reminded of some experiences when he was a youngster having it. Added a bottle of vodka, pineapple juice, orange juice, dry ginger ale, and lemonade..it was very intoxicating little drink. the worry about people getting here, due to road closures about us (from a new Targa race) did not deter people and everyone arrived, some just a little later. I was busy ensuring food, and drinks were maintained and those who were sitting about were offered food, I was on my feet all day, and so so exhilarated but have I mentioned tired before? at the end of the day. Marks daughters helped with cleaning up thanks so much. His lovely GD danced to the music and helped with decorations. Thankyou darling. My aim was for Mark to have a party where he did not have to do a thing, just chat, eat drink and listen to the fantastic Jazz that was played. Our neighbours were great helping with shade clothe, which he just put up for us on our deck, and he trimmed the trees so people could sit out in the shade under the wattles. They also lent us some out door chairs, and tubs for drinks people bought with them. Life is so good with a great sense of community and friendship. We are so happy and fortunate with our neighbours. On a different note, we have still not had rain, and have had some corker of hot days and nights (for tassie) not as bad as Melbourne and Adelaide though. The garden is suffering because it is so dry and the wind has been so bad this year. Relentless, so even if the garden is going okay it is blown to smithereens! My pumpkins, tomatoes, zucchini and eggplants are growing and flowering. We have been digging up potatoes as needed, but hard to find as I just chucked them in an area, I did not raise them and so now the rabbits have eaten off all the stems, I have to be careful where and how I dig..lol but they are delicious. The tanks are low and we are wanting some rain(preferably a good gentle soak and then some heavy showers, only at night..and dry warm days..I dont ask much lol) It was lovely to have my dad and his partner here, and our other friends stay with us. It is lovely to be just us again now. I love having people stay, and love it just being us too..lol Routine is re establishing itself, and I have been worried about my dad as he has an allergy to dog and cat hair, we have both. So poor man must have been very uncomfortable to be with them, yet he took the dog for walks, mucked about with him and was great.lol what can you do? Paradise just needs some rain, and a fair bit. The dam behind our house (belonging to our neighbour) is dry totally, and Mark has never seen it like this before in his 30 years living here. We can buy water in which it is looking like we may have to. I was so busy at the party, that I did not take a photo. So I am hoping that people who did will send us some. If they do I will post some on here.

Summer seems to finally have arrived here.

We have had quite warm days the last couple and it has been great in some ways, but the all ready dry soil is worse now and not much green grass. Which probably explains why rabbits and other creatures are eating many plants not before eaten. Oh well sharing is okay..lol. My tomatoes are finally flowering and I have some very small green fruit appearing. Pumpkins are going well, and lots of flowers and several small pumpkins so fingers crossed. Most other things are going to seed, but I am still picking some silverbeet, peas, and finally my peas(those I planted in the raspberry bed are doing well. I have had very little success with those in the vegie garden. My sunflowers seeds have been shocking failures, I must have planted twenty and so far yet again only one appears to have grown. What is it with me this is the third year when I get only one flower. It has not flowered yet. My neighbours have squillions they grow them for their hens. Oh well there is always next year. Picked all the cherries now we got about 5kgs off the second tree, so we were happy with that. Water tanks are holding up well, we have a forecast for some showers later in week and highland snow, can you believe it. It is so hot even the bees are slowly buzzing a gin and tonic is looking good again tonight, with a frozen lime I have in freezer. A neighbours lime tree had heaps on it and I popped them whole in the freezer in a bag, and now slice one in half and yummo..cool lime gin and tonic. So I will sit and watch the shimmer on the water and hope again to see the dolphins. We had a pod of 8-10 swimming in the river on Monday evening, I saw them as I was driving home from work at 9pm. Oh yes you mainlanders it is still light at 9pm for the time being. No place like Tassie for summer evenings.

Welcome to my New Year! 2009

Well we are now into the third day of the New Year, and I must say I am feeling a great deal more positive than I have been. The downstairs bathroom, living area and kitchen are all lovely and tidy, and clean. So new resolution to take pride in my home, and myself have begun. I am also happy to share with you that the rain tanks are filling..I would still like more rain, as the soil is still not really moist yet, but more water than we may have had for summer. Especially as I left the tap on..loosing heaps. We have had to have the fire on the last two days, so cold, snow on the mountain range on Wednesday when I drove to work at 5;30am. Not sure how this unseasonal weather will affect the vegies, my tomatoes, egg plants, pumkins, and capsicums especially. Finished picking the last few heads of garlic, and have some lovely large ones. I also took out nearly all the broad beans, as they were getting to big in the pods, and the wind had decimated them. So my poor old vegie plots are looking a bit tragic. Raspberries going well. Second cherry tree hopefully will be ready to pick soon. I hope to spend a couple of days in garden next week. When I take the dog out I usually end up doing weeding for a while..lol

Our Garden and some of our home grown produce

Dec 2008. I am so lucky my DH gave me a lovely digital camera for Christmas, and I have been getting used to it by taking photos of our garden. You will get an idea how dry it is, and why I was so upset when I accidentally left the tap on and we lost one whole tank of water. (reliant on tank water). Despite this my garden is growing, my new seedlings are taking. It is a work in progress, and fencing things to save them from the possums, wallabies, potaroos, bandicoots, and birds, has been a on going learning curve. The netting over the raspberries is working well. We have been eating raspberries from our garden. We have also been feeding the neighbours chooks, and getting eggs and some raspberries from their vines too. I picked a kilo to share for Christmas lunch. One of the covers over the cherries is fine, but the other cherry was invaded by a mother black bird and her three young, we evicted them and felt we had sealed the net up well. Only to come out the next day to find little birds in the cherry tree. Still we did end up with a lovely bowl of cherries from this tree, which we also took to share with family Christmas day. Much sweeter (if smaller) than the bought ones.

Our house Spring 2008

It is a hard place to live

I love living in my beautiful home, and environment. I have been picking raspberries(only a small handful so far) and they are not very sweet as we have not had a lot of sunshine lately, so sugars have not risen so well. Lots of flowers and sunshine coming.. The strawberries on the other hand have been great, over 1Kg so far. My potatoes are giving us lovely new potatoes. I have been doing a bit of bandicooting and we have been enjoying, with home grown parsley or mint. Tess the horse is doing a fine job of eating the long grass, but I will still need to have someone slash some areas. At least my fruit trees may be safer this year. My vegie garden is very basic as far as structure goes, but the plans to improve it over winter and put better quality wire fencing around. Put some pathways, and get the beds sorted properly. I finally managed to net the two cherry trees today, the blackbirds were not happy..lol My DH is giving me a digital camera for Christmas, so I will be able to put up more up to date photos. The photos on the blog so far are from last year, springtime. Well it is nice to have some where to share images of my home and area

Springtime at home 2008

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