Spring has sprung!

My Mum always says this every Spring....

"Spring has sprung,

The grass is ris,

I wonder where the birdies is?"

Well, the grass has risen here, and there are so many birds about. It's a hoot watching the grass parrots, magpies, rosellas, galahs and king parrots. They are all very passionate at the moment! There are lots of noisy squabbles over nesting sites. The garden has gone mad, everything is starting to erupt with flowers. It is sooo much fun this time of year......

My first Sweetpea flower

Not sure what this bush is but it sure is pretty!
We planted two of these dwarf peach trees on the weekend, hopefully they will do ok, must mulch them....
Mum's elderly neighbour gave me some cuttings of this plant, once again don't know what it is, but it must be happy living in my rusty old clawfoot bath.....

I love daffodils, I have a variety of them planted around the base of trees, they are gorgeous...

Just for fun, some wormwood planted in hubby's old workboots.....

Wherever you are, enjoy the seasons, I know I do!

How cute is this?

I was lucky enough to receive this gorgeous piece of family history for my birthday recently. My Oma (Grandmother) was given this from her brother in 1953! He made it from cardboard and painted it..... I have always loved it and as Oma is getting on she is giving her goodies to those who loves them. She is 86 now and amazingly her brother Franz who made it is 92 and still going strong.... It is great to watch, when the breeze catches it the couple cut the wood. I have to find a suitable stick for them to cut to complete the scene. I feel so lucky to have such a gorgeous piece.....

Merran's windchimes....

Mez and I had a lovely time last weekend re-making some windchimes. We started with 2 old broken windchimes, one with pigs and the other with fish. We added a piece of old wood, some keys and a couple of pieces of curtain rod. The whole lot was joined together with waxed string and buttons! It makes a gorgeous soothing noise, I love listening to it and remembering the time Merran and I spent together making it........

Pictures, yay!

I'm still on my darlin's computer, but I've worked out how to load my pics. So here's Pearl at the beauty salon lol. For those that are wondering why we trim her wool like this, it stops her from getting grass etc caught in her wool near her eyes, and keeps her rear end clean to stop the flies harassing her.

The "before" shot, cute but oh so woolly!

Pa, my Dad doing the hairdressing. He breeds stud sheep so he has the gear and know-how. Thanks Pa!

After - my baby looks so grown up now!

Today I planted the first of my heirloom potatoes - in tyres. I have never grown potatoes before so it should be a bit of fun. I have Sapphires, King Edwards, Desirees, Brownells, Red Stars, Royal Blue and Nicolas. The Sapphires are purple all the way through, should make for interesting mash lol. I laid the tyres on top of newspapers, half filled them with hay, added some compost and threw in 2 potatoes per tyre. Then I covered them with a thick layer of hay - now to wait for them to emerge so I can add another layer until each stack is about 4 tyres high. Should have heaps of yummy potatoes for Christmas........ For any Aussies looking for heirloom vegies go to http://www.diggers.com.au/

My seed potatoes are busting to get into the ground, look at those shoots!

The first layer, all done.

After dragging carts of hay up the paddock and chucking tyres over the fence I'm pooped, who's for a home brew?

M.I.A.

I have been absent from blogging this week as my new laptop shorted out! I am now using hubby's work computer which I can only get onto in the evenings. I am suffering withdrawals, but I'm getting loads done lol..... Hopefully my computer will be back in action in a few days as I can't add new pics on this computer.

I have been busy planting seeds in punnets in my temporary glasshouse. This gorgeous structure consists of 2 glass doors leaning against the Northern side of the house. I have onion, and spring onion seeedlings growing nicely. Today I planted the following in punnets:-

Mixed cherry tomatoes

5 colours of tomatoes

Ornamental gourds

Mixed chillis

Jalapeno chillis

Capsicums

Coriander

5 colour silverbeet

I also planted some more radishes direct in the tank garden. I can't resist them so I am eating as many as I plant! Victor the goat and Rabbit (the paint horse) love them too lol...

And the exciting news for the week is that my broad beans are flowering and my sweetpeas have buds - YAY! Oh, and my chookies are laying 2 eggs a day, that's 100% increase lol, so they may be coming back on the lay.

Pearl the lamb had a haircut on the weekend, my Dad cut the wool around her face and crutched her. I will post a pic ASAP, she looks hilarious..... Dad also vaccinated and drenched Pearl and Victor, I think they were glad to see him leave lol.....

We are currently nursing Vixen the drafthorse, she went through a barb wire fence and grazed her inside leg really badly - more vet bills, but she'll be ok. Thank goodness drafties are so placid, she just stood there and waited for us to get her out.

Have a great week everyone!

Look what my baby made me......

My son Rhys (15) has been busy at school making me this gorgeous clock. I just love it, I'm so proud of him, I think he's so clever. He gave me the clock for my birthday, more than a week early, he couldn't wait! I must admit I was a bit teary when he gave it to me, such a proud Mum I am.... Rhys has always liked working with his hands, he's a very practical child .....oooops, young man..... My clock takes pride of place in my bedroom on the mantel piece (surrounded by pipberries of course) so I can hear it's soothing ticking at night.

King parrots

We are fortunate to have these gorgeous creatures visit us most days. I made a simple bird feeder from baling twine and a plastic pot plant tray. I drilled holes for drainage and added a horse shoe for weight. The parrots love it, getting up to all sorts of antics hanging upside down on the string etc. They provide us with hours of entertainment.

Female on the left, male on the right.

I love their gorgeous feathers, if you look on her back you can see the blue under her wings.

What a pretty boy! He has such a lovely red beak.

We often have up to 5 of these birds visit at any one time, depending on the season. They bring their offspring home to show them off to us........

Chickpea and Pumpkin Curry

I made this for tea last night and it was yummy... I pureed the leftovers with some extra coconut milk to freeze as soup.

Chickpea and Pumpkin Curry

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 kg Butternut Pumpkin, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped

1 onion, cut into wedges

285g jar of mild Indian curry sauce

1/3 cup coconut milk (I doubled this amount)

400g can chickpeas

50g baby spinach leaves(I only had silver beet and I used the whole bunch lol...)

Coriander leaves to taste

1/2 Lebanese cucumber

2/3 cup plain European yoghurt

1 tablespoon fresh mint

Heat the oil in a large non-stick fry pan over medium heat. Add pumpkin and onion and cook for 8-10 mins until softened.

Add the curry sauce, coconut milk and 1 1/2 cups of water. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for 10 mins or until the pumpkin is completely tender.

Stir in the chickpeas, spinach and coriander. Cook for 3 mins to make sure the spinach is wilted, then serve with steamed rice and cucumber yoghurt.

Cucumber yoghurt

Seed and finely chop half a Lebanese cucumber. Mix with 2/3 cup plain European yoghurt ( I used Greek) and a tablespoon of finely chopped mint, and serve sprinkled with a little extra mint.

Pretty multicultural really - bit of Indian, some Lebanese and some Greek lol....... Is this what they call fusion cuisine?