Plant love and growing basil in winter

We are having a very leisurely Sunday afternoon here. It's a BEAUTIFUL sunny winter's day, the sun is pouring in through the windows, but it's crisp outside, I think we even had a little bit of frost this morning. We hardly ever get frost being so close to the sea.

We spent yesterday morning planting olive trees out the front of the house, and I managed to squeeze in a good amount of time on Friday to weed the vege patch and give it some tender loving care.

 

 

So today it's time for my indoor garden to receive some love. Having plants is like having little pets. They don't need love and food everyday like a cat or a dog or a lizard, but they do need it still, otherwise they start looking a little sad, like this wee planty here. He needs a bit of a trim to get rid of his old leaves, a bit of a water, and a bit of coffee - yes coffee! I have discovered my indoor plants like a feed of my coffee grounds every now and again.

Also did you know your indoor plants like a spritz of water on their leaves sometimes, and the big leafy ones like you to wipe their dust off them. And sometimes, if you are feeling particularly loving, you can put your plants under a cold shower and give them a nice big soaky soak.

 

Back on his shelf home, looking happier.

Do you like my tea bag quote - appropriate when we are talking plants I think.

 

 

This terrarium needed a major overhaul, I find terrariums can get a little unruly if left to their own devices for too long.

 

 

 

Prime example of an unruly terrarium below, Isla made this one about a year ago, it's just bursting with life in there. I'm leaving this one be though as I like it's unruliness.

 

 

I replanted this one below as it was looking a bit sad, though it did have some amazing toadstools growing in it this week! I forgot to take a photo, so hopefully some more will pop up, fungi are fascinating! I find it's best to start small when you are planting up terrariums, plants often thrive in the enclosed warm space and quickly grow to fill it. The plant with the little heart shaped leaves was snipped off a plant in my other terrarium, so hopefully it takes to it's new spot. I like free plants! Actually come to think of it, I think all the plants in this one were free, snipped at some time or other from other plants I've walked by :) 

 

 

Speaking of free plants, have you ever grown a kumara (sweet potato) plant? Just pop a piece of kumara that has sprouted into some water. Before you know it, it will be growing roots and leaves, this one has been in a glass of water on my windowsill for about 4 months. It was starting to look a bit leggy and yellow so I decided to pot it up into some soil, hopefully this will help to resurrect it.

 

 

And speaking of resurrecting plants... I'm very proud of this beautiful big specimen I have growing in my plant stand. I found this guy half dead in that sad corner of the plant nursery where they put the sad half dead plants, honestly he looked real bad, he was tiny and broken, but somehow I saw his potential, and for only 50c I was willing to adopt him and give him a second chance. And just look at him now! Go you good thing! Owning it!

 

Also going for it is my cyclamen, for some reason it has decided to forget about growing leaves and put all it's energy into flowers, weird. That doesn't seem like a healthy scenario, but it's been going for at least two months like this, churning out the flowers with no sign of stopping. They smell beautiful.

And my basil, I have discovered the secret to get it flourishing on my kitchen window sill. I feed it with coffee grounds and raw chicken juice, I know, that sounds gross aye. What I do is when I'm cooking chicken, I keep a bit of the raw juice and mix it with water and feed it to my basil, just every now and again. I have grown these from seed, and as each plant gets going, I plant a few more seeds into the soil, just make sure you keep the soil nice and moist while the seeds are germinating (a small spray bottle is good for this). Some of them don't come up, but I find if I plant a few seeds I'm guaranteed to get at least one sprouting. Basil year round! So good! I love the flavour of basil.

 

Ahh, feeling good, happy plants, happy plant mum.



Friday wind down

Ahh... Friday afternoon, ... cup of coffee, ... a comfy corner to sit and read, ... an AWESOME new book to peruse thanks to my lovely sister. After a busy week, this little sit down is well deserved if I do say so myself.

 

 

I got interrupted, one child playing minecraft to my left, the other child talking in my right ear... so I had to sneak away to another quiet corner (with lovely afternoon sunlight. I love afternoon sunlight).

Happy Friday everyone, may you have a beautiful weekend and may you have the opportunity to find a quiet corner. xo

We live in a beautiful country

Just looking through some photos on my phone, this is visiting Waihi Beach a few weeks ago, an amazing day, and we had this part of the beach all to ourselves!

 

Happy Friday

I like Friday nights. Do you like Friday nights?
Winding down after a busy week, putting your feet up, looking forward to a weekend off and some family time.
Ahhh. Very relaxing.

Wishing you an enjoyable weekend out there, and a happy Friday night, and for those in New Zealand it's a good time to wrap up warm, don your slippers and make yourself a hot cup of tea! We're having a real cold snap! Brrr, it's cold out there!

Full weekend

Started Friday night with the start of the rugby world cup. We decided to stay home and watch it on tv rather than venturing into town, which in hindsight was a good plan, the amount of people in there was quite rediculous. An amazing opening ceremony and fireworks, which was interesting to view with mr 5 year old Liam next to me on the couch, he hardly took a breath between questions, he didn't quite understand what everybody was doing, and all for just a game, and a cup.
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Then saturday morning I ventured into town with my sister-in-law Hendrina, and I must say they did a jolly good job of cleaning things up from the night before, there was just the odd straggler around who quite obviously had not yet gone to bed, and some who had decided to just have a wee sleep where they were. We had a lovely morning shopping and wandering and lunching, and the city is feeling so festive with lots of extra visitors in town and everyone wearing their colours. But the highlight, and the main purpose for our visit, was finishing with a fantastic haircut for us both with all the trimmings. It was so good, I've never been one to spend a whole lot of money on my hair but I must say I am very much tempted to return there when I'm due for my next trim!

And then Aaron and the kids picked me up from town and we were off down country a bit for a noisy family reunion next to the racetrack to watch my dad racing.  We met up with my sister Frith and family, and the grandchildren had a ball! See that one there below with the helmet on, Saxon, the youngest grandchild, he kept trying to convince Dada he was really quite old now and so should therefore be allowed to race also.
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Frith and I both had a turn, Frith has been out before but it was my first time, I said I'd only go if he didn't drive too fast! It was rather exhilarating, for the first few corners I was thinking - ok, you can stop accelerating now, there is a corner fast approaching! I think my dad was quite pleased he got me to squeal.  But really, I was quite sure that at any moment, those tires were going to let go of the track and we were going to tumble roly-poly over and end up upside down on the grass.



And then sunday it was church in the morning and then the afternoon was filled with friends and lots of rugby and far too many donuts, far, far too many, we're talking hundreds, shared between a disproportionate amount of people - which is the result of having a friend who owns a hot mini donut caravan. And I have to say, I've always had a bit of a soft spot for those hot little sugar and cinnamon covered rings, but yes, you can have too much of a good thing!

I hope you also had a lovely weekend, and wishing you a good week ahead.

Ah Spring

And the promise of summer. It does wonders really.

Another week

Don't the weeks just go so quickly sometimes. I hope yours has been a good one. And I wish you a happy weekend ahead. We have Aaron's mum arriving today from Australia for the weekend, we are much looking forward to it.

A little excursion

On Saturday four mammas left the kiddies with respective Dad's and snuck away for the morning. The celebration of a dear friend's birthday. A country drive, good conversation, good coffee, live music, a fresh almond croissant, shopping, some local produce for the pantry, crisp Autumn sunshine. Oh it was lovely, so so lovely. I think we might just have to do it again some time :)

An apple-y weekend

My Saturday was kind of just all about apples, fresh Autumn apples, picked on Friday from a friends tree. We went to pick feijoas, and came back with apples too. Two trees tucked down the back of the garden, covered with apples, the birds and wasps and codling moths were having a sweet Autumn appley feast down there in the back of the garden, so we picked them all, before they were all gobbled up (sorry little critters).
So Saturday morning, I gathered up my supplies and set myself up outside in the glorious Autumn sunshine and peeled and peeled and sliced and sliced. Until my fingers were stained brown and sore. I peeled and sliced and watched the kids run around, and the kids watched me and stole pieces of apple, and picked up the dropped apple peels and filled the trike trailer with them and took them for rides around the deck.
It was quite monotonous, but also very enjoyable, and kind of therapeutic, in the sunshine and the fresh air with the sweet smell of apples and sticky appley fingers, and the thought of jars filled and sealed and stored away.
I was trying a new method, jars of sliced apples, rather than stewed as I've always done in the past. It didn't quite turn out as planned. Hmm, nevermind, might just have to get a little more advice on that one for next time! But fortunately it was salvageable, and fortuntately I had that tray underneath to catch it all. I just scooped up all those apple bits and pieces and strained off most the liquid and threw them in a pot and we ended up with stewed apples after all, we just took the scenic route. And the bonus with the scenic route was that we ended up with two big bottles of sweet appley juice, which is being devoured quite quickly.
So that was pretty much my whole Saturday, what with peeling and peeling and slicing and slicing and cleaning jars and re-cleaning jars etc etc. But I did have time at the end of the day to make use of those delicious Autumn apples just once more, in an apple and feijoa pie, with the fabulous Smitten Kitchen pastry once again, that pastry just makes me want to make pies. And yes, once again, it was gobbled up too quickly to get a photo of the finished thing, we invited Aaron's brother and family over to help with the gobbling, so we didn't make complete piglets of ourselves. I think this will not be the last apple pie to be made before the apple season ends.