Grateful for crazy tomatoes and apple cider to give life some perspective

Something happened yesterday that's secretly left me a bit unsettled and quite a bit all aflutter - but hey that's life and I am but human!  The sun does much to lift the spirit and wine does much to sooth the soul so to enjoy a gorgeous sunny warm Spring Saturday, we headed down the road to the yarra valley for some wine and came across a winery that makes the best apple and pear cider!  They grow their own apples, pears and grapes for their beautiful drops of yum.

 

 

 We stopped at de Bortoli too for some cheese...

A really lovely day.  Just sun.  Just a little family.  To settle the secret unsettley bit inside.

Meanwhile back at home...

The recent warm stormy weather has brought on a massive tomato growth spurt!  I seriously think in just 3 days the tomato plants have doubled in size and nearly snapped because they weren't supported well enough.

Looking after my vegies and watching them grow, the amazingness and reliability of it all.  Plant a seed.  Nurture it.  Witness the tiny sprout unfurling then turning into a rampant fruit producing mass of leaves all with a mini ecosystem of its own complete with bad bugs, good guy bugs and sometimes little toadstools humming in the humus.   In turn it nourishes me.  My body.  Gives me perspective, reins me in when unsettling things happen.  Or don't happen.  Or whatever.  A garden can teach a person a lot of things and the learning and the reflecting opportunities are often underrated.

The ones in here are the most advanced, the others I planted on the 

windowsills a bit later and are a bit smaller 

 In the chook pen I note much of the tomato fruit has gone mysteriously missing!

Look!  Phoebe I think this is one of your gem squash!

Trombocinos or spaghetti squash.  I can't remember which, honestly I think I need to make tags.

Cannot wait for the artichoke to flower so I can admire then pull the darn thing out to make room for vegies! There are 6 artichokes on my one plant.  It's enormous.  Really it's time for it to go!  I don't like eating them but I love the bloom.

Lots of blueberries to look forward to... 

The yacon has gone nuts.  Anyone know when I'm supposed to harvest it?

 

On the left - little flowers on my tiny babaco  :)  One day I'll get fruit like the ones we saw at Diggers!

On the right...I'm not sure what this is...Hazel, I think you might have bought some at Diggers?  I planted it over Winter and cannot remember what it is but it looks like it's forming berries!  It's in my garden so it must be edible...

Nectarines but lots of leaf curl too boooooooo...I forgot to spray.  Too late now.

 

We planted this stella cherry on the left over Winter and it's given us 4 cherries :)  

And on the right a plum of some sort!  I'm excited!  Finally our fruit trees are getting enough sunlight now that the pine tree next door is gone and we are getting tiny fruit (not many but still!) and I'm soooooo excited!

This week I'm grateful for sunshine, for the miracle and pleasure vegie gardens bring and the thing called love that keeps our lives interesting.  Linking for the first time to Maxabella, one of my fave bloggers.  I'd really love to see your garden one day Maxabella!   

Hope you're having a fabbo weekend  x

p.s. Join in my Christmas appeal here

Sunday 30 Jan, 2011 A Country Break

 

Marysville - I used to come camping here and at Narbethong a lot before Black Saturday.

Two years on , it is both heartening and so sad to see the rebuilding that is happening here in what was once, and will be again, a bustling vibrant and beautiful township. The trees are slowly cladding themselves in new foliage, so odd to see gum trees swathed in green tinsel like this.

But there are also huge patches of mountainside that are still charred and show no sign of green yet.  I miss the wildlife although locals have said that the birds have returned and numbers are very slowly increasing.

Very happy to see the lolly shop is planning on rebuilding this March, currently they are operating from a shipping container.  I love their spirit and vivacity.

Look at the types of plants that have survived and are springing back to life in long abandoned gardens...wisteria is pretty hardy then it seems! Lots of it can be seen around empty blocks.

And how heart warming to see people in the town raising money for the QLDers hit by floods. If people who have suffered so much loss can still find the spirit to help others, why can't we all be willing to do the same and more.

We returned to a special place to us in the heart of the Yarra Valley. It was lovely to watch the kangaroos from our windows at dawn and dusk.

 

Old apple orchard.  Waiting until the apples are ripe enough for plucking!

Had to leave early on Sunday to return home because I worried so much about The Bok Flock and how they would cope with the heat - 40 degrees - we got home and hosed them down with a light sprinkle every hour in addition to sprinkling ice under their favourite trees to cool the ground down. Feel so sorry for them. In hot scorching weather like this, being outside is like being under the constant nozzle of a hot hair dryer. It's hot again today so I hope they'll be ok.

Also harvested a few vegies before it got too hot. Saw a cucumber peeking through from behind the trellis, had never even noticed it there before! It's huge!

Love to see community gardens like this one which was found on the edge of a car park next to a few supermarkets.  Terrific to see organic and home grown produce in so many places.  I hope it encourages more people to start gardens of their own.  It has strengthened my resolve to get a few apple crates to plant up more vegies!  Can't plant vegies in many places in my garden because really only the driveway gets all the sunlight which is why we've got the vegie bed running the length of it.