Heide Museum of Modern Art

Although today is ANZAC day, it is also the day my husband and I met and became more than just friends many years ago :)

So today on our non-wedding 'anniversary' which we still celebrate, we took the children to Heide especially as young Master Bok worked so diligently in the garden this morning!

I love this place, the sense of history, the wide open spaces and the interesting trees and plants let alone the amazing exhibits they display in their gallery - just fantastic. Now that Cafe Vue has opened, it is even better! The Garden Menu Du Jour features produce from Sunday Reed's original kitchen garden. Shannon Bennett's restaurants have always given me a great dining experience.

See the 'cows' up there..?

The seafood broth looks like compost but it was divine, rich and redolent with fresh herbs. The best deconstructed strawberry cheesecake as well...

what are these amazing fruit? Look like large kaffir limes, some kind of inedible orange I'm guessing...

Even though amazing sculptures abound at Heide, the kids still bent over every little bug they could find...

The kitchen garden

Couldn't take any pics inside but it was terrific

Hope you've all had a lovely day! Very grateful to the soldiers, nurses, all the men and women who gave so selflessly. Hope we make it to the dawn service next year.

p.s. this is what I ended up doing with the flowering broccoli...

My Very Sad Citrus - help!

Well in line with the whole pledge for Earth Day, I'm investigating plants that aren't so happy in this wee garden...

We got a whole heap of citrus on sale last Winter.  A year ago.  We tried them in the garden although we knew they wouldn't get much sun.  But this is really very sad, the time has come to make a decision on whether to pull them up or not and make way for more shade tolerant trees...

Most of the garden is in constant shade although grass miraculously grows...I've had excellent ideas from my local permie group who have suggested growing currants, alpine or wood strawberries and blueberries in the shady spots in the garden, they'd love the acidic soil too (acidic thanks to that no good pine tree).  Do you have any suggestions for shade loving edibles, especially shrubs and trees...?

This lemon - let's call her Lemon #1 - has lost virtually all its leaves, no idea why, they've all just disappeared - tis a very spindly tree - and with no bugs evident at all! But plenty of little budding lemons and the odd large lemon with very thick skin...

Poor Lemon #1

As for my other young citrus...

The mandarin trees are very young and have tiny mini mandarins...but none have progressed beyond tiny baby size!

The blood orange seems to be the only citrus to be doing well but it gets a tiny bit more sunlight than the others...

This is the lemon on the other side of the lawn (Lemon #2) which also doesn't get much sunlight...it has leaves at least though!

 

This is the lime tree constantly bedecked in spider webs and pine needles from that great big hulking pine tree that hogs all the sunlight and leaves none for the garden! Are spiderwebs so bad for trees?  I've left it be as it seems happy enough.

 

So.  Remove the poorly Lemon #1?  No idea why she is losing her leaves.  Perhaps because of the heavy rains we've had this year and lack of sunlight.  What do you think?  :'(

Anyway - look what we have growing under our kitchen sink...although this is the last time because the last lot, whilst prolific, decided to throw spore everywhere overnight!  Wondered why everything was covered in a fine brown dust...pick them young.  They get as huge as small side plates but are far more prolific if picked young and tender like this.

Today is ANZAC day but we missed the dawn service kids being up all night as usual.  Lest we forget...so that we are free to grow our vegetables in peace, I'm grateful.

Happy Earth Day!

Hallo!

Happy Earth Day everyone!  There are some people who laugh at Earth Day but I think any event that raises awareness and encourages people to do something good for the earth is worthy of celebration! I love Google's image for today, I'm sure it's meant to be representing Earth Day.

This Earth Day my Earth Day pledge is to grow more edibles in my garden, care for plants that are not happy in their current positions even if it means moving them instead of hoping they will magically somehow start to thrive...and provide more native plants to attract more insects and wildlife into the garden. All things I try to do anyway but this is just another reason for me to try harder at it.

Today is also Good Friday, a day of deep significance for some and a time of reflection for many.  We are simply grateful for the opportunity to take time off work and spend it with our children. 

We had an Easter egg hunt in the garden for the kids and chooks today.

In the garlic!

Chooks got a hot breakfast of roasted zucchini filled

with beans and eggs, with corn and cauliflower

scattered about the garden for them to find for their

own 'Easter egg' hunt!

  

Picked more sprouting broccoli

Hunting for eggs

I'm not sure what to do about the lawn...we really want to convert it into food but it gets no direct sunlight at all, no idea how the grass is surviving!!  We've attempted to grow vegies there in containers just to test if it may work but it has never had success so for now it is a meadow for the chooks to enjoy and a place for the kids to picnic, run and play footy on.  Our citrus aren't happy either in their sunless aspects but I'll post more on that next time and get some advice from you sages.

I also visited a friend this morning, Hazel from The Hazelnut Tree to pick up some soaps and a gorgeous chicky door stop she made.  Her soaps are divine, clearly lovingly designed and created and smell heavenly.  I can't wait to use them...

 

 

Wishing you a very happy and safe Easter, I hope this Easter brings you what you most need no matter what your spiritual beliefs you have or what manner of creature you are   :)

 

The Secret Garden

I loved this book as a child and I still love it today, I know just where to flick to get to my favourite parts (where Mary witnesses her cousin's tantrum for the first for example and peers peevishly at his 'hunch' back, or where Colin's dad finally comes home to see him)...

I am so so delighted that Jillian Tamaki has embroidered covers for a limited range of Penguin Classics books.  She is amazingly talented and the book covers are FABULOUS.

I've been watching bookstores anxiously awaiting their arrival...nothing yet on these shores so I've emailed Penguin to ask when the launch is!

Time to update a few old favourites!