Making Things, Photographing Things

Snippets of things I've been making lately. Blogging truly is an excuse to interrupt everyday life to take photographs of everyday things. 

Chopped plums about to be made into plum jam.

A dishcloth in the making, not far to go.

Homemade soap, grated up and ready to be used in homemade laundry liquid.

Chocolate sponge cake, a bit on the flat side, but yummy all the same [and filled with homemade jam!].

Chamomile flowers waiting to make chamomile tea [and the remnants of a banana and date loaf].

Have you been making anything lately? Do you feel the need to photograph what you get up to?

Linking up with Photography Friday.

The First Week of Spring

Started out with days in the mid-twenties. T-shirt weather. What was I saying last week about not being ready for winter to be over? I take it back. These warm sunny days are just divine. They're certainly helping the garden grow - good for the vegies and the flowers and the trees. Less good for the weeds. My little dog Jock decided to have a lie down in the weeds growing near the clothes line. While I hung out nappies to dry and William napped in the pram at my side. I haven't hung anything outside to dry for months, as there's just no point in winter. I forgot how good springtime feels.

What's happening in your neck of the woods?

A Trip to the Nursery

As a child I remember my mother taking me to endless nurseries. For the most part I didn't mind; they usually offered interesting landscaping and abundant greenery and exciting twisting paths leading here and there and everywhere. And it seems our son is going to suffer the same fate. We've spent the last two Sunday's visiting nurseries. Our local for some basics - a replacement westringia, an apricot tree [just in time] and a climbing rose, to be grown over the chook shed. Then a trip to Lambley, which we've been talking about doing for a long time now [talking about it and actually doing it with a 4.5 month old baby are very different things]. But we got there. 

I find a world of inspiration at Lambley. Not necessarily because I want our garden to be as ordered and structured as the gardens at Lambley are - I don't. There is room for chaos and disorder in our garden, so long as it is confined to perfectly structured and crafted beds. But I do appreciate very much the attention to detail and exacting precision of the Lambley garden layout. Browse the following images and you'll see what I'm talking about. We were lucky with the weather - it rained most of the drive to get there, it rained while we had a nappy change and got rugged up in the car. And the rain stopped for long enough that we got to enjoy a wander through this beautiful winter garden. 

We took home some daffodils, and seeds of marigolds and nasturtiums. We're hoping for another visit Lambley in spring, just to see the pretty blossoms and tulips and expansive vegetable garden. 

Late Summer in the Vegie Garden

Some images of how things are, right now, in the vegie garden. 

The corn is coming along nicely.

The cherry tomatoes are ripe, and the plants themselves are starting to fade.

The roma tomatoes are still ripening on the vine.

The chilli is in full swing, but we can't keep up with them all. They're drying in the sun.

The beans aren't doing so great. I don't think we'll get many at all this year. Hot winds did the damage.

A snippet of my garden. It took me many, many hours to create this vegetable garden, and this summer was the first time planting. I'm looking forward to stripping it back to prepare for autumn/winter.