Summertime

Summertime. I love the golden yellow hues of the dry country. I always thought I would prefer a greener place but as it turns out, I don't.

Flo the pony is doing so well, it's hard to imagine that 12 months ago she was uncatchable and with ridiculously long feet in need of a trim. I was so stressed about it at the time too, but things do change, nothing stays the same forever and now here we are. I can walk into the paddock and give her a scratch, catch her easily, groom her, clean her feet and she stands quietly for a trim. She's still pretty wild and I really love that about her (I'm taking lessons from her).

It's become really apparent to me lately that my life is feeling anything but 'simple' these days. I have this deep desire to just 'be' at home with my child, yet somehow I manage to fill our days up with other things. So as we come into the new year, it's very much on my mind that 2016 is going to be a year of simplifying, slowing down (again), finding my feet (again) and focusing in on what I really want.

The next days are for sitting with all that has been in 2015, and letting most of it go. I'll be doing some deep inner and outer clearing (I have been in decluttering mode for the past month already!) and ready to dig deeper in 2016, on what really matters to me. And where I want us to be. I've given in to the restlessness I feel in our current home, and I'm just waiting for a new home to materialise now. I've mentally packed up the kitchen dozens of times, and if anything I've created a new impatience at wanting to move.

And in all of that, I'm appreciating the warm days. The washing drying so quickly, the ease of not layering into so many clothes, even the pulling closed blinds to keep the harsh light out. Quiet time indoors while it's too hot and sunny to be out and about. I do love summertime.

Late summer, 2015.

The corn, a few weeks ago. Before Harmony got to it.

I can really feel the shift of the seasons in the air now. The calendar says it's summer for another three weeks, and the days are still summer hot. Hottest so far, probably. But the air is different, the light is different, and my senses tell me the season has changed. Autumn has arrived, the first signs are here. First leaves turned yellow and fallen from the old trees. The shortening days. The different light.

Which makes sense, because early November felt like the shift into the summer season, and early August felt like the shift into spring. I will be watching to see now if May feels like the shift into winter. I think it does, thinking back to earlier May's.

We spent Saturday in Melbourne. I was so very happy to be taking part in an Etsy photography workshop,  as part of their #EtsyResolution campaign that's happening. It's all about helping people finally open that Etsy shop they have dreamed of but keep putting off, or for existing sellers to give their shop an overhaul, with a series of blog posts by Jess Van Den of Create and Thrive. And a real life, in person, photography workshop to help you take better product photos. How good is that?

The workshop was run by professional photographers and I came away with new ideas and inspiration and so much more confidence in taking better product photos. And some help with my camera as well. It was perfect really, just what I needed. A day in the city, a few Melbourne coffee's, a Melbourne cafe lunch, and a photography workshop. So I'll be trying out a few new things this week. It's keeping me pretty well occupied at the moment.

So anyway I decided to actually, finally open an Etsy shop. This is a bit of a big deal for me, it's one of those things that I wanted to do but didn't really have the confidence to do. Like going to a group fitness class at the gym, that was a big deal for me also. I am working my way through the series of #EtsyResolution blogs and slowly building up a shop. You are welcome to take a look, it's a little crystal shop. And it is still very much a work in progress but hopefully by the end of the series I will have it all just right.

The image above is from a few weeks ago. Seems our Harmony horse has a liking for corn. We've now lost about half the harvest, I think. Plus a whole smaller bed of corn, that has all been eaten. She shouldn't even be on the house block, that horse, but sometimes I relent and let her out. Poor girl is usually stuck in the paddock watching Flo pony help herself to all the green pick as she comes and goes through the temporary fence as she pleases. And - green grass coming through in summer. It's been a strange one, that's for sure.

Around Here

Around here, it looks like harvest season is rolling in. Activity at the grain silo's is picking up - a fellow stationed up on the weigh bridge all day, trucks arriving from 8am until 6pm in the evening with their grain deliveries. It's a pretty huge operation, really. I think we're still a little while off the full swing of harvest, and I expect it to get busier and louder (apparently the trains shunting around at night can get really loud, but I sleep through anything other than the sounds of a toddler). It's not bothering me at the moment. Maybe it will when it picks up, maybe it won't. 

I find it kind of fascinating, really. Industrial scale agriculture. I did vintage at a winery for a few years there, and I loved that job and that work. Little people operating big machines and managing big volumes of grapes from the harvest. So I see the similarities in the operation across the road - the fellow  in high vis gear, hanging about on the weigh bridge, overseeing as the trucks dump their loads and then waiting, kicking at the ground with a steel-capped boot, for the next truck to roll in. And repeat, lots of times.

And then a part of me despises industrial agriculture. I dislike the use of semi trailers and their natural-resource-guzzling ways, I dislike the idea of intensive monoculture farming, and this business whereby farms these days are owned by corporations, not farmers, well I'm not a huge fan of that either. But this is the world we live in. And I suspect that most of the grains that pass through this area are destined to go to the port and be shipped off to other parts of the world. Funny that we have such a good view of the whole thing.

I guess this will be our front of house view for the next couple of months. I have no complaints. The trucks, they rumble past so slowly as they're just taking off. It's when they go through small towns carrying too much speed, that's when they bother me. That really bothers me.

Garden Share Collective: Summer Ends

Another month down, another Garden Share Collective post. Hosted by one of the most enthusiastic gardeners around, Lizzie of Strayed from the Table. Have you been for a look yet?

February has been a slow month for garden work, but an abundant month for garden harvests. All the work from earlier starts to pay healthy dividends. We have been eating from the garden daily, with zucchini, tomato, rainbow chard, leeks and celery featuring regularly. And from the herb garden, which is doing surprisingly well, getting the hot afternoon sun as it does, we've been enjoying basil, oregano, thyme, sage, dill and rosemary. The mint and chives are also doing well, but for some reason they are always forgotten. Poor things.

Finally they are ripening.

The garden is now showing signs of wear and tear, the end of a long, hot and productive summer. The tomato plants are browning off, and we're not watering much to avoid splitting the already-large fruit. The tomatoes themselves are still ripening regularly and we have just loved the sweet taste of these fruits. I gave up buying tomatoes from the supermarket a long time ago, and really, when I eat these, I am reminded all over again why I made that decision. Plus William squeals for the tomatoes every time we go out there - at 11 months old, he is a master tomato-picker, foraging among the leaves and coming up with the goods. Sometimes green, which he has a good nibble at, and when he finds a red one, it's like a jackpot. He eats the whole thing in a juicy, tomato-stained mess. Just gorgeous.

Potato flowering, some capsicums and celery.

The potatoes are flowering like mad. I'm still waiting to see how they go, what with being sown so late in the season. But I'm heartened to see such abundant growth in that section of the garden, which stood bare for so long with nothing much seeming to take, except for weeds. So we shall see, perhaps by next month I will have a bumper potato harvest to report, or perhaps not very much. 

Leeks - what can I say, they have grown beautifully. Occasionally I pick a large one, but more often than not I take the smaller ones, the ones being crowded out by the zucchini, or that have suffered from baby-squash or cat-squash or chicken-scratch. Serious conditions, all. And out of 36-odd onions that I planted out, I harvested 5 small ones. The cat slept on all of them. All of them! Thank goodness for the leeks to flavour our dinners.

The zucchini has once again been a star performer. From only one plant, we've not run short of zucchini for about 2 months now. Lucky we all love eating them in this house. I've not had enough to entice me to make a zucchini chocolate cake, although now I think about it, there is a large one in the fridge, a bit too large for my liking, which could just suffer that fate. And then I would have to eat cake. The things you have to do!

Rainbow chard has been one of my favourites, as always. It is also one of the chicken's favourites. Now what are the chickens even doing in the vegie garden? Yes, my question exactly. They've not had enough greenery in their run so I take pity on them and let them out, and of course off they go to the vegie garden. I had basically given up shooing them out, since all the plants were established and they couldn't do too much damage. Apart from devouring my rainbow chard. Sharing is caring, I suppose. Anyway they now have a significantly larger run with lots of greenery. So the vegie garden is to remain chicken-free, unless I invite them in.

The oregano starting to wander.

My little herb garden continues to thrive, provided the water is kept up. Oregano is starting to do it's thing and spread out over it's rocky home. Sage is growing like mad, thyme is also growing well. These all went in as tiny little seedlings and grew ever so slowly for a few months there. I look forward to seeing them bed in a lot more over the wetter months to come. Mint is flowing, basil is flowing, dill is flowering, there are even little thyme flowers to be seen.

Mint flowers.

I've managed to finally tackle a new bed in the front garden, where I'm planning to put lettuce, beetroot, kale, broccoli and probably some more silverbeet. Nothing is planted yet, but the old flowers have gone, sheep poo has been dug through, it's had a drink and is now resting soundly under a solid bed of pea straw. Monday is the day for seedlings, photos to follow. I'm loving creating a new bed for a new season.

So in summary:

Planting in March will be broccoli, kale, beetroot, lettuce, silverbeet. Possibly broad beans.

Jobs in the garden for March will be to clear out the tomatoes and zucchini when finished, dig in compost, add fresh pea straw and think about what goes where for the autumn/winter. Lots of greens, I'm thinking.

Currently harvesting tomatoes, zucchini, rainbow chard, leeks celery plus the herbs. Hoping to get a harvest of potato and some capsicums as well.

It's me, digging sheep poo!

That's me and my garden for this month. For more garden inspiration head over to the Garden Share Collective page and see what's been happening in other gardens. There's bloggers from all over the world taking part, I always like to know what's going on on the other side of the globe. Happy gardening!

Late Summer

There is something so lovely about the end of summertime. The days are shorter, the angle of the sun has changed, there is less intensity to the heat. The vegetable garden has peaked for the season - tomato plants start to brown, with fruit still on the vine ripening. The zucchini slows down is massive production effort, after having taken over so much space in the garden. Basil flowers form, hinting that soon enough, it will be cool, and fresh basil in our meals with be but a dream until next summer.

Daily harvests are plentiful, all the hard work having been done. It is a time for rest, a time to sit back and draw breath, and be grateful for the bounty we have enjoyed over the warm months. Knowing the cooler weather of autumn will soon be here, and the garden work will start again, removing the wonderful providers from the summer just gone. A new cycle starting, renewal, a change, a clean slate to start once more. Beds to be dug over, compost to be spread about, a new focus for a different season.

This has been a tiring summer. It feels like only yesterday I stood in my kitchen, cup of tea in hand, on the first day of January. When the weather was cool, and we wondered when it would get hot. In mid January it got hot. Very hot. And it was so intense at the time, but feels strangely so far away now. The ground is dry, with another summer of well below average rainfall. But we have survived, we have thrived, and now we turn to face the autumn, and hope for rain to fall soon. It will.

Thinking back to early summer, and the prospect of long sunny days and delightfully warm weather. Forgetting how harsh the summer in central Victoria can be. Hiding indoors from the intensity of the days. Hibernating from the heat. Already the nights are cooler, and extra warmth is needed. The whirr of the fan in the bedroom on hot nights is but a memory, and we can put it away again until next year. The air softens, and mellows, and we watch as the transition happens around and within us.

I love the changing of the season.

In The Garden... autumn is on the way

A dried garlic flower. There are a few of these, I'm thinking they will look lovely in a tall vase in the house. And hopefully some garlic will be found too.

Pretty flowers spill over from the neighbouring side. Greenery and a pretty view from the kitchen, so lovely.

A little capsicum has set down in the vegie garden. Grow little capsicum, grow.

A lone apple hangs on a branch. Maybe I will pick it and we can celebrate our bounty. Or maybe I will just leave it there for the birds.

And signs that autumn is on the way. I look forward to the changing season.

What's happening in your garden this week?

I'll be doing this post weekly, on Friday's, so if you would like to join me and share something In The Garden, please do! Any and all gardens, plants in pots and balconies, the gardens at your local park, any garden will do. Leave a link to your blog in the comments and I'll be there to take a peek.

Little Bits of Lately [Instagram..]

I love Instagram. I really do. I often contemplate going without a smart phone, as it really is one of those nice but not actually necessary things in life, but then I think... no Instagram... I'm not sure I want to do that. So basically my iPhone is still with me for this purpose. I don't know what it is, I just love having these little square images, little snippets of my everyday life that I would never capture on a DSLR because it's usually sitting somewhere out of harm's way until I actually want to do some 'photography'. Life is captured on Instagram [ok that's not quite true, life is captured on Camera + and then loaded into Instagram, but whatever..] and I love having these little images. Beautiful little reminders of what has been going on.

And apparently, one of my favourite things to Instagram is rainbow chard. Hmmm. Perhaps this is a sign that I need to branch out? In truth, I often take photos of little garden harvests, when I have time. It's so easy to take for granted how much we eat from the garden, but when I look back, I see we've been harvesting so much. And I still just love the colour of the stalks on the rainbow chard. I do often leave the stalks on the bench once I've chopped them off just because the colour is so pretty. And now William always wants to get hold of them to have a chew on [there's worse things he could be chewing, believe me, cat hair springs to mind]. 

Little gifts for Christmas [yeah, some of these are from a while ago].

The first beetroot of the season. Beautiful. 

Bits and bobs form the garden to make a red salad - beetroot, red lettuce, red quinoa.

A cup of tea to start the new year, with a seedy head for no apparent reason!

I've been loving making fancy-ish desserts this summer - think pastry, think fruits, think almond meal, think pies. Add ice cream and you are good to go. Fancy schmancy.

More rainbow chard... pretty colours.

Some little leeks were being crowded out by the ever-expanding zucchini, so we ate them instead.

A delightful little treat to self from The Hive Botanicals etsy shop. 

Yummy things to go in dinner - thyme and rosemary from the garden, garlic grown locally and bought at the farmers' market. 

The view at the midway point on a Saturday morning ride. I've been getting Saturday morning bike rides! This day was headed for 43 degrees or something ridiculous like that.

More rainbow chard, and zucchinis. Enough said?

More rainbow chard, and zucchinis. And some little leeks too. Because I just love taking photos of our home grown produce.

Are you addicted to Instagram? Am I following you? You can find me @dustycountryroad, if you just can't get enough swiss chard photos. 

January: (not) Blogging, Weather and Rhythm

I've not been around blog land much lately. This stage of life is proving most demanding on my time, and in the most wonderful way. I find that I am living more in the present than ever, and less in my own head. The reason for this is a bouncing 10 month old baby boy; still my baby, but in the transition between baby and toddler. I didn't even know there was such a thing, but that is where he's at. I can barely recall what happened yesterday, let alone last week. I'm living so totally in the now. And the now isn't providing much space for taking photos, or editing photos, or writing blog posts, or even reading my favourite blogs. It is an ever changing landscape, life with a very young child. 

I snapped this image last week. It was a hot day, and the clouds rolled in to provide us with thunder and lightening and a little rain in the evening. It was a hot week, probably the hottest five days in a row I've experienced. If it were just me, I would lie on the couch and watch the tennis and not move very much. But with a small baby, I found the heat quite difficult. Little things, like wondering if [hoping] the chickens were ok, but not being able to go check them. I wasn't taking my baby out into that heat. Watching my vegie garden wilting mid-morning, despite a good watering the night before. Not wanting to hang clothes on the line, as I didn't want to leave them out in the harsh sun too long, and knowing that I may not have a chance to go outside and retrieve them. Little things that made life more tricky.

I was heard to say more than once that we should just move to Tasmania. I'm normally a heat lover, and over winter I'm often heard saying we should move to somewhere warmer, maybe the mid-north coast of New South Wales. But this heat, this is not nice. Last summer was the longest dry spell in decades, and this summer is proving to be erratic at best. I believe we are starting to see and feel the effects of this global warming thing. So I expect we will see more of these really hot days in summer, and more of the erratic weather patterns. What will it be like in another 30 years time? 50 years? What will my son experience in his lifetime? Part of me says to just make the best of here, and part of me says move to a cooler climate.

I've been doing an e-course all through January, all about finding rhythm and bringing rhythm to the home, particularly with small children in the home. It is wonderful, and fulfilling and helping me so much to bring rhythm and structure to our days. Simple little things, anchors in our days, bringing ritual and reverence to meal times, being dependable with our daily chores. Hanging out the washing, taking out the chook bucket, bringing in the washing, quiet time after lunch. Ringing the tiny brass bells on a string to signal meal time, a job assigned to our baby who loves it already. You can see more about this course here. I don't want it to end. It has given me so much food for thought, and a beautifully calming start to a new year. 

How is your January going?

Garden Share Collective: The Summer Garden

Another month gone, and it's time for the Garden Share Collective once again. Thanks as always to Lizzie of Strayed from the Table for putting on this show and getting a lot of bloggers on board for this little link up.

My trusty garden helper examining the tomatoes.

Well I'm finally seeing the results of my work in the new garden. Summer is here, and we're harvesting almost daily from the small but abundant garden I've been toiling at for months. There are, as always, winners and losers in the garden, but despite some plants not thriving, most are doing well. And the truth is in the harvesting. 

My one surviving zucchini plant is doing a wonderful job of feeding us. Granted I don't have quite the zucchini glut that I've come to love [zucchini chocolate cake is the answer], but we've got enough zucchini's coming in when we want them, and they are delicious. And my baby loves zucchini, so it's all the better for me. The lettuce has been going strong for weeks now, and the rainbow chard has picked up after a slow start. The beetroots are wonderful and small fresh leeks cooked up with fresh zucchini is just divine.

We've had plenty of these little beauties.

Colours of the rainbow chard.

Beetroot and lettuce have done very well.

Tomatoes are slow to develop, I'm only just seeing small fruit set now, after what feels like weeks of flowering. I've got some little capsicums in the ground, growing well but a way off flowering. They went in quite late so I'm hoping for some capsicums before the summer is over. I've also got celery doing not very much. It's there, growing ever so slowly, but I would have hoped for more from it by now. I had the same thing happen last summer - is there a trick to celery that I'm not aware of? Apart from better soil perhaps.

Finally, a tomato has appeared.

Me, the leeks, some weeds and a basil that's just hanging on.

Celery doing not very much and some little capsicums that need to grow big and strong.

Beans have been a source of disappointment for me. I've had two attempts now, once with seeds straight in the ground, which sprouted and promptly got eaten, and then with some seedlings I grew in punnets, only to see them whither and fade in the not-very-improved soil. Blah to that. So I've given up on them for now and instead put seed potatoes in that patch of soil, if nothing else, to help condition it for next season. I also lost a couple of zucchini plants and a cucumber to bugs, snails I think. I must put out some beer for them to have a drink but it's not something that gets purchased much these days, so it hasn't happened yet.

A surprisingly happy little basil over in the herb garden.

My herb garden is ticking along, the sage is taking hold nicely and I'm surprised to see some basil looking quite healthy out there. Not huge, but growing happily all the same. Oregano and thyme are slowly growing, as is the rocket. I must say again the soil quality is ok but not great over there so I guess I'll just have to condition it over time. When I get time! My poor little chamomile didn't make it. I'm a bit disappointed about that, I guess it wasn't happy where it was, and before I had a chance to do anything much about it, it was too late. 

So all in all, I'm happy with where the garden is at right now. You win some, you lose some and if all else fails, rely on the good old zucchini and silverbeet [rainbow chard]. Head on over to the Garden Share Collective page to check out what other bloggers have been up to, both in Australia and around the world. Happy gardening to you!

Summertime

And the living is most certainly easy. The washing dries in a day, even the nappies, just on the line. The warmth greets you when you step outside, and envelopes you with it's loveliness. Until the temperature reaches the high 30's, that is. The house can breathe with windows open and fresh air blowing in. 

The lavender is so beautifully in bloom. The jasmine outside the kitchen window is mostly finished, as are the roses in the front garden. The vegetable garden is lush and abundant, and the herbs are tolerating the heat. The grass begs to be watered. A rainy day brings fresh life to the garden.

I do love summertime so much. Already though, the days are getting shorter, and I can see yellow leaves here and there on the trees. A reminder that this too shall pass, and autumn will soon be here with it's mellow light and colourful leaves. I look forward to autumn, and first birthday celebrations. 

My baby boy crawls in the garden, and picks handfuls of lettuce and tomato leaves. Balancing precariously on garden sleepers to reach a standing position. Examining the hose, and the watering can, and tasting the leaves and the dirt. I start to see the garden with fresh eyes, through watching him.

I hope your summertime is just as lovely as ours. Or your wintertime.

Homemade: Plum Jam

I had totally forgotten that this place we've moved back to has a plum tree. And even in the first month or so that we were back here, it hadn't dawned on me that there would soon be plums. But as November progressed, I watched and saw the little green plums being formed on the tree. I have a wonderful view of it from our sunny afternoon sitting spot where we read books. And I kept thinking to myself, I must get out there with the camera and capture some images of the plums turning from green to red. And it still never occurred to me that I could make plum jam. And I didn't really get any good images either.

Once the plums started ripening, and I started harvesting lots and lots of plums, it became a matter of urgency to make the jam before they got too ripe. I'm new at this jam-making business, and I've had a few attempts with the plums now [with varying success], but I'm hooked. I love that those delicious plums won't go to waste now, as so many of them have been turned into jam that can be eaten for months to come. Actually I think I've made more jam than we're likely to eat in a year. I could give it away, and probably will, but I want to be sure of the quality of my work before I go handing it out. Obviously mum gets a jar regardless.

So we have plum jam. We've been eating scones and pikelets and we had to make jam drops [my favourite biscuits]. I am yet to master the art of jam making, but I'd like to think I'm learning more with each attempt. The first attempt was a total fail, it was too set and we could barely get it out of the jars. The second attempt was much better, it is spreadable but still a little on the too-set side of things. The third attempt is cooling in jars as I type, and I'm concerned that I've over-corrected and it's now too runny. Time will tell. Fingers crossed it sets well as it cools. I think I need a lot more practice at this jam making caper. 

Here's the recipe I followed. 

Plum Jam

Ingredients:

900g plums [prepared weight]

150ml water

900g granulated sugar

Method:

Put plums into a heavy based saucepan. Add water and bring to the boil. Lower heat, and simmer gently for 30-40 minutes. The fruit should be soft. 

Tip in the sugar and stir over a very low heat until sugar has completely dissolved.

Raise the heat [gently] and bring back to a rolling boil, then rapidly boil for 10 minutes.

Remove from heat, skim off any excess scum from the top and allow to settle for a few minutes. Pour into hot sterilised jars and seal.

Making jam is one of those things that connects me to my grandmother, and her mother. I'm learning how to do something that was common knowledge a few generations ago. And it's one more thing I can make from scratch, instead of buying as a processed product at the supermarket. 

Have you made jam? Are you a pro? Or a novice like me?

A New Blog

My new blog. If you're hopping over from a link on my old blog, welcome and thanks for checking this out! I'm very inspired to have a new, clean, fresh look about my blog, and a new name that I can identify with. I hope you'll enjoy what you find here, please follow along. 2013 is shaping up to be a HUGE year for me [I'm getting married to my sweetheart, and we're expecting a baby pretty soon :)]. This is my place to document and share the experience, and all the ups and downs of living a simple life in the country.

As I start this blog, it is summer in Australia. A hot, dry and windy summer at that. Which is where the name Dusty Country Road comes from. Where I live, there are lots of them around.

The dusty country road where I live.