Wednesday, 20 October 2010
Working on the Wall
One of Dad's big summer projects was rebuilding the retaining wall in front of their house. Here's Dad (sporting his favourite sun protection) and Mum working on the finishing touches.
My favourite kind of wheelbarrow
Maya had a photography assignment for school last weekend and McKinlay and Annabelle agreed to be her models for the project. While we were outside with the camera I asked Luke and Annabelle to make a wheelbarrow. Are these not some of the most adorable kids ever?!
Inner Hobbit
After a late start on our garden due to the dogs' digging habits, we finally got things going. This was my first garden and I discovered that I really enjoy growing a garden. Yes, I am a hobbit at heart.
My tomatoes grew wonderfully. I have more cherry tomatoes than I would normally buy in a three years. Maya loves cherry tomatoes and it's great having an endless supply. My roma tomatoes have grown beautifully too - I love having fresh tomatoes to eat all summer long! I even attempted canning some last weekend and I got 5 jars of diced tomatoes. I know, that's a pitiful quantity to you canning experts, but I felt good about it as my first attempt.
I wanted to plant some herbs but the only one I got as a seedling was parsley. It grew super well but I hardly used it! Maybe I'll have to figure out how to dry and preserve it before winter comes... If you look closely in the below photo you can see my basil to the right of the parsley. Basil was the main herb that I wanted but I had to grow it from seed. I only got 2 plants and neither grew very big. Next year I'll get that growing much earlier in the year and plant a lot more of it so I have a chance to fulfill all of my summer basil needs.
The rest of my harvest was not quite so abundant...
My tomatoes grew wonderfully. I have more cherry tomatoes than I would normally buy in a three years. Maya loves cherry tomatoes and it's great having an endless supply. My roma tomatoes have grown beautifully too - I love having fresh tomatoes to eat all summer long! I even attempted canning some last weekend and I got 5 jars of diced tomatoes. I know, that's a pitiful quantity to you canning experts, but I felt good about it as my first attempt.
I wanted to plant some herbs but the only one I got as a seedling was parsley. It grew super well but I hardly used it! Maybe I'll have to figure out how to dry and preserve it before winter comes... If you look closely in the below photo you can see my basil to the right of the parsley. Basil was the main herb that I wanted but I had to grow it from seed. I only got 2 plants and neither grew very big. Next year I'll get that growing much earlier in the year and plant a lot more of it so I have a chance to fulfill all of my summer basil needs.The rest of my harvest was not quite so abundant...My hobbit-sized capsicum (it didn't even do one whole salad)
The largest and smallest of my beet root
Teeny tiny carrots
Largest and more typical-sized strawberries. I got about 6 mushy strawberries in total, but I am optimistic they'll do better in the years to come.
US Postal Service
This is how I received a letter recently. Inside this partial envelope is a piece of a check I wrote. Luckily my address was on this portion so they were able to get it back to me. This is the second time that I've had a partial piece of mail delivered since I've been back in the US. I guess sometimes when people say the check got lost in the mail it's true.
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