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| Yummy yoghurt lunch with stewed plums and apricot puree.. |
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| The colours are so vibrant! The basil is really tasty this year and the chives are not so much! And the little cucumbers/gherkins are really cucumbers as I left some to see what happened and they are growing like normal! |
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| A neighbour gave me these big beetroots, pulled right out as I looked! I cooked them and ate the 4 smaller ones straight away, while hot. They were so juicy, sweet, tender and yummy. Just had another 3 for lunch today. Forget the slicing and making up with vinegar and salt and pepper caper...these are something else! |
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| Little crab apples growing in the street. Am trying to make time to make some crab apple jelly. |
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| So excited to finally have these ripening where I could easily photograph them! |
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| Our 3 baby storks are growing fast... |
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| Dog doesn't race out and chase them away anymore now... |
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| The big deck is gradually taking shape. I spend 90 mins an evening in the cool and do a tier at a time.. .The green bushes are Elderberry, so will make sure to look after the bushes next year and keep the flowers for making into a syrup for coughs or something. |
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| If you look hard you can see clusters of black elderberries. |
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| Lots of berries...Will try and make both the crab apple jelly and elderberry something on the weekend. |
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| The little berry is about as big as a fat peppercorn! |
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| Just ate my home grown accidental potato find, for lunch today too...along with 3 more freshly cooked and hot beetroot...Rub the cooked beetroot skin off and eat while hot, like an apple, if you want to be grosse...or with a knife and fork, to be like a lady! |
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| Wow, a storm brewing the other night... |
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| This is for my sister...Left end...little shed, now a woodshed. Next is the big deck...then the about to be repaired, Summer kitchen...then the 3 door shed with the ladder still up against the end wall, then an empty space where the old collapsed shed was, which will be the new big room...and finally, you can see the corner of the house! |
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| A stormy night ahead but the stork just sat and watched it all going on! |
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| Meanwhile, back at the nest, the kids were wondering if they'd get blown away! |
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| Gotta luv it here...My water metre man, reading the 2 mtre deep water metre! |
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| He uses a 2 mtr long stick with a shaving brush, torch and magnifying glass, gaffer taped on! |
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| Home made out of water pipe fittings... |
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| Then off he goes to the next person's metre, on his bike. They have upgraded from a note book and pencil to record water useage, as was last year, now they use a digital thing like a phone instead of the pencil and book to record the amt water you use. My monthly water bill is 386 ft...about $1.80...a month!!! |
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| Undercoat on! Wow, it looks so different now it's "white" and not the dreary old blue grey! It still looks a shade blue but the 2nd coat will fix that next week...Enamel paint...ho-hum...such a messy bore! Am off to bed now... |
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| Incase you don't know what crab apples are...teensy, weensie little apples which are sort of powdery sometimes and can be tart! |
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| Karen King...when you get a glut of tomatoes and have made all the sauces, chutneys and other with your big tomatoes, use the cherry ones for this! Accidentally decided to try making some sun dried tomatoes. Most recipes use the oven on 100C for 3-4 hrs. Cut tomato, toss in oil with your fave herbs in it, put on a baking tray, like this and bake , gently until they are crunchy and dry. |
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| OH YUM! To live for! Amazing...All that tray just made one little jar!, not even squished down like it says to either. |
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| Not even full...But boy, are they delicious! I have a new snack to nibble on now. |
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| The next lot...Will try placing these in oil for longer storage and see how they go...if they don't get eaten in the meantime, that is. Will try the big tomatoes tomorrow, now to-days pick of cherry toms are all used up. Am looking forwards to the bigger ones being dried to see if that works out as well as the cherry toms have. Also have a tray full out in the sun drying out to see how long that takes. They said from 1 to 3 days, so we'll see how that goes too. |
A successful week this week, even though I'm all by myself.
Got all the inside and outside lawns mowed again, got the big deck's 2nd side terraces started with the first 2 levels completed as far as they can be for when the guys knock down the front and end of the summer kitchen.
Dumped and raked 3 loads of soil onto the new garden terraces there and now tonight will edge the 3 steps up onto the deck with rock rubble and tidy them up.
Then next week, the idea is to complete as much of the deck as can be done until I get some workers to lay concrete footings for the big deck handrails, set the arch into concrete and lay a cement block privacy wall along the back edge of the deck.
That can all settle over winter and all will be in place for a blooming start to spring and summer.
Also cooked 5 loads of apples, 4 loads of tomatoes and froze them, 3 lots of plums stewed and frozen, another lot of plums made into jam, another lot of tomatoes into chutney and 2 extra lots of cherry toms made into the yummiest of all, dried tomatoes.
I still have the elderberries and crab apples to do, but Saturday is my rest day, so I'll give the hot plate a rest too and do them Sunday or so!
Have to go buy another oven tray to do 2 lots of toms at once and also buy some preserving jars to learn how to preserve the remainder of the fruit and vegies as I have been lazy and just stewed and then froze everything thus far!
Freezer is brim full of stewed apples, tomato sauce and stewed plums, so am forced to learn other methods, such as drying and bottling preserves.
As I don't use sugar or salt when cooking, it is a bit tart for visitors, so as I thaw containers out, I'll make the base mix into whatever is needed at the time.
I ran out of containers so used cut off water bottles to hold the fruit. Works well and I made it the right size to fit in the freezer without wasting space...but even then...it still filled up!
After the girls went I rearranged the front room so it is easier to complete the door and window painting.
Am hoping to get the quote for the parquetry floor on Saturday so it can go down as soon as I get back from OZ.
Will buy the curtain tracks and curtains tomorrow also, then this room will be finished as soon as I complete the windows and doors next week...apart from adding more power points and extra lights.
It was silly to do anything until I really worked out how best to use this place for the purpose I want, so at the moment, everything seems A about Face to most people!
But, it's OK really, as other things have got done in the meantime and we are into the home straight now.
Started on the inside doors and windows painting last night, as when the girls were here it was too messy going in and out, over the doorways etc. The enamel paint takes forever to dry!
Why I'm so far behind is that Zoltan and the guys are flat out doing asphalt roads all over the area, from Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and even up into Poland!
That was not factored into my agenda...had hoped to have the summer kitchen roof off and ceilings out and a few walls being renewed by now, but no.
So I had to find another worker crew and they are coming in the morning to quote on moving the shower and toilet into the now kitchen area...and cutting in the bathroom window etc etc.
It's the same man who did an excellent job on the gutters, so he said he has borats (friends) that do electricity, plumbing, carpentry etc, so will see what happens in the morning. They are bringing an interpreter, so that should be good.
I'll get the quote and if it's OK, get them to do the entire thing now I understand how summer work goes over here!
In and out with Schengen visa all that time, I never completely realised what was going on.
Now I'm in one place I see the real changes in seasons, esp. summer work and winter with no work., so I understand they must stock up pennies for the 5 winter months when there is no work happening.
A totally alien thought to Aussies!
So I'm in and out, dodging the sun and heat of day, then back into the shade and cool of the evenings.
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| Before undercoating the door |
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| After undercoat! Awesome hey? |
Can't wait for the lovely, real timber floor to go down. I don't like the panel floor stuff over here...it seems different to OZ and the real parquetry is not that much extra really. They prep, lay it, estapol and sand it and put in a skirting board for around $25 to $30 or so a metre.
Stay safe and warm,
Cheers and see you next time with lots more stuff done!
M
xxx
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