Flourishing garden and a new friendship

Sage in full flower, beetroot ready to eat, oregano, thyme and basil.

My little vege garden is thriving and I'm going to plant out a few more seeds today.

Rosemary, basil and chives.

My gardening assistant is close by as usual.

Lemons to pick, green ones growing and also full of blossoms.  Rhubard is coming back into production.

Re-planted the strawberries after last season and the first two fruit are almost ready to pick. I wonder who will find them first Miss Ruby or the brush tail possum who visits every evening?

We've already had several feeds of asparagus and given away a bagful, this little patch has produced so much over it's first 5 years.

Roast beetroot for dinner tonight!

A little self seeded tomato is coming along well.

Purple King climbing beans are taking off up the trellis.

Time spent in my little garden feels good and we love the bonus of eating some fresh produce too!

I'm feeling inspired to get my garden into full production and grow as much of our own food as possible on our 600 square metre block.  

Yesterday I made a brand new friend in real life and she is an amazing gardener, crafter, home schooling mum and cook.  Pop on over to her beautiful fresh blog Country Living Beside the Sea and you will see what I mean.  I'm still in shock I've made a new friend when I'm almost 48 and we have so much in common.  We can't wait to sit and crochet or do a bit of gardening the next time we meet.  Strangely we met through social media and a yarn club we both belong to, amazingly we only live 15 minutes apart.  I have to send out a big thank you to Jodie from Jellyware's who brought Julie and I together.  Real friendships are a rare and beautiful thing.  I'm feeling very grateful today.  

A big catchup

More than a month has gone by with no blogging.  I haven't even turned on my laptop since early September.  There were hundreds of emails to download, my antiviral needed to update and I transferred 215 photos from my phone so now it's time for a well overdue blog update. Maybe several blog posts will be needed!

My Dixie Charm shawl made from gorgeous sock yarn I bought on my VIC travels in August.  So soft and drapey.  Loved working with this rainbow of colours, especially love the crab stitch border. 

Cloudy is my stitching assistant most days, she loves getting involved in everything.  Not very helpful most of the time.  She's just turned one and is a real chatterbox.

Felted woollen jumpers made into brooches, fun to make and lovely to wear.

Drying off after a swim in her big bath.

 I taught a lovely group of rural women how to make these brooches, success, they all managed to complete one to take home.

Last fire for the winter, these two will miss their evenings indoors.

Made this cowl of chains from a skein of handspun wool I picked up at the Finders Keeper market in Melbourne.  

My favourite Dr Marten shoes, my winter uniform.

Miss Ruby is a constant companion.

I bought one ball of Noro Silk Garden at Steph's in Moruya and made a spring cowl, perfect between season.  

I've made two batches of lemon butter recently, great staple to have in the fridge.  Beautiful on  plain cheesecake or icecream.

Time to get the vege garden started for spring and summer produce.  The first spears of asparagus have sprouted.

A gorgeous sketch of Miss Ruby by a very talented Twitter friend.  Will have to frame it to go with the two others she has done from photos I've posted of my dog on Twitter.  So lifelike!

My last winter Jellywares yarn club, Noro Taiyo was made up into a Queen Anne Lace scarf.  I made some modifications to have more loops and a bit fuller and firmer design.  Love how this has turned out.  Now to work out what to make from my first spring yarn club parcel which has two lovely cottons to work with.  

I completed this set of eight cotton coasters yesterday and I hope they are the right green. 

Also visited this fabulous brand new shop in our town, Fleur and Christine have excelled themselves.  Visit them in Ford Street, Moruya, you won't be disappointed.  I started my Christmas shopping!

"Don't shake!"

At last summer is here and Miss Ruby is so happy to have caught her first wave of the season.  

So happy to be home

I've started to sew again,,........that's a good sign.

Spring is coming and my garden is starting to burst out with it's fresh coat of green.

It's been a bit neglected this year, I've been away for 7 months.

Our wood pile is still there, Darling Daughter just couldn't be bothered lighting the woodfire.  I love my woodfire and I have lit it a few times since I've been back and it makes our home so cozy and homely.

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A cheery little mosaic catching a bit of morning sun.

Our family sculpture from the year 2000, hand prints carved in stone...............a family lasts forever.

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Most of the potted plants have survived with very little TLC.

I think I could go into business selling Grandfathers Beard, it just thrives in our silver birch trees and on our fences.

Finished my Malabrigo Finito scarf from Jellywares, my first fine crochet project reading a real pattern and I did it!  Such a shame the weather has been way too warm to wear it.

The local possums still visit and they're enjoying feasting on the bottlebrush flowers at the moment and I hear them bouncing around on our tin roof at night so they can get to our strawberry patch out the back.

I finished the binding on the latest baby quilt for the shop and thoroughly enjoyed stitching these little wooden cross stitch pendants yesterday.

Not much in the vege patch yet but the asparagus is thriving.

I'm back living in our coast house and I start work again tomorrow at our local fabric store and I can't wait, Steph's is a very inspiring shop, mightn't be good for my pay packet!  Also going back to my nursing work at the local day surgery in a few weeks, a bit nervous about that, had too long away from clinical nursing but I'm sure they will be kind to me and I will find my feet very quickly.  

So good to be home and you can look forward to more regular posting once again.  It has just taken me a while to sort myself out and even feel like taking photos and to think about blogging.  I'm sorry for the long break since my last post but I just needed a bit of me time.  

It's raining............really heavy!

Having moved from the coast where the average rainfall is around 38" (960mm) per year to inland Australia 500km from the the coast to a place where the average annual rainfall is only 16" (400mm) you can understand why I have taken photos of the first proper rain since I moved here.  I had to relocate my new little potted garden to our outdoor kitchen bench or I'm sure they would have floated away.  I did find one little pottery mug today which was 50 cents and has the makers name Possum on the bottom.  I wonder who possum is?  When the rain stops I'm going to have to go out and empty some water from the pool so the filter and skimmer can do it's stuff.  Perfect weather for knitting indoors this afternoon.  Ruby and the old puss think so too!