Friday, March 9, 2018

picking + preserving









Would you mind terribly if I didn't write many words this week and left you with these photos?

Farmer Bren came home this morning and told me that he thinks this weekend will be the last of the hot weather and from next week it will be positively autumnal. And then when I popped in to visit this lady who grows flowers nearby she said she's certain we'll have our first frost before the month is up and that it'll be 'a doozy'. 'Like Snow', she remarked casually while I started hyperventilating walking back to my car.

I am not ready!

I know we've had the most incredible growing season this spring and summer. I know that my fears of growing without poly tunnels for the first time in 15 years were unfounded. And I know that I should really be thinking about some sort of frost protection for the summer vegetables and flowers to extend their season a little. But still I love this colourful, busy time of the year and I'm not ready to say goodbye just yet.

So if it's all the same to you, I'm going to leave it at that this week, I'm going to press publish on this post, and then I'm going to spend the rest of the afternoon: harvesting tomatoes and cucumbers, watering the bits of the garden that still aren't irrigated, looking for the apple bunting I made a few years ago, picking Cox's Orange Pippin apples, making some flower posies, touching up the signs for the main road, making the apple stall look cute for the long weekend, fermenting some cucumbers, filling the Fowlers machine with jars of tomato sauce, making some more apple rings for the dehydrator, feeding the chooks and dogs, hanging the washing on the line and making dinner for the girls.

Why don't you tell me a bit about what's going on in your world instead.
What's on your urgent list of things to do today?
What are you procrastinating by doing instead?
Are you ready for the next season?
What are you baking, making, growing, planning, dreaming about?

See you next week!

Love Kate x




14 comments:

  1. I love your photos, i love your flowers....yes i agree, stay away from the computer and get out there amongst it on these autumn halcyon days......i am going to dig out an old sprawling yarrow hedge and replant this by the dam, then fill the bed with flowers...i hope it looks as good as yours with colourful dahlias and zinnias......xx

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  2. I know what you mean but we are in the UK hoping for some warmth and sunshine. It was snowing again yesterday. At the moment my son is growing up and sorting out his bedroom. He is sending most of his toys to charity. He has gone through everything including his books and boardgames. My house looks like a bomb has hut it till the charity lorry takes it away next week. Its sad in some ways as my boy is growing up but happy in others because he is such a kind and generous person.

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  3. Hello Kate! Yes, we'll be fine, we'll sit back, read and watch while you make the most of the season. I've just made pikelets with plum jam and a glass of milk for my grandson for his afternoon tea and soon I'll start organising myself for my online blogging course tomorrow. After tea I'll be blanket stitching a blanket - an old Onkaparinga double wool blanket I grew up with. Mum kept it in good nick over the years so I'm cutting it in quarters and making smaller blankets that we can use now.
    Have a lovely weekend. xx

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  4. Words, pictures, garden chores, outdoor moments all sound good to me.
    I wonder how do bren and your flower friend know this about the weather? Do they see signs in nature or follow the bom predictions?
    Cheers Kate

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  5. I'm in the UK too and having just got rid of all that snow, I'm ready for spring. What I should be doing now is cleaning out my sewing room which is in danger of disappearing under a blanket of dust and fluff. What I'm actually doing is creating costumes for a professional dance company ( something I appear to have 'volunteered' for! ). Creating steampunk costumes for an updated 'Dracula' and drowning in chiffon and tulle for ' Giselle'. Looks like that clean up will have to wait awhile.

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  6. Flowers are beautiful. Have a lovely weekend. X

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  7. Gorgeous Dahlias! Sounds like a very full plate you have. In the southern US spring is arriving, so lots to do (aka weeding) the green house is back in operations, last minute garden preps, canning what's in the freezer to make room for this growing seasons harvest, tuning up the tractor (for the hubby) just finishing a crochet blanket before it's too hot to work on, and enjoying all the spring blooms. May your season hang on a bit longer.

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  8. I am in eastern Ontario and we've been fooled into believing spring might actually come early here.... and now snow and more snow. It has been a long, hard winter and I am so ready for longer days and more time outside. In the meantime I am spring cleaning the house so that when the weather finally turns, I can be outside in the garden. March break is next week and my youngest and I will start some seeds inside to be ready for the May long weekend planting. Sigh.... our growing season is so very short.

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  9. Here in Israel we have spring now. A few weeks of spring before the summer comes till October. And spring time is strawberry time and so I‘m sitting next to six glasses with selfmade Marmelade. With a coffee on the table and I‘m considering if I will made stuffed zucchini today or if I‘m to tired. I will see (after I have clean the kitchen if all the red sprinkles). I wish you a wonderful weekend, thank you for the beautiful pictures. Maren

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  10. Fighting to save my local railway station for equitable access to public transport for people with disabilities and elderly in my neighbourhood. I am procrastinating by catching up on blogs when I should be writing a document but I just can't get my head around the document. Lucky it's a long weekend so I have til Tuesday to come up with the goods.
    I usually use this long weekend to plan and plant my autumn/winter veggie patch but the last burst of heat has come in (as predicted) so I won't be able to go out until Monday when cooler weather is forecast..
    Enjoy the last of the summer - I look forward to autumn - not as harsh on the garden.

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  11. I'm positively WAITING on autumn.
    I must paint the ball-and-claw set outside on the stoep today, it's been waiting since early this week.
    I'm procrastinating on completing a crochet blanket, hanging pictures, fixing up the backyard, weeding, by pretending to have to paint the b-and-c set.
    I'm totally ready for autumn. I could live in autumn all year.
    I'm prepping dough to make griddle bread later, making a blanket for my boy, learning to grow succulents in order to save water, planning to convert the lawn into a drought-resistant garden.

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  12. oh, it sounds like you have a beauty of a day planned.
    here...we are shovelling snow out of the driveway
    and watching it melt off the roof tops...
    there is blue sky and the clocks change tonight for daylight savings time
    which is a sure sign of spring for me.
    I am getting ready to go meet friends for a night of literary trivia and hopefully laughs...
    happy saturday to you!

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  13. Hi Kate
    We are hoping to see some sun one day here in Stratford-on-Avon, also baby-sitting my brothers mad terrier (terrorist), planning a weekend away to the Cotswolds to escape our teenage boys and their revision for a few hours and having my Mum and Dad over tomorrow for "Mothers Day" when the youngest (15) is going to cook a curry! xxx

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Thanks so much for stopping by...

I do read every single comment you leave and appreciate it very much, but I should let you know that I can be a wee bit on the useless side when replying to comments, that's just me, everyday life sometimes gets in the way....so I'll apologise now, just in case.

Kate XX

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