Shoshe - thief!

Someone -- or more likely, something -- stole our butternut pumpkin! This year's pumpkin crop consisted of one small orange-and-green Halloween-ish pumpkin, one large-ish but funny-shaped Halloween pumpkin, and one little butternut. But when we went to harvest yesterday, there was no sign of the butternut! No deer-chewed bits, no stem, no sign of it down the hill :(

Shoshe - Sugarshack!

We made maple syrup from our very own maple tree! We started with about 20 gallons of sap, and ended up with a bit over half a gallon of syrup (about 2 litres) -- we were hoping for "more than a few tablespoons", so we, or rather our tree, did really well. It's generally between a 20:1 and a 80:1 sap:syrup ratio, depending on the sap's sugar content. It's late in the year to be making syrup, but we decided that it's much more pleasant to boil sap in your turkey fryer on the patio in August than it is in March.

Shoshe - Berries-R-Us

We finally finished planting our berry patch. We've got six red Heritage Raspberries, six Anne Fall Golden Raspberries (though we think 2 of them died while waiting to be planted) and six Arapaho Blackberries. And last week we discovered that we have feral black raspberries along the creek!

Shoshe - Guardian of the Compost

We have a Compost Snake. He (or she) likes to curl up on the top of the compost, under the brown paper bag that we left at the top of the bin. We also have a Front Step Snake, which seems to live under our front step and may or may not be the same snake.

Scrumping Kit

The neighbours' grapes are ready for scrumping.

Kit: Note to Self

Do not carry indoors for squishing the caterpiller that you have just found on your plants. It will wriggle out of your fingers, you can't find it, and then suddenly you are scrubbing green stuff out of your carpet.

Shoshe - They grow up so fast

I caught our two young passionfruit plants trying to break into our liquor cabinet last night. One had a tendril all the way around the handle. The other had slipped a tendril between the door and the frame, and had a surprising hold on the inside of the cabinet. Our older passionfruit plant (the twins' progenitor) is grabbing onto the ceiling.

Shoshe - Preservation

Two nights ago we made tomato paste from tomatoes that we grew in our garden plot. Tonight I made elderberry cordial (from elderberries we bought at the farmers' market) and pickles from the Boston Pickling Cucumbers that we grew, using my great-grandfather's recipe.

Shoshe - Harvest!

Over the weekend I thinned out the indoor lettuce crop, and we had miniature salads. The remaining lettuces have grown impressively over the past few days.

And my GI doctor has me eating plastic (literally).

Shoshe - Sprouted!

The lettuce that I planted on Sunday sprouted today (Wednesday)!

Shoshe - Go my brain!

I got brilliant insight into 2 of the questions on my Celestial Mechanics homework last night at about 2:30am, after finishing a teen vamp novel. I even figured out some stuff that the super-maths officemates didn't get! Clearly I should be doing more...light reading.

Over the weekend we set up the winter greenhouse. I re-potted the aloe and planted six little pots of lettuce, and we brought the bay tree, rosemary, and orchid home from uni. They're all in a bookcase sort of thing with growlights and mylar. The greenhouse is bright!

Becstarr : The sesame fields of Redfern

Last week I found a jar of poppy seeds and a packet of black sesame seeds (for sushi) that had been taken over by moths. I decided to give them a chance at life and rather than compost them, I scattered the lot along the backyard path - currently just dirt and stepping stones. Yesterday morning I went out and found a forest of enthusiastic green shoots arising!

I am having wild dreams of wading through a field of flowers on the way out to get the washing.... go little seeds go!

Becstarr : In the gutters, looking at the mulch

The weekend was filled with house planning, cleaning, organising and gardening. Joel cleared the gutters and I mulched the garden and shook down the worm farm while Lady K made curtains to help keep our precious winter warmth in.

Today was a full-on planning day at work: I facilitated two sessions before lunch (what has been / is / should be our group's function within the uni?; what are our immediate tasks and priorities over the next 3 months?). Long day of meetings, but it's definitely going to pay off.

Shoshe -- School's out!

I handed in my last problem set/take home exam on Thursday :) Now it's time for summer research, and actually enjoying this town (they tell me there's a town somewhere outside my office).

Yesterday we woke up early (despite the power going out and resetting the alarm clock) and went to a Local Producers brunch at the local nature center. Mmm, pancakes, homefries, and scrambled eggs with spinach and asparagus! We stayed on for the Mushroom Workshop, and spent a few hours drilling and hammering small mycelium-covered dowels into several logs, and covering the holes with cheese wax. We now have a shiitake-innoculated log sitting in our balcony's shed-thing! Then we went to the farmers' market for a late lunch (just before it closed at 3pm), then to the hardware store for planters and potting mix so I can plant herbs and lettuce when we get back from holiday, then to the supermarket, then to a store where we failed to find socks for me, then to the bookstore where we got a guidebook for our holiday, and then back home where I made applesauce (I got a bunch of apples at the SUPRA-equivalent's end-of-year free bbq) and used the bread machine to make dough for pizzas. By the end of the day we were tired! I think I also cleaned part of the kitchen in there somewhere. And I got to tell one of my students that she got the top score on the final exam :) And she and I found out that she went to my high school.

Becstarr : Grass rustling

What a strange weekend.
Lots of family time including lunch with Mum and her younger sister, an aunt who I used to see heaps of as a child, but whom I've barely seen since I was about 12. Re-meeting relatives as an adult can be a very odd experience that makes one re-evaluate past situations.

Also jumped the back wall at J's over to the abandoned Sydney Korean Ethnic School (so says the sign in the courtyard) and co-opted a large amount of grass growing between their bricks. The big bare patch in the lawn has been turned, forked, and composted and replanted with the rustled greenery!

Becstarr : By the time we get to Tempe

Visited the Tempe Garden Centre spotted from the train yesterday and ended up gardening all day, even though we only bought four plants! The jungle-y-ness of the cage area is definitely up by at least 50%, and the purple potato vine has been given an escape route to the roof. Pizza and Conchords = sweet reward!

Becstarr : Blue and green

Went to Coogee to ride the waves - along with a large chunk of the Sydney population, it seems! The queue for the changerooms went halfway around the block at times! (Tip: Use the Coogee Bay Hotel toilets instead). Water was lovely and fish and chips afterwards were just right. Came home and planted out the peas and beans we got the other day, digging up an ancient rusted foxtrap in the process (!).

Becstarr : Sisters and swimming

Beat morning heavy-headedness at Cafe Julia. Revelled in the ongoing glory of my pansies in the Redfern backyard. Met up with the sisters for yet another coffee in Newtown to plan the last family dinner before Rache heads off on the 28th, first to Africa then to the UK for a year. Swam laps at NM with Joel, then cooked a korma for dinner and dreamed of making beautiful, beautiful quilts like they have on the internets.

Becstarr : What a beautiful day!

I woke up and the fridge was clean! I walked outside and it was sunny! I looked up and realised the purple wisteria covering next door had started blooming! I looked at the garden beds and the carrots I planted at the start of the fridge clear-out were already growing downy new fronds! And it was Friday! I made pineapple jelly and went to work late. Awesome. :)

Becstarr: garden

Did a lot of gardening in the beautiful warm sun, and spent some quality time with Vince, the very bold, black and beautiful cat in the next flat, who's just recently started visiting me!