I have been busy with life....

Life just hasn't let me sit here and put up a post for a while but it's been a good little break. At one stage I thought that perhaps the time for blogging was over for me as I don't see things letting up for a while but then three things happened this week.

The fig survived its transplant and is showing its summer promise

At my daughters choir concert I meet up with the mum of a fellow homeschooling mother and she shared how much my blog inspired her. What a blessing...I mean I know you guys read and sometimes comment and I love hearing from you and getting feedback. But it was that this Granny, who couldn't grow her own for certain reasons, was able to enjoy from afar our endeavours and that I delighted in.

Delicate blueberry flowers

The second thing was a visit from another blog reader who came to fetch some of my sons chickens. She also was so encouraging and it made me see that even though I simply blog about what I sometimes feel is "samey", anyone can come and jump in at any stage and learn from our mistakes and successes.

The last thing was that my tulips started to bloom. I planted these bulbs in a container outside my bedroom door just after I got back from visiting my sister in England. My sister had the most beautiful show of them up her driveway and all over the countryside people had planted beautiful arrays.

My first tulips.

Tulips in British April

My sister works so hard in her home and with her boys and she still finds the time to support new mothers with baby care and breast feeding and helps woman get the best start with their new little ones. We don't often have the time to phone one another but a quick email reminds each other how much we love each other. This week when I looked at my tulips I remembered a comment she made while I was there that sometimes after a long day her favourite thing is to read my blog to see what we have been up to.

So the blog continues and while the posts may be a bit erratic over the next while they will be here every now and again.


The garden this week:

This week we have been planting potatoes, sweetcorn, beans directly and tomatoes squashes and more corn in newspaper cups. 3 beds are planted with potatoes, 1 with sweet corn and 1 with beans. I have about 6 other beds to fill in the next few weeks. This season I am only growing the main summer crops being tomatoes, corn, beans, potatoes, squash, salads (lettuce, cucumber etc) and melons. Melons have never worked so far, so let's see.

Seedlings planted 2 weeks ago are out of the starting blocks...

Strawberry plants are flowering....oh come on summer!

The kitchen this week:

Asparagus is giving us a starter portion every few days which Superman and I scoff (no excuses made!) with jared Hollandaise Sauce - just like my sister taught me. These are so delicious - from garden to mouth in 10 minutes. It was worth the 4 year wait.

We have been using my son's free range chicken mince to make sausage rolls for lunch every now an again. These are truly yum and will get him to put the recipe up on his blog soon.

Broad beans are coming in 3 times a week and are eaten steamed with mint jelly, in stews or with butter salt and pepper. Such a humble vegetable with so much to offer.

3 weeks ago I bought a new masticating juicer as my Kenwood Masterchef juicer attachment is just not doing the job properly. This new Greenstar juicer is quiet, the pulp is dry, the juice plenty that we now juice again each morning.

And then on Thursday we had this quick and easy lunch using up things in the cupboards. Using a pkt of flour tortillas I made toasted cheese sandwiches. I took a can of organic red kidney beans and added it to fried onion, garlic and chilli to make refried beans. I had one ripe avo and half a container of cream cheese which was beaten in guacamole....topped with garden fresh coriander it was a scrumptious lunch.

How as your week? Are you getting reeady for the next season?