Shed door

Roof, walls and now doors.
The shed is done.

Chilli Sauce

Time to bottle sauce.

Praying mantis

I was hunting for ripe Cape gooseberries. The mantis for bugs amongst the leaves.

Artichoke flowers

Sunshine on a rainy day.

Crunchy apples

The apples are the latest in our fruit harvest along with beautiful fat purple grapes and the last of the peaches (lovely jucy golden queens). It is so satisfying after four years of TLC.

Cosmos

This year I have grown pink cosmos. They are a beautiful companion providing light shade, insect fodder and a beautiful contrast to the lush green growth.

Popping sorgum

This is the first year I have grown this sorgum. They are around 2m tall with around 4 slender tillers per plant. The seed heads are just starting to show themselves.

Piglets

These guys are such a time waster. They clean up our understories or move through the paddocks with the sheep.

Waiting

This year we had over 170 children attend our two seaweek mornings.

We made over 60 handlines, dug, splashed, build, poured, talked and even managed to catch crabs, flounder, mullet, sprats, starfish and a seahorse.

Pesto

Silverbeet, chives, parsley, tomatelloes, basil, sorrel and all next to the Lemon tree............Hey Presto!!

Essential ingredients for sumer pesto grown close to the house.

River

3 o clock swim time we will be at the river.

Bombing off the clif, kayaking, snorkelling or just cooling off.

Ice plant

One of my favourite bee plants. Bumble bees, bees, native bees...........

Cabbage caterpillars

The white butterflies are out in fource. Watch out brassicas!!!

Field garden

The field garden is where it all happens. The seed crops and crops for winter storage. It consists of 80 1.2-4m beds in a four year rotation.

Garlic harvest

One bed of garlic (1.2m-4m) = one years worth of garlicy yum.

And enough for seed for next year.

Before plaiting I dry garlic for a few weeks. Then it graces my front veranda in beautiful plaits.

Coast

Family, fun and fishing too!!

Once a year the whole family stays down the coast for a week.

Chive flowers

We have been eating more flowers this year than chives. I pick a bunch for my kitchen windowsill and they make their way into salads, dressings, omlets, and warm new potatoes. Yum!!!

In the garden they grow with my strawberries and are frequently visited by smaller pollinators.

Sweet Christmas

After all of the normal Christmas traditions we made one of our own. A family honey harvest. Yum.

Everyone helped harvest the honey from dad's top bar hive. Most important job being taster.

Note the fancy new honey extractor (colander and bucket) we use for straining honey we are not saving as comb honey.

Net full

One of the favourite places for children of all sizes is our net hung high in the trees. Cool, shady, quiet or a great place to jump and yahoo if you are brave.

Honey for the teacher

Toby collected a jar of honey for his teachers thank you present.

Comfrey mulch

The tomatoes recieved their Christmas present today.

Compost tea and a sprinkling of woodash followed by a thick layer of comfrey mulch around their roots and a raw milk spray for their leaves before the sun got too high.

Cheese for Christmas

Lilly is providing us with soooo much creamy milk we have been making cheese. Feta, Gouda, Mozzarella, Panier, Ricotta.......

Let the adventures begin.

Next step some proper molds and a cheese safe to fill.

Holiday

What a holiday. 2 weeks of;

Catching up with old friends, making new ones.

Meeting potters, carvers, goldminers, glass blowers, children who go to school by boat, gardeners, woodworkers, archivists..................

Exploring new places..........snorkeling down rivers, crossing rivers, cooking on campfires, goldpanning, greenstone hunting, paddling with dolphins.....................

We kind of had a plan, kayaks, tents, a map book and a list of some great DOC campsites.

Macadamia

Today I had the opportunity to visit an amazing orchard with my classmates. Inspirational. A time to dream and appreciate some amazing mahi.

The macadamia flowers blew me away -and the bees visiting them.

Cob wall

Just about finished the cob infill in our small wooden shed.

First we put up lots of battens to help hold it in place then mud.

Well not just mud this mix is equal parts clay, sand and pumice with as many pine needles as we could mix in.

Plaster

The finished plaster in our small shed.
Sieved clay, sand and cow manure. Applied by hand and smoothed with an ice cream container paddle.

It was a little green to start with but turned creamy when dry.

Shady stream

The shelter around our stream is just about completely shading out the water. The bank has been stabilised and the water is a lot clearer after rain. We have been finding lots of native fishes in the pools and the children spend hours playing in the cool while I am in the garden.

The shelter is a diverse range of species with multiple functions.

Timber, food for us, stock, birds and insects as well as building soil.

Crimson clover

The digger driver thought I was mad. I followed him around with a pillowcase scattering seeds.

A few weeks later the ground was covered just as nature intended it. But it was my mix to prepare the ground for planting and nurture the many pollinators and other small creatures that like cover.

Not to mention beautiful.

Crimson clover has deep taproots and flowers for a very long time.

Seedlings

I love the energy of seedlings. One day they are not even there and a week later the seed trays are all green with life.

I am growing most of my plants from my own seed this year. It is very powerful to grow with seed over a few years.

Selecting out what you desire and seeing changes to the seed line.

This is my second try as mice ate the first lot I planted. Thanks to an amazing neighbor for a tunnel house I now have a mouse free seed raising place.

Diversity

The grass is growing and we are enjoying the diversity of stock using it. Lilly the cow goes first, then the sheep and pigs, followed by the chickens, ducks and starlings who are busy in all of the nesting boxes.

And that is just what we can see above ground!