Breathe

Things around here have been HECTIC. I feel like I'm playing catch up constantly and am longing for some down time, slow days, time to read books, make things and ignoring the 'To Do' list. I'm a major list keeper, I do love a list and always have a few on the go. I may have a slight obsession (compulsion) with being organised. But when the busy starts to get a bit out of my control, the lists start to become my undoing.

Late this afternoon, when putting on the fiftieth load of washing, I turned to notice the most beautiful afternoon light. I stopped, ignored the list of things I was running in my mind to do next, went and got the camera and spent the next twenty minutes shooting in the garden.

Jasmine's fragrance filled the air, the ornamental grapevine is flourishing along the trellis. The plants I've potted are not dead yet, in fact they're doing well!

It served me well. Those stolen minutes in the dusk light.

I'm also very proud to report that the veggie patch seems to be doing ok under my rather uneducated care. The chilli's will be ready soon, the basil is bushy, blackberries and blueberries are coming along and the lettuce - well, that's the most exciting development.... We've had our first harvest! Served up a very handsome salad with our first two heads of lettuce last weekend in Forster, boy it felt smug good to eat something we had grown ourselves!

This coming week is gearing up to be a crazy one, I'm going to do my best to remember to stop and breathe once in a while.

Hope your week brings quiet and illuminated diversions.

Belinda x

Garden update

In case you've been wondering whether my novice gardener enthusiasm has waned or not. A quick progress update on our fish pond converted veggie patch which, I'm pleased to report is now home to chilli's, red onion, basil and lettuce while a blueberry and blackberry tree are taking root in lovely matching pots. Now, the anxious wait and dutiful care till harvest. Still figuring it out as we go but the whole process and looking across at this corner of the garden makes me so very happy!

Belinda x

Green Thumb

My Grandpa had beautiful hands. I loved the way he would clasp my hands in his, or gently squeeze my shoulders after a hug, his sparkling blue-grey eyes smiling at me.  His hands could build engines, make or mend anything and had two of the greenest thumbs ever. He was an amazing gardener. Every day at the break of dawn, he would be up and out, either tending to the garden or tinkering away on a project in his Kaboodle (shed) down the back.  His beautiful garden was thoughtful and considered, a breathtaking living artwork, always so tenderly cared for.

Ever since we moved into our first house earlier this year with a garden to call our own, I've become rather obsessed about growing our own veggies and herbs and attempting to grow plants in beautiful pots that don't die within a month. I'd like to believe that I innately have Grandpa's gardening genes, I've just got to work out where they've been hiding and hone those skills.

Truth is, I've never been good for a garden or a pot plant. I'm a serial killer but I am committed to change. I'm just not consistent, that's the issue. I'm now consciously trying to get into a routine. It's never meant that much to me, but now I get a ridiculous amount of self satisfaction when I've remembered to water the plants and prune dead leaves (there are always dead leaves, I don't think there should always be but there are) but when it's been a while and I can see they are starting to look miserably at me, thirsty, I get anxious with guilt!

I leave them a while too long, then I overwater. I'm sure I'm doing all the wrong things but I'm slowly working out the independents and the needys, who needs what light - I'm hoping that soon, it will all start to come more naturally. We'll see.

Spring is coming and the next project is to complete the transformation of what was originally a pond into our very own veggie patch. We'll be letting the soil settle in over the next few weeks then plan to plant in Spring. I've only just heard of mushroom compost and am now wishing we had've used that but I'm sure this organic potting mix will be just fine.

 I've started a wishlist of what I'd like to plant in this, my very first veggie patch.

• Strawberries
• Blackberries
• Green beans
• Tomatoes
• Cucumber
• Lettuce
• Maybe even a Plum tree??

Oh man, if I can actually grow stuff to eat from my own garden - I will be so flippin impressed with myself. I want to keep aiming for a more sustainable approach to how we consume, I love the link to our food in our own backyard particularly for the little one. It's not groundbreaking but it's a start.  From little things, big things grow*

If you have any tips or ideas, please do share - clearly I'm flying blind here and could use all the help I can get!

Belinda x

* reference to this Paul Kelly song.