Nana Glen Mum

And with a new day, we have new babies!! October 5, 2009

Chicks, chicks and more chicks!  I love baby chicks!

Chicks, chicks and more chicks! I love baby chicks!

Yep, the babies have arrived at last!  Twenty of them in fact!!!

Arent they gorgeous!!!

Aren't they gorgeous!!!

And here are some more…

Whitey the White White with some of her new chicks...

Whitey the White White with some of her new chicks...

I know they aren’t the best pics, but we had to move Whitey the White White as it was (her nesting box was too high and we were worried the chicks might fall and get hurt), and Pecky lived up to her name and decided to have a go at Whitey’s chicks.

We’ve put up a temporary barrier now though so they both have their own space with their individual broods.   Inside, we are up to day 22 with the incubator, so all things going well, we stop turning the eggs in 3 days time, and hopefully the ducklings and turkey will start to hatch in 6!  Exciting times!

Out in the garden, spring is in full swing.  If only we could get some decent rain, actually any rain would be nice!  I’m starting to worry the tank is going to run dry again, and I am so sick of having to drink town water!  We had 2mm rain this morning, just enough to dampen the soil, but I may have to get out there with the hose again this afternoon and water the seedlings.  The new

Baby Peaches

Baby Peaches

fruit trees all seem to be establishing themselves well.  We have 5 baby peaches growing beautifully, and both lime trees are heavily laden with tiny little limes the size of a ladybug!  So cute!  The cumquat is throwing heaps of new leaves and the grape must have quadrupled in size in the few weeks we

Kaffir Limes budding

Kaffir Limes budding

have had it.  It’s going to be fantastic when it reaches up to the verandah and we have shade from the hot summer morning sun, not to mentions the luscious fruit!  The dragonfruit is growing well, and if anyone has any suggestions on how to trellis it, I am all ears!  It is supposed to be a climber of

Yep, these were nothing but a single raspberry cane this time last year!

Yep, these were nothing but a single raspberry cane this time last year!

sorts, but it doesn’t throw out tendrils!?!?!?  We have finally put the 2 kiwi fruit in the ground now.  Matthew put up 3 star pickets and some chook wire down the front of the block for them, and they seem to be settling in well.  The grapefruit has dropped its “bridal bouquet” as Ange called it and replaced it

My u-beaut home made worm farm

My u-beaut home made worm farm

with more fruit than you would find at a greengrocer!  For such a small tree that has been in the ground for such a small time, I can’t believe it!  I think I will be having to cull quite a few of the fruit so they don’t snap the branches.  Mind you, if it fruits like that every year, I’ll be making heaps of marmalade and grapefruit pate de fruits!  Yummy!

Freshly picked peas and a little visitor

Freshly picked peas and a little visitor

All the seedlings I had been raising in the broccoli boxes are now in the ground too.  We have 5 varieties of tomato and tomatillo, beetroot, daikon, jicama, sweet corn, 3 varieties of eggplant, golden zucchini and lebanese cucumbers and on and on goes the list.  Now that they are all in the ground, I’m hoping they’ll take off for a bumper summer harvest!  The most exciting thing in the garden at the moment though, is my new herb garden.  It is huge!  I’ve put it smack bang in the middle of the front yard so I can gaze upon it as I wash the dishes.

My new herb garden

My new herb garden

It’s right at the bottom of the front steps, so nice and convenient access to both the kitchen and the wood fired ovens.  It has 16 different herbs and about a dozen or so different lettuces and salad greens.  I’m really looking forward to when the growth takes off in there.  It is going to look spectacular as well as taste divine!  Seriously, how could you not love fresh food?  I did have a chuckle to myself the other day as I pottered about the garden.  My how my wardrobe has changed in 18 months!  Gone are the Dianna Ferrari frocks, Whittner shoes and handbags, makeup and high heels!  Now I get about in either gumboots or riding boots with old faded jeans, a long sleeved cotton check shirt (gotta be sun smart!!), and an akubra! Laughed my backside off at myself!

 

The day begins with sad news…. September 22, 2009

Filed under: Chooks & Ducks,Garden — nanaglenmum @ 11:27 am

First thing this morning, we checked our 2 little injured chickies in the aquarium.  Mr Percival is doing better by the day and looking more and more alert, but unfortunately Dot didn’t make it through the night.

Dot (on the left) and Mr Percival

Dot (on the left) and Mr Percival

Her injuries were much more severe though and you could see the muscle fibre on the back of her wing.  Poor darling!  So, it is all hands on deck to look after the remaining chicks.

Mr Percival snuggling with make-do Mamma Hen

Mr Percival snuggling with make-do Mamma Hen

In addition to Mr Percival inside, we still have the 3 little black ones out in the pen, but they are fully feathered around the neck.  We think one of them might even have a little frizzle in there as it is so fluffy even with its new feathers!  So cute!!

Last night I candled the duck eggs and turkey egg as we are now up to day 7.  Candling is a process whereby you hold a narrow bright light up to the egg in a darkened room and you can see through the shell.  You have to do it fairly quickly as you don’t want the temperature of the egg to drop too much while it is outside of the incubator.  I bought a little $5 torch from Woolies which does a great job.  Here are some photos:

Visible Yolk

Visible Yolk

In this first picture, you can see where the yolk is – the dark yellow shadow.  There is a small darkened dot which is a bit difficult to see in the photo, but hopefully it is the beginning of a new little duckie!

Day 7 - Embryo and Network of Veins

Day 7 - Embryo and Network of Veins

This next photo turned out great – lucky because the battery in the camera died right after taking it!  The really bright bit at the pointy end is the air sac which will increase in size as the egg progresses.  A few days before the duckling hatches out of the actual shell, you should (hopefully) be able to see its beak sticking into the air sac – I’ll be sure to keep the camera battery charged!  That red spidery looking thing is the exciting part.  That means there is a living embryo in there!  The thin red lines are a network of veins supporting the tiny embryo which is the red “C” shaped mass in the centre.  When you look at if for real, you can actually see the heart beating!  I’ll see if I can get some video of it tonight.  Very exciting stuff!  The girls are finding it an amazing process to watch and be involved in, especially as you can get the odd glimpse of what is going on inside the shell!

They say that the embryos shouldn’t start developing until they reach incubation temperature, and we collected the 7 eggs over the course of a week, so technically they should all be at the same stage, however, I’m not too sure.  I am pretty well convinced that they are all fertile – Danny the Drake makes sure of that EVERY morning without fail!  Also, there is no sign that any of them have died.  You can tell if you have lost one as you get a red ring instead of the vein network.  So, cross your fingers with me and hope that the ones with just a yolk shadow are a day or 2 behind the others!

 

My Homemade Egg Incubator September 21, 2009

As I said in the previous post, we have lots and lots of babies on the way.  I had started collecting duck eggs from Daisy and Danny about 2 weeks ago as we figured we needed more ducks over summer to keep the grass down, and because their eggs are just so amazing for baking.  We had collected half a dozen or so when our friend Monica from Lowanna rang and asked if we had any broody chooks.  After the last hatch, Specky took over the brood and Pecky stayed on the nest.  Whitey the White White was also starting to spend alot of time on the nest too, so we said yep.  A few days later we drove up the hill and she gave us shoebox with 23 naked neck eggs!  We were absolutely over the moon!  Then, as the icing on the cake, she caught me admiring her male turkey as he strutted around the yard, so she gave me a turkey egg from their nest also!  So now, we have 23 chicken eggs under the 2 hens, and 7 duck eggs and 1 turkey egg in the incubator inside!

After the failure of our last 3 ducks eggs hatching, I decided I needed to finesse the incubator a bit.  The last lot only died in the final few days, and I think I actually drowned them in my efforts to keep the humidity levels high enough.  I had read you could spray the eggs with a water mister, but I think I continued spraying too long.  After they had clearly died, you could see dark brown droplets on the inside of the egg.  This time I decided I would do better.  The first couple of days I had them in a small fish tank which I had lined with styrofoam, but the temperature was fluctuating wildly, so I decided to make a new one from scratch and take photos along the way incase anyone who reads this decides to have a go.

I began with a styrofoam broccoli box from the greengrocer.

Styrofoam Broccoli Box

Styrofoam Broccoli Box

Alot of fruit and veg shops give them away, or at most they cost about $1.  No great expense, but they seal well and have fantastic insulating properties (they will also keep champagne on ice for 3 days lol!!)

Next I cut out a hole in the side with a sharp knife.  I find that a SHARP smooth blade knife (not serrated) cuts best with minimal mess.  Serrated knives just send bits of styrofoam EVERYWHERE (ask me how I know!!).  I tried to keep it as neat as possible as I would be replacing the square back in the hole later.

Cut a hole in the side

Cut a hole in the side

I’d love to tell you how big to cut the hole, but that depends on the size of your switch box, so you just have to eyeball it and dive on in!  Next step is to cut off one corner from the piece you have removed to enable the power cord to pass through.

Cut off one corner

Cut off one corner

Next is the tricky part if you are not used to electrical wiring.  If you are lucky like me, you might have a friend who knows what they are doing.  With the promise of a home made wood fired pizza, my wonderful friend up the road was able to wire a dimmer switch to a lightbulb, and screw the lightbulb into a piece of wood.  (Thanks Craig – you are the best!!)

The Wiring

The Wiring

You could have the dimmer switch mounted, but he said that by putting it into a switch box (I think that’s what he called it), I could move it into a larger incubator down the track if I needed to, or move the set up into a brooder box when they hatch.  I also wanted to be able to turn the dimmer from outside the box if possible.

Dimmer Switch outside the box

Dimmer Switch outside the box

Light Bulb inside the box

Light Bulb inside the box

Now you need to pass either the dimmer switch box or the light fitting through the hole you have just cut and replace the square “plug” with the cord coming through the cut off corner so the light is on the inside of the box and the switch is on the outside.

Replace the styrofoam plug

Replace the styrofoam "plug"

View from inside

View from inside

Next part is the fan.  If you have an old computer lying around, pull the fan out.  It looks like this:

Computer Fan

Computer Fan

If you don’t have an old computer lying around, you can pick these up for a couple of dollars at a computer repair or electrical shop.  This one is a 12V fan.  It had a big double plastic plug on it, so I cut them off, stripped back the wire coating a bit and put on a pair of 5mm Tab Connecters.  I went searching for a battery to run it off, but they don’t sell them at the supermarket.  I found one at Dick Smith Electronics though, and luckily enough, Matthew had a 12V battery charger in the garage.  I put the fan inside the box, and passed the wires through the same hole as the light bulb’s cord so that the battery could be on the outside of the unit –

Fan wires and 12 V battery

Fan wires and 12 V battery

2 reasons for this.  One is, the less “bits and pieces” you have inside the box, the more eggs you can fit in, and secondly, I don’t have to open the box to remove the battery when it needs charging.

External Battery and Dimmer Switch

External Battery and Dimmer Switch

Okay, you are almost there.  As I mentioned earlier, high humidity levels are required (around 80%).  I’ve been able to achieve this by placing dishes of water inside the incubator.  By placing a face washer and sponge in the water, it breaks the surface tension of the water and provides a greater surface area for it to evaporate from.  At the moment, it is sitting on or extremely close to 81% quite consistently.

Water dishes for humidity

Water dishes for humidity

So how do I measure the humidity I hear you ask.  A lot more easily than most I am guessing.  From all the reading and research I have been doing, most people run a wet/dry bulb thermometer system.  this requires to bulb thermometers, one with a wick, and then you have to cross reference the temperatures on a chart.  Too hard!  For a couple of dollars at your local electrical store (Dick Smith to the rescue again), you can pick up a small weather station like this:

Thermometer and Hygrometer

Thermometer and Hygrometer

As you can see, this one has 2 temperature readings and a % Humidity reading.  I place the unit at one end of the eggs, and the external temperature probe at the other end of the eggs, this way I can see the temperature all the way around.  It also makes figuring out the humidity a whole lot easier as it is right there on the screen for you!  Gotta love technology eh?

Thermometer and Hygrometer in position

Thermometer and Hygrometer in position

Some people set their incubators up with a window to take the readings through, but I figure I need to open it up regularly to turn the eggs and also to get some fresh air in, so I’m not really bothered with it being inside the unit.  The blue matting on the floor of the incubator is non-slip matting from the $2 shop.  It stops the eggs rolling around and keeps them in the position you put them in when you turn them, as they can try to go back to their previous position depending on how the air sac is sitting.

This next photo is to show you how I have aligned the light bulb for heat, water dishes for humidity, and fan for circulation.

The important bits

The important bits

So now that all of this is done, you can put your eggs in and start incubating!!

Pop the eggs in and start incubating!

Pop the eggs in and start incubating!

Just quickly, try and get this set up before you get your eggs so you can run it for a day or 2 to get the temperature and humidity levels right.  I record the readings each time I turn the eggs on a chart I made:

Record Sheet

Record Sheet

This way I can monitor the readings and keep track of how many turns I am up to for the day – you need to turn them an odd number of times each day so they are not sitting on the same side for an extended period (ie through the night) as they can stick to the inside of the shell if this happens.

Well, that’s about it for now.  We are up to day 7, so check back in another 21 days and hopefully we will be pipping!!

 

Spring Veggie Seeds Are Planted! August 25, 2009

Filed under: Garden — nanaglenmum @ 5:53 am
Tags: , , , ,

Well the calendar may say we still have another week of winter left, but Mother Nature has over-ruled.  Spring is definately here!  The thermometer hit 35C yesterday, and I reckon was probably nudging 30C today around lunch time.  I had been putting off planting my “sow in spring” veggies in case we got a late frost, but having not really had anything we could call a frost since winter last year, I figured I’d take the plunge.  I’ve decided to reserve the top veggie patch for berries, so I need to pull my finger out and order the rest of them this week.  The bottom veggie patch however is still full of my winter veg.  There is about 8 varieties of “pick and come again” lettuce, snow peas, sugar snap peas, shelling peas, 3 varieties of broccoli, bok choy, wombok, purple cabbage, leeks, loads of spinach, daikon and a few other things popping up around the place.  Since there is no room there at the moment, I picked up 5 broccoli boxes and some potting mix when I was in town the other day. (Fitting the 5 boxes plus shopping plus 3 super sized bags of potting mix plus 2 kids car seats in the little Pajero was a story unto itself!!)  I know styrofoam is not exactly the eco choice, but at least they are getting recycled.  Right??  I cut them down to

Broccoli Boxes make great seed raising trays

Broccoli Boxes make great seed raising trays

about 15cm high and then filled them with the potting mix before planting my veggie seeds.  Here is what I put in:  Beetroot (Chioggia – I love the pink and white rings – they looks so pretty thinly sliced in salad), Cabbage (Bok Choy & Wombok), Capsicum (Lipstick & California Wonder), Carrot (Nantes & a Colour Mix), Sweet Corn (Gladiator F1), Cucumber (Mideast Prolific – a lebanese style cucumber), Daikon (Japanese Radish), Eggplant (Lebanese, Rosa Bianca & Black Beauty), Jicama, Lettuce (Great Lakes, Baby Cos & Buttercrunch), Onion (Mini Purplette & Red Stem Welsh), Pumpkin (an unknown variety from friends & Butternut), Rhubarb (Sydney Crimson), Tomatillo (Purple), Tomatoes (Cherry Yellow Pear, Roma San Marzano, Tommy Toe & Thai Pink Egg), Japanese Turnip, Watermelon (Sugarbaby) and finally Zucchini (Golden).  I covered them all with a light layer of soil and put a piece of cardboard over the carrot seeds to hopefully get a better success rate with germination.  It will be interesting to see how they all go as I haven’t had much luck with carrots or onions yet.  I’m really looking forward to the cucumbers and

Kaffir Lime and its yummy double leaves

Kaffir Lime and its yummy double leaves

zucchini though.  Last year we had only 6 cucumber vines and were picking 10kg of cucumber every week!  They were so sweet and succulent too.  The zucchini fared really well also.  We were picking them at about 10-15cm in length while the flower was still intact and stuffing the flower before cooking the whole thing – zucchini and flower attached.  They were delicious!  There are a few things there that I haven’t grown before either – these last 12 months being my first foray into gardening, so it will be interesting to see how they all go.  The fruit trees all look happy enough since planting them in last week.  We have Grapefruit, Kumquat, Dragonfruit, a Green Grape, Pear, Peach, Starfruit, Granny Smith Apple, Kaffir Lime, Tahitian Lime, Meyer Lemon, and Mulberry.  We also have 2 tiny blueberry bushes (twigs really) that are both covered in fruit and the raspberry bush that began as a single small cane last year is huge now and has new runners popping up everywhere.  I think I read you can dig the new runners up and replant them so I might pass a few on to friends.  The passionfruit vine we put in last year is looking lovely and lush so I am hoping for fruit from it this year and we were given another one 2 weeks ago from Monica – the lovely lady who gave us the Naked Neck Chickens.  Speaking of chickens, if the eggs she gave us were fertile, they should be hatching this weekend!!  Very exciting!  I am going to try and make an egg incubator this week with the help of a neighbour who has built one previously just in case they hatch as we will need to incubate the duck eggs that the chooks are sitting on.  Fingers crossed eh?!?

My herbs are all coming along nicely.

Bay Tree

Bay Tree

The bay tree FINALLY has more than one leaf on it after about 8 months of sitting idle, so it is nice to be able to use it at last … even if somewhat sparingly!  I am thinking of making a feature herb garden in the middle of the front yard and putting the bay in a nice big terracotta pot smack bang in the middle of all the herbs.  If it ever grows, I think it would look good as a central focus.  All the herbs that I planted 2 weeks ago are coming along nicely.  Most of them (Oregano, Zaatar, Orach, Chamomile, Marjoram, Nasturtium, Lemon Balm, Anaheim Chilli, Garlic chives, basil, Thyme, Parsley, Coriander & Dill) have germinated now and are starting to form their true leaves.  I’ll have to get on to Matthew to dig the new garden bed for them.  The Rosella and Pomegranate have also popped up

Baby Herbs

Baby Herbs

through the soil so I will have to figure out where I am going to put them!  My Borage is looking amazing at the moment as all the flowers have started coming out.  I am going to make some cupcakes this week to celebrate and use the flowers to decorate them.  Might have to have some friends come over for morning tea to share them!

Finally before I go, here are some pretty flower pics from our garden.  Matthew grows the most beautiful Australian Natives.  I really don’t understand why people don’t put them in because “they want flowers” (as one lady said to us!!)  We have gorgeous flowers all year round.  What more could a girl ask for?  I’d take them over roses any day – plus they bring in all the lovely wild birds too.

Well, that’s about all the news from the garden for today, so stay tuned as i will post pics as they (hopefully) grow.

 

Spring is on the way! August 12, 2009

Kaffir Lime leaves and their knobbly fruit

Kaffir Lime leaves and their knobbly fruit

We may only be 2 weeks into the final month of winter, but spring can’t be too far away. The horse has begun to shed and 2 of our chickens…Pecky – on the left – (she likes to peck at food) and Specky – on the right – (a speckled brown)

Pecky

Pecky

have both gone broody. We popped a few of Daisy’s (our female Indian Runner

Specky

Specky

Duck) eggs under them when they first went broody as all she want to do is run around, eat, splash and “play” with the drake!! A few days later, we were given ten naked neck eggs believed to be fertile from lovely Monica who gave us the chickens. (No they don’t have mange, they are Transylvanian Naked Neck Chickens – also known as Turkens in the US) So, we have popped them under the chooks also. Hopefully in the next week either Daisy or one of the other chickens will go broody also so we can separate out the duck eggs, otherwise we will just have to take them out and try for ducklings later on. We figure it’s not really fair to expect mamma hens to raise clutches of half chicks, half ducklings!

Blueberry Flowers

Blueberry Flowers

Out in the garden are other signs of spring. One blueberry bush is covered in flowers while the

Blueberry Fruit Forming

Blueberry Fruit Forming

other is actually starting to form fruit! Very exciting for us as this will be our first ever crop of blueberries. On the subject of berries, the mulberry tree

Mulberry beginning to bud

Mulberry beginning to bud

is sprouting leaves and also budding flowers. Hopefully we will get our first crop of them also this year. We are keeping our fingers crossed for a nice abundant spring and summer as this is the first year the plants will have been in long enough as they only went in last year. We
have a single lonely Chinese Bell chilli left on the bush after I had picked all the red ones to make curried chilli with (super yum – I’ll post the recipe), but hopefully with the onset of spring, we will get some more. Up in my green house, I have planted about 18 different varieties of herbs and a couple of fruit trees, all from seed. The first few are beginning to pop their heads out of the soil, so far the thyme, marjoram, chamomile and zaatar have all popped up to say hello, as have some of the sunflowers. I am really excited as they are not your standard yellow sunflowers, but will flower in a range from yellow to orange, through to a crimson red!

The lonely Chinese Bell Chillie

They almost look like gerberas. The peas are all giving us pods daily now and we have planted a second lot, and the bok choy is enormous – much to the delight of the chooks and ducks who tuck in to it for their green fodder each day. My first 3 purple cabbages are forming heads and the daikon are growing quickly too! Our mixed lettuce are probably nearing the end of their run, but I do have some new lettuces on their way up. I am really looking forward to giving some baby cos to my friend over the road who has promised me a big bowl of her delicious Caesar Salad in return!

 

First Pizza in the Wood Fired Oven August 11, 2009

Well, there could be only one thing more exciting than the previous post…the first meal in the oven!!  So, here it is…
Late afternoon Matthew fired up the oven as the sun set over the hills of Nana Glen.  I know, it sounds a little cliche, but it was really the perfect setting.  We turned on the fairy lights as we stood under the gazebo watching the thermometer steadily climb to 350oC.  Time for me to go inside and get the bases and toppings ready.  I had been down to Coffs Catering earlier in the day and bought our first 4 pizza trays.  2 big ones for the grown ups and 2 small ones for the girls.  We like to have everyone make their own as we all like different toppings, and I think it is important to involve the kids in preparing their own food.  They tend to eat better if they have ownership of the meal, and it teaches them about nutrition also.
I squished (my technical term) out all the bases on the tray, using my regular recipe for pizza dough and chopped all the ingredients to put on top then everyone came inside and made their pizzas.  The four of us marched outside in procession, all with our trays in our hands to the oven and one by one, passed them to Matthew who put them into the oven.  Within minutes it smelled wonderful!  I don’t know what it is, but there is definately something special about food cooked by wood rather than electricity or gas.  That wonderful earthy aroma and taste…mmmm…I’m starting to drool just recollecting!  Before we knew it, the peel was back in the oven and the pizzas were ready.  Nothing left to do but sit and eat.  We were so excited about tucking in, I forgot all about photos and just managed one quick snap of Matthew’s plate – sorry bout the lack of composition in the pic but we were dying to tuck in!  And the result?  Delicious!  So good in fact, we are going back for round two tonight.  For a bit of variety though, we are going to have Turkish Pide instead of Pizza.  Hey, why restrict ourselves!

Bring on dinner time!
 

First Fire in the Pizza Oven!! August 9, 2009

Woohoo!  It has finally happened, the last brick is in and the dome is complete!  Friday night DH lit the first small test fire inside the oven to see how it would go.  Went great – only a small fire, but reached 250oC easily.  We had friends come over for a feed and to watch (of course) and rang the neighbours over the road to come and check it out.  Lots of oohs and aahs and “how long til we get a pizza”.  We even turned on the fairy lights around the gazebo next to it for a bit of ambience.  Gorgeous!  He has done a fantastic job, especially for someone with no brick laying experience.  Our friend’s uncle even thought he was a brickie!!
August 7Last night we lit the second fire, a bit bigger this time and it went up to 340oC.  He is a clever  boy – even installing a probe thermometer through the wall during construction so we can keep an eye on the temperature.  He is now going to put 3 layers of render over the top with vermiculite in the second layer as extra insulation, and will tint the final layer an earthy reddish brown – think Uluru at sunset.  Once that is all finished, I get to have my turn with the decorating.  Originally I was going to do a mural…but, as we live in a little hamlet called Nana Glen, named after the 2 tailed lizard (a naturally occurring mutation of a very common lizard that the local Aboriginal tribe call Nana), I am going to attempt to make a large 3d sculpture of a August 7 (3)2 tailed lizard draped over the dome of the oven.  Come on, since when did I ever go for an easy, subdued option – it has to be over the top or not at all!!  (Kinda like my cakes lol).  Hopefully I’ll figure out how to do it as I go along as I have never attempted sculpture before except for a mammoth head out of foam rubber for a play in high school (and even then I had an art teacher helping!!)  I’ll be sure to take lots of photos and post them up as I go.  I am also thinking I might do a bit of a write up on DH and how he built the oven as we took lots of photos along the way, right from the laying of the slab and the kids imprinting their handprints!!  It even has wood stowage underneath!
So, Tuesday night is our very first

pizza night!  I am going to try out a new recipe for the dough to celebrate, and now I have to start thinking about what toppings – they have to be special as occasions don’t come much more special than this!  I am SOOOOOO excited!!

 

Day One March 30, 2009

Filed under: Garden — nanaglenmum @ 7:38 am
Tags: , ,

Bit of an intro I guess.

I’m an at home Mum of 2 little girls – Miss J and Miss M.  We live in a tiny village in the hills behind Coffs Harbour on the mid north coast of NSW, Australia.  We moved here from the city in July last year and haven’t looked back.  We are a family of 4, have a dog and just this week got our first ever horse.

Not quite sure where I plan to go  with this blog, just a few thoughts as I go through my days I suppose.  I forsee lots of chat about food as I love to cook and eat, and a bit of this and that as I keep myself occupied.

We have a lovely veggie garden which I love to tend to.  Here are some of our raspberries picked the other morning to have on porridge for breakfast.

Hubby is quite the green thumb and is into Australian native plants in a really big way.  His pride and joy at the moment is a Banksia Robur flower which is 24cm long!  I have to include a pic of it just to brag on his behalf!  It is an amazing flower.