words and pictures - catching up

Officially the end of summer today. Seven degrees outside:: snow on the mountain. Cold. Blustery. Rainy. Perfect weather for curling up on the sofa with my delicious new book. Maybe later. I've got work to do today. It's crunch time for the tomatoes.

"Pull 'em out. t. o. d. a. y. Every last one. Frosts are coming tonight."

That was the word in the school car park this morning, as photocopies of CWA green tomato recipes were passed around. After school drop, it was back home to face the inevitable, I rugged up, braced the cold and went outside.

I pulled out all the tomato plants, all thirty of them, to reveal long lost scribbled labels, that had been pushed into the soil next to tiny seedlings all those months ago. Brandywine, Amish Paste, Napoli, Roma, Black Russian.

Snip, Snip, Snip. I cut the green tomatoes off the vines and they fall into the basket. Plop, Plop, Plop. My hands are freezing. It's raining. The wind lashes my face. It's muddy. It's cold. I wish I could do it later. But it's now or never. By tomorrow, the predicted frost will turn them into black mush.

So many green tomatoes. Admittedly, I was a bit late getting them in this year. And as a result of my lazy gardening, they spent autumn catching up with a long finished summer. And today's cold snap means that they never will. That, coupled with mild weather and this mostly verdant crop is the best I could hope for. No ripe, luscious, sun kissed tomatoes for us this year. But I did learn a few lessons about growing tomatoes; Don't over crowd the plants, they need lots of space for light and growth. Get them started early or better yet start them off in a greenhouse. And you have to actually tie the tomato plant to the stakes, not just stab it into the ground next to the plant and hope they'll somehow, miraculously attach themselves. ahem.

Now these green guys, all 10 kilos of them, will sit on the kitchen floor, alongside boxes of patiently waiting quinces, hopefully some ripening, and if I can ever catch up, some cooked into chutney. Or perhaps, some dumped on the compost heap. To eventually be dug back into the ground to nourish a new crop, at the official start of next summer...

More catching up over here.

Eye Spy - a work in progress

Despite being my choice of theme for this week's Eye Spy meme it was difficult to chose what Work in Progress to post.  My house? Seen it already.  My knitting project? Gawd no! .... I guess it has to be my garden.  

It's certainly a work in progress. And a slow one at that.  I sometimes get so impatient at how long things take.  Not in so much as how long the trees take to grow, but waiting for things to take shape.  Waiting for the time and money for landscaping, stump grinding, laying paving, building retaining walls and raised beds.  I have a vision and it's frustrating when it's not realised straight away. 

But this week, I was so inspired by the ABC series Around the Word in 80 Gardens.  Have you seen it?  It's been so lovely to see my garden idol Monty Don on the telly.  Do you know him? You should.  He's just as gorgeous on screen as he is in print.  These two books of his are my gardening bibles.  So inspiring with beautiful prose and pics of Monty striding around his gorgeous garden, in all his hand knitted sweater and gumboot glory, brandishing armfuls of rhubarb...sigh.

But I digress dear reader, the point of mentioning Monty was that this week he visited Dame Elisabeth Murdoch's garden at Cruden Farm. An incredible garden which has taken some 70 odd years to create.

That's when my gardening epiphany struck.  Creating a garden, not matter how small, is a lifetime's work.  And then some.  It will never be finished. The joy is in the actual doing. A garden is a living, breathing, changing beast and will by it's very nature, forever be a work in progress.   And therein dear reader, lies its appeal. 

Thanks to Cindy for hosting Eye Spy and for asking me to pick this weeks theme.

Eye Spy - a magic elixir

I'm playing along with Cindy's Eye Spy game, now with new improved Mr Linky,  and this week's theme from Amy Badskirt is a good one. 

Here is a favourite magic elixir in our house :: garden soup. Here's the recipe:

From your garden, pick the finest selection of dirt, sticks, grass and flowers to taste.

Add water and stir.

Taste for seasoning and serve! Hours of messy good fun. 

Thanks to Amy for this week's theme and to Cindy for hosting. 

 See who else is playing this week over here.

Magical March - my jam cupboard

Here is the jam packed jam cupboard, after a busy, busy March.  We've apricot, blackcurrant, cherry, raspberry and plum jams along with preserved peaches, cherries and nectarines.  Phew! A lot of the fruit we picked ourselves which is all the more satisfying.  The laundry is crowded with boxes of potatoes from our garden, which should keep for a few months over autumn.  And the kitchen is crammed with baskets of quinces, crab apples, pears and apples still to poach, jam or jelly.  There are bags of hazelnuts to crack, sloes for gin and damsons simmering on the stove for more jam, these collected from a lovely friend's wonderful garden yesterday.  The fire is gently flickering away and the bread dough is rising on the mantle piece.    My little guy is sound asleep on the sofa, tucked under a mohair blanket. Sigh, so cozy. Here I sit with a cup of hot tea, and wonder where the heck did March go? It sure went quickly, and it sure was magical.

Thank you so much to pottymouthmama for inviting us to join in the magic.