Monthly Archives: February 2017

Blueberries

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We have a new addition to our garden.

Blueberries.

Although they are both self fertile, we bought two because of the promise on the tag that cross pollination would increase yield.

I’m very interested in increasing yield!

Over the past 5 years my interest in obtaining a semblance of financial security has increased exponentially. The main driving factor? A strong desire to be able to retire one day!

In my study of all things finance, I’ve learnt all about yield. I love that my new found knowledge translates to our garden!

And I feel a bit daft that I hadn’t used that word already with regard to our garden, of course we’d like to increase our yield. Grow more than 4 apples, more than 2 plums, more than a handful of peas!

Increase yield. I like those words.

In August last year, I read that Warren Buffet had 1% of his current worth at age 50.

He he, since then I’ve been learning as much as I can about Warren.

In the afternoon sun, after our alfresco dinner in our little garden, my daughter sang The Sound of Silence.

I can hear her singing it again now as she gets ready for bed, her beautiful voice enhanced by the acoustics of the bathroom, filling our world, making me hum along.

An incredible melody, an incredible song.

It reminds me of The Silent Valley in The Phantom Tollbooth.

Today’s harvest 🌱

If you desire it, I hope your yield increases today!

 

Cherries

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Brand new to our garden this year are a pair of cherry trees.

Stella (a red cherry) and Rainier (a golden cherry).

We’re not sure how they will fare in our garden, the weather can be pretty harsh here. The flowering cherry we’ve had for years is strong but the leaves look battered most of the time.

But we are hopeful they will flourish and grace us with loads of cherries (and that the birds will save us some).

It’s exciting when there is potential, when there is a dream of something.

The anticipation.

Last year a very dear friend of ours bought potential to my attention.

Before that it was just muddled in with everything else but mostly pulled back by all those things that pull you back, doubt, fear, self worth, etc.

But the more I think about it, the more important I think it is. We have a responsibility to ourselves to keep reaching for all that potential.

Make the most of our time.

It has inspired me to keep reaching, to keep learning, to be the best I can be.

Have you heard of a dream jar? My daughter found one on Pinterest the other day. Isn’t it a great idea! A jar full of your dreams and aspirations!

I believe, if you can dream it, you can make it happen. Dream, another word for potential?

How I wish I had created a dream jar when I was little, how fun to read now. No matter, I know those dreams formed a foundation of hope and a penchant to keep dreaming (reaching).

I hope my daughter is inspired by her find on Pinterest and creates a dream jar and time capsules her hopes and aspirations.

No harvest today, some strawberries almost ready but even yummier tomorrow 🌱

Have a wonderful day!

 

Feijoa hedge

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On the inside of our front fence we’re growing a feijoa hedge.

Our feijoa plants are young.

Youth.

All green and full of fresh ideas.

And vulnerable.

Sometimes to look back is to cringe and physically feel the pain of the historical hurt like it was yesterday. One thing I like to do when my thoughts wander to the past is to seek out the gold nuggets, the precious gems…

Here is one gem that I still use often today.

It’s just a short term cash flow problem. 

Do you sometimes find yourself wading though your memory bank? Picking at old wounds? Drudging through the bad, the blah, the muck. Why do we do that? Could it be so we can find sparklers that we missed the first time, ie. the reasons we were ‘blessed’ with that (horrible) experience, that (fraught) friendship, that job, that relationship…

I like to think mining our memories for diamonds can help us worry less and live a longer healthier life.

We laughed today about a gem of a memory…a youngster seeing a couple kissing for the first time calling out with a measure of panic, ‘What are they doing? They’re eating each other!’.

Today’s harvest 🌱

If you find yourself wandering down memory lane today I hope you find a jewel of great value to you.

 

Plums

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We have no beautiful photos of delicious juicy young plums and it’s all my fault.

Last year I relocated our young, 2 year old, Greengage plum tree.

This year, no blossoms, just yellow leaves.

Very unhappy.

Which meant no pollination for our other plum tree, our Coe’s Golden Drop.

No plums, but our Coe’s Golden Drop is a happy tree.

Last year we had a crop of two delicious Coe’s Golden Drops!

I’m hopeful that our Greengage will come out of shock next year.

I know how it feels to be relocated. There are days when I still miss home, the smell of the gum trees in the summer sun and the raucous Australian birds.

This morning the mist was hanging on the hill above us and it reminded me of my old house in Melbourne close to the river, how the mist would hang in the trees.

But time has moved on and we’re settled here now.

I hope our Greengage settles into his new home too. We’d love some plums next year!

There were many chuckles in our house today, from a discussion about time, to laughing about not being able to see something that is right in front of you, to struggling to lock the door, to Mrs Frisby riding on Jeremy’s (the crow) back to the wise owl (which is no laughing matter), to the ‘just one more goodnight kiss’…laughter lives in some funny nooks and crannies sometimes! How grateful I am that laughter lives here.

It was a rainy day today, an Australian type of rainy day, gentle rain on a tin roof. One of my favourite things. One of our gardens favourite things!

Today’s harvest 🌱

Have a wonderful day!

 

Herbs

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Our herbs are sprinkled amongst our garden.

We have Oregano.

Lemon Balm.

Variegated Lemon Thyme.

Young Parsley (and Variegated Lemon Thyme).

Very young Sweet Basil.

Bay leaves.

Healing herbs.

Isn’t it curious that emotional pain can manifest as a physical ailment?

I will always appreciate an experience I had with an acupuncturist in Sydney who taught me that.

In about 2002, I was having trouble with my skin. A friend mentioned that an acupuncturist had helped her and gave me his details. I remember driving over the bridge and around the waterfront up into Neutral Bay. He had turned the property into an authentic Asian oasis both the building and the grounds, it was beautiful, restful, healing, peaceful…stepping into the front garden, cocooned by the cool greens, hearing the symphony of a variety of water features, the breeze in the leaves and birdsong, you immediately felt calm.

I was surprised to find the acupuncturist was a very Aussie male, fair hair and tanned. On my first visit I talked for what felt like an hour (really it was probably 15 minutes). He listened and made occasional notes. He then administered the needles and left me for what felt like another hour.

I visited several more times. My skin didn’t really improve, but I was willing to try anything, so I kept going.

I then went away on a film for a short time, when I got back, my skin still wasn’t great, I went back to see him. He greeted me and said, that’s right, you’re the one we’re treating for a broken heart.

What he gave me that day is that our emotional pain can manifest as a physical ailment and, if I could heal my emotional state, I could heal my ailment! I had the power!

Thank you Mr Acupuncturist, I’m grateful to you for helping me see and heal.

Today’s harvest 🌱

Hope you’re kind to yourself today.

Weeds

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Can you believe something so beautiful is a weed?

It’s a wild bulb and it is rampant but I love it.

Without fail, starting in January, we get incredible displays. In the sunlight it’s like they emanate the suns golden rays.

Last year we emptied one of our garden beds. We removed the agapanthus and this wild bulb. Ha ha, we thought we did.

I’ve never seen a bulb survive a cull and multiply like this bulb.

I have to admit I was pleased to see them this year.

I would have missed them.

They make me smile.

And, I think, make our garden beautiful.

I wonder if the same could be said for what we consider ‘weeds’ inside of us, I wonder if some of them are what makes us beautiful and shine like the sun?

No photos of our harvest today (two fat peas 🌱), they were devoured before a photo could be taken.

Wishing you a happy Sunday like ours.

Fairies

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We’re not 100% certain fairies visit our garden but we are ready if they do, tucked under the lemon balm is a place for them to meet and rest.

This may sound strange to some of you but we have a fairy we lean on regularly, our parking fairy. I do hope she comes to rest here, she helps us so often!

When I was growing up in Australia I remember we would sometimes find patches of tiny exquisitely perfect mushrooms where you could imagine fairies dancing.

Thank goodness for books, stories, our imaginations.

Have a wonderful day!

Gladioli

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Several of our gladioli blooms were weighted down by the rain yesterday and the flowers too heavy and the stems too bent to be able to reach back up toward the sky.

We rescued them.

They now grace our kitchen window ledge.

A treasured friend who adopted my beloved cat, Indiana (Indy), when I left Sydney in 2004, introduced me to this phrase:

This too shall pass.

She had it tattooed on her arm, I asked her about it, she told me it was from a fairy tale about a king who had four prospective wives and asked each one to come to him with something that would help him rule both in good and bad times. He then would choose his bride. I can’t recall what the other prospective wives bought him, probably gold and/or other material riches, but I do remember what the one who became his wife gave him, she gave him those four words, ‘this too shall pass’.

I’ve often been grateful to my friend for sharing this phrase with me, and I think a fine phrase to tattoo on yourself as a reminder to treasure the good times and weather the bad.

Today’s harvest 🌱

I hope kindness abounds today!

 

Rain

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Happy rain soaked garden.

Back in 2005 one of my girlfriend’s married a Scotsman and it was he who introduced me to this Scottish proverb:

What is for you won’t go by you. 

So often these words have helped me let go and be rest assured that all is as it should be.

Today’s harvest 🌱

Have a wonderful day!

 

Tomatoes

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I love tomatoes too, they’re definitely up there with peas for me. But not for my daughter, there will be no competition from her when we harvest our tomatoes!

We are a while away from harvesting.

We have some blossoms…

…and a few baby tomatoes.

In this day of technology how can we protect our children’s minds so they can enjoy a childhood? We can’t always be around. Children together on their phones/tablets, exploring the internet, can find such scary things.

The thought of the compounding effect of exposure to scary/damaging things scares me for our young generation.

I love books.

We’re reading The Phantom Tollbooth and today we saved the princesses Rhyme and Reason from the inhabitants of Ignorance. Such an awesome book, have you read it? Can’t recommend it highly enough!

Today’s harvest 🌱

Hope the peaks make you smile today and the troughs are easy to jump across.