Procrastinating...

I should be packing or cleaning or something relating to our move next week, but I'm not.

Oh don't worry, I've had spurts of motivation over the past two days and got a bit done, but now that we're down to the knitty gritty I am procrastinating, just like the latest post over at The Knitty Gritty Homestead (ha like how I did tied in that 'knitty gritty'!).

I catch myself actually seeking out things to do that have nothing to do with our move. Like washing outdoor chair cushions(!), checking out Freecycle, making ginger beer or reading books (I do admit these do have to go back to the library before we move so this is activity might just fit into the moving category).

I want to chat about the book I just started reading. It's called Successful Organic Gardening and is written by David Murray. Has anyone read this book?




















Within the first 11 pages, he has already slammed the concepts of moon planting, biodynamics and permaculture! Quite aggressively too, I might add, while touting his obviously favoured concept of Integrated Pest Management. Now to be honest, I haven't tried ANY of these ideas, so have no real leaning to any one just yet. As I've written about we currently live in a unit with space for just a few container plants, but from next weekend we will be in a house with lots of room for gardening so I am educating myself on the different methods of vegetable gardening. I am very intrigued to learn about IPM as I hadn't heard of it before, but he's kind of put me off already just by the way he's attacked the other concepts.

Well, as I said I am only 11 pages in, so I can't really start judging the book by this inital reaction, but I will give a review at the end so you can decidde if you want to read it also.

I'd love to hear if anyone uses any of these different techniques in their gardening and how successful it has been for you. Also any good books that you think I should read.

Well I should get back to it, the front balcony needs a tidy before the real estate comes tomorrow to take photos to put up on the web to advertise the property.

Hope you're having a great weekend!

:)
Kim

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
Inspired by soulemama

Have a fabulous weekend!

Our new house! Can't wait to get into that garden!

We're Moving!

To a HOUSE....with a YARD....and GARDEN BEDS!

I am SOOOOOO excited!

The little unit balcony has been great for growing the few things we have but I just can't wait to get a whole yard to grow in!

It will be a little sad to say goodbye to my home of 2 years, but it is oh-so worth it!

....now, seed catalogues to peruse... packing to do.....tools to buy...

More details to come, stay tuned!

Crochet: SLOWLY but surely

Crochet patterns scare the living daylights out of me!


All that gibberish means nothing to me (and I'm Gen Y, so you think it would make perfect sense to me!LOL). But I have mastered (ok not really mastered at all, just understood) my first one!

It's a very simple one mind you, and I had to watch the Youtube videos about 3 times before I could actually decipher each crochet in the written pattern!

Note the very large petal on the upper left hand side. Yup thats too many double crochet's right there. But wasn't I proud as punch when I finished it despite that little flaw! I ran out to show Lyndon and he was very lovely with his compliments (even though I'm sure a mid-twenty male couldn't truthfully be that excited about crocheted flowers!)

Now this one is much better but still a few lose threads hanging about.

I also learnt how to tuck the end yarns into the flower, which deserves another pat on the back I think! hehe

Now onto the real patterns.......


:)
Kim

I won a giveaway!

I was so excited about Emily's giveaway when it saw it on her Little Greenapple Farm blog. These cute little bird earrings on wattle from The Purple Finch are right up my alley!

Aren't they just adorable! And I was soo very lucky to win them! Weee I can't wait to get my little parcel in the post!

Thanks Emily for running such an awesome giveaway. Check out her fabulous blog here

And also head on over to The Purple Finch's online store here to check out Vee's other goodies

x
Kim

A fabulous book!

First let me just say how much I love libraries! I often come back from a walk at lunchtime near my work with an arm full of books I've borrowed out from the local library up the road (sometimes it can be quite difficult getting them all home since I catch the bus and have to lug them all the way home, very heavy!).

Earlier this week I once again popped up to the library to return a few overdue books (I have so many I forget which are mine and which belong to the library!), and came back with another armfull. This time including a meditteranean vegetarian cookbook (so many yummy dishes to make!), a learn to knit book (I'm struggling to get past the basic crochet stitches so thought knitting might be a good diversion), a herbal book (good to know what things I can plant to create my own garden medicine cabinet) and a book titled "Ten Thousand Acres" by Patrice Newell.

Has anyone read this book, or any others by Patrice?

I hadn't heard of the author before but the front cover struck me.

So I've finished reading the book already! Not hard since the writing is very easy to follow, its not too full of text (has lots of brilliant photography!) and the story is so beautifully written.

Here is how Patrice describes her book on her website:

Ten Thousand Acres – A Love Story goes beyond the angers and arguments of debates on ecology and climate change to the deepest feelings we have for our farm and the wild landscape that embraces it.


It goes beyond the crops and the cattle, high above the olive groves and the old homestead into the old stories hidden in its hundred hills and valleys.


We do not really own our farm, let alone the ancient landscape that rises above it.
Ten Thousand Acres IS a love story – of how the place has come to own us. It is my book of endless discovery of the extraordinary riches that surround us, in the dark of night and the harshest days of drought.
It is about the wild aviary of birds, the boundless zoo of native animals, the abundance of beauty, of trees, plants, grasses and botanic secrets.
I hope to make a contribution to the literature of ‘place’, the new awareness that Australians must have for all the Australia’s within our immense continent.
In words and pictures, my book sets out to reveal the love we must have for the totality of the natural world – the respect for the land that is essential if we (and I mean all of us, ‘all creatures great and small’) are to have a hope of survival.


I fell in love with the writing, and here to prove how beautiful it is, here is my favourite passage:

"On exactly the same day as last year, two frogmouths arrive and take their place side by side on their favourite branch in their preferred ironbark tree. I look up at them. They look down at me.
A few weeks later there are four of them. Two big-eyed babies.
Things are as they should be." pg 93

Looking on her website I see she has another book I'd be interested to read, "The Olive Grove." It's the story of when she moved from the city out to the country, definitely something I'd like to read!

How's your weekend's going?

:)
Kim

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by soulemama

Have a fabulous weekend!
 

Along the path to the train this foggy Brisbane morning