For the love of...

Vintage Caravans!

I'm a little in love with vintage caravans after seeing this month's Country Style magazine. 

Especially Frankie the caravan!  

So I am now daydreaming about finding an old van and doing it up. I'll paint the inside white, with cute curtains and cushions...

How great would it be to travel around to markets selling goodies in one of these! I imagine mine full of homemade, crafty goodies, whatever I felt like making at the time. 

Anyone want to join me?

xoxo

Lavender Wreath

Inspired by Centsational Girl's tutorial, this morning I made this!

It was super easy and it looks lovely. It will look even lovelier next year when the lavender plants are a little more established and there are more flowers to pick, but even as skimpy as it is, I love it!

The only down side to it, is it has made me realise how dirty the front screen door is!

xoxo

In the garden - The chicken herb garden

Along the chicken run I have planted a few herbs known to be beneficial to the health of chickens. It is still a work in progress, but here it is so far!

 Feverfew - related to pyrethrum so a good insect repellant

 Rue - a herb for general health

 Wormwood - good for preventing/treating worms and an insect repellant

Valerian - not for anything chicken related, just what Mr Homespun picked up at the nursery when he was on a chicken herb-hunting mission!

I have them planted along the fence line so they can't eat the entire plant, but instead can get to whatever they can reach and also brush alongside them as they wander around. I still want to get and plant some lavender, catnip, comfrey, rosemary and nasturtiums and whatever else I can find that will help keep the girls in tiptop condition!

We have spent this morning preparing the gardens and pots for another scorcher with temperatures expected to hit 43 degrees today. Tuesday was also a shocker and our thoughts go out to everyone affected by the bushfires around the country.

Cheers

PS Did you see the new girls? I will post about them shortly. Did you also spot the charming dead capsicum in the photos? Perhaps I should check before I click...

Fruit Fly - from glut to heartbreak

We have had a bit of a fruit fly issue over the past few weeks on our tomatoes and put a trap out, and it was working nicely, lots of dead male fruit flies. But over the past few days, whilst we were busy with the New Year celebrations and recovery, not to mention getting Miss 9's stitches out (yuck!), and trying to get back to our 'normal' routine, the bushes were a little neglected.

So yesterday we decided to spend a few hours in the garden, picking the ripe and nearly ripe tomatoes and destroying those affected by fruit fly. But after a few minutes it became obvious that the few hours would be spent ripping the tomato bushes out because all the tomatoes had been stung.

Every single one.

Both red and green. Buckets of tomatoes, destroyed.

I am quite heartbroken.

I had recently purchased a preserver and was looking forward to make bottles and bottles of passata, to put away for cooler weather, but alas, it is not to be.

So the trap has been moved to the lemon tree in the hopes that the fruit flies won't move over there. And we will start from scratch with new plants and hope it is not too late in the season for them.

If anyone has any tips on preventing or destroying fruit fly, please leave a comment for us all.

Cheers

Happy 2013

Happy New Year!

The whole New Year's resolution thing is something I usually find a little exciting. Just like a Monday, it's a new slate only on a much bigger scale. But this time I'm finding I want something a little different since the usual resolutions only last a few weeks at best.

So I'm setting myself some little goals instead. And I won't beat myself up if I don't achieve them. But I really like these goals so I am hopeful that I will be able to achieve them, even if I slip up every now and then. Here are a few:

• Eat something from our garden, every day.

• Plant something every week.

• Blog more!

And the one resolution I make every year, get bloody organised!! (I think I have Buckley's hope of achieving that one, going on past results, tee hee)

Anyhow, I hope you all had a lovely holiday season, and for now - onwards!

We are off to the doctor's today so Miss 9 can have her stitches out. Bit nervous too...

Cheers

The best chicken house in the whole backyard!

I'm sure there are better ones somewhere out there...

But I'll admit, I think mine rocks.

It isn't finished yet, there is still some painting to do, and another windowshutterthingey to make. But it still looks great!

A quick tour:

The front

The side ramps, there are two, the idea being one side of the run can be fenced off to give it time to recover from all the scratching.

The inside

The laying boxes

The back (yes we have gutters and they are attached to this rainwater tank)

The runs

Mr Homespun and I made the whole house, using this cubby house plan as a guide. It has taken us the best part of the year to make it, but on and off, whenever the inspiration struck us! We are so incredibly proud of it and our girls just love it! (Although the other girls, Miss 9 and Miss 13 are a little cheesed off that the chickens have a lovely house and they still don't have a cubby house!)

Cheers!

Recipe - Tomato Relish

Well Christmas is over for another year, and we have all started to slow down after the mad rush of the past week or so. A little more rushing than usual as Miss 9 had a bit of an accident on Sunday and now has 7 stitches in her shin. The poor little thing had a 3 inch gash on her leg with about 2 inches of bone exposed! But she is hobbling around just fine now and the wound appears to be healing nicely.

If you are experiencing a glut of tomatoes right now, as we are, here is a great recipe that will use some up in a most delicious way. It is from Complete Perfect Recipes by David Herbert, one of my favourite and most used cookbooks.

Tomato Relish

Ingredients
1kg tomatoes
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 small red chillies
1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup olive oil
1 cup red wine vinegar (I didn't have any so I substituted white wine vinegar and it was still delicious)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon curry powder

Halve the tomatoes and remove the seeds, then roughly chop and pop into a saucepan with the remainder of the ingredients.

Bring to the boil and reduce heat and simmer for around an hour, or until it is thick and a bit jam-like, stirring occasionally. Season to taste.

Pour into sterilised jars and then store in the fridge for up to 1 month.

I usually like to let these types of recipes to sit for a week before eating to allow the flavours to develop, but the batch I made last Sunday (before Miss 9 hurt herself) is already gone!

It is lovely with leftover Xmas ham, or with cheese and crackers. Yum!

Enjoy!