3 April 2011

Yesterday I finished taking out the grass from under the study window. Its now all ready to be made into a native garden bed. The two grevillas already in there seem to be settling well and we'll put the third plant we got from Kings Park there too. I wouldn't mind getting one of the beautiful dwarf bottlebrushes we saw there as well... the most intense red flowers, it was very striking! A little love seat under the window, some stepping stones, ground covers, possibly a bird bath... I can all it all now!!!

30 March 2011

I've decided that bulbs are the ultimate sneaky plant. W hen I've come home from the garden shop with a new plant the evidence is pretty much right there. Bulbs however can be snuck into the ground and when they appear months later one can feign complete innocence. "How on earth did that get there?" or "conditions must have been just right for them this year". Case in point - I"VE planted some freesias under "the tree" in the round bed in the courtyard. We've never (or at least not yet) fond out what that tree is. Just yesterday I was thinking to myself "what can you call a tree when you don't actually know what the tree is called?" And the answer was obvious really "Clayton" the name for a tree when you don't have a name for a tree (as opposed to the drink you have when you're not having a drink). So the freesias have been planted under Clayton and I'm going to put some ranunculis in there as well. That should take case of the spring flowering. I'm thinking of putting in 3 pink salvias which should flower pretty much from Spring to Autumn. The agapanthus will take care of Summer and the Princettia will give colour during Autumn and Winter. So that's the entire year taken care of in just one bed. Obviously I need cuttings of the salvias and princettias in order to have enough plants to do it but they will come along eventually.

28 March 2011 (B)

"Rosehips and Crabapples" has proved to be a wonderful read (yes I know, finished already!). Susan Irvine and her husband have a house in Tasmania "Forest Hall" which has an extensive garden featuring surprise, surprise roses and crabapples.. Her book "Garden at Forest Hall" detailed the restoration of the house and garden... Rosehips and Crabapples is a "rose lovers diary". She has a nice conversational style and it is accompanied by lovely photos. Susan Irvine is an authority on Alistair Clarke roses and so a lot have been planted in her garden.

Today I got myself a few belated presents... at Big W I got two Dahlia tubers - Emily Jane and Gamiber Jane. My interest in Dahlias was sparked by Yvonne in Standish with her beautiful display every year out the front, She has given me a few tubers which she took out so I'm starting my very own Dahlia garden. I Also got seeds of poppy, larkspur and linaria... all plants which feature in "Rosehips and Crabapples". And I couldn't resist a Jiffy tray with lid (which now contains linaria seeds). After that I had a wander into Red Dot. I was impressed with the little $3 pots I got the other week but so much more impressed with the massive pot I got today - $30 and its now holding the 3 strawberry plants Chloe got. It has taken close to 50L of potting mix and is still a couple of inches from the top - it could probably easily take 60L.

After shopping I went back to Red Dot intending to get another one and wouldn't you know it... all gone!!! However, up the back of the shop there were mini greenhouses - plastic frames with clear plastic covers which zip up at the front - they were $45 but were now $15 - I was definitely getting on of those thank you very much.

28 March 2011 (A)

It was my birthday yesterday and what an enjoyable day it turned out to be.  Normally I dislike the fuss and bother associated with my birthday feeling that it is more of an occasion for children (and always tending to feel slightly disappointed in them to be honest) however yesterday was different.  Firstly we had had a most enjoyable meal the night before with Dad, who left for Bahrain in quite high spirits (just for a change).  Secondly, although I had a not so good sleep the night before I did get the luxury of a bit of a lie-in.  Paul got Danish's and croissants for breakfast so we had a nice sit down breakfast all together.  I opened just two small presents which turned out to be a box of gourmet Coconut Rough and a book "Rosehips and Crabapples" by Susan Irvine.  And that was perfect, not excessively extravagant and certainly both agreeable to my tastes (and one could say that the Coconut Rough was more that agreeable to Chloe's tastes!).  Paul then went to soccer... he arranged to play a friendly with the team on Thursday night training forgetting what Sunday was.  I was not on the slightest bit concerned however because it meant nearly 3 glorious hours in which I could do nothing at all.  The kids spent the morning making cards then sneaking around the house so that I would not see the cards they were making however as their game involved an awful lot of giggling they did tend to give themselves away a lot.  Once Paul got home we had a bit of lunch and a potter about then I decided to go to Dawson's, taking Chloe with me.  Taking Chloe anywhere results in an awful lot of extra purchases and this was no exception.  We ended up with 3 strawberry plants and a Swan River Daisy (the mauve with yellow centres).  I got ranunculi, freesia and daffodil bulbs plus the beautiful Pierre de Ronsard rose that I saw when I was there last week.  I have no idea where he will go at this stage but he was my birthday present to myself.  Dinner was "Subway"... yum, yum!!!! and Paul got a lovely Almond Torte for cake.  I was pleasantly surprised as birthdays can on the whole be somewhat disappointing but this one was perfect from beginning to end!

Could there be any greater day than today...

I've got to write this down right now because today verged on being so perfect that I never want to forget it.

1. I stayed in bed until 8am - unheard of!!!

2. The weather was glorious today, the sky was cornflower blue, not a cloud to be seen. It was delightfully warm with just the slightest hint of a breeze.

3. My boronia is smothered in flowers which means the most heavenly fragrance is sitting right outside my kitchen window and as the smell just makes my senses reel. There is simply no smell on earth more divine than boronia.

4. The kids were good today which for them is a real achievement. The boys helped deliver the catalogues today with no complaints and we walked further than normal and they were really good. They played outside for most of the day with the minimum of fights (well they cant be completely perfect).

5. Because the weather was so nice, we had a little picnic lunch in the backyard. It feels like forever since we've done that.

6. I fixed up the kids whiteboard/blackboard much to their delight (and even had chalk/markers so they could use it immediately).

7. I got so many jobs done, I spent a lot of time today just pottering around the backyard doing odd jobs plus I got 4 loads of washing done.

8. Chloe used the potty for the very first time (and ok it probably was a bit of a cheat because I put her on there as soon as she woke up but I dont care there was wee in the potty and that's all that counts).

9. I logged onto the computer tonight and found out that I won a blog give away. I never win anything let alone gorgeous material. So here we are my first blog give away win courtesy of idey spidey. And the fabric is to die for.

10. Now that I've finished this I'm going to have a lovely shower, climb into bed and rest my weary head. Because we've had a very full, very busy, very fun day. And I so hope we have lots, lots more of them.

Sweet dreams everyone!!!

The birds and the bees...

Well actually, its just about the bees today. I love that my fuzzy, buzzy friends have returned in force. Of course they are still around during the winter but not in such large numbers. And they absolutely love the lavender at the moment... as do I.

Its definitely shoe time though, bees and bare feet arent such a good combination for little people.


I cant wait until my other garden friends start to return. My roses are definitely going to need some ladybug assistance soon, the aphids are happily sucking away already.

He says it cheating....

Apparently if you buy a fruit tree at the nursery and it already has two pieces of fruit on it (albeit green pieces of fruit), then its cheating to call those fruit your own. Never mind that those two pieces of fruit have been tenderly watched and care for as they gradually turned from lime green to sunny yellow. Never mind that the tree is being nurtured with the utmost care by yours truly. The fruit growing moral squad has declared that you cant claim that you grew the fruit when it was already there.


Fine, I'm not going to argue, I guess the only thing you can do with cheating lemons is make a cheating cheesecake...


You'll need:

A packet of plain biscuits, granitas are always our weapon of choice but we aren't pedantic around here. You only need around 200g so I generally give a few to the vultures that inevitably hang around
Around 80g of butter or margarine, melted
A handful of nuts, but this is totally optional
about 3 really ripe lemons. This isn't going to work if your lemons are even slightly tinged with green. You'll need about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of lemon juice. You can also use the bottled lemon juice if you don't have fresh lemons but it doesn't have quite the same tang.
1 packet of Philly Cheese take it out of the fridge and let it soften for a while
1 tin of condensed milk, try not to cut your tongue when you lick the lid

Smash the biscuits into bread crumb size pieces. Mum used to do this by hand with a rolling pin and plastic bag. Why I dont know but anyway. I whack them in the food processor with a handful of nuts (I used hazelnuts in this one but pecans are nice too or dont use nuts at all, its totally up to you). Once its all nice and fine, add the melted butter...

Mix it in thoroughly then pop it all into a pie dish lined with foil (trust me, forgetting the foil makes for difficult removal of cheesecake, dont ask me how I know this)...


That's it, crust is done, pop it in the fridge and lets move onto the yummiest bit.

Juice your lemons (or squeeze a bottle if thats what you are using). Now my two lemons were actually pretty small but they were unbelievably juicy and hardly any pith. I got half a cup of juice out of these guys. I also used one store bought lemon which was twice the size of these babies and it gave me less than a 1/4 of a cup. When it comes to lemons, its not the size that counts!!


Now I said between 1/2 and 3/4 of a cup of juice. I always use 3/4, mum always uses 1/2. You might find that 2/3 gives the perfect tang for you. But suffice to say anything between 1/2 and 3/4 will set your cheesecake.

Pop your (now soft) Philly cheese and condensed milk in a bowl and get out your electric beaters. Beat until smooth, no one likes a lumpy cheesecake!! Smooth yet?? If not, keep beating. Once it is smooth, add the lemon juice and beat a little bit more. As long as your lemons are nice and ripe they will start reacting with the milk and cheese causing it to thicken and set. My too little babies must have been perfect cheesecake lemons because this mix was firm in less than a minute. I mean literally hold-the-bowl-upside-down-nothings-moving firm.

Once you are happy that everything's mixed, smooth, tangy etc etc, grab your crust from the fridge, pour the cheese-y bit in and bung it back in the fridge to set completely. Thats it, no cooking, just lick the beaters and the bowl!!! I decided to zest my little lemons to sprinkle over the top and honestly the zest was sooooooo yummy, really sweet with a definite citrus tang. Little sprinkles of heaven...


So there we have it, super quick, super easy cheesecake which is smooth, silky and oh so tangy. And if you look in the background of this picture, you can see where it all began, out the back in the blue pot sits my little lemon tree. Here's to many more delicious cheesecakes next year.

This cheesecake recipe was taken off the back of a Philly cheese wrapper lord know how long ago by my mum. Lemons were generously provided by my lemon tree - a Lot o' Lemons dwarf variety which is suitable for pots and gives full sized fruit.