Festive Fare to enjoy both here and there!

Christmas and the New Year have been and gone but a look back through my photos have confirmed how successful our cooking and eating were during the season.

Aly treated Rod and I to Banana Pancakes on New Years Day. 

I made Cheesecake swirl Brownie and Cherry Coconut  slice to take to Leah and Andrews NY Eve party.

Using Maree’s recipe I whipped up a Cherry Almond spice cake to take to Meg and Peter’s for our annual non-camping lunch.

After buying a set of sterling silver Pudding coins at the Barmera Markets back in October I thought I would start a new Pudding tradition in an attempt to be less of a Christmas Scrooge. For many years my Mum made Christmas Puddings, originally using Pudding cloths, suet and cooking them up in a cooper. An impressive effort which my Dad and many of the family enjoyed. I have opted for a Pudding bowl and am quite happy for my first attempt. Time for Mum to enjoy a well earned retirement from Christmas Pudding baking.

Not a trifle but a Smashed Pavlova. A timely lolly jar gift made for a great tall bowl. Aly made all the elements from scratch, including lemon curd, pav, whipped cream and macerated cherries and then put it together. Beautiful!

Aly treated us on Christmas morning to a breakfast of French Toast on lemon curd, topped with stewed apples and a sprinkling of blueberries.

9 family members for Christmas lunch, a little warm to be on the deck so I set the dinning room table where we fitted comfortably and enjoyed a lovely afternoon of Christmas fare.

The Devil is in the Details

I love gardens that have a sprinkling of ornamentation throughout. Even better if an ornament serves a practical purpose, like a brass bird tap top. But items that are purely there for show serve a purpose too as the can delight the senses. One of my favourite quotes is by William Morris -. Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful. Same goes for the garden I think!

Hydrangea Happiness

A variety of hydrangeas at Ashwell. Some are in pots. Some were gifts and some are cuttings from established plants. The more plain hydrangeas (centre top row) have been here for most of the 35 years, but because they are under the pine tree they have not grown much. This year I have given  them more attention and the results are noticeable. Maybe if I keep at it they will eventually look like significant bushes.

Arty Choke

Pick a flowering Artichoke, place it in a vase, surround it with flowering Hebe stems and you have an artistic arrangement.

Strawberry Fields Forever

It turns out that it you give strawberries love and attention they grow bigger and better.

In winter this year I replanted my strawberry runners into a new position. Mixing chook poo and home grown compost into the soil I made mounds to plant into. Despite the felling of the pine tree dropping bits onto the strawberry plants in September they revived quite well when the patch was cleaned up. After picking some medium fruit in November and December, often sharing the biggest ones with millipedes- grrrrrrr - I then cut off the runners, spread some Rapid Raiser fertiliser and laid down some pea straw. My efforts have indeed been rewarded with larger strawberries and more of them. The straw making it harder for the millipedes and generally keeping the fruit out of the dirt.

Lastly a fence of bamboo on all sides is needed to keep the kangaroos from having their share.

Hard Yacka

The talented Rod has created another sculpture. Crafted from copper and ingenuity this installation has been created to replicate the real thing.

About a year ago we noticed that our Xanthorrohea preissii which had been doing famously for the five or so years since it was planted in the Gekko Garden, was showing worrying signs of illness. We checked the watering system, cut back the dying leaves and hoped for the best. It did not improve, in fact even after seeking advice and armed with fungicide and Gogo juice our Yakka slipped further and further into decline. Finally we had to admit it was DEAD.

The substantial outlay for the magnificent plant removed from native vegetation in Western Australia initially made us a little nervous but determined to follow all the recommendations for initial transplanting and settling. After so many years of going from strength to strength we thought that we would have it for decades. It was upsetting enough to loose the leaves we really didn’t want to part with the trunk too.

Transforming copper pipe .......

.........fitting copper rivets........

........cutting and bending 160 metres of 2.6 mm gauge copper wire for the new leaves.........

........welded into place in neat rings around the copper pipe stem.......

.......hours and hours of cutting and welding........

.......out of the Worksop and into the garden the copper Yakka is a good substitute for the real thing.

“No legacy is so rich as honesty.” William Shakespeare

Visiting my mother’s childhood home in December 2016 we found some honesty seeds on the ground. The owner who is still there, having purchased the estate over 30 years ago said she has never planted them, they just keep self seeding. My Pop would have been the gardener responsible for introducing them into that garden. I am chuffed now to share the legacy of honesty into our garden and enjoy yet another memory of my grandfather.