Underhill Harvest in February

Early in February Elaine, Geoff and I went down to Underhill to harvest the rest of the fruit. The damsons were so prolific that I am still cutting them up and making jam. Five trays at least two or three damsons deep makes for a lot of cutting up.

I've now got it down to a fine art. Card table in front of TV as Surrey used to do but I don't watch the cricket. I watch one of the many DVDs I have and have never had time to sit for so long. Currently I am watching two series of The House of Elliot. Cut off one cheek each side for jam and use the remainder for jelly to add to the jam when I cook it. That means less cuts on my thumb and a quicker job in the long run.

We also picked plenty of apples from one of the trees (Five Crown I think) and a few from one or two of the other trees. I'll chop these for jam. I've already added some to my first batch of Damson and Apple Jam.

Then there are quinces and peaches (probably for jam) and quite a few pears for eating when they eventually ripen. They ripened well at home last year so I'm hoping they do so this year as well.

Holiday Entertainment

Well the school holidays are now over but oh what a time Alex, Luke and I have had, sometimes with Mum or Dad, sometimes at their place and sometimes at my place.

There were four on the lounge and the little one said ....

Alex and I went to the Australian Museum to the Dinosaur show where we met a Muttaburrasaurus from Queensland.

He coloured in a dinosaur and dug for bones.

He tried to catch the huge virtual crocodile as it swam along the table.

Another day I went with Ellen, Alex and Luke to see the Hairy Maclary Show at the Opera House. We all enjoyed it imensely. We followed this with a ferry ride to Cockatoo Island where we had a quick lunch and a little walk around before catching the ferry back again. We had a great day.

At Ma's house the boys stayed over and we made houses for their favorite toys.

Watching the boys front step foundations being dug and the footings poured was a whole day's entertainment.

The really fun part at the end was trying to fill the purge pipe with water by filling the downpipe. Long hose extensions, lots of water, getting wet was all part of the fun.

Underhill in January

I went down to Underhill for a quick trip in January to pick fruit and check things out. There were peaches, plums, apples and damsons all nearly ripe but I left most until my February visit.

These are D'Argen prune plums. I picked a few to take home and they ripened beautifully. Perhaps I should have picked them all.

Pears were not ready.

Damsons are usually picked in February.

I had picked most of these plums in December when they were still yellow but I left these to see what would happen. They are not fabulous but OK for stewing up. I could leave them all till January next year.

Apples were not ready. I'll pick them in February.

This is what I did pick (the quince had fallen).

With all the rain I have quite a bit of grass and the dams are comfortable though not full.

After I had finished my chores I dropped into visit Cal and had a chat about communication options. It was nice to chat and catch up again.

Gerroa Beach Holiday

Beach holidays with friends and family are great! 

We had a great time last week just having fun and relaxing at Gerroa.

There are lots more pics at my Picasa web album.

What a day!

Today Alex and Luke are staying over at Ma's house. Our first job was to decorate the Christmas tree. It is a beautiful tree that Pa planted many years ago.
 

Then the boys had fun following all the trails on Surrey's grass quilt. Alex could even read some of the words.

They had made a list of all the things they want to do with Ma over the holidays and one of them was playing the fishing game. So we made paper fish then magnetic fishing lines and caught some fish.

But I had promised Alex that when he could reach the foot pedal of my sewing machine he could learn how to sew. He wanted to make a quilt. So here is Alex stitching his very first stitches on a sewing machine. My machine can be set at a very very slow speed which just suits him.

He has now made his first nine patch block and we've nearly cut out enough pieces for 3 more. We'll do some more tomorrow. He is absolutely chuffed that he has learned how to sew.

Of course Luke also wants to make a quilt so he is doing all the choosing and I am doing the sewing because it will be another year at least before he can reach the foot pedal.

We have had a very full day which also included feeding the chooks, buying presents for each other and wrapping them while the other was in the shower, and playing in the tent in the back yard. There was lots more as well, all still on the list.

Underhill visit

I visited Underhill last weekend. Terry and Ellie came up from near Queanbeyan to test out their new A-frame caravan. It is beautiful. They also helped with all sorts of chores. Thanks Terry and Ellie.

Geoff came for Saturday afternoon and joined in our fun of cementing up the chimney on the fuel stove. What a mess! But it might now stay up.

I picked the flowering plum (2 ice-cream containers), the greengage (probably should have waited till January but will see if they ripen at home), gooseberries (our first real harvest of these) and sylvanberries (blackberries that ripen in December). We also collected our Christmas tree from the Callitris that Surrey planted for that purpose.

Unfortunately I did not take my camera so you'll just have to imagine it all but I have added two of Terry's photos here. Thanks Terry.

Thanks Terry, Ellie and Geoff for the company and help.

Friends and Harvest

 

Yesterday was busy with planting lots of vegetable seedlings. There were lettuce, spinach, silver beet, beetroot and corn. I also planted a lot of marigolds to ward off pests. As the potato plants seemed to be rotting off I decided to harvest them and was amazed at how many I got from a 1 metre square of potato patch. The longest one on the right of the photo is about 6" (15 cm) long! I am about to start sorting them for storage and perhaps planting the tiny ones but not in the same patch.

On Wednesday night the playgroup mums had our regular dinner together. Here we all are - Anne, Betty, Evelyn and Elaine. We are all laughing because I was using the delayed timing on my camera, but we were also enjoying our evening together.

Surrey's Grass Quilt

Can you imagine how I felt some months ago when I opened a parcel from my friends Suzy and Valerie in the UK to find Surrey's writing embroidered on a quilt full of grasses!

I forgot to put the image up here for everyone because it came not long before I left for my travels and I needed to take a photo of it.

Suzy had emailed Surrey to ask for drawings of some grasses that were meaningful to him, ones he'd worked on or collected especially. He sent her photocopies of quite a few and also hand written names and places where they occur. Suzy then proceeded to create this beautiful quilt top with quilted paths leading from the grass to the place name around the edge of the quilt.

Her friend Valerie then quilted the whole thing and finished it ready to be exhibited in the Malvern Quilt Show in the UK this year.

What an amazing memory. Surrey would have been flabbergasted! He knew it was coming and lots of emails and letters went back and forth with various clarifications of names etc (Surrey's handwriting was not easy to decipher as most of you know).

A big formal thank you to Suzy and Valerie for this amazing work. I had it hanging for a while before I left but then folded it away. I will be hanging it again soon.

Boys' sleepover at Ma's

Last weekend Alex and Luke came to sleep over at Ma's. Alex likes practising his 'one ball juggling'. We took a lot of practice to get this action shot.

Brothers playing together on the back ramp.

We had a great time together making a train that nearly fitted the boys but did fit some of the toys.