Tilt your head to the right side please!

Before I start, two apologies.

Firstly,

It's been a while, I know, but as you will see here, I have been rather busy elsewhere.

Sorry!

And secondly.

 He took some of the following pictures and saved them, try as I might, I cannot get them to sit up nicely. Hence the need to tip your head to the right. 

Sorry!

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It was a public holiday here in South Canterbury New Zealand yesterday. (Monday)

So the weekend was go, go, go in the garden.

I had a good tidy up and pulled plenty of weeds.

 And got to get up close and personal with some wonderful flora.

I love the Helebores or winter roses.

I knew them as Christmas roses back on the Isle of Man as they flower at midwinter/Christmas time.

 My crop of brassicas that have been in all winter are now starting to produce.

 My broccoli are tennis ball sized.

No sign of a tennis ball in the Cauliflower though.

And would you just look at this cherry tree.

Beautiful.

Now for the sideways photos!

After the weeding it was time for planting.

In went the lemon tree.

 I have spent almost a year digging over and weeding this patch in preparation for planting. I was hoping to have some raised beds, but got impatient, so made up these little plots with timber reclaimed from another cleared area.

On Monday I finally put in plants.

Leeks, Spring onions, cauli, broccoli, beetroot and spinach.

 Another small bed will be going in this coming weekend, to the left of it. (Or the top in this picture!!)

Plenty of room for some tomatoes against the fence, some beans and some squash.

I'm really looking forward to harvesting my own home grown vegges.

 The planting trend continued in the greenhouse.

The beets at the end have been there all winter, in fact we harvested some yesterday and ate them with dinner. The flavour was not as strong as I expected. We were told today that beets grown in a green house are not as nice as those grown out doors.

Newly planted are tomatoes, capsicums, chillis, basil and a second batch of spring onions.

While I was pulling weeds, and putting in veggie plots, he was destroying.

There was a ratty old pergola here and a raised bed.

Now they are both gone. His next task will be to take out an old wooden arch and another small raised bed, in preparation for removing this daisy, dandelion and weed patch er turf and laying a lovely new lawn.

We're getting there!

One day we will have a lovely garden.

I'm discovering lots of new growth popping up all over the place, some of it I recognise and some is new to me. I'll share pictures as we move through the year.

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Crafty wise I have been doing a little cross stitch, but not much else.

I have threads to bury on the white quilt I was using as a practice piece in my frame, before I practice on it some more.

I have plans and ideas and of course the Christmas quilt is still whispering to me......

I gifted the caramel stars quilt to a colleague.

She likes it and wondered how she would keep her dogs off it!

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Time to go sit with my cross stitch.