Spring Queen progress.

Yay! I finished block two of 'Down in the garden' on Tuesday, which means it was completed inside the month. If you remember I had feared that wouldn't happen.

I didn't start construction on block three yet, maybe I'll do that today, before work.

 My two days off were busy again, but not as manic as I feared they would be.

So I was able to spend some time with Spring Queen on Wednesday, though not a whole day as I had hoped. I took before and after shots.

 It looks like such a small amount of progress for a whole afternoon, but there was a certain amount of un sewing which took place!

Never mind, I'm reasonably happy with the amount of progress I did make.

I may be able to spend a little more time with her on Sunday depending what the afternoon brings. I have an extra half shift to work in the morning. I also have an extra whole shift on Tuesday, so my crafting time for this coming week will be very much shortened!

I do hope you are finding more time to play than I am!!

Busy Sunday Morning.

Although the weather has had a negative impact on our efforts in the garden this year, some things have still managed to grow well. One of those was onions. Tony wanted to give them a go and we planted quite a few. A couple of weeks ago he decided after much googling that it was time to dig them up. They needed to lie in the sunshine to dry out. But, as the weather is not to be trusted this year we decided to lie them in the glass porch to dry. 

Our very own onions. I started using them in the Kitchen almost right away.

I chopped and fried some yesterday. 

Shame we don't have smellovision!! I love the smell of frying onions.

 I cheated for Saturdays dinner and bought a roast chicken from the hot deli at the supermarket. Then in the morning I cooked up the carcass and made chicken soup. Some of my fried onions went into that, along with a home grown carrot and a couple of Father in Laws home grown spuds and a handful of frozen corn. 

 Yum, we ate it for lunch along with home made bread rolls.

The remainder of the fried onions went onto my rustic tomato tart.

A layer of rich buttery, cheesy pastry is covered in onions and herbs, which is then topped with a variety of thickly sliced tomatoes, a drizzle of olive oil, some Parmesan cheese and baked in a hot oven.

Having prepped the tart in the morning while doing other chores in the kitchen and around the house, I was able to spend the entire afternoon curled up in my chair with my stitching.

I completed two more stitched panels on block two.

This little basil panel didn't take long

 The blue birds were fun to stitch and I did take short breaks to pop the tart into the oven and to eat some of it, before finishing later in the evening.

 That just leaves one small panel left to stitch.

Maybe I will get this block completed before the end of the month.

*

Must move, I have things to do, before going into work.

How Time flies!

This month certainly is flying by.

I don't think I'll be able to complete the stitchery part of this block by the end of the month. 

 I didn't get all of the stitching time I had hoped to this week. Tuesday was one of 'those' days. You know the ones? If it can go wrong it will sort of days.

A twenty minute appointment turned into 45 mins and a recall later in the day.

Meanwhile the bread dough was rising out of the pan and was romping off over the work top!! LOL

Before I knew it, the day had flown by and I hadn't even picked up a needle.

So I made the most of Wednesday. I did nothing but sit and stitch. It was a wonderfully relaxing day and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I completed the main panel and the flower beneath it.

I'm hoping to make a start on the remaining three today, before going into work later this morning.

And to end on a big note. Five years ago this week I arrived here in New Zealand with Tony and Joe. Our long journey was over and it was time to settle in and make a new life.

Here is a look back at our last days on the Isle of Man.

and this second link is a look back at 

my first wanderings and crafty beginnings here in New Zealand.

There are people and places that I miss. I would dearly love to hold my grand children and be able to spend time with them in person rather than over the internet. But I love my life here and have settled in well I think. Joe is happy too. 

Kitchen goings on!

I've had a busy few days with extra shifts and swapped shifts and very little time to sit and sew. Which of course means there is not much progress made on any of my projects. However in between shifts I have been very busy in the kitchen. My favourite recipe for tomato chutney has you leave chopped tomatoes and onions overnight after sprinkling them with salt.

 

So Saturday evenings task was to prepare 6 kilograms of tomatoes and 4 kilograms of onions!

Then on Sunday morning before starting an extra shift at 12.30, I added 12 chilli peppers and six capsicums, sugar and vinegar and turned it all into 22 jars of pickles.

Before I left to go to work I set up the bread maker on a dough cycle and asked Tony to finish off making burger buns to have with dinner.

I think he did alright. Yes I know, they are all different shapes and sizes, but they were light and fluffy and a great size to hold one of his home made burgers.

We had stopped using our bread maker for a while and only recently started again. Typically we only use the dough cycle and once that is done one of us forms a loaf shape or pops it into a tin and bakes it in the oven. That way we get a much better shaped loaf and there is no hole where the mixing paddle would be if we allowed the machine to bake it.  

Once our dinner was eaten and we had cleaned up, we went out to the garden for a look around and of course visited the green house.

We brought in another large bowl of fruit and our first ripe chilli pepper!!

There are many more out there, but they are still all green, hopefully more will ripen soon.

I won't have time to stitch today, but I have two days off this week, so hopefully I'll be able to make up for missing out recently.

Time to be domestic, before heading into work.

A little stitching.

And a lot of tomatoes!

But first the stitching. Yesterday I finally found time to make a start on the stitchery part of this months 'Down in the Garden' block. This one is going to take a while I think. I managed to spend most of yesterday working on it and will hopefully find some more time today. 

As I mentioned in my last post, I have extra shifts at work and have swapped my late shift on Friday for an early, so all of that impacts on my sewing time. But I'll pick away when I can.

*

And now the tomatoes. After the cold wet spring which seemed set to continue all summer too, we have finally been getting some warmer weather here in Timaru! 

The hours of sunshine and warm temperatures have had great effect in the green house.

Look at all these tiny beauties. This variety of tomato is called sweet bite. And they live up to their name. Yum. Each fruit is just a little larger than a marble.

This yellow one is an heirloom variety of tomato. We have no idea what it's proper name is as it came in a bag of mixed seed. We just call it the 'yellow one'. LOL

They are very sweet too, though not as prolific as the sweet bites.

And as you can see below, the good old money maker vines are doing great too. (Please excuse the lunch dishes).

 Now we just need the chilli peppers to catch up. I need a dozen of them to make tomato chutney.

 Outside, the lemon tree has flowered and started to make more fruit.

 And the lime is a little further ahead and seems to have quite a lot of fruit.

Limes are currently selling here for $65 a kilo!!

Maybe I should hide my wee tree!

*

Last night Tony and I booked tickets to fly to Sydney in October. We're off to Bathurst. 

Tony said something about a big car race???? LOL

For me it's all about getting to visit my friend Jannimary, I'll also get to meet the lovely Chookyblue and visit Anni Downs store Hatched and Patched, and hopefully meet that very clever lady too. 

One other thing on my wish list is to visit Parkes and see The Dish. Have you seen the movie? It's getting to be an oldie now, but it's still very much a goodie. 

*

Right, I have the first of my extra shifts today, so I'm off to be domestic and hopefully make time to sew before I go in.