Vegetable Garden in Suburbia

Please indulge me today as I go for a wander around my garden.

My garden is an average sized suburbian garden with a lot packed in.  It isn't a pretty formal garden but an abundantly productive one.  Most days I eat something from my garden. Last night it was herbs - parsley and thyme and cherry tomatoes.

I have no idea how to cook up the artichoke above.  There are two so far.

The fruit on the peachcot tree get ruined by fruit fly if I don't cover them with these exclusion bags.

 Thats a little apple.  The tree is only a year old and there are two apples growing.

Parsley that I am leaving to seed.  It is very pretty and reminds me of doilies.

Pirate Play Mat

My CreativeSpace this week has been like last.  A bit like ground hog day really!

I am still on a mission to use up fabric and I am still making play activity mats just like last week.
 Only difference is that besides making another farm activity play mat I have also made a couple of Pirate Play mats.

The island is infested with poisonous snakes and footprints lead to the other edge of the island where the pirates treasure is buried.



Farm Play Mat

Cows, pigs, sheep and horses have invaded my Creative Space this week.

I have been on a mission to use up fabric and supplies before buying anymore.  My cupboards are overstuffed.  They are so bad that when I open the cupboard where my material is stored I have to do it so slowly in case opening the door causes an avalanche of material to come flying out.
So this farm animal activity play mat is my first project to use up material. It hasn't even made a difference to my over stuffed cupboard so there will be more play mats coming.

Marjorie Bligh

I may not have mentioned this before but I am a bit of a dag!  I am not a girly girl into makeup or the current fashions and I don't hyperventilate at the latest sales catalogues.
I get great pleasure out of finding wonderful bargains and treasures at op shops, growing my own vegetables from seeds, eating food from the garden, saving money on the electricity bills and buying my food in bulk.
I was brought up in a frugal way by a frugal father and mother and an extremely thrifty nan.  My nan was into recycling way before it was a trendy thing to do!  Because of my nan I save and reuse wrapping paper.  At Christmas and birthdays you will see me crawling around on all fours finding the discarded wrapping papers that aren't ripped and neatly folding them away and salvaging the ribbons and bows.  Of course as children we were well versed in opening our presents with out the wrapping paper tearing.  My nan would gently remove the sticky tape and iron the wrappings and reuse them. 
So taking all the above into account, just imagine my excitement at discovering whilst reading the latest copy of Frankie magazine that....

Marjorie Bligh has a new book out!

Being an ex Tasmanian she is a household name to me.  She is a rather quirky, eccentric lady who as a teenager my sister and I loved to poke fun at and laugh at her bizzarre crafts .  But saying that both my sister and I have Marjories books and I will definately be getting this one too.

She is a pioneer of organic gardening and recycling.  She finds a way to upcycle (or down cycle) most things) like knitting rugs and mats from old plastic shopping bags and used panty hose and using her old bras in her garden to tie plants and to protect her seedlings.