Saturday 10 November 2012

Happy Blog.............................

I have decided to step off my soap box and go outside for a walk in the garden instead. 

Good choice !





We have summer in South Africa and with summer comes the strangest weather patterns of sun, with 34 deg C one second and pouring rain or worse hail, and 15 deg C the next. 

You can have 4 seasons in a day, kid you not and that is what happened on Thursday and Friday. Was soooo cold.   







Today the  air is fresh and redolent of crushed flowers fallen from the blooming spring trees during the storm, that passed this afternoon. 

The birds are singing in the trees, looking for the first ray of sunshine and waiting for me to fill up the seed bowls. 

2 Speckled Mousebirds on their favourite high branches. 

I miss Pookie *sniff*




I went for a walk through my vegetable garden to see what was ready to be picked, what's for dinner?

Tomatoes growing nicely, still green though. Not enough of them yet, to indulge in fried green tomatoes, next .......




.... loads of flowers on the cucumber plants, if they all bear fruit, we will have a bumper crop this year and yes, if the 
white mould don't claim them. I think I must put some roof over them, so they don't get as much water on the leaves and I can control the watering better. .............




....... now the spinach looks good, so will cut some for dinner, took out pork chops, am sure I can figure out something to go with that................





.......  The tomato seeds from Val is growing nicely, I think we will have some nice late tomatoes in about February or March ............






.....  Green Peppers are looking good





and so is the parsley growing nice and thick in big clumps




.....the mixed lettuce seedlings transplanted nicely, I have a bit in all the pots, so they don't get all muddy when the rain splashed down...........





..... strawberries for dinner ? Yum, not many, I am competing with the cheeky Black- Capped bulbul





 as to who can get to them first..........




..... got a few......... will do with some vanilla ice-cream, there is only 2 of us at home now, this house is getting very empty......





.......... The Jacaranda Trees are blooming and with the storm, the driveway has a purple carpet, can tell you that Nicholas, our Zimbabwean Gardener is going to curse loudly when he gets in ........................


I have so much to be grateful for . A fantastic husband, a loving family, a safe beautiful haven of a home, a job (however hard we work, for whatever little) others are not that lucky. 





Like Mouse will just sit for a bit and survey my Kingdom......


















and thank you for my Beatrice, dear Lord............





WE truly are blessed. 

Have a lovely weekend !


14 comments:

  1. Oh my, what a lovely garden! Reading all this you are really blessed :)

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    1. Thank you for visiting, Riete. Yes blessed in many many ways. Welcome to my world
      Hugs.

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  2. What a lovely happy post, Marianne!! And a fabulous selection of photos!! The second photo looks most familiar. It has rained all summer and most of the autumn so far, it's one of the wettest years on record here. I think I'm start to grow gills and webbed feet!!! LOL. Your garden is looking great, and a bumper crop of veggies in prospect!!! Cucumber plants? I'd better hide when it's picking time!!! LOL. I love that carpet of Jacaranda blossom on the driveway. So much nicer than the piles of dead leaves here.

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    1. @ Mithc ..... LOL ............scared of a few flying cucumbers ?? Now watch out if darling son of mine, joins us, then we might have trouble with them cucumbers ........for those not in the know ........ must figure out how to republish that story, have imported it over here from Multiply ....... just cannot figure out how to publish it on this page ........if in doubt ... copy / paste ...right???

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  3. What a beautiful garden, but certainly lots of work. I used to have something similar (on a much smaller scale) in my fitter days when I was a few years younger. Have given up with the veg unfortunately, but I had lots of cucumbers (not the big ones but the smaller garden cucumbers). What you call spinach seems to be what we call "Krautstiele" which I believe is known as chard in England (red and green varieties). We cook the stalks and serve in a white sauce. also we cook the leaves. Our spinach has much smaller leaves. great photos

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    1. HI Pat, thank you, not too bad the work, I do it all myself in the veggie section, it is an ongoing process and if diligent, you have 4 harvests in our climate. You right , the larger spinach is actually Chard, but they don't generalise here. I have the green-veined and red-veined variety, also the baby spinach, which you can use in salads as well. Cannot remember what they are called, but I love spinach. I rip the large leaves into pieces and put it into everything from omelettes, stir-fry and chicken dishes. Even did a vegetarian lasagne using that and brinjal amongst other last weekend. I love my little farm, wish I had more space. let the man go fishing, who knows what could happen to his lawn while gone?

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  4. Everything looks just splendid and your contentment bubbles over.... hugs....

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  5. What a lovely post Marianne. It is nice to see you content and I am very jealous of your lovely garden and your environment.

    All of your photos are beautiful, especially the birds. I thought your spring started the same as ours but if you are in summer already then it does not. Our summer begins 1st December so I have a lot to look forward to.

    I was able to go country to visit my brother yesterday and a beautiful day it was too. Got some photos too. Heehee.
    My Son gave me a $100.00 voucher for petrol for my car so was able to go there. It did the car good to get a long trip too, blew out the cobwebs. *laughing.* Going to meet them in Owera which is a lovely place, beautiful beaches and lovely shops to take photos of. It is on the East Coast about halfway to my brothers place.

    All I need now is for Ron to bring back my Windows CDRom so I can fix this PC. I am so mad with him for taking it. I am very restricted in what I can do here as the Local Data can't be found in my computer.

    Hope you have a lovely week.
    Huggles.

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    1. we start spring already in September October, we are tropical, though altitude high, so do have colder winters than North West Province.

      I am so happy that you are getting out and about, Shayna, it is good for you. Stay safe. Loves

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  6. Everything looks fabulous and yes you are blessed.

    That Jacaranda is magnificent petals or no petals! I am in awe of your flowers and veggies.

    A lovely place to be for a lovely lady. You deserve it all.

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    1. thank you Bee, you are so sweet. I treasure your friendship. Send me an email and tell me all about what is happening now in your world. Curious, you okay, coping?

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  7. It's not winter yet and I'm already hoping spring will come soon...
    Everything looks so "as it should" in your garden... flowers, veggies, birds...

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    1. HI Kia, lovely you popping around, saying Hi. Thank you, I love my home and my garden, now if only I could pick up the whole property and plop it down , just so, on the farm in Parys, now that would be perfect.

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