Weird

I just noticed some blossom on my flowering cherry...at the END of summer!  It flowers at the end of September, this must be a survival mechanism caused by the extreme heat.

February garden update

 Sedum 'Autumn Joy' with a lavender cotton border.  These two are drought hardy, and look great at this time of year in our front yard.  The sedum brings in the bees, and it's an area I don't have to water.

 Cucumbers still going- must go and pick the next lot before they get too big!

 Capsicums coming along after the first crop was burnt by severe heat.

 Cape gooseberries have taken off, and one of the fruit forming below like a little lantern.

 Autumn fruiting raspberries (fingers crossed for a first year fruit, I only planted them in December!)

 Leeks thickening up.  We lost some in the heat, but I'll fill in the gaps soon with some I'll grow from seed.

 Basil- pesto making this weekend

 Trombocinos have taken off, they were a bit slower than the other zucchinis

Beans of some sort that I pinched from some dry pods.  They were purple with black specks on them.
We had some good rain on Wednesday, and can see the difference in the garden.  The tanks have been topped up after being very low too.  It's still summer, but feels like autumn at the moment.  I've been spending a lot of time cutting things back and tidying up in the garden, fingers crossed for no more extreme heat.

Incredible edible landscape with Costa in Geelong

Last night, we took the girls along to a talk by Costa Georgiadis, host of Gardening Australia.  Sorry about the blurry photos, these were a few that Andrew hastily took with his phone.  The talk was part of the Sustainable Living festival, Geelong is hosting a few events, so it was a great opportunity to go along without having to go to Melbourne.
We seated ourselves in the dance studio and waited for the presentation.  As Costa wandered in, chose our row to walk down, and promptly sat on Evie's lap!  He likes to engage the children, and this was a sure fire way to get your attention.  Costa gave an inspiring speech, with lots of photos, and got right into the audience, jumping around and waving his arms, a lot of the time very close to my head.  I'm surprised he didn't whack me in the head!  Livinia was giggling away at his impressions of small birds hiding in prickly bushes...guess you had to be there.
He spoke a lot about engaging you local community, and leaving behind buzzwords such as "sustainable" and "organic", which can turn some people off.  He also talked about his distaste for the idea of "Foodbowls", where you grow amazing food, and send it all overseas.  We share a lot of the same ideals, so not much of it was new, but his enthusiasm, makes you want to get up and get stuff done.

New blanket dresses

I've been working on some new blanket dresses this week, from a beautiful woollen blanket in purple, green and yellow.  It reminds me of Easter colours.  I had the perfect little collection of vintage doilies to go with it too.  They are all now in the shop.
Today, I'm featured on Handmade Kids Meet the Maker series, check it out!

We have a winner

Congrats to Jacqui, the winner of my bonnet giveaway!  Random number generator chose number 1, thanks to all 3 of you who entered!  I'll be in touch, Jacqui.