Sunday, November 7, 2010

*Almost* there

This is the view of my vegie garden and the hill beyond from my bead room. Until Friday, the room was an absolute mess. It was dusty, cobwebby, the table was covered in beads, the floor with various bags full of Stuff. Cleaning up what had once been my favourite room in the house, seemed far too overwhelming a job to tackle. But friend Charlotte happened to come to lunch on Friday, and with a lot of her encouragement and help, it is once again a room with purpose.


In my renovation plans mentioned here, the bead room will be joined with the one behind to make a long, narrow workspace, where all my crafty possessions can be stored in one area, and I can have a light, airy, sunny space for spinning, knitting, beading or just sitting.
I've had a building feeling of frustration lately, a feeling of being *almost* there,. I *almost* have my new car. I *almost* have my new spinning wheel. I've *almost* got the work situation sorted. My shower *almost* works properly. I guess it's a matter of time - sometimes events flow smoothly from one to another, one segueing neatly into the next, and sometimes they jam up and get stuck like the three stooges in a doorway and you just have to let them sort themselves out.
The garden has settled into the growing groove now, and I'm starting to think I may have planted a little too much. However, it will be a good opportunity to learn about preserving. I've planted 10 Roma tomatoes on my first tomato trellis for drying, bottling and cooking.

The peas and beans are going very well and up around knee height now. I've planted 3 golden nugget pumpkins in that bed as well. In the same bed as the Romas are eggplant and California Wonder capsicums. In the next bed I have the root crops. The carrots were mostly snail snacks this time, but the beetroot and the red onions are doing very well. The War on Snails continues. I am determined to have homegrown carrots.
I've also planted my sweetcorn on Friday, in the same bed as my green and yellow zucchinis, button squash, spaghetti squash, and pumpkins. So far I have some Jap pumpkins in, and some Crown Prince, Baby blue, and Rouge de'Etampes seedlings in the hot house. I had some Turk's Turban pumpkin seeds that I planted but they haven't come up - I think they were too old.
The potatoes have been planted under the straw. This year I am growing Kipfler, Otway Red, Lustre, and some purple ones that I don't know the name of.
Still to be planted in the garden are some lettuces, the gherkin cucumbers, basil, brown onions, the 5 colour tomato mix on the second tomato trellis, and the pumpkins, rockmelon and watermelon.
Tomorrow is an exciting day - I get to go and pick up my new spinning wheel! It will be a 4 hour road trip across to Tongala to meet Mandie of Ewe Give Me The Knits and pick up my new baby. We'll also be getting a tour of Mandie's new shopfront (or den of temptation as I think of it). So, that will be one *almost* to cross off the list. ;)

2 comments:

  1. The bead room looks wonderful. What a great space to be able to sit and craft.
    Good luck with your gardening and preserving.

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  2. Aaagh! Your craft space AND the view from it kills mine - wish I hadn't bothered dragging you down to see my hole in the wall now! Looking forward to seeing your bead room "in the flesh", and to meeting those furry friends (incl the hens).

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