Best Friday in a while… :D

_{Travel time – not for me, but my youngest is just about on his way home for a visit! Photo by Alex Azabache on Pexels.com}

Summer is here. Sigh….

I am thankful for the seasons, it makes life interesting and colourful. No, really, I am! It’s just that I suffer in temperatures over 30. (degrees Celsius, that is) And around here it is very frequently close to 40. For months on end.

It is also Friday. Another thing to be thankful for. And not only because it is weekend, there is a much bigger reason I am excited about Friday this week – my youngest is leaving Ireland today for a 3 week holiday here in South Africa!! I haven’t seen him for a year, so how great is that! Next week is going to be a family week, and I’m going to do some baking this weekend, typically mom-style! Some rusks and a date loaf to take with to my eldest son’s place, where we will all be together. I’m chuffed as can be. 😀

I’ve planted some tomatoes earlier this week, now I cannot wait for it to start growing. I think I’ll also do some celery. And maybe a few carrots. And green peppers.

While waiting for the veggies to grow, I’ll try and neaten up the rest of the garden, and add a few decorating touches to make it prettier and more interesting. Typical Spring stuff. A home and a garden are never done, as far as I am concerned – there are always new ideas to try and changes to make by adding or taking away. Or am I the only one who feels that way?

Anyhoo…I wish you all a wonderful weekend! I have important things to do… 😀

Tomatoes.

Fresh from the garden.

In everything.

Well, nearly everything.

I use tomatoes a LOT. I find it difficult to make a meal without it. I use it in stews, soups, salads, and pasta dishes, of course. A bleak, grey stew looks horrible and unappetizing to me, so I always add some tomato paste or fresh tomatoes for a rich, dark colour and taste. I love growing tomatoes (as you can see in some of my previous posts), and those organic tomatoes fresh from my garden are just the best – they actually taste so much better that store bought ones! My SO eats tomatoes like other people eat apples – he loves them!

Vegetable soup I made last night, with freshly baked bread.

And my goodness, I have forgotten about toasties and hamburgers! What is better than a toasted cheese and tomato sandwich? To which you can add any number of extras – onions, pickles, ham, salami, herbs… Now my mouth is watering, and it is way too early for lunch, since I had a late breakfast! And a hamburger… I’ve heard of a strange sub species that does not like tomato on a hamburger. I have not encountered one of these weird beings yet, so I don’t believe they exist, because I can not imagine eating a juicy hamburger without a slice or three of the red fruit on it. (I’m assuming you all know by now that the tomato is actually a fruit, not a vegetable.)

Photo by Valeria Boltneva on Pexels.com

As far as their benefit to our health goes – they are of course very healthy! It contains vitamin C and potassium, amongst a few other vitamins and minerals, and the lycopene in tomatoes has been linked to a reduced risk of cancer and heart disease. So don’t hold back, eat your tomatoes, it will be to your benefit, and that of your family.

I am impatiently waiting for my plants to grow and start producing some tomatoes. I planted this second batch a bit late in the season, and I am holding thumbs that I’ll manage to get a harvest out of them before it gets too cold. And should I maybe get around to posting a few more recipes on my blog, you will notice that I use tomatoes regularly.

New tomato plants.

Are you a fan of tomatoes? Or are you one of the sub species? 😉

Feeling a bit ‘meh’…

Come fly with me, come fly, come fly away…

I haven’t posted for three whole days!

Oh my, oh my… Quelle horreur… 😉 Not ! But I would have liked to do a post on the 1st of March, since that is officially the start of autumn in the southern hemisphere, and I’m all into that! 😀

Somehow it didn’t happen for me yesterday. I did take my laptop and I opened up the ‘write’ page, but I found myself staring blankly at the screen – just like I imagine a zombie would. And then the cat wanted to get on my lap, and for the moment, what Cat wants, Cat gets. (BTW, he is doing better everyday.) So I had to put the laptop down, and that was that!

We had our first seasonal rain yesterday in the late afternoon. It was a complete blessing after the heat and mugginess of the day. We had a quick ‘storm’ – some heavy wind combined with rain – to start off with, with some soft rain following right after that. So that cooled everything down nicely. It was such a relief! I hope it is the start of a good rainy season.

I am feeling a bit out of sorts lately. I can easily sit and do nothing for hours, which is not a good thing as far as I’m concerned. I honestly think this Covid nonsense is getting into my head at last. And the constant heat. When I’m feeling like that, I don’t even pick up my knitting. What? Gasp!!!! I know, I know … I actually haven’t touched my knitting for at least two days, and not because I’m too busy. So I have to do something about that, I think.

I went out and bought some gardening stuff this morning, just a teeny tiny bit of things. I’m going to feed my orchid now, and I want to do an experiment with a tomato plant that I saw on YouTube. I will let you know how that turns out. Since my disaster with the table renovation, I haven’t done anything further about that, since I had guests in the guesthouse, and I visited my son and daughter-in-law over the weekend, and I plain didn’t feel like it yesterday and today, but I will definitely carry on with that project tomorrow. I will absolutely get that done this week.

The tomato seedlings are doing well.

So… I quickly wanted to give my orchid some food, and then I noticed darn ants all over and inside the pot! Of course I immediately took the plant out of the pot, washed all the ants off, and since it was already ‘unpotted’, I decided trim the roots that don’t look so well, and to also re-pot while I’m at it. Lucky orchid, fed, trimmed and potted all in one fell swoop!

Washed and trimmed.

Fertilized.

Re-potted.

I hope you all have a wonderful Tuesday, if not quite so wonderful, at least a safe one. 🙂

Tidbits on a Saturday morning.

Sunset on the farm, a few years ago.

Yesterday was a good day.

At least a lot better than the previous one which started off with my poor cat being hit by a car.

Said cat is still at the vet’s – he has a suspected broken pelvis, but it is not very clear on the x-rays. He did at least stand up yesterday, and even took a few steps, but he hasn’t eaten yet. So hopefully he’ll eat something today, and then I can fetch him to come and recuperate at home.

I worked quite hard in my garden yesterday. I had to do something to the guesthouse garden, because it was looking terribly shabby and uninviting. I still need to do a few things today before the guests arrive, and it is still very far from done, but at least we’ve started and it is already looking a lot better. I will put up some pictures in due course.

I am extremely pleased with myself. I’ve been trying to grow hydrangeas for a few years now, and so far they’ve all died on me. But… This time around, not only is this one growing, it has flowered!!! And there is a second flower on its way!!! I am beyond chuffed. I know – small things and all that, but at the moment, that is where I find my joy. 🙂

Marshmallow pink hydrangea.

And despite having had a physical day yesterday, I slept badly last night. As I did the few nights before that. Just when I started bragging that I’ve discovered the secret to a good night’s sleep, I start waking up around 3 am every night again. Ugh. Some nights I drift off again after tossing and turning for hours (of at least it feels that way), last night that did not happen.

So, I had an early start to my day. Not even 8 am yet, and two cups of coffee and the first load of washing is done! Hopefully I’ll keep up the pace and have an even better (more constructive) day than yesterday!

I finished a knitting project yesterday, which I was all excited about, but then it fell a bit flat. I tried a patterned brioche beanie, and it is really too big. Disappointing. I had another look at the pattern, and it is actually the size it should be, but I find it to be larger than what I would prefer. In general, it didn’t come out too badly, so I’ll give it another whirl, maybe with smaller needles to tighten it up a bit. What do you think? Since it is reversible, which side do you prefer?

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I have to say that the picture doesn’t do the one on the right justice. The colours are a soft pistachio green and a washed out purple, done with a 50% acrylic/ 50% cotton yarn. It feels squishy and soft, but like I said, I would like it a bit tighter.

So, all you good folk and gentle people, you all have yourself a good weekend!!! If it can’t be good, at least make it a safe one. 🙂

The trick is to stay calm…I think

‘My mountains’, a place where you can feel nothing but calm and peaceful.

I cannot wait for winter!

That’s all I’m going to say about the intense heat we are experiencing at the moment…

You guys are really an unpredictable lot, do you know that? I just can’t crack you… But I will… 😉 If I’ve got one good attribute, it is staying power.

So today, I’m going to write without passion, without emotion. I’m going to be very ladylike, very contained, and super soft spoken. Maybe that is the ticket…

The tomatoes I’ve bragged about a few times, have come to the end of their lives. They are all ‘tomatoed out’, not that that is a real expression, but I’m sure you know what I mean. I think it was mainly my own fault. They started off so well, and I got such a great yield at first, that I didn’t even think about giving them some extra plant food to keep them going. Silly me.

I’ve started new seedlings, and this time around I will definitely try and remember to give them some nutrition to keep them going. Until they start bearing fruit, I have to buy tomatoes again, which is a bummer – they just don’t taste the same.

Tiny new tomato seedlings top L, chili plants top R, and some straggly Italian parsley at the bottom.

I can’t remember if I told you that I recently discovered YouTube? I think I did, but anyway – I’ve used YouTube for years, but mainly to listen to music, or to find songs of which I know part of the lyrics but can’t remember the name, etc. Then there were a few things that I wanted to learn how to do, like mosaic crochet for example, so I started using YT for that as well.

Now it is my go-to channel. Netflix I find boring, their range is not big enough for me. And whatever else we have available here just doesn’t cut it either.

But YT has it all. I’ve discovered that I have a HUGE interest in archeology and history (who would’ve guessed!), and I like throwing in a bit of gymnastics every now and then, with a quick switch to a cooking channel, or a song or two. It has everything.

So while I am knitting or crocheting away to keep myself happy and calm (my therapy), I watch YT, and I am all the happier and calmer for it. Yay…