Tuesday, July 08, 2008

randoms

i am too tired to string a narrative together tonight, but here's some nice images i've been wanting to share with you folks for a while:

ziggy's b'day pres (from me to her). looks like a cheap and nasty paper cup, huh? well, it's actually a "not a paper cup"! it's made from ceramic, with a silocine lid, completely washable and reusable. huzzah! i am v. pleased with this (rather last minute) present, as ziggy has a huge reusable cup collection and i think this is a clever addition.


miriam and i have taken up backgammon, using the cute little travel set i got in amsterdam for bbb and i to play. i only just taught miriam the rules but she's already evenly matched with me, so we take it in turns to thrash each other. nice gentle entertainment, especially in the park on a warm summer evening.


kangaroo paw! kangaroo paw with funky camera settings. even though it is environmentally reprehensible, i really like having fresh australian flowers when i can get them.


these are garlic scapes from miriam's plot. they grow out the top of the garlic plant and would turn into flowers if you let them. but you shouldn't let them, cos then the plants put their energy into making flowers rather than making garlic bulbs. so you cut them off and put them in stirfry, where they add a nice garlicky flavour. i like how they grow all curly.


my half of the strawberries miriam and i picked early one morning before work. yum yum! we spent an hour and a half picking in a field way out in delta. i picked 12 pounds (5.5kg?) and then spent the next few days freezing them. now i will have delicious strawberries through the long dark winter. huzzah!


me and the tomatoes. see how big they've grown! one of them is taller than me. i am so proud! the white flowers in the front of the frame are from the radishes - they're almost in seed. in this photo i have "i just rode 30k" face. notice the bunch of cherries in my hand. did i mention how much i enjoy summer fruit?

in other news, i have begun working on proposals and scholarship applications for my phd, which has been surprisingly rewarding and fun. doing intellectual work again feels like a release.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What green thumbs you have acquired!!!
I think it is very unfair of you to be bragging about summer fruit when I'm stuck with only bananas and mandarins!!
Miserable weather here, although I can't say a word about the rain, cos the weir is only 19% capacity at present. Just looked out the window and there was a fox sitting on the lawns. I went outside to make sure he wasn't eying off the hare that lives around the lake and frightened him off.
As I'm having tomorrow off to move the big girl (yet again) into her new house (did you know she had left Melb??) - I will wish you a very happy birthday for Sunday now. I guess I left it too late again for your parcel to get there in time, but it is on its way.
Lots of Love
XXXX

Anonymous said...

by the time my computer loads this comment page i have forgotten what i wanted to say

yes, green thumbs - speaking of green, i was just re-reading 'Emma' and found a small green texta cross over an incorrect apostrophe - how would have done that, do you think?

amsterdam is a big growing place for australian wildflowers, so yours may not be quite as greenhouse gassy as you think

do strawberries thaw into a watery pulp?

have your tomatoes got flowers?

snowed here the day before yesterday, but i was in sydley and missed it

that's all i can remember

oh, was cup like the ones we saw in that funky paris shop?

gumtreefid farmer said...

"acquired"? ahem! don't you remember that enormous spider plant i had when i was ten? or the cactus collection? or the umbrella plant that towered above bbb's head by time i was 18?

yes, i did think it was unfair, but then you don't have to deal with negative temps and dark by 3pm for months on end, so. . . *blows raspberry*

sorry to hear about the weather, but yay for rain!

she left melbs again? boo. melbs is th place to be. oh well, hope she is happy. back to your neck of the woods? send pics of the puppies!

parcel came today! perfectly timed! lovely cards, thankyou for organsiing nanny!

great book too - a mate of yours? lovely to see all the pics of beechworth. thankyou!

lots of love

gumtreefid farmer said...

grotuhachi,

you need to take little notes while you wait. or make a nice word document so you can draft and spell check and use clever fonts.

heh. incorrect apostrophes of the world beware! supergtg is on the way!

well, that's better than aus, but amst still isn't super close.

not exactly. it depends how you thaw them. you can put them straight into whatever you're cooking and that's a nice texture. i'm going to put them into my rhuburb mush in winter. i also froze about half of them sliced, so then i can just sprinkle them on my breakfast. yum. i want to do a bunch of blueberries as well. it's time consuming.

tomatoes have flowers. one even has fruit! the flowers are pretty and yellow.

snow sounds v. exciting! congrats!

i can't remember the cups in paris, but it sounds likely. it's a very pretty thing, in a confusing kind of way.

love