Saturday, November 29, 2008

EPBA Gathering

I've looked forward to our gathering all week and today yet again the Evil Plant Buying Alliance met. Spent a lovely morning, part tour of my garden, part Hills Pub Crawl!

There have been many, many satisfying aspects of getting into permaculture and all the related elements of if, but one of the most special has been the feeling of stepping into a vast community of like minded people who are aware, appreciative and supportive in so many ways.
Today was one of those wonderful encounters, and earlier in the week I had another experience which made me feel particularly warm and happy.

My family and I were at a local church op shop - which frequently has excellent goods for sale for next to nothing. I asked the lady if she had any decent sized wicker/cane baskets or wooden boxes large enough to store produce like pumpkins etc. We started chatting while her helper went out back to have a look, and she told me of a South African family she knew who used to live locally, who were entirely self-sufficient. After her helper returned with one basket, and a promise to keep an eye out for more, we thanked her and continued to look around. I was then approached by a customer who said' Excuse me, I couldn't help but overhear that you were interested in gardening and self-sufficiency....we have just set up our very own aquaponics tanks..." and the conversation rolled on from there.

Hubby and I have made small steps towards doing this ourselves so we were very interested, and the lovely lady gave us her number and said to please call anytime to organise a visit as they'd be very happy to have us drop in for a cuppa and a look see.
I grinned all the way back to the car and some. How neighbourly! How very typical of our experiences with people who are interested in this way of life. Always happy to share of their time, experience and even produce.

We have moved into such a rich phase of our life. Countless blessings to enjoy and appreciate.
If happiness has a form it is a sunset colour and sounds like a Celtic Harp.

The Crone will understand this I'm sure.

:)

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

The Big Brag!





Finally the pictures! :D !

Saturday, November 8, 2008

And they pulled and they pulled....

We had a great time today, the Munchkins and me and Nana and Grumps, harvesting the garlic!
The bulbs were big and fat. Some HUGE! We had great fun re-enacting scenes from 'The Enormous Turnip' with all of us lined up pulling on huge garlic bulbs. Younger Munchkin had the biggest grin on his face each time he landed on his bottom with a thump and a handful of garlic.

We also harvested our 2 raspberries (one for each Munchkin) and 2 small but tasty carrots. Can't wait for future seasons when the raspberries take off. Oh and coincidentally there were 2 fat strawberries too - so that was easy to share too!

Molly - the Amaranth is about 4cm high!

Other than that, today was spent weeding - there's a task that never ends around here, and transplanting seedlings that looked crowded. And I planted potatoes in one of the blue tubs we recently inherited. That'll be an experiment, but I'm pretty confident they'll work.

In addition to that - another batch of Loquat Chutney, and 2 jars of Mulberry and Rhubarb Jam. Yes! Today was HIGHLY productive!

:)