The Garden Share Collective { January }

Joining up with Lizzie from The Strayed Table for our monthly Garden Share Collective.

Well, what a month my vegetable garden has had.

We returned to civilisation (Perth) for a brief holiday. And came home to a vegetable garden in disrepair. Windswept and totally dried out. In fact completely and utterly sun kissed. The plants had obviously missed my twice daily watering by hand. And red back spiders had created lots of little webs in and underneath a lot of our outdoor belongings. A complete and total manic working bee was required. To tidy the garden and rid the yard of red backs. Insects like these, that can potentially be very dangerous, always make me worry with our two daughters running around.

And then we welcomed in the New Year with a cyclone. The cyclone changed course before reaching our small town, but we still received a lot of rain and heavy winds. Which again played complete havoc with my garden. Whiplashing my already struggling sweetcorn and sunflowers. And my tomatoes too. And the heavy rains, washing away the new seeds I'd planted the week before.

Between the excessive heat, overbearing sun, and all that rain and wind, well my garden is looking a little worse for wear. In need of some TLC. The corn is looking a little unhealthy, the sunflowers died, and the tomatoes and cucumbers all had to be tended too, tidied and broken stems removed.

But there are some positives. We've had an abundance of tomatoes, some chillies and our purple runner beans are close to ready. Spring onion, pumpkin, zucchini and sunflower seeds have been replanted. And no more red back spiders have been sighted.

And I received a new gardening set from Mum for Christmas. Which I love. Thanks Mum!

All's well again with the vegetable garden. Aside from my corn. Any ideas what is wrong with it? Is it just sun bleached? Entirely possible with our weather at the moment.

Big Boys and Their Toys

If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you would know that since we've been living here, that we try to get outdoors as much as we can, to enjoy and appreciate all the beauty that is our Pilbara surroundings. And my husband bought himself a new toy, the bumpy car so that it was possible for us to venture out of town on the red dirt roads around us.

Before we moved to these parts, let me tell you, that in no way was I an outdoorsy, camping, 4WD kind of girl. And I'm still not. But I do try to make an effort. And at least look like I'm enjoying myself while paddling in red water, sweating up a storm, swatting too many flies away from my face, and getting red dirt between my toes, and who knows where else.

But then sometimes, it's just all too much. Too friggin' hot. Way too many flies hanging around. The water is as warm as a bath to swim in. The red sand is so hot it almost burns your feet. And your drink turns warm almost as soon as you've grasped it in your hand.

There was absolutely nothing refreshing about today's drive down the river. Zero. Zip. The girls and I asked to go to the town pool for a swim (the blue rock pool as called by my daughter). But my husband suggested we go here. Really not the same kind of thing. Not a cool, clear, blue water pool in sight.

The worst possible day for a drive in the bumpy car. A hot 42 degrees, and in the middle of the day too. But he just had to take the bumpy car out and explore a little. Maybe I could attribute that to his morning spent sitting on the couch watching cricket. Either way, the photo above clearly sums up what the three of us girls all thought about that. Get us into a cool pool or some air conditioned comfort now. Please. 

Which he did, straight after this photo. Well, that is after taking 15 minutes to fold down the canopy and then eventually having to remove the nuisance rod that wouldn't collapse down. Finally giving up, and jamming it into the car, with a third of the pole hanging out of the window so that we could leave already.

Boys and their toys!

Jumping in Muddy Puddles

This week has brought with it, our first cyclone warning, tropical cyclone Christine. Something to bring in the New Year with. While not in the direct path of the cyclone, we had all the accompanying wind and rain that went with it.

Mother nature can be an exhilarating thing in these parts. While we are extremely grateful that nobody was injured, and no property was damaged, we are also extremely excited for other things. The chance to jump in muddy puddles (yes, just like Peppa Pig). To wear our rain coats. Our gumboots (Miss A's feet seem to have grown again, time to go shopping). And to do a little rain dance. All a novelty to us now.

Hope you enjoyed a relaxing first day of 2014!