My Little Veggie Garden

This picture shows about two-thirds of our tiny vegetable garden. Besides lettuce and silverbeet, we also have a pot of mint, 2 zucchini plants that have a grand total of ONE zucchini on them, and two spring onions. I've come to the conclusion that the zucchini flowers aren't being pollenated so I will try pollenating them by hand tomorrow. The spring onions were from a tip I got off of Simple Savings. (Now why won't blogger let me type those two words for the link?) I brought the spring onions from the supermarket and saved the bottom two inches, and simply planted them in the soil, and away they sprouted. From now on I can cut the tops off as I need them and they should sprout away again.

I've also signed up to get Lynda's emails from NZ Gardener magazine. Lynda completed a challenge that she set herself last year of not spending more than $10 on food per week. To do this she grew her own veges and bartered the surplus to get other food she needed. This year Lynda is sending out these jolly useful weekly emails about what needs doing in the garden, what to sow, and what to harvest etc.

These emails have peaked my interest in vegetable gardening considerably, and I have been buying the vegetable seeds recommended to plant currently, only to realise that I don't really have any dug-over space for them. So on my last day that the kids are away I trotted off to the local garden centre to buy not only more seeds, but four bags of compost, and a large bale of compressed pea straw. At least, I think that's what it was. After tea I put bricks around a small area of the lawn, laid newspaper over the grass, and lastly threw the compost over it. I'll finish up with putting the pea straw on top tomorrow and planting the seeds. Fingers crossed that this will work!

Small little things

I visited some op shops today and instead of buying just books I had a quick look around at the kitchen stuff and came home with three pieces that I liked. One was a small crystal glass, much needed for cold drinks in the middle of our hot summer, which cost 50 cents. Another was this spaghetti bowl on the left. It's probably been massed produced and is of no value to anyone else, but the colours and design caught my eye and I fell in love with it. It's the perfect size spaghetti bowl for one. Just perfect for my favourite expensive pasta that I only have when the kiddos have gone to their Dads for the night. And lastly, a glass Christmas jug that I would post a picture of it if Blogger would let me. (Tis about time they improved the loading of pictures feature!). It's a clear glass jug, with a wee Christmas village scene on both sides, with snowmen riding in a sleigh underneath, and opposite the handle is a Christmas tree. I may even decide to use this outside of the Christmas season since I like it so much. The bowl and the jug were both 50 cents each as well. These little things that I bought for my house will make me smile each time I see them so it's money well spent.

What happened there?

Where did 2007 go? Sheesh, it whizzed by! Brilliant, brilliant year for me personally. It felt for the first time in years that things were starting to go right again and that I became more sure of who I was and what I want from life and headed off confidently in that direction.

So in what direction am I going? Basically it's what my blog header says: my life filled with crafts, books, cooking, decorating, children, love and laughter. A single mum living a happy and contented life frugally in New Zealand. Hence the reason why I've come back to this blog again. 8:)

What happened in 2007: A solo campervan tour around Northland at the end of April with a gathering of scrapbooking friends to start it off. Also a month long trip overseas to California, the UK, and Europe. Words cannot describe how much confidence these trips gave me, in terms of pushing myself, ie riding the BIG roller coaster in California's Disney Adventure Park and negotiating the metro system in Paris at night, and also in terms of gaining social confidence which I didn't have a heck of a lot left of after my marriage broke down. The kiddo's also started a new school which was much better in terms of education and social interaction for them, making my life easier. The youngest kiddo also began school in October so I can get more things done at home now.

Also things that didn't happen were a blessing. No operations this year! Alex will need one this year but that should be about it. No moving house. We are feeling a lot more settled now. And dare I say it, the ex behaved himself a lot better in 2007, most disagreements were sorted by simply being able to state what was in the parenting order through the courts. That made things much, much easier. He called the cops on me once, and the cops saw the situation for what it was and laughed at him. Justice at last!

My goals for 2008 are fairly simple. To keep decluttering the house and selling excess stuff on Trade Me, to do more crafts, to try new recipes more often, and save some money. In otherwords, stay cosy at home.

Happy New Year Readers!