Bit shaky Saturday... Lights and Things

Its been a bit shaky this week. Two of significance, but not huge ones, just little wobbly shakes to remind us we are still in Christchurch I think!
Its been a busy week. Classes finished for us almost - one more child to finish, and then we are off on holiday. It is a good feeling to almost be there :) We are all really excited about getting away for Christmas day. We have always been home, but this year we arent tied at home with visitors. Of course, with the older children doing their own thing, this could change!

Last night the children got to go into town with some friends to visit the Christmas Grotto. They came home well after dark (10.45pm) and the Littles were well and truly tired but soooo happy! Apparently it was awesome. Music, bright colourful sparkly lights and lots of Christmas things from blow up sleighs to Santa himself! What more could you ask for at this time of the year when you are six and twelve!
Weve had a day of laziness, just catching up after our late night at the disco - a good success - 70 kids and around 30 adults. It was so much fun - the dj was awesome, the music really went down well, and the kids were well behaved generally. My baking even worked, and the star shaped cookies we took lasted all of three minutes.

Have had a very good crop of strawberries this year (*Chandler* variety). Once the birds knew they had to move along, and the wind chimes were put in place, weve been taking between 20-50 off the plants every couple of days. Ive started giving them to the neighbours, no complaints there :) The Alpine strawberries are not as good this year, and I dont think I ll give them much room next year.

I have fresh swede, mesculun, foxglove, aquilegia, calendula, marigold, parsley and red kale seed. The black kale is still drying, as is the red cabbage. I have had a lot of fun trying to figure out the easiest winnowing method, and will keep working on it.
Have lost a lot of my taller plants this year to the mighty winds we have had.  I need to investigate adding further wind breaks, despite putting two new breaks up this year. I guess this is something we have happen every year in between spring and summer. I just have to work around it.
Because of the constant mulching, I seem to have found a good medium - the ground retains the water better than last year, and the strawberries and their solid growth is an indication of this. I will be mulching furiously again once the growing season has slowed a little.
The comfrey has gone native, and Im pulling leaves off to add to the main compost pile almost daily. It responds really well to the night showers we have had!

Ive realized this month, after watching things in the garden go from small to tall, neat and tidy to sprawling and untidy, that collecting seed means untidy mostly!
There are always going to be things that look untidy... none of that clipped manicured look of gardening here!
Still, it is colourful this year, theres a lot of places to hide (ask Miss 6 who loves hide and seek amongst things!) and Im loving it.

More later, once things get less crazy :)

Seasons Greetings to You and Yours
From my Garden to Yours
EBUTTERFLY
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Fishy Smarts... Fishy Tails - A Good Sunday

Watering day today, and its grey, cool and misty when I wake.
How did I know before I even opened my eyes?
A fluffy tail complete with raindrops and a wet cat-nose in the face let me know before I realized it was morning. She is very determined to be fed these mornings, is our Washington.
So, it was a good day to catch up on the housework, do the inside things, and perhaps take a wander. The boys were restless, so they wandered off to meet friends at the bridge around the corner to take in some fishing. The Avon isnt well known for its fishing. Its Whitebaiting maybe, but not in the past year or 18months, due to silt, sewerage and other nasties that poured in. Its ok, we wont be baiting our hooks and eating our catch...
Its just for the experience of doing something interesting and inexpensive, and the kids love it.

So off they go, theres a few regular fisher-guys who hang out on the bridge too, and Mr 11 is the youngest by far. The tales are colourful - almost as colourful as the language, but if you can get past that, its interesting to hear the Fishy Tales.
What made great sport, was a huge rainbow trout swimming below.

Fishy Smarts 
The Grandaddy, they reckon. The Guardian of the smaller fishes, I say. He wasnt being caught by anyone! In fact, he seemed to throw the smaller fish in front of him so they were caught in his stead.
Its obvious theyre all keen on the dangling bait but this fish has got to a very nice size by not being tempted, and again today, it seemed to use its innate sense of which pieces of bread werent on hooks to eat, very nicely Thank You, and escaped anyones hook! It will live to taunt exasperated fishermen another day. ( And to be killed when we catch it tomorrow says a very keen young Fisherman from behind me!) We also see big eels and tiny bait fish under the water, so there is plenty of life left in the Avon River, despite people saying otherwise.


Fishy Tails

The yellow-eyed mullet run in and out with the tides - we live in tidal Avonside, and the Avon goes in and out daily, swelling as the tide fills, and the boys hook the mullet on small hooks and sinkers, with bread for bait. Its exciting, when, from standing up on the Bridge, you see them nibbling your bait below... nibble, take and there you have them. They hit hard when theyre hungry and are taken up onto the bridge easily by the kids.

We dont eat these fish, they do however, provide a nutritious feed for our cats, and the guts/heads/fins etc are excellent in the garden. My new rose today got the benefits, a bucket of fish buried deep alongside its roots.

How will we make ends meet if our society changes?
What skills will our children need, that we have ourselves forgotten? This is why I have no objection to taking my children fishing - of course, theyre of an age where they can take themselves, but sometimes as parents, we need to make sure they are provided with the wherewithall to do these things easily... Learning is best done when its fun, before the need is there. Fishing experience is an excellent skill to have here in NZ because our landscape lends itself to us being able to use it for fishing for food.

So, for us its been a really Good Sunday. The Bestest Day of My Life, Miss 5 told me as we wandered home. So - Whats next?
Im in the process of planting out the cabbages and broccoli for Winter, sowing parsnip seed, and watching the pumpkins swell. I cant wait for the beets to do their thing, and I have potatoes to dig soon. The garlic has dried nicely, and the tomatoes are changing colour daily - slow, but getting there! Life is good.
I hope with fingers xed that Ive got it right for some continual harvesting later in the year, as with the climate changes, the good weather is pitifully absent, and we may incur some losses.

Heres hoping things in your garden are growing nicely, with abundance.
Love and Blessings
E Butterfly
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Everything on The Lazy A is A-Oa-K ....

With the gorgeous weather we have had so far this week here in Christchurch, New Zealand,
Ive been outside tidying up the yard. This is what I found below the elderberry tree. It was as if it were sheltering them from me...

 Mr 13 owned up to having planted a rather large handful of acorns in the Autumn, and today I separated out some of the new little oak seedlings. Theyre rather precious,  thinking about their future potential size and not looking too bad at all. Varying sizes and shapes, some will not possibly be suitable as big trees, but Im learning as I go...

Firstly, transplanting oak seedlings isnt as easy as I first thought. Oak trees have rather large straight tap roots. These would be about four or five months old, and are between 20-30 cm long, half of that is tap root which extends from out of the base of the acorn which is, in most cases, still attached to the seedling, possibly as a food supply? for the new growth. Planting them in long containers (in my case cut down coke bottles or milk containers) was fine as long as the hole was deep and the tap root was as undisturbed as possible.
They are all looking peachy at the moment, so maybe I was lucky! A little trip down the road to have a look at the parent tree meant I could identify the trees as Quercus Alba.L which is White Oak. Beautiful!! I just might end up with my grove of oaks... OK, maybe not me, my grandchildren might :)

Did you know you can eat acorns? Have a look here if you're interested - COOKING WITH ACORNS
The Sioux Indians use acorn in their cooking because they were plentiful and easy to store (away from squirrels!)
I didn't know much about this, but these kinds of things fascinate me, being interested in self-sufficiency and survival skills...
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT OAK TREES - Oak trees live for up to 200 years. I guess that means careful consideration before planting is essential!

And in case you want to try planting your own acorns... heres a page that explains it all ... Gosh I love the internet!! :) HERE - COLLECT AND PLANT YOUR ACORNS

And on top of all that replanting, transplanting, repotting etc... The Aloes got some division to do - I got time yesterday to split up three of my bigger plants, and netted another 12 from them, they are splitting nicely, and growing strongly. Light, not heat is what they prefer. They go rather reddish brown around the edges if they are too hot. To use the aloes medicinally, they need to be rather larger than what I have yet. Im looking forward to making some burn cream when the plants mature considerably...

We have some seeds in pots, waiting for them to rear their tiny heads... Some motherwort, tansy, cabbage, lettuce, sunflower, pumpkin... Ive never had much luck with seeds, but hopefully that is about to change :)
Well thats all my garden news for now.

Thanks for listening :)
Take care

E Butterfly
Christchurch by The River