Red Sky.

This was the sky on Tuesday evening. If the saying is correct we obviously need to see the sky this colour in the morning to get any meaningful rain. 1.25 mls doesn't do it! 

 It made it damp enough that we went to the shed and shelled walnuts ( from last year...still not all shelled, tut tut. ) We needed some for in a gift basket we are making up to take to a Birthday party for a 90 year old on Saturday. For that we are travelling to South Taranaki, on Friday.

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 Some things are finished or almost. My quilt shown in the previous post got a 5" plain white border added all round. I decided not to add a final border of the little coloured squares even though I had some ready. The plain white strip seemed to calm the whole quilt down ( as it is very bright and busy in my opinion ). It is going off to get quilted next week by Sandra at Wiseowl Quilting. She has a computerised long arm and does fabulous quilting.

 Also almost finished is the back door.

 It has to have the trim stained to match.

 We had the door man back to fix a few problems. The door is now shutting and staying shut although the handles are wobbly. I think the next step is to take them off and put glue under them and put them back on. 

 I am amazed at hot much there is to replacing a door. Days and days of work!

 The sound of the door closing is very different and will in time become familiar.

 I have been planting some new bulbs. The colour of those dark reds is amazing.

 In the orchard we have been battling on. The passion vine hoppers are still present despite my efforts with the hand held vacuum. I do not remember ever having so many fruit ruined with sooty mould. It is such a waste just throwing them on the ground ( yes, it is the only option available to us ).

 Tonight we are going out to the pack house dinner then tomorrow travelling down South so I think a few days diversion will do us both good.

 I will report back next week.

Quilt Ready to Show.

The calendar tells me we have been home in NZ for  a month - it now seems much longer. What have I been doing?

I sewed the binding on this quilt ( black on black - what was I thinking! ) and made a label to match. It may be the only thing I have ready to show at our annual exhibition in 3 weeks time. All the other quilts I made in the last 12 months have been given away. Maybe I have some small items for the sales table.

Aren't blue and yellow wonderful together.......these are 4 lemons from my small new bush in the flower garden...unblemished , but the tree needs them off to grow well. I made 4 lovely jars of lemon honey ( curd or cheese. ). The secret to that is using sharp tasting tart lemons ( meyer ) and putting in lots of fine zest. Yum!

I've been gardening . Weeding ( lots ) planting and sowing seed. A little new wobbly row of radish.

Some Spring colour - wow I have yellow freesias seeded everywhere.

The mizuna plants will go to seed and should be pulled out or I will have them everywhere, BUT the bees are so enjoying it.20 on one plant. Unfortunately that is close to the clothes line so the bees have you know what all over the washing...especially the pale blue sheets. So anything white ( shirts or tops ) are being hung inside or put out over night. BEE PEE is not a ligitamite embellishment or accessory.
This area behind has been cleared for a new deck that hasn't happened yet. ( the birds are using it as their #1 dust bath area.)

 I treated myself to a copy of the September NZ gardener magazine and it has some new and interesting plants to try. I saw it had an article "Slime Fighters, " Isabelle, but it doesn't really come up with anything new for trapping/ Killing slugs and snails - beer, coffee grounds; sharp shell; diatomaceous earth. The most likely are hedgehogs or birds - as I thought.Or go out at night with a torch and squash them!

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 This isn't in my garden wish it was. It is just a simple idea but looked so good...I wonder if I could find one of those for old pumps for our garden? ( taken as you can read outside  Piskey Cove which is in Pentewan,... in Cornwall. )