if anyone has a sec or two I’d appreciate a few prayers being thrown heavenward for the Chilli girl’s family – most of whom live in Santiago, which is a complete disaster area after the earthquake … last i heard nobody had been able to contact anyone, which is not necessarily bad news as it there is no power and minimal phone coverage …

thanks all

The worms have arrived! Finally! MR Tasmania gave me a worm farm for Christmas (amongst other things) which you may remember some of my girlfriends finding weird but which I think is FANTASTIC (’cause he bought me something he knew I’d REALLY like!). Anyway, the worms were on order and finally arrived today.

It’s such a cool kit, with the cardboard wrapping around the whole thing, and the paper wrapping around the coir bedding all designed to be digested by the little tackers as well – so smart!

So, they’re all bedded in on their coir and under their hessian sack, with some additional well chopped up potato peelings and leftover salad (no dressing, obviously!) … I’ve put it next to the compost bin because I don’t think even the best of worms can keep up with our vegie scraps and they seem to belong together.

I’ve also just (hopefully) rescued my poor Violent Bean seedings … after popping up delightfully and loving the rain we had over the last two days they’ve shrivelled in the heat of yesterday and today … I’ve water them, put them in larger pots, and watered them with seaweed solution so hopefully they’ll revive …

I’m not really bereft if my vegies don’t make it this year, I just don’t have enough time to spend on them … it’s more infrastructure this year rather than micromanagement .. at least I can buy good seasonal vegies and fruits locally though – currently loving the white nectarines and (yay!) Australia naval oranges which just came in today – haven’t had an orange in nearly 3 months because I don’t like Valencias and the Navals come from the US .. nothing against US oranges but you all know the food mile concept etc …. not that I stick to it religiously but I can’t buy US oranges for (mostly) the same reason I can’t buy Chinese garlic … though I can buy sunflower oil from Spain because as far as I’m aware we don’t produce it in this country – I try to use other oils but sometimes it’s just the best thing

it’s very misty (humidity) and quite warm … quite enjoying it actually, tho’ I do have an air conditioned house to retreat to when it becomes too obnoxiously sweaty

Mr Tasmania has just headed off to play golf with a mate who is full time carer for his dad – he gets some time out so it’s great they can have a game together.

I’m working on a Nutritional Information Panel for my mum’s jam … there’s an online calculator but still have to use the brain so just waiting for dinner to digest a bit so I have a bit more blood supply available

Will then go out and water the poor plants … we’re supposed to have rain tomorrow … even 10mm would be great really …. it’s all getting very parched and there’s only so much you can do with a watering can and a bucket …

I’m enjoying it all though!

we have one, it’s very exciting, it was a bargain and it’s a stand alone desktop … which means when I have a flex day and Mr Tasmania takes his work laptop away (to work, oddly enough) I am still hooked into the world – hooray! And can also do things like organise photos, work on my landscaping plans, email friends/family etc … though must admit that I’m starting to like the idea of writing letters again now that we’re a bit more settled.

We had rain yesterday, which was great, after a loooong humid day … only 5mm but it soaked straight in and the wind had dropped so the poor old plants actually got some benefit from it. Was handy for Mr Tasmania too, who has been busily shovelling enormous amounts of foundation gravel into the paths he’s constructed all around the house.

He gave them a bash with the whacker packer this arvo and they’re now sitting there in preparation for us to shovel about 3metres of gravel onto it tomorrow (that’s cubic metres btw) … we’ll just see how we go with that

I’m also working on a design using (at this point) 4 different shapes of conifer for an area around the bend of our drive … love it when an idea pops almost fully realised into your head and you just have to fill in the details ie names / types of plants (not that I know if I can find them in Tassie yet!), ground preparation etc … really fun! Love working to a vision

I’m inspired by the two vases currently on my windowsill as well – Mr Tasmania brought me home some lovely flowers and I have rosemary sprouting … must get that planted into a pot quite soon actually! … the garden is an extremely long project but it’s great to be getting the foundations happening … kinda like a house and a marriage now I come to think of it!