Mum's Giant Cauli

So for those of you who didn't see it - or even worse, didn't get to taste it - I thought you might like to see Mum's giant cauliflower.  I think it weighed somewhere around the two kilo mark, or was that two pounds (I get so confused)?  Either way it was gorgeous, and tasted delicious.

I aspire to grow vegies like this, which I guess means I have to find a Windermere in Boise.

Admire the After

So what do you think?

As you might imagine, I have a squillion things - or possibly a squillion and seven, I can't quite remember - to do before we leave, so I'll fill you in on the details next week. 

I think it's safe to say that I am very, very happy with the end result.  It's still a little old house, but it's a much happier one than it was.

 

Behold the Before

Well, before-ish, really.  This is what has consumed the past several decades of my life: scrape, scrape, scrape, and brush, brush, brush (with a wire brush to remove remaining loose paint), followed by paint, paint, paint, and then some more paint, paint, paint. 

There was also a lot of paint chip collecting.  I had to get them cleaned up as well as I could because there's lead in the old paint.  A lot of them fell onto the sheets of plastic I put down, but a lot of them were already on the ground. Seems to me I spent an awful lot of time literally sifting through the dirt for chips with a plastic sieve. And of course, as soon as I went through an area, another chip would fall off from higher up where I hadn't scraped.  Sheesh!  

On the upside, though, there were places where the paint was so bad that all I had to do was look at it and it fell off the weatherboards.

This first photo is from the front and side. Everything that's painted white?  I did that.  My hands are not happy with me, but they'll get over it. 

I painted everything with an undercoat called peel bond that is supposed to help stick down old paint that can't easily be scraped off.  It was a bit like painting with wood glue, and since it dried clear I painted on the white undercoat so the painters can see where I've been.

I did some patching here and there, and some of it I'm not very happy with, but I doubt anyone's going to notice except me.

The back:

Here's the driveway side:

And here's the front again:

I calculate I did a bit less than two-thirds of it, which should save us a decent amount of money. Daniel replaced some of the trim around the top - I'm too scared of heights to go up that high. 

Right now, I'm not sure if it was worth it (I've had a gutful of painting for a while!), but I imagine it will be once the professionals have finished everything off and I don't have to come home to a sad old house any more.

The Painters-Who-Hopefully-Know-What-They're-Doing started work this morning (Monday our time), and depending on the weather they should be done by the end of the week.  It's perishingly hot today, so I doubt they'll be able to put in a full day. Still, I think we'll be able to enjoy it for a few days before we head home for our visit.  Can't wait to see how it turns out.

And I'll FINALLY be able to get back into my garden and see if there are any plants in there amongst the weeds. I have my doubts, I think they've all left for more welcoming homes where people actually look after their plants.

What colour did we choose, I hear you ask?  Well, it wasn't either of the ones I posted about. 

Can we see this new colour, I hear you ask? Well, I had to paint over it and, sadly, I neglected to take a photo of it before I did that.  Oh dear.  I guess you're just going to have to wait and see.

Cheers!

Now That Summer is Upon Us

It makes perfect sense to post about spring, don't you think?

I'll start with a few photos of the front garden bed that I promised Lynette about five centuries ago. 

This bed, in it's current form, is about three years old now (here's what it looked like in 2011 ).  I had plans to expand it further this year, but the house-painting thing got in the way.  I'm very pleased with it, especially now that it's to the point that apart from a little pruning, some weeding, and some watering it mostly looks after itself.

Below is my favourite part, although the fleabane (that pile of green in the center) has gotten so tall now it's threatening to take over. I may have to move it somewhere so it can roam free:



I wish I was better at taking garden photos.  It looks much better in real life, but I love the rocks and the little green creeper (elfin thyme). Those purple flowers on either side belong to dwarf sage, which loves the climate here, and in the foreground is a miniature mugo pine.

We also got ourselves organized one spring afternoon and tackled a much-needed project for the blackberries.

I was given a couple of these - they're a thornless variety - by my boss a good five years ago. I had them planted against the fence to the right of the photo where one of them languished for a few years and the other one turned up its little roots and died.

I moved the remaining one when it looked like it was about to expire - I think that was last year or the year before - and it settled in quite happily, to say the least.

Obviously the trellis we had was not going to do the trick.  So Daniel got to work and came up with this:

And after the construction was done (we just nailed in staples to hold the fence part up), I took the brambles to hand:

 

With a nice end result, I think.  Certainly the blackberries are happy - they've been blooming their heads off and are now setting lots of lovely fruit.  Can't wait!

I also wanted to show you a photo pf a rhododendron we saw when we were in Portland, Oregon last month:

I guess that's what happens when you have a wet climate where it doesn't snow (Portland is near the coast). Unbelievable!

And, finally, here's a picture of a very unfriendly (not) cat we met while we were walking around the residential area in Portland where we stayed. 

Why a photo of a strange cat? Just because I like cats ;)

So What Do You Think?

Blue...

Or green?

I thought that once I put some of the trim colour next to it, the answer would be quite obvious.  It wasn't.

Then I thought if I painted a really sunny spot, the answer would be obvious.  It still isn't. Sigh.

As a reminder, here's what our house looks like:

So what do you think?

Incidentally, this is a large part of the reason why you haven't heard from me in a while.  It's proven to be a lot more time-consuming than I thought it would be.

And for the house painters and detail-oriented amongst you, no we're not stripping everything back to the bare boards.  While that would be lovely, we would need a contractor to do it properly and that's more money than we have or, really, than the house is worth since there's lead in the paint and that involves all sorts of regulations for the professionals. 

We are going to have someone do all the preparation up high (basically everywhere that I'm too chicken to get to), and do the final painting.

Who knew choosing a house colour could be so fraught?  I will say, though, I picked the right green on the first try :)

Cheers.

Spring Has Officially Sprung!

And so what did we do on the first full weekend of spring? We went and played in the snow.  No failure of logic there!

We drove for about three hours north-eastish to a place called Galena Summit (just north of Ketchum on your map, Mum and Dad), and picked up some other folks along the way. We rented a yurt for the night, that we could only get to by skiing or snowshoeing.  Since we don't ski, we went for the shoes.  It was only a short hike in - barely two k's I would say - but it was all uphill at about 2 300 metres of elevation.  I found it hard work, but everyone else seemed fine, even though they were towing sleds packed with sleeping bags, food, and beverages.  Not to worry, it was good exercise.

Idaho has a whole network of yurts that can be rented (if you can actually get a booking, they're booked out months in advance of winter).  Generally, you get a yurt, a stove to cook on, utensils, a fireplace, somewhere to sleep, and a pit toilet.  Everything else you need to bring with you.  Ours had a sauna, too, but we didn't use it.

 We had a lovely evening.  Even went for a walk after dinner on the trails.  Ate and drank more than necessary, which I think is almost a requirement on these kinds of trips, and played card games.

Here is the motley crew on Sunday morning when we were about to leave:

 There wasn't a whole lot of snow around, but it was enough to snowshoe on.

And now for the highlight of the weekend.

When we got there, we saw a notice on the door warning us about a pair of foxes in the area who are very fond of stealing things from yurts - everything from food and beer to lamp oil (I imagine they use the latter at night when they're sitting around their camp fire).  The people at the lodge that owns the yurts have named them Swiper (of course) and Sapphire.  The notice also said they are quite happy to be photographed.

As it turns out, the fox that visited us (my guess is it was Swiper, because I think foxes are close to having babies at the moment) was more than happy to have five humans adore him.  We got within a couple of metres of him, and I swear he was posing for us.  He stayed for a minute or three until he realised we weren't going to be providing him with food, drinks, or lamp oil and then wandered off through the trees.

He was a bit bigger than a kelpie, and obviously much, much furrier since he still had his winter coat.

Swiper even gave us his profile to photograph:

And then he posed for a close-up:

I have to say, I've become very fond of foxes, something I never would have imagined in Australia.  In their native territory they are beautiful animals.  And who could resist that smile?!

It's a Bit Squashy Around Here

So earlier this year - in the Spring - I decided to expand one of my garden beds at the front of the house to create a herb garden.

I already had a rosemary (the one that has survived six winters now, even though it's not supposed to) and an oregano in the right place.  I moved my thyme, mint and tarragon (half of which I gave away), transplanted my chives and garlic chives, and popped in some sweet basil, lime basil and parsley once the weather was warm enough.

I also moved some asters and cone flowers, and planted some marigolds, glads, and some kind of grass that I don't know the name of.  The whole bed runs up against the hop vine trellis.  We planted the hop vine this year, too.  Wasn't expecting it to do much, but it actually blossomed and set hops:

I had read that it could take a few seasons to produce anything, but I guess it wasn't listening.  With a bit of luck, Daniel will be able to make a fresh hop beer next year.

But anyway, that's not the point of this particular story...

I had the herb bed all sorted out and looking lovely, when I noticed what looked like a pumpkin sprouting.  I thought I'd leave it and see what happened, not really expecting it to do much at all.

Apparently the garden gods had different ideas, because before I had even noticed (and why I didn't notice I can't really explain), it had taken the place:

 

And in the meantime, another one had sprouted up in the pea trellis out the back in the vegie patch....

I couldn't really pull it up because it was fruiting, and that would be a waste.  So I waited and waited until everything was ripe.

After the harvest, it wasn't pretty:

But fortunately none of the herbs it had run over died, and I did indeed get a harvest:

Fifteen acorn squash!  And another thirteen from the one out the back!

Normally these things grow about the right size to feed two people, but I had ones big enough for six people.  

I found homes for a lot of them, and the rest are in storage to be munched on over the winter.

The crazy (not to mention frustrating) thing is that I have been trying to grow these off and on for YEARS, and I've been lucky if I get one or two fruits.  But let them show up where they want to, and I get a bumper crop.  Sheesh!

Needless to say, I'll be saving some seeds.