The kitchen garden is going great guns, even though I have been quite ill these past few weeks and unable to attend it.
The carrot and pea harvests are all in. The brussel sprouts are sprouting and I will be planting out the winter’s crop soon. The fennel is grown huge and hairy. The beets have been feeding me for months, and I will also get some winter crops of that set soon, too. The onions – huge, dinner plate sized cream golds, being harvested now. Also the shallots and the garlic are in. The potatoes – huge crop but I am too sick to get it in which frets at me – so they’ll likely stay in the ground and continue sprouting over winter. *sigh* The beans are doing splendidly, as are the celeraic. Pumpkins and courgettes/zucchini are doing their best. Capsicum are doing well. Apples ripening, but I think I lost the baby peach crop in a heavy, bad wind. Tomatoes are ripening, and I picked my first two yesterday. Yummy. Leeks growing on strongly, must plant some more for winter.
Kitchen – builders are supposed to arrive tomorrow, but I have my doubts. Nonetheless I am trying to empty the kitchen. Doing it in tiny amounts as I can’t stay on my feet for very long and no one about to help me. Because I am ill, and because of the kitchen, I am having meals delivered over the next few weeks which I am looking forward to – although I had to buy a (the cheapest I could find) microwave for them! Kitchen has been relocated to central hall of house and the laundry and I will cope as best I can.
Cats have been sent off to cat camp for the next month as building is done (as I hope the building is done!!!). *weeps* I miss them horribly.
Oh, fancy not having your cats there when you are feeling so bad. It would be bad if you were well but now who will comfort you. I hope you feel better soon, take it easy and look after yourself.
LOL. I just had to add the numbers below, 13 plus 7, on my fingers! Must be brainfog, suely I am smarter than that. lol. But at least you now know I have fingers, so am human, right?
Barb.
Sorry to hear you are still crook, Sara, I hope you feel better soon. Do you have visitation rights with the cats?
Let’s hope the builders get going soon and don’t waste any time.
Kerrie
I don’t have any transport, so no see cats – which is just as well as it would upset them as much as me.
Well the kitchen will be wonderful..the cats will forgive you..and the garden can grow on it’s own…
Take it easy!! Wonder if your cleaner would like to help with the kitchen packing???
I hope you start to feel better soon, Sara. I hate to see your heart aching because you can’t get out into your garden. It gives you more than just food, everyone can see…it gives you strength and vibrance.
I wish I lived somewhere close by, because I would gladly volunteer to help you bring in those potatoes at least.
I found your site when searching for information about the sequel to the Twisted Citadel which I just bought secondhand – I have been hoarding The Serpent Bride for some months. (I am a completist and like to read series in one fell swoop). I had no idea that you had been battling cancer. Your posting regarding the pressure put on you to take advice from all and sundry and above all to always be positive resonated deeply with me. You have the right to feel angry or to feel sad, to feel positive or not – you are you. I was diagnosed with bowel and metastatic liver and lung cancer two weeks before Christmas. I AM trying to be positive, but I know I have a long battle ahead and I expect there will be dark days. As for the kitchen renovations – hang in there – I am sure they will be worth it. Your house and garden sounds wonderful.
Joan – I am so sorry. It is a hard battle, isn’t it? Dark and lonely at times, and sometimes the skies just open up and drop a ton of bricks on you for no other reason than they just can.
I hope you can do some work in the garden soon, Sara. Your kitchen will look lovely indeed. In the meantime, just relax, put your feet up and enjoy seeing the progress in the kitchen renovation.
Sara.. Hope you feel better soon.. Your kitchen will be amazing, and I can’t wait to read about how you will be preserving all the wonderful things you have grown in your garden!
Blast dear Telstra and Bigpond. It’s taken me weeks to get online — some of which was in Hobart-surrounds. I could have provided 4 strong potato lifters – but now we’re all on Flinders Island trying to get a very desolated garden (4 raised weed-patches, no food plants at all) into production before winter -no idea what winter will let us grow. I do hope the kitchen goes well. Um. My brother -after his wife unplugged the deepfreeze superglued the plug in and switch on. I am sure Australia has all sorts of rules forbidding this… but it works. (if you DO need it off, turn mains off and get brutal with a screwdriver – superglue isn’t that strong).
Sara, thank you for sharing that incredible post on your struggle with cancer. I am ill myself at the moment and have lost count of the number of nights I’ve lain awake in the dark, feeling like a speck of cosmic dust in the universe and what right did I have to be feeling frightened and miserable when everyone kept telling me how essential it is to my recovery that I stay positive. And thank you for taking away the burden to be strong for the sake of everyone else.
I think I am looking forward to the first peaceful night’s sleep I’ve had in some time.
I look forward to seeing the pics of your kitchen when it is completed and reading about various culinary delights in the months ahead 🙂
Love from Canberra,
Larisa.