monthly9 - april 2015

April. A month of fruitfulness and abundance in garden and orchard. A month where the weather is playing tricks - frosty mornings and sunny days or alternatively sudden squalls and ferocious winds. This year, summer left a tiny taste of her warmth in April and we enjoyed brilliant blue days with fairly mild nights giving us just a little longer to enjoy the fruits of our labours in the garden. (Here's a lesson we did a few years back where I changed a northern hemisphere poem to suit our southern climes.) 

So here's a photo journey of whats been happening around here in the lovely month of April. I'm joining in again with the Monthly9 roundup that happens over on Lindas blog and if you want to see what others are busy with, pop over to have a look too. 

Nourish - We enjoyed the very last of the tomatoes, cucumbers and lovely red capsicum from the poly tunnel - the very last! Sometime towards the end of April there were a couple of super-frosts and everything in the tunnel turned a nasty shade of brown! 

While in the garden doing all sorts of weeding type jobs, Small Elf and I dined on radishes and baby carrots and few even made it in for dinner! Our Helpxer, Ari, came back for Easter and dug up a monster harvest of potatoes too - 200kg!! 

Oh and I must mention the lovely yellow watermelon that grew all alone in the tunnel and was the sweetest thing ever! A friend gave me a seedling without a name but I think it may be a 'Cream of Saskatchewan' which I grew once when we lived in NSW. Whatever variety, it was delicious!  

Prepare - We bottled a couple of batches of apples but not nearly as many as in previous years….which may have had something to do with the fact that I floozied off to the mainland for two weeks…..??!! Oh well, it just means that I'll have to make some more as we need them.

Reduce - I feel quite good about reusing old things and although this month I was away for half of it, I managed to make these cute seed packets out of old book pages. I think that was about all I did reduce which is not so good seeing as I helped to pollute us all with my jet setting around the countryside……
Oh hang on, I also used up some more old bits of poly pipe that were laying around and turned them into hoops to use with bird netting over the broccoli seedlings. Worked wonders!

Green - Again, this month theres not much in this category.

Grow - We planted onions, leek, lettuce and more broccoli seedlings and I'm happy to say that the broccoli especially is growing awesomely. I also sprinkled around a bunch of leftover chive seeds and parsley that had self sown around the garden. The weeds too, seem to be growing extremely well now that the weather has cooled and the wet weather has begun.

Create - Hmm…there seems to be a lot of arty stuff happening but all the sewing that I need/must/want to do, somehow gets forgotten! But hey, I was only here for half the month……..!!!!!

Discover - I am in the time of life that women must come to at some time - the Change. Its been happening for a few years now and while I didn't want to fully acknowledge it for some time, I am finally accepting the fact that I am changing both in body and in my thoughts. I've been doing quite a bit of reading, listening and inner work and feel quite good about where I'm at right now. One interesting Australian website I discovered, 'MoonSong' has a fabulous article regarding the Evolution of the Triple Goddess - its really worth reading and pondering.  

Enhance - again, the only enhancing done was our bi-monthly whole foods order which is always appreciated by the women that need food for their hungry families!

Enjoy - Well, first there was Easter which was delightful, relaxing and delicious! Then later in the month four of us took a pilgrimage to Wauchope in NSW for a friends 21st birthday party which was a hoot! We stayed for two weeks and caught up with all our friends and some family and really, really enjoyed the balmy weather.
There was also the purchase of a lovely wood fired cookstove!!! Oooh, I'm so excited about this and can't wait until we can install it. Theres a water jacket to go with it as well so I'm hoping for a cheaper hot water bill in the near future too!

So. Thats my month of April. There was a whole lot of fun and relaxation, a small amount of preparation, a bit of gardening and painty of arty stuff. Not a badly balanced month at all, I say!