Friday’s flower

Blue flower

This pretty blue flower is a plant that my mum gave me from her garden.

Mabel Monkey

I made this cute little monkey for my friend Jen’s new little baby girl, Molly.

The pattern is Mabel Monkey, designed by Louise Hatchard, from the book softies.

The cotton flower fabric is from some thrifted cot sheets (part of a fabric haul from the Pahiatua Community Op shop) and the pink spotty fabric were some scraps that mysteriously turned-up in my fabric scrap bag.  The button I picked up a couple of days ago from our local Mary Potter Hospice shop.

Hello my name is Mabel

Cute as a button

Hi!

Smile!

Friday’s flower

Pink geranium

We have this huge geranium bush in our garden that has lovely salmon-pink flowers.  Every time Lucy walks past this geranium, she likes to pick the flowers.

Friday’s flower

Yellow iris

A lemon yellow iris that has just started flowering in our garden (against a nice backdrop of weeds!).

Suzy kitchen scales

We were in need of a new set of kitchen scales after our three year old “played” with our old set and they no longer worked.  David had spotted this set of Tupperware scales which “do all sorts of cool things” but priced at $106, was a bit outside the budget…  A few days later I found this retro Suzy kitchen wall scale at our local Salvation Army family store for the grand price of…$4.  The scales are in good working order (David thoroughly tested them) and weigh both in pounds and kilograms.  They’re now up on our kitchen wall (out of reach of curious three year olds).

Suzy kitchen wall scales

I think both my Gran and Nanna had a set of these scales on their kitchen walls (I think Nanna’s were orange).  It’s funny because as I child I remember seeing these scales in my grandmothers’ kitchens and it was always a mystery to me as to what they were (I don’t recall seeing them open and never realised they were kitchen scales).   These types of kitchen scales obviously use to be quite a fixture in kiwi kitchens – most people who have seen this set on our kitchen wall have gone “cool” and said they recall their parents or grandparents having a set.

Suzy scales in action

I really like the design of these scales.  Really nice simple, yet effective, design – from the magnified measurement window to the way the weighing bowl sits in the holder (and also slides in and out) and then folds up, when not in use.  The scales were made in New Zealand by Brown & Brown manufacturing, in Waihi.  I’m interested in finding out a bit about who designed these scales, when they were manufactured and the company that made them.

Friday’s flower

Pink dianthus.

This dianthus plant is in the corner of the garden right by our garage.  This was the first flower I saw when we came and looked at our house (before buying it) nearly a year ago.  After several months in winter hibernation, this little dianthus plant started flowering over the last few weeks.  It has a gorgeous scent and reminds me of my Nanna who use to have “pinks” in her garden.

The secret cauliflower

When we built our vege garden back in April, I planted a couple of punnets of mixed brassica.  I was looking forward to seeing what combination of plants I’d get.  Eventually three of the plants turned out to be broccoli (which were very yummy) however the rest of the plants have grown fabulous sized leaves but haven’t shown any sign of actually producing anything…

Super sized brassica plants

When I was sowing the first lot of spring vege seeds, I gave the remaining brassica plants an ultimatum.  If they hadn’t produced anything by the time the first lot of vege seedlings were ready to be planted out, the brassica plants would be going.  A couple of days later David asked me if I noticed the (quite large) cauliflower in the vege garden…

The secret cauli

Just waiting for the rest of the brassica plants to produce something now…

Plants from Nelson

When in Nelson we went to the Saturday morning market and picked up some herb plants (from an organic herb gardener)…

Herbs from Nelson

…comfrey, pizza thyme and lemon balm.

These plants are to go into our yet-to-be-created herb garden.  Still working out where to put the herb garden so these plants may end up sitting in their pots for a little while…

The first seed to germinate

And the first seed to germinate was one of the broccoli plants, eight days after planting.  Well done.

Broccoli seedling

The garden…while we were away

When we got back from Nelson one of the first things I did was to have a quick look around the garden to see how much everything had grown in the, um, four days that we’d been away.  There were a few little surprises such as…

Sugar snap pea flower

…the sugar snap peas had started flowering…

Salad mix

…the lettuce mix, spinach and silver beet plants had all taken off…

Red azalea

…this pretty red azalea flower…

Orange daisy

…and pretty orange daisy.