Simply Beautiful......

Given to me last night......

JYC 2009

I was thinking i wouldnt do Journal Your Christmas this year.....i'm still living in, in a Jewish home and wont have many xmassy things around me. Then this evening, i've been reading a thread on UKS about whos doing it and why and i got to thinking....i could make it work this year. I could incorporate things about Channukah, which runs the week before xmas this year.
so, even tho i havent finished last years one, i think i will go ahead and start thinking about doing it again this year. altho, i will pull finger and finish last years one before starting this years one.....discipline girl....discipline!.
As someone on UKS said, it almost becomes a tradition in itself!.

For MWG....

the reason i saved the seeds was cos those particular tomatos only come from one supplier of heirloom vege, and while you get a decent amount in a bag, it still costs quite alot and if i didnt save some seed, i'd have basically wasted that packet of seed!. The first lot of seedlings i planted were eaten by slugs!. Also, i want to get into saving seed and this is a good place to start.

make sure that if you do decide to save some seed, you are saving from non F1 tomatoes, as those ones may not grow true to type as they are hybrids.

heres the latest two pics....the top one is the seeds soaking and separating from the pulp, and the bottom one showing how all 4 toms eventually turned red!. i will take some more photos as the seeds are processed....over the next few days.

well....fancy that!!

i was having a look at the blog list on the aussie forum i visit, and my own blog came up on the list!!. i guess i'm going to have to update more often if more people are looking....or at least take a few more piccies!. really need to get an up-to-date shot of the allotment, esp if i can't get any more off the old laptop. thank full theres a few on here, so i can see how far i've come!

Harvested the tomato seeds finally!.

I finally spent a few mins getting all the seeds out of the 4 Amish Paste tomatoes i had brought in to try and ripen and save the seed from. I have loads of seed floating round the jar separating themselves from the pulp and they should be ready to dry in a couple of days.

Am getting the recipe cards done for the 2 swaps i'm in. Am all completed for the aussie forum one, just need to send. for the UKS one, i've done 5 of the 10 and have til the end of the month, so thats all under control!.

popped into M & S this arvo and picked up a tin of biscuits, so i can use the tin afterwards as my sewing tin!!. its in the shape of an open book, with lots of fun M&S scenes on the top from days gone by. its a nice big rectangle and will hold the scissors nicely!. the biscuits inside are rather yummy as well!!!.

Finally got to the allotment!.

With the college course starting and homework associated with that, i have struggled to give the allotment much time....thankfully its the winding down season anyway, but i still had a few 'must do's' to do!.
I spent 2.5hrs up there this morning and got all my onions and garlic into my newly dug bed, so am feeling alot better now things now....that was a big job, and i can now cross it off!. i've got red and white onions, and 4 varieties of garlic that i brought when i went to Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. sadly one of the bulbs was iffy at the base, so only 2 of the cloves were any good....but thats ok....i'll use one bulb and taste it, and if i like it, will use the second for seed for the following year!.
i pulled up all the plum tomato plants as well.....i rescued a good handfull of green toms and have put them on a tray in the closed growhouse, so maybe they will ripen in there in the sun. the 4 i have at home are all red now and i will harvest the seed tomorrow arvo, along with a few of LM's toms!.
the last job done today was the plant the loganberry in the berry bed.
so a good mornings work done.
i shall try and take a few new pics, as i havent yet managed to rescue the old allotment pics off the old laptop.

a big kiss to......

MWG!!!!.....
thank you for reading and commenting on my blog.....it puts a smile on my face to see you there. Miss you heaps and hope to see you up our way sometime soon.
lots of love,
the kiwi flavoured jelly xxx

attempting to add some pretty pictures!!

I've had limited success with my tomatoes this year....the early planted ones got eaten by slugs and that set me back in getting a plant to fruit before the frosts started.
i managed to grow some Amish Paste cooking tomatoes and by early sept had a truss of 4 or 5 beauties.....


then about 3 weeks ago i started to see threads on the grapevine regarding the colder nights and decided to cut that truss off and bring it indoors to continue to ripen so i could harvest the seed. i set them on a plate with some bananas and other ripe toms (LM's ones that grew brilliantly this year!), and finally this week, they have started to turn red....yipppeeee!!.


this is a picture of what i harvested at the allotment today....runner beans, purple french beans and yes, that is a strawberry!!. plus some other bean pods for drying and saving the seed!.