so chuffed with myself!!.

hmmmm.....blogger is acting very strange with its picture upload...its all text rather than the actually photo that i can drag around the post!.

so from the top.....some of my spuds!!.

my compost bin that i built this morning from 4 pallets and some wire to hold it together. i figured the wire would make it easy to take it apart later to get to the compost and move it around....we'll see!.

no's 3 and 5 are my tomatoes....never grown them before, and they arent red yet, but still i managed to grow toms!!. the little one fell off when i was weeding so brought it home to photograph!.

no 4 is one of my strawberry plants....might get another couple of s/berries before the end of the year!.

fingers crossed this posts ok!.

ok, this is a bloody worry......

You Are Australia

You have an a great life, and you consider yourself very lucky. Although you're thankful for what you have, you know you're also a bit of an underdog. You are modest, authentic, and sincere. You don't boast... if anything, you're self deprecating. You aren't formal, and people consider you to be very approachable. You remain relaxed and casual in any situation.

http://www.blogthings.com/whatcountryareyouquiz/">What Country Are You?

trying freecycle!.

Today i'm offering my first load of stuff on freecycle....some magazines that i've had piled up here. i finally went thru them and sorted them into ripped and unripped and am now seeing if i can give them away before binning them!.
if that works, i have a few other things to put up and get rid of!.
freecycle...its a great idea....giving away perfectly good stuff you no longer use, instead of sending it to the tip!.

getting lots of spuds from the allotment now.....definately got to get to grips with successional planting next yr, altho spuds keep well if stored correctly!.

nostalgic music.....

I dont often venture over to youtube, but did so this arvo and 'got lost' for about 3hrs finding songs and clips from various stages of my life. I had a wonderful time and decided to share a few things i found.
Thought i'd try and make it in cronological order......

things from my early years.....
the goodnight kiwi (not a music clip as such!)
the mockers 'one black friday'
dance exponents 'victoria'
dragon 'are you old enough
dragon 'april sun in cuba'
jimmy barnes 'working class man'
patea maori club 'poi e' (well, its gotta be there....lol!!)
herbs 'sensitive to a smile'
shona laing 'glad i'm not a kennedy'

then came the U2 era......oh how i loved Bono.....
with or without you ( best listened to in the dark with the volume sky high.....lol! 2nd fav)
one tree hill (this came out around the time of my godsons death and it always reminds me of him xx)
where the streets have no name (this clip is from the movie 'rattle and hum'....i went and saw this movie on the big screen soooo many times!)
sunday bloody sunday (the red rock concert version from 1983)
the unforgetable fire ( my all time fav U2 song)
a sort of homecoming (3rd fav)

then i came to the UK and found irish pubs......
well...one pub in particular....The Swan in south london!. i listened to many bands in there over the time and have my favs.....'the storm'......*sighhhhh.....james mcnally*. i, along with a friend used to go see the storm where ever we could, and got to know the guys....james and tommi. james has the most gorgeous voice and is an extremely talented musician. at first i used to ask for requests, but after a while(see we were clingons!), he used to just sing for me....always saying these next two songs where for his friend from NZ!(any kiwis present would cheer....but it was all for me!!!). i've tried to find clips of james singing on youtube but cant, so the best i can do is find some of his more recent work. he plays in Ronan Keatings backing band and also in the Afro Celts.
RK's 'when you say nothing at all' (he's on key boards and tin whistle...in the dark shades!)
AC's 'when you're falling' (with peter gabriel....hes on keyboards and bodhran)
and, these are the 2 songs he used to sing for me, as sung by the talented men who made them famous....
Paul Brady 'the island' ( i wanted a concert clip for this, but felt this was the strongest vocal performance i could find)
Christy Moore 'the voyage' (unfortunately, not the whole song, or good vid....just listen!)

Christy Moore soon became a firm fav of mine....many bands in the Swan covered his songs and his concerts were amazing....another incredible voice. heres a couple of more of his songs...
Ride on ( james used to sing this beautifully as well!)
city of chicago

now, heres some other irish music that has happy memories for me....
fields of athenry
grace (i always loved this song, then in the mid 90's i went to the irish tenors in CHCH with mum and she got all emotional when this came on...it turns out her mother used to sing this all the time. so it means more to me now. this version is sung my the wolfe tones....a republican band that i have to say, were brill in concert.....so much passion in one room!.)
streets of new york ( another fav wolfe tones song...the others i like of theirs are probably to much for my listeners....lol!)
usta love her ( a sawdoctors classic....many a night spent dancing...yes me....in the swan to this!)
N17 ( as above!)
las vegas in the hills of donegal ( goats dont shave is the name of the band and i have be known to boogie to this as well!!)

finally i want to end with a few songs that i enjoy......from men who can sing....strong voices (am discovering i have a thing for mens voices!)
elvis 'kentucky rain' (has there ever been a better voice?)
garth brookes 'the dance' (such a beautiful song!)

right, i wonder if blogger will let me post all these links!.

the photo post!

little E at 3 weeks old, in the outfit i sent her.

groovy blurry photo of the allotment next to mine....altho those are my spuds just beyond the toms.
i can grow tomatoes!!!.

errmm....demijohns...and ermmm...there were 2 more in the car plus 2 boxes of stuff(which i still havent looked at!).

this post could have various titles.....

a) 'how cool is freecycle?'
b) 'let the winemaking commence!'
c) 'OMG, what was i thinking!!!'
d) 'hope my mother doesnt read my blog!'

a couple of weeks ago i noticed on freecycle someone was giving away some demijohns and winepress, so i sent off my email saying yes please, but was to late. i had noticed some others before but never heard back from the guy. at that time i posted on SSish that there was some on my freecycle and other than wine, what else could you make in them. everybody said grab them and you can make anything!!. so i was gutted the guy never got back to me. then this lot came up and again i was too late......or so i thought....
on saturday i got an email from the guy saying the 1st offeree hadnt bothered to turn up and the haul was mine if i still wanted it!!. so i said yes please and could collect sun or mon. the wife rung me back and it was arranged to collect this morning!.
and i have.....i now have 15 clear and 6 brown glass demijohns, and 2 boxes of wine making equipment which i havent explored yet!. the wife said they were just sitting in her dads shed and should go to a good home!.
i notice on SSish this morning, there's thread about blackberry wine, and there's loads of them at the allotment, so maybe i should try that....free berries in free equipment.....very little to buy....would be an excellent start!.
will post a pic of the boot full of bottles, as well as some other pics from the allotment once i have taken them off the camera and resized them.

oh!, and if anyone(read ally!!) is wondering why????????......its all part of the whole self reliance thing hunni...i havent really lost my marbles!.

first ever harvest!!.

this morning i harvested some potatoes......WOW!!....how amazing is that!. i took the girls up to the allotment to plant some runners (gonna give them another go and hope for the best!), and noticed one of the potato plants had alot of yellow leaves, so decided to lift it and see what was underneath!. there was a couple of green spuds, cos i didnt earth up at all!, a couple that housed some slugs and the rest were fine!. i gave one to LM for her dinner...and had a mouthful, and have brought the rest home....and they are cooking now!!

this is big!!!.....i have never eaten anything i have grown before! i have taken a photo of a couple of them and will upload it later, plus a report on the taste.....which we all know will be outstanding.....spuds fresh from the ground.....underground 12hrs ago....etc etc etc!!.