Spring rolls into Summer

The weather over the weekend was great as Spring rolled into Summer. It's taken a while for the sun to warm our skin down south.

On Saturday Glen street was blocked off, as hometown girl, Ellie Lovegrove from XFactor fame, entertained us. It was good to see her back in town after she'd moved to Adelaide.

Sunday was a bit more overcast, but warm enough  for the kids to have a dip at our local swimming lake. We ate chips and sauce from the lake shop for lunch, with about 30 friendly seagulls trying to help us.

Can't beet a root #openslather

Boggy is known for his 'dad joke' sayings. 'You can't beet-a-root', is one of those. It's said when the fact that beetroot is on the dinner plate, comes up in conversation at the table. Probably not appropriate in front of posh company.

Izzy has confidently come out with it at our tea time in a matter-of-fact way, being quite pleased with herself. Little dag.

With the onset of warmer weather, a can of beetroot is always in the pantry. I serve it up with salads, we all love it except for Izzy, so in her case you CAN beet a root(vegetable that is)! Even Summer has a go at it.

I've tried to grow them before with not much success. I'm having another go with some heirloom beetroot seedlings I got from my brother in law. I think they are different colours to the normal beetroot. If nothing else goes right, at least I can use the leaves in salads.

If you're into companion planting they grow well with onions, silverbeet, lettuce, cabbage and dwarf beans, but not well with taller beans.

I have mine growing in a wine barrel with a cherry tomato, well see how they go.

I got some off Mum that she's just pulled up and put them in jars.

Bake for two hours at 180 degrees in a tray covered with foil. Put the bigger ones around the outsides of the tray and the smaller ones in the middle. Let cool in the tray.

With gloves on, peel and slice or quarter, however you like them.

Put the slices into cold sterilised jars. To sterilise jars I put them in a 150 degree oven for about 15 minutes. Always put cold into cold jars and hot into hot jars, you might crack or shatter the glass otherwise.

Take a cup of liquid, use any juice from the pan, if any, with water.
Mix with one cup of vinegar.
Pour this into the jar to cover the beetroot.
I chucked a bay leaf in each jar with two peppercorns as well. 

You may have to make more depending on how much you have to jar.

Keep the jars in the fridge.

Are you a beetroot fan? How do you love to eat yours?

Lucky clover

"A best friend is like a Four Leaf Clover: hard to find and lucky to have." -Sarah Jessica Parker

This is my patch of lucky clover, out the backyard, just to the right of the clothesline. That crate is where I sit my washing basket.

I believe it to be the variety 'Trifolium repens'. It is well known to have the occurrence of four leaf clovers. I seem to have them in abundance when I go looking for them, which isn't too often. Lucky me.

It seems a shame to let the mower eat them up every couple of weeks, I should really be cashing in and doing something useful with them. 

I went looking yesterday for my sister in law.

She shared one of those facebook things, it was a picture of a four leaf clover that read, 'share me and you will receive luck'. Pfffft! I replied that I find these all the time and I would find her one. 

I made my first coffee of the day, set it on the outdoor setting and found 4, four leaf clovers before my coffee was cold. I sat down and laid them in some towelling paper and then put them in the pages of a book, to press.

The only book I had spare on my bookshelf that I wouldn't need any time in the near future, or any future was a baby names book. 

I put two clovers in each towelling paper and placed them in two pages of the book, one with the name of my brother and one in the page of my SILs name. Bit bloody cute. I told her not to read into the reason it was a baby names book!! Just something I had spare. I didn't tell her "No pressure"! But gee, it would be lovely.

 The four leaves of the lucky clover are said to represent hope, faith, love and luck.

I hope to God(the 3 leaved clover usually represents the father, the son, and the holy spirit, and the fourth leaf = god's grace), this brings my brother all these things. He has had a rough year with his health.

If you find yourself sitting by a patch of clover with white flowers like this and the markings in the leaves, take a closer look. You may well find yourself a four leaf clover ;)

These are the two I found when I was at the end of Summers pregnancy, so I have had them pressed for two years. They are dried perfectly with all their colour, and will last forever.

New life in the garden

When Boggy mentioned the other day there was a nest in one of the trees I didn't take much notice.

On Sunday he came in and said there was a bird sitting in it if I wanted to go out and take photos. 

I never noticed it before, it's at head height tucked away in the fork of a tree, right next to a garden path.

Mother bird flew out of the nest when the kids came around being noisy, revealing three(I think) little babies.