New Toys To Play With....

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and New Year!  I sure did, it was one of my best in a few years.

Boy, has it been hot here in NSW and all Australia in fact.  Last Tuesday, 8 January we had 41 degrees in northwest Sydney and even Sydney was 42 degrees and it is always hotter out our way. We are to get in the 40's again today and tomorrow.

I had time off work over Christmas and I ended up getting some things done around home and a couple of new purchases.

My first purchase was dropped off on Christmas Eve....new window awning frames, 18 of them.  This is only the frames as I wanted to paint them before they are put up, to make it easier for me to paint. I have painted half of them but had to stop with the heat we are having. They will have a miniorb roof, I hope they will look good once they are up, they will certainly help protect the windows from with the heat.

Once they are all up I will show you before and after. I have just had all the windows painted ready for them to go up.

On to purchase No. 2.....a new Breville Food Processor. I waited until the Xmas sales and received free Breville Kitchen Scales which includes a thermometer stick...wow now that's real fancy!!

 I have to be honest I haven't even used it yet....but I will. I got it out of the box and found a spot in a cupboard, after moving the whole cupboard around to fit it in....don't you hate that!

No. 3...which wasn't really a purchase is this large garden bed which is from my Dad's, my sisters and I bought for him last Christmas but he hasn't been interest in gardening anymore so I have acquired it....yippy!!

It's so big and is taking me ages to fill it, I have it about 3/4 full, I have been putting in lawn clipping, sugar cane mulch, garden clipping, mushroom compost and neighbours garden clippings too.  I have a heap of seedlings that were given to me for Christmas from my nephew who works at a nursery and I haven't been able to put them in yet. I am hoping to have it full by this weekend and get them planted.

I have already planted the corn behind the old fence where the sweet peas were and they have double in size in over a week....love fresh corn.

 

The tomatoes are still giving me fruit but are starting to die off a bit and the beans behind are growing like crazy....I have had lots of beans...yum!

The beetroot is growing great and I should be able to pick it soon to pickle again.

For Christmas I received a worm farm...I'm slack and haven't even taken it out of the box yet but I will get to it.

One of the eggs in the nest in my lavender plant hatched the week before Christmas, for some reason the other 2 didn't hatch.  I was able to keep an eye on the baby through the bedroom window. I checked it on Christmas night and then the next morning it was gone...so sad..I was so disappointed.  I checked all around the plant in case it had fallen out, but no where to be seen. It was still so small and its eyes weren't even open.  I don't know if a cat or maybe a rat might have taken it.  The nest wasn't disturbed...so it remains a mystery.  I haven't felt like moving the nest or the other eggs so I have left it in the plant and trimmed the plant around it.

On that sad note, I hope you have a good day!

xx