Rhubarb, rhubarb again!

If you have been a faithful reader of this blog and even if you are a faithless one you might have noticed Ms Tagalong's obsession with rhubarb.

It is that time of year; the crowns of rhubarb in the garden are sprouting very large, very healthy looking leaves. Unfortunately the stalks don't live up to the promise, being short, stumpy ones with very little rhubarb colour. Luckily Ms Tagalong spied some rhubarb in the greengrocer's and managed to make some rhubarb and ginger crumble. With the addition of chopped fresh ginger and brown sugar it looked delicious ready to be covered with crumble. The lack of oats did not deter Ms Tagalong and she improvised with some muesli. If only she had checked the oven temperature! Alerted by the charcoal aroma, Ms Tagalong managed to scrape off the black peanuts and raisins off the top and it was really still rather respectable.

There was another swarm of bees in the garden this weekend, this time of a two legged variety, diligently labouring away during the hot and sweaty day. Ms Nimblefingers, particularly, was galvanised into a frenzy; maybe fueled by the wonderful homemade pizzas Little Miss Pretty and friends had concocted for the pizza oven.

Others helped turn the composts, build another, sow plants and seeds and water the new seedlings which will need regular dampening if they are to survive the long hot summer. A stinking hot day of 38 degrees this week was fortunately followed by some cooler breezes culminating in some welcoming rain. No watering needed today and a replenishment of the tanks.

Tiny tots

Ms Tagalong thinks there is nothing more appealing than a cutely dressed toddler with a watering can in hand. They are pictures of concentration as they direct the water to the plant. Just look at these examples of loving attention to the silver beet.

Ms Tagalong can see, as always, there are a few tearaways racing around the path more interested in bicycles and speed than the slow growing plants. How lovely to think that this might be a regular occurrence and that our local youngsters could embark on some of the lovely projects that Ms Tagalong found on this website.

Ms Tagalong must have been a teacher in a former life because she was very attracted to several sites showing sowing varieties and other entertaining things to do with children.

So welcome our local Parents Group and long may your little sprouts be involved with sprouting!

And back to the wonderful pizza oven; its magical qualities have been the subject of many a conversation since its inaugural firing or is it the smell of the contents that entices?

When food is mentioned out comes the idea of the oven. Next book club will be served with pizza in the garden; working bees will utilise the oven; and of course the end of month cocktails now won't work unless pizzas are available and films to be shown!

Feasts

It was a feast for the senses. Actually it was a real feast... Our inaugural pizza oven bake off was held last Friday night. Our end of month cocktails in the garden with a twist, not of lemon, but of difference.

Mr Ideasman sat happily in front of the oven at an early o clock to make sure that it was hot enough to cook all those expected pizzas. Ms Tagalong had panicked and told everyone to eat before they came...just in case. She needn't have worried. Although the thermometer didn't perhaps reach optimum pizza temperature it was certainly well on its way and with only a few additions of wood during the evening it managed to churn out many a pizza to the voracious hordes!


Birdspotter was in heaven. He stood there with his bird, glass in hand, pizza in the other and a tawny frogmouth oversseing the frivolity from the top of the bean tepee behind him. To top everything off, the evening that is, not the pizzas, a movie was shown. If you have never seen Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe let it be said that there were very few dry eyes at the end of it.


Ms Tagalong overheard Mr Ideasman the next day talking to Birdspotter. They were laughing. They were talking about the disappearance of difficult local neighbours and the early firing of the pizza oven. We haven't had any further problems they said! Ms Tagalong realises how obscure this remark is if you haven't seen the film but far be it from her to spoil the story!

So back to the pizzas. We cheated this time by using store bought bases but plans are afoot to make sure that a whole batch of pizza dough will be there for the next firing. It might just be at the next working bee the weekend after next, so make sure you are available.


It was such a successful night, Mr Ideasman proved that he is not just full of ideas, they are implemented, completed and on the whole are successful. Ms Tagalong had to put that in just in case he developed a big head!

Although the Throsby Big Brunch was not strictly limited to the Community Garden Members, indeed not limited to the Tighes Hill Community Group but to all the villages surrounding the creek Ms Tagalong feels it would be remiss not to mention it.

Two sunny hours of feasting, chatting, talking and laughing were abruptly curtailed by a huge downpour which sent all scurrying back home drenched but hopefully still smiling! What a success. This year was bigger and better. More people, more tables and definitely more food.
Ms Tagalong spotted a magnificent cake crowned with fresh flowers and filled with home-made lemon curd, breakfast pastries comprising eggs, bacon and worcestershire sauce lovingly baked in filo pastry, tasty gazpacho, mulberry and macadamia muffins and even heard about a honey and mulberry cake (tis the season, don't you know)which never made it to the feast due to the untimely shower.

It was a busy weekend!

Homely comforts!

The lavender is beautiful at the moment. The three bushes we have may not quite give you the impression of being in southern France but they are prolific in their flowering. Gathering bunches to place in the house, saving the seeds for iconic lavender bags really brings the French countryside into your home.

Conversation this week has revolved around turning the compost. In fact it was the highlight of the weekend. Ms Tagalong was off gallivanting on Wallis Lake and on her return she asked Ms Mova what she had been doing. With such delight she told her that there was quite a group oohing and aahing at the hot compost as it was turned. The sweet smell of success!


In the spirit of all things chicken, Ms Tagalong's sister-in-law sent her a 2012chicken calendar which she is just loving! And walking into Ms Mova's kitchen today there was the beautiful gift of a glass chicken. Thanks to Ms Renovator who had had her eye on it for a while it now has pride of place on the dining table.

Bring on the heat!

Ms Mova lost no time in passing on her newly found knowledge on permaculture by leading a composting workshop in the garden last weekend.
She was flocked by residents wanting to know how they could heat their decomposing matter to a degrading 70 degrees. Ms Tagalong has been looking at some of the methods of composting and is very excited to learn that If your compost is too cold and isn’t heating up at the beginning of the process, the best thing you can do is wee on it. Yes, urine is the bomb source of nitrogen, which will heat things up in your pile. If this seems inappropriate under the conditions, just get yourself a bucket with a lid, wee into that, add a bit of water and pour it on.


Ms Tagalong will ask the Ms Freedom who has come down from The Channon how that compost pile was actually made. Do you think she will tell me the truth? Is that steaming pile reaching its temperature due to some nitrogen input?
If you, adventurous reader, wish to add to the process, just make sure you wear dark glasses and come into the garden at midnight.


Ms Freedom has been making a huge difference in the garden, tidying,arranging and potting like a never tiring fairy. There have been whispers of expertise in mosaics so watch out for yet another workshop.

Beeware! Bee alert and beehave!

Bee on the lookout, that's what Ms Mova said, early this week. Ok, the desperate punning will end!

Ms Tagalong had blithely walked by this dripping cone of bees hanging out of the trees by the gate to the chickens without even noticing them. She is just so observant.

An expert was called in; beekeeper jacketed and hooded to take the rogue swarm to its new home. Apparantly the swarm in Ms Mova's wall had decided it was getting exceedingly overcrowded, don't you know, and wanted to find a home with a view, some space to spread out in and close to a good source of pollen.
So they did. Images of white beehives did come to mind with combs dripping with honey but unless we had a member of the community who would like to do the beekeeping it was not going to be a good idea. So they have gone to a good home.

But stand up and be counted if you would like to keep bees, it is possible that the wall swarm might buzz off again as the expert reckoned there was still a lot of overcrowding even after the seemingly million bees moved out.

Ms Tagalong arrived to join the crowd in the garden when the last couple of hundred bees were making their way into the box. The main swarm had caused the branch on which they hung to break so many of the little buzzers where crawling arond wondering where their queen had gone.

Lucky we had the expert who knew how to tempt them in!

Seems as though bees are in the news worldwide and causing a stir with the new plastic beehives especially for urban gardens. Having heard more disturbing news about the plastic soup out in the Pacific perhaps we should steer clear of plastic use when we can.

Enjoy your crumpets with honey this week!

The Green Man

This is not, for the benefit of my English readers, the name of a local pub, but something Ms Tagalong saw at Hunter Valley Gardens. She really liked it and is thinking of how we could incorporate something similar in the garden.

Just imagine! Constant surveillance! Dark, spooky shadows at night and a happy cheerful person during the day to engage and entrance the children. Who would dare to enter to swap chickens under his watchful eye?

Last week's Cocktails in the Garden saw Ms Tagalong and Mr Ideasman meeting and greeting new garden members, sharing some wonderful prawns and chatting around the fire. Yes, we like prawns, members can bring them any time!

We spotted a possum and its baby tightrope walking, their brush tails curling down from the wires and scooting along into Ms Mova's favourite trees, the brush boxes along the side of her house. A perfect end to a perfect evening.