Yarn Along

~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading (though not at the same time!), so I am joining in with Ginny of Small Things for this week's yarn along ~

Right now I am usually too tired to read and fall asleep while reading, but made those for the twins over the last week

{this moment}

A Friday ritual Inspired by SouleMama

A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember

If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see      

Biggest news since the move

I November 2002 I went to the United States of America to become an Au pair to four kids, including a pair of 15 month old twins.

12 Years later I am happy to announce that I am expecting twins myself :)

After a lot of waiting I found out on September 23rd that the pregnancy test was positive. On October 17th, the day that Lily became ill, I had my first doctors appointment and found out that I am not only pregnant but that I am expecting twins. I was thrilled, happy and scared but now I am just feeling blissfully happy.

Now I am 12 weeks pregnant and all is well so far, next time this year, I will be a mom :)

7 weeks 1 day

Tomatoes

I have not posted in a while, as I have been busy with other things. After a wet and rainy August, September started of nice enough and the garden was/is in serious need of some TLC. I have harvested what I could an now, there is not much left to harvest and weeds are growing like crazy.

So what has been going on:

• ·         I have cleaned the strawberries and planted about 100 more plants for next year
• ·         I have ripped out both the bush and climbing beans last weekend
• ·         fodder crops have been harvested and fed to the rabbits
• ·         I have a handful of carrots and onions still in the ground
• ·         Some of the kale that I already cut of started to grow again
• ·         Cucumbers didn’t grow due to the rain, so I chucked them out a few weeks ago
• ·         Blackberries are still being harvested
• ·         I cut back the fruit bushes (raspberry, gooseberry, currents)
• ·         I cleaned out the weeds in between the fruit bushes
• ·         In the process to covered more grass area into soil for next year

I still have to pull out lot’s and lot’s of weeds and prepare the garden for winter. In between that I am preserving tomatoes. I have looked forward to the tomato harvest all year. I love tomatoes and could not wait for the moment to harvest them. I am swimming in tomoatoes right now, potentially even have to many but please don’t tell anyone I said, that I might have too many.

So far I have made tomato sauce, catchup and salsa, that will last me a year. Now I am busy cookind freezing tomato soup and in between I have tomato salad for dinner about 4 times a week. Oh yeah life in tomato land is great.

Oh and I also received two buckets full of pears from my neighbor, so I canned 21 1liter jars of pears this weekend too.

{this moment}

A Friday ritual Inspired by SouleMama

A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember

 

If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see      

This Week In My Kitchen :: Blog Hop

Joining Heather from Beauty that moves today: 

A weekly collection of photos from the center of my home

Yarn Along

Joining in with Ginny of Small Things for this week's yarn along. 

This Week In My Kitchen :: Blog Hop

Joining Heather from Beauty that moves today: 

A weekly collection of photos from the center of my home

homemade bruschetta

 

chocolate chip cookies

homemade apple juice

pickled cucumbers

Cookies recipe from Ock Du Spoc

Apple Juice

I spend the whole weekend in the kitchen. While listening to Old Crow Medicine Show in the background I was working my way through buckets of apple. I have more then enough apple sauce to last me until next year, I have many backs of frozen apples for pies in the freezer, and I have another tree full of apples that will be left for winter storage, so I decided that I will make some apple juice with the windfall apples that I got from my neighbor. I am house sitting for her too this weekend (she is 92 years old) and kept picking up new apples twice a day.

To be honest making apple juice is a lot of work and you don't end up with much juice but it tastes delicious and before those apples were thrown away, I was happy to use them for something productive. I the end I managed to get 7 bottles of juice from this weekend.

Garden Update August 16th

It has been raining A LOT over the last 2 weeks. My garden looks like a mud pit filled with weeds, it's no fun to be honest. Right now it feels more like fall then August. In between a few dry spells I have cleared part of the garden from the weeds, put compost in and planted new strawberry plants for next year. Beans are going strong and so are the fodder crops for the rabbits. I am harvesting plenty of those, which means right now while the rabbits are eating their most, I don't need to buy any food. 
The cucumber plants are slowly dying, the rain is not doing them any good. I was able to harvest a few cucumbers and pickled some but majority are too big for pickling. I have cut them in small pieces and frozen those, as they will make lovely cucumber salad over the winter month.
The tomatoes are slowly turning red, but again it's not as many as I want so far. I have barely harvested 4 kilos so far.

I am receiving many buckets of apples from my neighbors which is great though. I made lot's of apple sauce already they'll last me through the year and I have frozen about 5 kilos for smoothies and pies too. The next buckets that I get this weekend, I will try my hand on making apple juice and I am really looking forward to this.

How are things turning out in your garden?

bush beans

fodder crops for the rabbits

strawberries

carrots

pole beans

This Week In My Kitchen :: Blog Hop

Joining Heather from Beauty that moves today: 

A weekly collection of photos from the center of my home

Garden Update August 6th

We have been hit by some very heavy rain on Monday evening, receiving about 30 liters of rain per square meter in just a few minutes... and a total of 70 liters per square meter over the full evening. My garden has not been happy with that. Many of my flowers were flat on the ground afterwards and half of the cucumber plants have turned yellow :( 
Tonight I have been out harvesting a bucket full of beans and a bowl full of blackberries, as well as a few cucumbers. I am quite concerned about my apple tree, it's way to little for a the fruit it carries and I hope he will make it to the fall, so I can do some strategic cutting.

How is it going in your garden?