Muffins

We went to a beautiful native, low water garden on Saturday. A very restful garden too. Mostly local species with some absolute show stoppers thrown in, like this Blue Leschenaultia. Many of the plants have been propagated by the owner either from seed or cutting.

The muffins pictured are a recipe that comes from my friend Maxine. Very easy to make and eat.

FRUIT MUFFINS

Mix makes 12 large HEALTHY moist muffins with chunks of fruit.

Preheat oven to 180 C or 170 C fan forced

In a bowl place

2 cups SR flour

1/2 cup sugar (scant)

2 eggs

1/3 cup oil

1 cup yoghurt

1 cup fruit

Mix until combined and then stir in the fruit (if tinned, strain) of your choice. Spoon the mix into 12 large muffin tins with paper insert for serving and washing ease.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until cooked through. It is very easy to double or quadruple the mix and then divide and make an assortment of muffins by simply adding different fruits.

Serve warm.

Another Thing That I Wanted to Know How to Do

For a long time I have always wanted to know how to 'prick out' seedlings. These little tackers above are Dianthus sp. (carnations). In the past I have hastily planted out seeds in situ, had masses come up and been too soft hearted to thin then so then all of them die. Now, with my new found skill I can plant x number of seeds in a tray, of seed raising mix, and then a week to a fortnight later prick them out and pot them in their final pot before they go in the ground or wherever.

This is the size of them. It was a great thing to do and transplanting them took no time at all.

Here they are in the final pot. They have just been transplanted and are a bit weepy, however once the roots get a grip they will be standing tall. I've already lined up some willing recipients for most of them. That day I did 112 Dianthus and 16 Bonnet Chillies. 2/3s of the sweeties here LOVE chilli so those plants are staying at home.

Yesterday I learnt how to prune roses using the sock method. All will be revealed at the end of the weekend as I still have two roses to go and much weeding. The rose pruning pile at this stage is at my shoulder. I can't remember when I last pruned the roses, 2 maybe 3 years ago so something needed to be done. All the roses smell and some were given to us after Nina died. I won't be buying anymore roses, just a small collection is great.

Yesterday was also the day when we learnt to care for our pruning tools. I realised also yesterday that my secateurs are good for cutting lavender stems and that is it. However I came home and cleaned and sharpened the loppers, hedge trimmers and the oiled and tarted up the pruning saw. They work much better now and so they should as they have never been looked after.

This course has been great for me and subsequently for my family, as they are getting a happy wife and mother and a garden that they like. I find that it works best for me if I quilt Monday through to Wednesday and Friday as well, with all day doing gardening things on Thursday. I go to Tech. in the morning and then hit the ground running after lunch at home and practice what I learnt that morning. Saturday and Sunday is for Family and more gardening. The gardening will ease off as it gets hotter. No planting takes place in summer, it's too hot, it is a matter of mulching and keep the plants moist.

Here is the full photo of Santa and his sleigh. I always am in a bit of a quandary regarding embroidery in quilt, like what to do? Well my very good friend Kathy said crosshatch and match the thread to the fabric. Well I did and I like the result, although I got carried away (someone carry me away PPPLLLEAASSEE) with the spacing and it became quite intensive crosshatching, as I really do like crosshatching. I use it as a method of quilting around applique and find it great for not overshadowing the customer's work. I also like crosshatching in the final border, especially if it is a really busy fabric.

This very unusual plant is a West Australian native, known as a Zamia Palm (Macrozamia reidlei) and is one of the plant dinosaurs. Very slow growing and slow to germinate. Toxic to stock, humans and dogs, prickly and a plant with attitude. The red coating on the seed is very thick and apparently emus love them. Some people reckon that the seeds need to pass through an emu to germinate, I'll let you know if they grow without passing through an emu. I showed them to the chooks and their eyes watered. Two seeds in an 11 y.o hand shows you how big the seeds are. I'm going to remove the flesh off them all of them and plant half in the ground, where it is undisturbed and heavily leaf littered. The other half I will put in pots and wait a year or two to compare the growing methods. Lovely day here so I off outside to the garden and hang the quilting, I'll be the mucky one smelling of damp earth.