Run, Run,Gingerbread Man

I'm making gingerbread men and I've never made big gingerbread men before.  I really should have rung my mother for the recipe. She is very good at making them, she makes them for her great grandchildren....Except, the impatient daughter I am got the recipe online instead of using my mother's recipe.

The recipe I used is changed slightly to include ginger as the only spice. I can tell you when I find a recipe on line my whole family cringes because I have had a more disasters than success...

This recipe is fine it's been child tested....I can imagine it would taste very nice with all the other spices added too. It was so tasty for the boy he was up in the middle of the night drawing, designing and decorating his own gingerbread man for himself.

The Gingerbread Man Recipe can be found here. For my version I did everything the same except for adding 1 1/2 TB of ground ginger instead of the other spices. Then I substituted Golden Syrup for the molasses.

Also  I could have used my gingerbread house recipe too I forgot about my effort here. I guess I have Christmas brain (too much to think about and everything is happening so fast).

I got a bit carried away with the icing. I
used icing writing pens and water icing.

Freezing those Garden Greens

Funny how you can pick heaps of spinach and then when you freeze it there is hardly any at all....
This year I planted a big leaf type spinach (I've forgotten the name). I know it was a Yates seed brand.

   Freezing Spinach
* Pick the Spinach from your garden or buy some fresh

* Wash the spinach then blanch it (bring a pot of water to the boil)

*When the water is boiling put the spinach in for 2-4 minutes

* When time is up remove spinach straight away it should be just soft
       
* Put the spinach in a colander and then run cold water over it or soak in a bowl of ice cold water

* Then remove the spinach and spin in a  lettuce spinner or squeeze in a sterile towel

* Chop up the spinach if you like

* Package the spinach in a air tight plastic container pop the lid on and place in freezer

* You can also package in plastic bags to freeze I just didn't have any to use...

My Spinach is  all ready to freeze. I just need to put a
 lid on the container and store in the freezer

A Walk in my Garden

Seeing that I have no sewing to post about......Yes I feel guilty when I see all the lovely sewing all you wonderful blogging people achieve, I am so impressed.

So today I'll take you on a walk in my garden...... I don't have many roses now, and I've given up pruning them I never get good blooms.  My daughter now prunes them and they seem to love her. The first four rose bushes are really old around, 16 years old. I transplanted them from my old house. Gertrude Jekyll is my newest 'David Austin' I bought this one for it's perfume.

My garden is just a garden, nothing is really ever planned. For a while it was mostly New Zealand natives, except they grow and grow so huge. You end thinking you are somewhere up the Port Hills sitting in dense native bush. I've now culled all the native bush at the back of the garden including the 'snail hotels' (Harakeeke Flax). The backyard plot is now a vege garden.

Next time if I ever have to set up a garden again I'm going Japanese, very simple and serene with no work (well I think that). Enjoy my garden and Roses!

Heart of Gold...love this yellow rose,
 it was planted in remembrance of
someone special who used to
 sing the song 'Heart of Gold'

This is one of my favourite roses it just does
it's own thing and climbs like a big bush
I planted a second one last year...

Prickly but has a beautiful scent that wafts
gracefully everywhere

Blue Moon is very impressive at the moment
Bought it because it reminds me of the song
'Blue Moon'

Gertrude Jekyll  has a gorgeous perfume..
Just bought it so it looks a little sad! 

This one has a nice old fashioned rose perfume...
Such a pretty pink it's full of blooms this year

A few Bearded Irises...and the rose
'Dublin Bay' in the background, it's a climber
But the pruner thought it was a bush so it's
 sulking and not looking the best...

The King Protea....

Feed the Birds....

Hungry Blackbirds....I think it's time to buy some netting! But netting is so ugly and the big brown dog will just pinch it and cause havoc in the garden. This all reminds me of a wonderful story I used to read to children......

The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Audrey Wood, Perhaps I need a little mouse to help me save my strawberries from the big fat Blackbird!

The birds have eaten them all. This is
 the worst year for birds in the garden. Maybe
I'll paint some stones like strawberries then
the the birds will think there are no edible
  strawberries down there. I saw this idea on
 Pinterest. I wonder if it would work?

My seedlings have sprouted in my paper pots
They are mostly green beans

My table is finished It has new legs. My son gave
 me this feedback. "It looks okay but you could
have painted it another colour." I defended my
 choice of  yellow paint. I was being frugal and
saving dollars. Anyway there is an indoor
outdoor flow going on here. I bet he would
 loved it if I'd painted the table blue...

The Strawberry Patch-2012

All my strawberry plants are covered with hay from bunny's hutch...she's in rabbit heaven now. She is buried under the big strawberry pot with a stone rabbit placed amongst the strawberry plants. Such a beauty she was, a big Vienna Flemish Giant...

We'll miss her big bunny poops!
The little girls will miss her very much...

The strawberry plants are in raised beds with packaging plastic wrapped around the box to keep them warm (our temperature changes so quickly).  Also the plastic wrap stops a big dog from burying her bones in the 'Strawberry Patch'.

Strawberry patch number 1

The first Strawberry of the season from patch number 2
The birds didn't get this one, but they'll be
watching and then they'll be pecking!